dont forget the balloons

i painted a "rough" cupcake useing the paintbrush.as you can see,my cupcake isnt beautiful at this point.

i used the smudge tool with a hard edge and swirled the colors of frosting around untill i got what i think looks like frosting texture.each color is on a differant layer so that there wasnt accidental over mixing.

when i did the paper of this cupcake,the smudge tool didnt work out the way i wanted it too,so i duplicated the layer and set the mode to dissolve.

i didnt like the color of the paper at all.i tried to fix it with the saturation and hue bars but i couldnt get it right.so i used the filter plastic wrap and then chrome to make the paper into a foil.

i cut out the balloons that i though would work for the sprinkles.

i duplicated that layer a few times and moved the hue to a differant spot to get some variety for the sprinkles.

i decided to make a candle for this with the selection tool and the bucket tool and then the paint brush for white lines then the smudge tool.just a very basic candle.

i decided to change the background a little bit with the gradiant tool.i added a drop shadow to the cupcake and made a flame useing a filter then smudged it a little bit to finish it.