Finding ready-made, mass-produced "offbeat" cake toppers is an almost impossible task. Our wonderful tattooed and pierced, pink haired and mohawked, offbeat couples of various colors, shapes & sizes have a really hard time finding mini-versions of themselves to stand-atop their funky cakes. But OBT member Amanda, aka "Gia De Los Muertos" has come up with a really great solution. Why not Offbeat Bride-ify those easy-to-find traditional cake toppers?
Before Offbeat Bride-ifying.
After Offbeat Bride-ifying!
Amanda wrote, "Seeing as most companies don't have tattooed or light skinned latin brides, we had to doctor 'em up just a bit. [My husband] was able to fully replicate my sleeve, hair colour and trademark red lips and thick liquid lined eyes."
And for those of you wondering about the process, Amanda's husband was kind enough to give us some tips:
- Pay close attention to detail. It helps to use a picture as a common reference.
- Take your time and just relax. Getting nervous or hurried is not going to help you — patience and a steady hand and the work should come out beautifully.
- Use acrylic paint. Oil or waterbased paints are very difficult to use, especially for something so small. For the tattoo he used a 10/0 size paint brush and acrylic paint. Acrylic paint is also much cheaper, it dries fast and if you make a mistake, it isn't permanent. You can just scratch it off and start over!
He also recommended a ratio of 1 part acrylic gloss to 1 part water to "seal" the paint in.
Here is her modified topper coupled with her hockey groom topper…
I love the idea, I love the execution and I really love the tiny tattoo art!
Comments on "How to make a traditional cake topper truly your own"
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Vicky
September 18th, 2009 · 1:07 PM · #
i love it!
we've probably spent more time looking for cake toppers than any other part of the planning, scouring toy shops and ebay for just the right little "john and vicky" plus john's son D. Our approach was to find 3 figures that we would then bride and groomify, we ended up with purple and green and red robots, but our other finalists were dinosaurs, tigers, pirates or pokemon. Probably my favourite part of planning the wedding was spending the evening decorating the robots with my 2 favourite boys, and even if no-one even notices them on the day, or appreciates the hours that have gone in, we'll know and always have that little memory!
CeCe
September 18th, 2009 · 1:18 PM · #
Gorgeous! I was anti-cake topper cause there wasnt one for us when we got married.
Halala
September 18th, 2009 · 1:19 PM · #
This is one of the best ideas ever and I'm sitting here wondering how the hell I didn't think of it! If I can't find the Monster & Alien cake toppers we're hoping for, I'm definitely doing this!!! Thanks!
Ms Constantine
September 18th, 2009 · 1:24 PM · #
A. May. Zing.
These are the coolest cake toppers I've seen!
Jen
September 18th, 2009 · 1:27 PM · #
We had such a problem with this too. We wanted to have mini versions of us, but didn't want the skinny people regular topper (cuz that ain't us). Toys and figurines weren't working out because we had wanted to have our mini portrayals be in similar scale to each other. With two failures of sculpting them myself from FIMO clay (one fell off the table and broke, the other caught fire during production in the toaster oven) the third time was a charm! I really think that this represents us and has the whimsy that was needed for it to be ours.
Check it out: http://www.flickr.com/photos/32118248@N04/3931624...
I used the FIMO clay, supported it internally with paperclip peices, and painted with acrylic. I bought platform for them to stand on with the hearts in the back at a craft store.
Good luck with your wedding planning!
Annui
September 18th, 2009 · 3:03 PM · #
We're being big nerds and getting ours from the Rock Band store: http://www.rockband.com/merch While I don't have a tattoo, the game allows you to draw whatever you want on your character.
Lindsey
September 19th, 2009 · 12:53 AM · #
I'm sure someone on here has posted this, but I ordered these from etsy: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?ref=vl_other...
Pamela is super-nice and she emails you a lot to make sure she paints them just the way you want 'em! (no arms for sleeves, unfortunately). Definitely worth the extra cash for something super-personal.
