Tiki Weekend: Tiki Lantern Tutorial

Hello cupcakes!
The response to Tiki Weekend has been overwhelming!  You've been messaging me and e-mailing to demand more photos.  Trust me, you'll get them this week.  
Our tiki votives were a huge hit with y'all, so I thought to tide you over,  you might enjoy a tutorial...authored by my friend and frequent collaborator: Allison Beilke.  Enjoy!

Hello lovely Goldiblog readers! I like to consider myself Erin’s silent design partner in crime, but today it’s my turn to guest post. With hopefully more posts to come! As you know, Erin is a very crafty lady and together we crafted many decorations for our summer, retro-fabulous Tiki party. We were inspired by many great decoration tutorials we found on various blogs, but we also came up with our own original.

With that I give to you… DIY Tiki Lanterns! It’s really quite easy (and cheap!) and you can customize it for virtually any event or holiday of your choosing. You could even give them away as party favors.

You will need:

Plain, GLASS juice glasses (no plastic since they’re for burning candles)

Mod Podge

Paintbrushes or sponge brushes

Solid color tissue paper

Contact paper

Exacto knife

Pen or pencil

Carbon transfer paper (optional)

Acrylic paint

Acrylic gloss or matte medium

First, pick up a couple inexpensive plain, glass juice glasses. We found some that were 5” tall, but you could certainly use small shot glasses too. Tissue paper is next. This will serve as the first layer so think about what colors you want to glow through when the candles are lit. Lie the glass on the tissue paper to measure a strip that will cover the whole glass and cut it out.

Paint on Mod Podge and carefully apply the tissue paper to the glass. (It’s ok if this doesn’t turn out perfect because it gets covered up and sometimes texture makes for interesting results!) Let this dry for a few hours. I would recommend coming back and putting on an outer coat of Mod Podge, then let it dry overnight.

Now you’re ready for the fun part! Decide what design you’d like to show through when lit. I drew some tiki faces that were pretty basic shapes and printed from my computer. You can download the template here for your own tropically-themed party. Transfer the designs onto contact paper either using carbon paper or a pencil to shade the back of the paper with the design on it and trace onto contact paper. Next cut out the shapes from the contact paper with an exacto knife and apply to your tissue paper lined glasses.

Get out your acrylic paint (we used burnt sienna) and mix a small amount with the acrylic medium. You want a consistency that has a nice amount of color for coverage, but the medium will give is some transparency for the light to come through. Paint over the entire glass, including the contact paper. Let dry overnight. The next day is REALLY the fun part. Peel back the contact paper shapes, drop in some tea lights and prepare to be amazed!  

They really added to the whimsical ambiance of our party.  We had a blast making them and we hope you do too!

Tiki Weekend: First Look

Hello, dolls!

I'm so happy to finally share a glimpse of the tiki party!  It was a huge success and will most likely become a yearly thing...so, while I'm concerned about the concept getting stale, I'll have plenty of opportunities to revamp, rework and redesign aspects of the party on a yearly basis. 

I hope you enjoy your first look at Tiki Weekend!

Quite possibly my favorite touch of the evening.  This adorable tiki sign comes to us via Allison.  She found it a number of years ago.  The other side says "The Tiki Lounge is Closed" and we could barely contain our excitement when we finally switched the sign to "open".  So, we're nerds.  Sue me.

 

The cupcakes!  They really did turn out wonderfully.  I made my signature lemon-lavender cake and topped them with a vanilla cloud frosting.  The swirl cups and tiki sugars I purchased at Layer Cake Shop.  Those sugars are just the living end and made the diminutive cakes really stand out on the table.

An adorable shot of the drink table.  You can see our cute straws (also from Layer Cake Shop) and vintage Hawaii souvenir mugs (from the ever-awesome Tip Top Atomic Shop in the heart of Bay View) )Look at those flowers, will ya?!  Allison and I really wanted a deliciously tropical flower arrangement. We thought. We sketched.  Finally, it hit us! And, voilà! A tropical drink inspired arrangement! 

 

The tiki lanterns were perhaps the best idea we had for the party.  They are a completely original design and we are really proud of them.  I was instantly in love with how easy they were to make (they'd also be a great craft for kids).  Our little tiki idols were a huge hit with the guests!  

Stay tuned for more Tiki Weekend all week!  I have so much more to share!

Some Calm in the Internet Storm

So, if you're anything like me and read wedding blogs incessantly, you're probably aware of this.  Then there was this.  Basically, some couple had a wedding (albeit a thoughtless and distasteful one) and people lost their shizz.  And, in the interest of full disclosure, I should say I kinda lost my shizz a little bit, as well.  Because, in my opinion having an oh, so awesome time while making light of the struggle of millions all over the world is tasteless.  Abject poverty isn't fun.  It isn't romantic and it isn't cute.  But I kept my damn mouth shut.  Which is another post...

My point is, if I may be frank, this wedding started an Internet shit show. Once that fire was a'blazin, the flames were fanned. I am still collecting my thoughts and in response to those of you who've asked my opinion: I plan to throw my two cents in later this week.

In the meantime, I suggest you read this post by the mastermind behind the Offbeat Empire, Ariel Meadow Stallings.  It's well written and thought provoking.  Then, we'll discuss this issue here.