Butter Cream and Burlap

I've mentioned that my girlfriend got married last month, it's been a whole two weeks so far. Married during one of the most awesome heatwaves Northern California has seen in a while and of course it was outside. I've had several requests for me to post pictures of the cake and the burlap roses I did for her. So here they are.

First the cake. Since the bride wanted butter cream instead of fondant on her cake I hit Pinterest for inspiration and found this. It was perfect. So. Thinking I'd give it a shot I found the most awesome tutorial for doing the petal technique here. I haven't made a wedding cake in a while and well, I was happy with the cake. I'm just really glad no on could see my inspiration photo to do a comparison.  I was really starting to worry about the butter cream melting off the cake with the heat and I kept having to refrigerate the butter cream while I was working to continue decorating.  I can say that I am totally looking forward to doing this technique again on a couple of practice cakes. It totally looks elegant and it's simple and I have to say even a bit relaxing to do. (if you're not concerned about the butter cream melting.)

The back side of the cake. 

Next are the flowers. I wish I had a good picture of the centerpieces that were used on the tables. They were simple mason jars wrapped with burlap and ribbon with a button embellsiment on the front filled with small cheery sunflowrs and daisies. Each of the bouquets had one of these burlap flowers stuck in the jars. I found the best tutorial for burlap flowers here. I used burlap ribbon instead of a piece of burlap of material even though I had a whole bolt hanging around the house. The yellow ribbon I found at Joann's and it was wired. The regular burlap ribbon is from Close to My Heart and that can be purchased at my CTMH store here. I love this stuff, the finished edges really made the roses look polished and they couldnt be easier to make. Just watch the hot glue. Burlap being a very loosely woven material tends to allow the hot glue to seep through layers and hot glue is, well,  just plain HOT. Watch out for your fingers is all I can say.

Let me know what you think. Are any of you out there DIY - aholics like I am?