a virgin no longer

When I told Topher my plan for our handmade cake topper***, his response was "if you don't know how to swim, get your ass of out of the pool."  After I explained my idea some more, he said "It's going to look like a third grader smashed the top of our cake with their craft time."  Resounding confidence in our skills, I know.  Luckily (for him) he was a bit more optimistic when he actually saw what I purchased from Michael's for our endeavor, and even went so far as to say "it could look nice."  Again, not what I hoping for, but my optimism for this project would not be shot down, and I had enough to make up for his lacking outlook.


After my Michael's binge, here's what our kitchen table looked like for most of the weekend:

 and a close up on what we would actually be crafting ON and WITH:

all of this was pretty cheap: each wooden article was around $1-3 from Michaels

That's a pencil, some sandpaper for screw ups (cuz you know I did) and "Woodcraft" Markers- acrylic paint in marker form!  You know homegirl lacks the skills of painting but I excel with markers!

Topher agreed to put his artistic skills to use and create the world on our round wooden ball.  After looking up "rotating earth" on google and finding a world map projection, he set to work:

First he drew the map with pencil..

then colored it with our marker designed for wood until he had this:

Poor guy kept freakin out when I got up from the table: "don't move the table! I need to concentrate! Ah!"  I love it when his perfectionism comes out...

Meanwhile, I outlined "us" on our wooden game pieces (yep, that's what they were called):

Got me some proof: my hand and a pencil nearby.  100% reliable proof, that is.

The finished outlining, including my fantastic bouquet and pretty eyelashes...

I did it! (rockin' my typical Sunday un-showered self with zilcho makeup and sweatshirt)

I really did!  Notice "my" eyelashes? Yep, this was before I attacked that left eye with some sandpaper so it didn't suck...

Smoochy!

I suck at photography (all photos taken by me).  Not too shabby for our first official wedding project, right?!?!

And it only took us two hours- 120 minutes and I'm a DIY virgin no longer!  It will take many more hours for me to claim being adept at this crafty stuff, but hey, we've broken in our kitchen table!


After eating some crow, Topher agreed that it looks pretty sweet and is gonna rock our cake's top.  I always knew it...why doesn't he just believe me from the get- go?  I originally thought perhaps we could glue ourselves on top of the globe to signify our traveling and to create a word play (we're on top of the world, get it?!?!) but it looked like an alien during the trial. Now I'm thinking we might add a string- cuz we've got the world on a string (haha?!?!).


Whatcha think?  What is your cake topper going to be?  If you have a photo, include a link!  


***these are inspired by but no where near as talented or beautiful as etsy's goosegrease.  I was inspired by artistic work by artists like goose grease and other wedding bloggers who have created cake toppers with wooden pieces, such as can be found here at weddingbee.  I am not a professional and simply made these with my fiance for our wedding, with no profit intended.  I include this caveat because of others who have come before me and have had to answer this already***