Challenge Time: February Edition

Love Birds with Spring Bouquet Wedding Cake Topper

Spring is here! Well, sort of. We are experiencing wonderfully mild temperatures here in Pennsylvania. Plus this month's theme for the Polymer Clay Artists Guild of Etsy challenge, "Spring Color Palette," has me in a spring mood.

These romantic cuties are my entry. There are so many great entries this month. You have to check them all out. Vote for your favorites and you could win the prize of your choice from a well-stocked prize pool. Voting is open until Feb. 7 at:
http://polymerclayartists.blogspot.com/2012/01/february-challenge-spring-color-palette.html.

DIY Fall Camouflage Wedding

When it comes to weddings my family is all about DIY. We risk sanity to save a buck, but we also get to put some pretty personal touches on our big days.

The latest one in my family to enter the state of holy matrimony was my baby brother, Michael. He married his girlfriend Ericia last Saturday in a stunning fall ceremony filled with browns, reds, oranges, and mossy oak camouflage.

Camouflage Dreams

To get ready for the big day, each of us took our place at the DIY table. My assignment was chief cake baker. I must admit when Ericia said they were going with a camouflage theme, my eye twitched a little. Camo is about as far from my personal taste as you can get. But when Ericia handed me a satiny camo ribbon with a woodland pattern on it, it felt so sophisticated and amazingly fitting for fall.

The ribbon complemented the gorgeous white wedding dress that my mom created for Ericia. It had a subtle peek-a-boo camouflage fabric stripe up the leg and camo detailing at the bodice. Mom recreated it from a photo that Ericia showed her. Mom also made a camo vest for Michael, rich brown dresses for the two bride's maids, and a precious little flower girl dress for my niece, Jessie. My nephew Ryan carried a camo ring pillow crafted from the same fabric. Mom did all that and still managed to fit in helping with the food and decorations. Talk about stress!

 
My sister also pitched in with favors and food. She painstakingly created darling paper leaves for on top of the favor boxes using my mom's Cricut machine. Everything turned out beautifully. And thankfully there are no more family weddings in the foreseeable future.

 

Celebrating Love in New Orleans

a new marriage begins

16 years of wedded bliss

We have celebrated many of our wedding anniversaries by attending June weddings. Number 16 for us was no exception. But unlike our cold rainy Pennsylvania wedding, this was a sultry southern affair in New Orleans uniting my friend Caroline and her love Scott.

The ceremony was a great reminder of what marriage is all about. The Episcopal priest began with the tale of love as a journey, cautioning the couple that life will have ups and downs, but if you take the journey together your marriage will grow strong.

The priest shared the unfortunate fact that some couples drift apart on that journey. You see them in their twilight years sitting rigidly, miles between them, still married yet somehow alone.

And then he told us about the other couples. The ones that still hold hands. The ones who steady each others' frail bodies. The ones that look at each other with eyes that have shared a wonderful journey. At that point, Rob squeezed my hand, confirming which couple he planned to be.

It was a poignant reminder that every marriage has the potential to thrive or fail. But looking at the love on Caroline and Scott's faces, and feeling the love in my heart, I know our marriages are meant to thrive.

Making a Wine Bottle Stopper

Fleur-De-Lis Wine Bottle Stopper

I've been really impressed by some of the creative wine bottle stoppers I've seen lately. This weekend gave me the perfect opportunity to try one of my own.

I was invited to a cocktail party to celebrate my friend Caroline's wedding, and I needed a meaningful gift. Her wedding theme features fleur-de-lys. In fact, I had the honor of creating her wedding cake topper using that theme. So how does one make a wine bottle stopper?

How to make a wine bottle stopper:

1. Start with a silver-plated bottle stopper wedding favor with an open heart on the top.
   
2. Unscrew the metal parts from the rubber stopper.
3. Fill the open heart with clay and bake.
4. Cover the whole piece with your decorative finish.

For this topper I used gold and black clay for the base coatings and then I added the fleur-de-lis. I created the fleur-de-lis by stamping the image onto flat clay and then cutting the shape out with a craft knife. I stamped more fleur-de-lys at the bottom using a flexible rubber stamp that curved around the base.

