The Cherry on Top: Part 2

As you might have noticed, I refer to my fiance as "Dino" on here.  This is partially for anonymity purposes, and partially because his nickname to me is "hisnam-osaurus."  And my nickname is "mynam-dactyl".  It really is easier to understand with our actual names, but let's pretend you totally understand.  Anyway, we both like dinosaurs, and our nicknames mean we could use a stegosaurus and a pterodactyl to represent us.  Perfect!

Okay, yes, dinosaurs might be a little childish, and not fit in with anything else at the wedding, but the little inside joke/reference makes us smile, so Dino gave me the green light to come up with something.

My first instinct was to find plastic dinosaur toys.  I could spray paint them to be pink and green, or gray, or whatever.  Maybe add a tiny top hat and veil?  But I ran into a problem quickly - do you know how hard it is to find the right size toy of both a stegosaurus and pterodactyl?  It's pretty much impossible.  I scoured amazon, target, toys 'r us, and anywhere else I could think of.

Okay, seriously?  One quick search now, after I'd long given up, and this set is an option.  They are only up to 3", though...  So still kind of too small.  Image via Amazon.com

So after not finding exactly what I wanted, I had a "Eureka!" moment - why don't I just make some dinosaurs?!?!  No, I hadn't ever made anything of the sort before, and I'm not typically a super artistic person (although my stick figures are pretty sweet!).  But I found myself at Hobby Lobby at lunch one day, in the oven bake clay section, where they had bright green and bright pink clay.  The absolute perfect colors.  And I grabbed a white, a dark blue, and a silver for good measure.

I put off doing anything with the clay for awhile, feeling a little intimidated by the prospect.  But last night I didn't feel like gardening (was still tired from the night before's gardening...  our garden is 75% grass, and I'm pulling it all out by hand!), didn't feel like working on the invitations (although that is #1 priority on my to do list...  It's getting really late!), and didn't want to be too lazy.  So I turned on Dollhouse (great Joss Whedon show...  love how the same actors are always in everything he does!), grabbed the clay and parchment paper, and went to work.

I would post a step by step on how to make clay dinosaurs, but really it was like this: unwrap clay, play with it and mold it into shapes that feel right, keep smoothing the surface where you keep putting nail marks in, and wash your hands thoroughly between handling different colors.  I made the stegosaurus from memory of what it should look like, then looked up a picture of a cartoon pterodactyl to use as reference.

This is the image I used as a reference for my pterodactyl.  Although I just realized I didn't give mine a tail...  whoops!  Image via Google Image Search

About an hour later, my figures were done, and ready to bake.  This part was the most confusing for me, as the package says to bake at 275 for 15-20 minutes per 1/4 inch.  I wasn't sure how to measure the inches, so kind of just did 10 minute increments until they were about to brown...  It ended up being about 40-50 minutes.  And it smelled pretty awful.  Make sure you can open some windows and turn on a vent if you try this!

And with that, they were done!  I'm not 100% happy with them, there are some things I noticed as soon as I took them out of the oven, but I'm pretty proud.  Even Dino said he was impressed with my skillz.  Yes, with a z.

My beautiful dinosaur figures!

I'm not positive that we will use these as the cake topper, or if I'll feel perfectionist-y and have to redo one or both of them, but I think they turned out cute.

Have any of your DIY/craft projects really impressed your significant other?  And would you put dinosaurs on top of your cake?