This summer I had the pleasure of tutoring
a wonderful woodland wedding themed hen party. We made these cute toadstool
champagne cork toppers which will be used at the wedding venue as place card
holders, wedding cake toppers and even favours. We made loads in one go, you
can do the same or just make a couple. You’re only limited by how much
champagne you can drink!
Here’s how you can make them yourself at
home:
Ingredients:
Champagne corks
Red acrylic paint
White acrylic
paint
Kebab sticks or
similar
Medium sized
paintbrush with flat head
Thin paintbrush
with rounded head
Stiff wire
Wirecutters
Natural craft card
Black Sharpie
marker
Scissors or craft
knife
Glue
Ready
Steady Go!
After polishing off a few bottles of your
favourite fizz (well, it would be rude not to) steady your corks by inserting
your sharp kebab stick firmly into the end, as shown. This will allow you to
paint all the way round without touching the cork with your fingers.
Squeeze a small amount of each paint into
separate receptacles. Don’t add any water to your paint or brush, you want the
paint to be as thick and opaque as possible. Using your round headed brush
paint the bottom of the cork with the white acrylic paint to create the
‘stalk’. Spread the paint as evenly as you can and avoid blobs of paint which
will take ages to dry. When you have finished use a milk bottle or similar to
stand your cork in while it dries. Leaving each colour to dry completely is
crucial so that you don’t accidentally mix the paints together. You don’t want
red and slightly pink toadstools!
Next, using your flat headed brush, paint
the top part of the champagne cork with the red acrylic paint, taking care to
make a neat line where the red meets the white. And then leave it to dry.
Watching
paint dry
In the mean time you can make name cards or
flags to go into the top of your toadstools when they are finished.
I made mine by cutting a flag shape out of
some natural craft card and gluing it to a 2 inch length of stiff wire. You
could make yours in any shape you like but they work best when they are double
sided and the end of the wire is sandwiched between them out of sight. This way
they look good from all angles too!
Autumnal
cheer
When the red paint is totally dry, use the
round ended paintbrush again to add polka dots of white paint all over the top
of your toadstool. Be generous with the white paint here. It looks good if the
spots have a bit of texture to them!
Again, wait for them to dry completely
before man handling them and adding the flags or name cards.
The finished toadstools will add a bit of fun
and colour to your wedding banquet, tea party or cake stall.
If you’d like Ministry of Craft to run a
workshop for your hen do, party or corporate event then check out our party
page and get in touch. If you’d like to share photos of your makes you can
join us on facebook
, twitter, pinterest and instagram. Don’t forget to
tag us in your posts and use #ministryofcraft so we can see what you’re all
doing!
Bottoms up!
