Cake Topper ~ Tutorial

When Brooke first started looking for a cake topper for her wedding cake, she found some personalized clothes-pin dolls that she liked. There are several on ETSY. Of course my first response was... we can do that! The first (of many) trip to Hobby Lobby I stocked up on supplies. The wooden clothes-pins come in a large bag, I also bought plenty of wooden balls, One pack of molding clay, I picked up a skein of flesh colored floss, and hair colored paint. I had some pliable wire and needle nosed plyers. Most important was craft glue!

I took a sharp knife an whittled a groove in the back of the 'doll' to have a place to set the wire arms.

After the wire was glued securely, I wrapped them with the flesh colored floss and glued the ends.

Next, I got busy with the paint. Black paint for the groom's pants. I fashioned the hair styles to match them both. I used the molding clay to create some curls for the bride and painted them all to match. Pieces of ribbon for the clothes. I snipped and glued. Waited for it to dry, then glued another layer.

Here you can see that they are beginning to take shape. Wired ribbon worked perfectly for the bride's skirt, and of course she had to have a short skirt on under the longer wedding skirt. I used a bit of black fabric to create the grooms jacket.

Once I got to the tiny details, it really got fun. I had to make lots of calls to be sure I got things right. How many buttons on the jacket? Beard or no beard? Your hair on the left or the right? What color flowers? Garter belt with a blue flower? Blue shoes with a little bling! Here is a close-up of the hair and her little starfish. The finished bride had a pretty veil with starfish too. The simple faces were Holly's artistic touch!

Since this was a beach wedding, they had to be standing in the sand. I used a sponge and LOTs of glue for that. I even had some tiny seashells to add. The finished product was just perfect.

Don't y'all think?

Sandi