Heather
September 19th, 2009 · 3:22 AM · #
Your cake toppers are so cute! Did you ever sculpt anything out of FIMO before? I bet you could even make something like this and sell them. Great job!
stephanie@geezees
September 20th, 2009 · 1:19 AM · #
i can see those really taking off….amazing work!
Chelle
September 20th, 2009 · 3:39 AM · #
We found this cake topper: http://www.ecrater.com/product.php?pid=4639893 at Big Lots for $2. We took all the white frilly parts off & decorated with ribbon and floral wire in our colors. We included fun pictures of ourselves and it came out totally original & freakin' awesome.
Liz
September 20th, 2009 · 5:44 AM · #
My fiance has long hair… I've been looking but I can't find a long haired groom cake topper. Any suggestions?
Laura and Shelley
September 20th, 2009 · 8:16 PM · #
being a same sex couple, cake toppers have been painful to look at.. either they are traditional brides who look nothing remotely like ourselves or sort of a stylized butch femme coupld that will look stupid too.
We did find a good one, but we do want to personalize them, shirt colour, for example.
http://www.weddingcollectibles.com/Gay-Lesbian-We...
this is it and your instructions on painting it will be the lifesaver part… thanks
offbeat_megan
September 20th, 2009 · 8:31 PM · #
that one's so cute!! We definitely want to see it once you've customized it.
Traci
September 20th, 2009 · 8:32 PM · #
We decided to celebrate our 80's upbringing by dressing up our old He-Man & She-Ra dolls with bridal garb!
Nikki
September 21st, 2009 · 3:53 PM · #
I LOVE that!
Dixie
September 21st, 2009 · 5:26 PM · #
My mother still has HER mother's 1937 Betty Boop-esque cake toppers somewhere. Very cute.
Re: Long-haired groom.
If you have a little bit of sculpting ability (or know somebody who does) you may be able to add hair using either polymer clay or modeling epoxy. The epoxy comes in two separate parts and has to be kneaded together; it hardens by chemical reaction and you have a limited working time. Polymer clay–Sculpey, Fimo–must be baked, so your toppers would have to be bake-able. Then you paint to whatever color you want and seal with a clear-coat.
Something else that we used to do on model horses was building manes and tails out of string cut to length and soaked in glue. Tricky, and with uncertain results, though.
As a general note: Acrylic paint is water-based. Did they mean oil-based or enamel?
rosie
September 21st, 2009 · 8:47 PM · #
that is awesome!
ashlie
September 22nd, 2009 · 2:39 PM · #
Our cake topper will be Link and Zelda from the Legend of Zelda! My groom is so excited!
Rachel
September 22nd, 2009 · 4:41 PM · #
That is gorgeous! They did such a fabulous job! I'll be linking to this.
tate
September 22nd, 2009 · 11:48 PM · #
I totally did the same thing for my brother's wedding…. he has dreadlocks and his wife has strawberry blonde hair…. the cheap and meant to be a joke cake topper was a hit at the wedding
kristen
September 23rd, 2009 · 8:39 PM · #
my s.o. has long hair too. i was thinking about just making them. etsy is always a good route too.
Beff
October 5th, 2009 · 2:08 PM · #
I love this idea! Beautifully done.
My guy and I have been talking about different cake toppers, and we think we're going to use minis from dungeons & dragons–which we play with our friends–on our cake, surrounded by a ring of velociraptors–inside joke. 
Hey, a wedding is supposed to represent the couple, right?! 
Brooke
January 30th, 2010 · 3:40 AM · #
I am a white soon to vbe bride a d my fiance has dreadlocks and is black…i have found bi-racial cake toppers so I guess I will have to add my own dreads…any ideas???
Jess
February 1st, 2010 · 7:41 AM · #
please do share if you find any toppers with dreds that's what i am looking for too
Tami
February 7th, 2010 · 5:47 AM · #
I'm on a mission to find those swirly wire cake toppers that you can put photos in – any advice on where I might be able to find them would be much appreciated!
offbeat_megan
February 7th, 2010 · 5:51 AM · #
I've found these<img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=offbeatbrid0a-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B002PNP6XQ" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" /> and these<img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=offbeatbrid0a-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B002PNP6XQ" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" /> and */