Custom Couple Topper

For a cake topper, I made a custom clay topper.

To start, plan out the colors that you'll need. These are the colors that I chose:

- Peach (skin)
- Grey (Ben's shirt)
- Blue (Doe's shirt)
- Black (Ben's hair)
- Brown (Doe's hair)
- Red (Ben's hat)

To save money and time, try to go to an art supply store when there's a coupon for your entire purchase (usually around 20% off your entire purchase). Otherwise you can go in once a day and use the 40% off one item coupon but who has the time and patience for that?!

Start with 4 even balls like this:

Flatten the bottom of the shirts and shape them so that it can act as an anchor. To connect the head, I stuck a half toothpick in there so that I can just slide it on top.

For Ben's hair, I cut his bangs in the front and then when you wrap it around the head, you'll need to cut the excess off so that you can smooth it out.

For Doe's hair, I flattened out the brown clay and cut some smooth edges in the front. I didn't cut off the excess in the back because I scrunched it together to create a "curly" hair look.

Once you bake it for the time stated on the clay, let it cool completely and then you can draw the face on! I used sharpies and white out. It draws nicely.

I baked the characters first and then added Ben's red hat. It's a little harder to make the red stick but it'll save some headaches. The reason being that light colored clay will grab darker colors easily and you'll get a tainted/mixed look. Always clean your hands between working with each color! In my first go, the skin started picking up the red clay and I got a swirly skin color that looked strange.

They turned out well and I'm very happy with them! If you're too lazy, I'm sure you can find an etsy artist that will make something like it for you!

Companion Cube Centerpiece

Ben suddenly started asking what centerpiece we would have at our sweetheart table. I planned on just sticking my bouquet there but he kept insisting on something there. Then he suggested Companion Cube and kept googling. I didn't want to spend $40 on some cheap looking box so I decided to copy a perler version we saw online. For those of you that aren't aware of Companion Cube, it's a prop that is used in the game Portal 2.

Image from http://eat3d.com/

I decided to make a 4-sided piece to place over a vase. My florist said that a 8-12" vase would work for my bouquet. I purchased an 8" vase but I didn't want to make a huge Companion Cube so I opted for a 5.5" Companion Cube. Well, let's be honest... I didn't want to spend the extra time and money (for beads) to make an 8" Companion Cube. =[

Anyway... Companion Cube has 4 colors (black, grey, white, magenta) so I bought them online. They are about $5 each color for about 1,000 beads on Amazon but that will depend on how big your companion cube will be. I ended up needing more white and grey perler beads so plan ahead of time so that you have time to buy more. If you don't have a perler pegboard, you'll want to get one. (I did spend an extra $5 on an assortment because I wanted some clear beads. I'll explain why later.)

It takes a bit of time and patience but it's pretty easy. Just carefully plan out your design. And remember to up look and stretch often. Once you get into it, you don't even realize how long you've been leaning over this piece!

Once you have it all set, you place the paper (included with the pegboard or I heard that parchment paper works) on top of it and slowly iron your piece. Be careful not to stay too long in one spot because the beads will start to melt and if it's not even, it'll look like this...

Slowly feel off the paper and make sure that all the pieces are melted together. If they are, then take the piece off the board and flip it around and repeat.

Once both sides are pretty blended, take the piece and place it on a hard surface and place a heavy book on top to keep it flat. If it's really hot, make sure to put it on something that is resistant to heat. Wait until it cools completely.


If you're connecting them, make sure to plan out the "puzzle" pieces. I left the black off one side and added these extra clear beads so that they "connect". (I got an assortment of perler bead colors so that I could use these clear ones and have other colors for any future projects)

If you flattened them well, they should connect nicely together. Due to my Coordinator handling Companion Cube for me, I decided to just hot glue the inside so that it would stay put.