A Fleur-De-Lis Wedding Cake Topper Unveiled

My friend Caroline is getting married soon. Real soon. And she's in that hectic period where your to-do-list seems longer than the number of days left until the wedding. Yet I can assure her that for every stressor you face as a bride, there is something else that brings you joy. Hopefully, today I brought her joy by allowing her to cross one more item off her list.

Before Christmas she asked me if I would make her wedding cake topper. Her reception will be held at Muriel's in New Orleans, and she needed a simple, yet elegant topper that would fit the setting. For months we brainstormed, sketched, and prototyped. Today my part of the creative process came to a close as I handed over a beautiful New Orleans-inspired, black and gold, fleur-de-lis wedding cake topper.

Peeling away the protective tissue paper so she could have her first look was nerve-wracking. I poured my heart and soul into making it, and I didn't want to let her down. When I saw her smile, I knew that everything was okay. There is nothing quite like creating joy. That is what the creative process is all about for me.

Now the topper will be on its way to the next step of the creative journey as it enters the loving hands of the pastry artist. And then, after the wedding, it can take its place as a treasured keepsake in Caroline and Scott's home.

I'll keep you posted with wedding photos!

Magnolia Polymer Clay Cupcake Topper

Surprise Bridal Shower
Earlier this week, I was charged with baking a cake for my friend Caroline’s surprise bridal shower. I decided to do cupcakes because that way I could leave a couple at home for my husband to enjoy. People seem to frown upon me removing a slice of cake ahead of time.

Making Cupcakes Classy
To make the plain white cupcakes “more classy” I sprinkled the top with granular sugar to make them sparkle and placed them on my tiered glass serving plate. I wanted to do something special to decorate the top, and I had a pretty good idea of Caroline’s taste because we are working together to design her wedding cake topper.




Southern Inclinations
Caroline is from New Orleans and even though she is living in Pennsylvania now her heart is very much still there. She has been going back and forth between favoring a fleur-de-lis topper or something with magnolias. I’ve never done anything with a magnolia so I chose to do a small magnolia so I could practice.


The Technique
I started with a block of Fimo 014 Transparent White. It is my favorite transparent because it bakes to a white that reminds me of frosted glass. I made each petal by rolling and shaping them with my hands. I attached them to a center stamen created from a yellow/transparent clay mix. The leaves are a green/black mix coated with Liquid Sculpey. After I baked it I coated the whole thing with a coat of Sculpey Satin Glaze to bring out the glass-like quality of the translucent clay.

Want a custom magnolia created for your event? Visit:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/77757031/custom-magnolia-cupcake-display-topper

Cherry Blossoms: A Finished Project

The cherry blossoms that I posted earlier in the week have now made it to their final form: a new wedding cake topper called "Pink Cupid Whimsy." I just listed it in my Etsy store.

Butterfly Wedding Cake Topper

Now that the bustle of Christmas has passed, I can get back to working on some other projects. I recently joined the Polymer Clay Artists Guild of Etsy and the guild holds a monthly challenge.

The theme for January is butterflies. I had promised myself a restful break with no deadline-oriented projects, but I just couldn't pass up this opportunity. Butterflies--how perfect for a wedding cake topper! I have to have my entry in by midnight tonight. I'll share the challenge link with you when it opens for voting. You can't believe what these talented artists can create from clay.

This cake topper is available in my online shop.

Winter Wedding Cake Topper

I wanted to greet the upcoming winter season by creating a winter-themed wedding cake topper to sell in my Etsy shop. I’ve been tossing around some ideas for about a month, but nothing stuck until I saw a digital collage sheet offered by fellow Etsy shop owner Rainebeau.

This delightful snowman couple is from her vintage postcard collection. As soon as I saw it, I knew that with a few small alterations, I could transform them into a bride and groom on the way to their honeymoon escape.

The snowflakes are hand-stamped into clay, and I carefully cut each one out with a craft knife. While the process was time consuming, it allowed me quiet time to meditate on each shape. And just like with the real thing, no two snowflakes came out the same.