Introduction: Minecraft Creeper Wedding Cake Toppers

About: I'm a student mental health nurse and I live with my remarkable fiancee in a house overflowing with our books, craft material and tools. It's great.

Hi all! This is an entry in the DIY Wedding Contest 2011 - if you like it, please vote!

Are you a creeper who is getting married soon and struggling to find cake toppers that really represent you and your beloved? THEN THIS IS THE INSTRUCTABLE FOR YOU.

Alternatively, you may also like it if you are just a huge fan of the iconic minecraft villain, and want to celebrate your geek / gamer pedigree on your big day.

Step 1: Ingredients

The esential ingredients are as follows:

  • liquid latex
  • Epoxy Resin (Or any two part resin mixing kit from a craft store)
  • measuring cup (usually comes with resin)
  • paper cup, with a pouring spout pinched into it
  • paintbrush (one that is cheap enough to throw away afterwards, but not so cheap bristles will come out at the slightest pressure)
  • regular drinking / shot glass with water in it.
  • superglue
  • tissue blade or fine craft knife (not shown)
  • Kitchen paper towel (not shown)
  • 20g black polymer clay
  • 60g scrap polymer clay (any colour)
  • latex gloves
  • fine coloured ribbon, 3-4mm wide. The ones found inside clothes to help you hang them are perfect
  • miniature ribbon rose
  • gauze, 3cm x 3cm
  • scissors
  • 5g black seed beads
  • 130-150g mixed green seed beads
  • chopstick, wooden skewer or similar item for stirring resin mix.
The green seed beads should be in a colour mix that is as close to the creeper's colour mix as possible. I strongly suggest walking into a craft store and handling a few tubes next to each other to get a good idea of how they catch the light and would blend together. This is especially important as - as we all know - browsers represent colour differently, website photography may be not be top notch and different ways of finishing the beads (silver lined, transparent, rainbow) can affect the overall impression.

The good news is you don't have to get high quality beads for this, as they won't be strung or woven. Essentially, if you're happy with the colour, that is enough. However, to avoid any nasty surprises you may wish to set 3-4 of your chosen beads in a teaspoon of resin as a tester to see if there is any discolouration or leakage.

Step 2: Making the Master

  1. Wearing the latex gloves, roll your scrap polymer clay into something that is approximately 9.5cm
  2. cut off 3cm with the tissue blade. This is the head.
  3. shave about another .5 cm off the body. Roll this a little flatter and make the square eyes and mouth shape. Try to keep the angles really sharp as the square this is a key part of the creeper's appearance
  4. place the mouth and eyes on the head, press very, very gently to ensure contact throughout,
  5. bake as per package instructions
  6. take out of the oven when hard, and set aside to cool.

Step 3: Making the Mould

Ensure you are working in a well ventilated area and that your clothes are covered by something you do not mind getting latex on. A bin liner with holes cut for head and arms is the ultimate cheapo DIY option. You will also need to cover your work surface with a plastic, NOT paper. An old document wallet - the type that would normally hold a sheet of paper in a ringbinder - is great for this

Now fill your drinking or shot glass half full of water. This will hold your brush inbetween applications of latex and lengthen its life.
  • Layer by layer, paint latex onto the masters. This will appear to be running straight off, but it is much better to build up multiple fine layers than trying to wait for one to dry. Keep your brush in the water in between applications.
Depending on various factors such as temperature and how much time you have to devote to this each day, this stage could take between a  couple of days and a week. Ideally, allow for a week, and 1 layer of latex each day after work. If you are at home, work at 12 hourly intervals. Ensure there are at least 8 layers on both masters.

Step 4: First Layer

  • When the latex mould is finshed, carefully peel it back and off the master. You may wish to rub talcum powder down the outside to help prevent it sticking to itself.
  • In the deeper recesses of the mouth and eyes, carefully place in half of the black seed beeds. You may find that this is fiddly work and they do not immediately lie flat. If they jump around or move, use a needle or a copper wire to place them back in place.
  • When they are all lying flat, place a thin layer of the green seed bead mix, just enough to cover the mould base / eyes and mouth.
  • cover this with a small layer of resin, mixed as per bottle instructions
NB Do not mix the resin in the measuring cup. Pour each fluid into the measuring cup, and then wipe thoroughly with kitchen paper until dry before measuring the second fluid. Combine the resin and hardener the paper cup with a pinched side "spout", and stir it with a chopstick or similar item. To ensure accurate measuring for all future uses of the resin, it is essential the cup is wiped clean of both substances.
  • When hardened (about 24 hours) fill the moulds halfway with beads and then pour resin in. This will sink down amongst the beads, but be cautious with how much you are pouring in - you must keep the balance of resin and beads equal until the moulds are filled up to the top.
  • After another 24 hours, release from the mould and repeat this step for the second creeper.

Step 5: Assembling the Creepers

When they came out of the moulds, I noticed that the eyes and mouth on my creepers were uniformly black instead of having the "pixelated" effect their bodies did. I'm not sure why this is, but I suspect it is something to do with the quality and type of my black seed beads. If this bothers you, then definitely check the effect with 3-4 of your chosen beads before getting this far in the process.

As you can see however, the individual green beads are visible in the clear resin, giving that fantastic variegated effect that "real" creepers have.

Angle the heads and bodies as you like, make sure they stand up ok, then superglue together.

Step 6: Dressing the Creepers

For the Groom
  • Make a black top hat out of the black fimo and test it for balance on your groom creeper's head. It is worth leaving making the hat till this point in case you need to make slight allowances for any irregularities in head shape.
  • bake it, as per instructions, and leave to cool
  • cut a small length of coloured ribbon and wrap around the cooled hat.
  • Glue in place with superglue
  • Glue hat on head
For the Bride
  • cut a tiny piece of gauze in a rough triangle shape. 3x3cm would probably be the biggest you'd need, mine is actually less than that.
  • arrange with the minature ribbon rose into a shape and form you like. This will be entirely dependant on your preferences and the shape of your creeper's head, so play around until you have something you like. Glue gauze and rose together.
  • Place a dot of glue on side of bride's head, and press veil down.

And there you have it: Your very own creeper cake toppers. Thank you for looking, and if you liked the instructable I hope you will consider voting!
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