Crystal decorations-DIY bling

It was sheer serendipity that I stumbled into Shine Trim and met Helen. Fortunately for us the kitchen is on the fringe of the garment district and just about every day I walk past windows of goodies. I had been thinking for awhile now about using some of the beautiful trims I see around to decorate cakes with, and after wandering in and out of several stores I landed here. Helen's place, which is family owned, is a small but warm space on the second floor at 228 West 39th St.- just around the corner from us.

After climbing up the stairs I stepped into a space that was neat and teeming with glittery trims, brooches, hair pins, silk flowers.... and everything just so beautiful- including Helen.

We immediately got into a great chat about the wedding business. Shine Trim has very wisely put all their items online and have a productive online ordering system. I really wanted to be able to offer you, dear reader, the opportunity to easily get at anything you see here on the blog. They already do a lot of business with brides and therefore are very well versed in how to help put together just the right thing for you. I can only say that this is just a small small smattering of what they have- and if you have the opportunity I encourage you to climb those steps yourself. Helen is a delight for sure, but you'll have even more fun looking over the shelves and cases.

For this cake I used a beautiful silver/grey 4" satin ribbon that I got from Pacific Trimming Enterprises at 220 West 38th St. For a cake this size it's about 4 yards, I bought 5 to be safe. The feathers I had on hand for years, but they are available in the district as well. I taped the feathers in bunches to wire with floral tape and made a "bouquet" of them. I then tucked that into the cake. Then with a long hat pin I attached the long leaf brooch (Shine Trim) to the center and let it dangle down over the ribbon. I made another very small feather bunch and tucked that in along with two sparkling hair pins that complimented the brooch.

This is the same look but with a beautiful round brooch. Also very stunning.

I really became enamored with the hair pins. I love their simple sparkly understated glitz. I purchased the ribbons from Pacific Trimming in different shades and widths of both ivory and pale dusty pink, 6 yrds of each.

I pulled long lengths of the ribbon and folded them in half. I pinned the fold to the top of the cake and then teased the groups of the three paler colors into tumbling tendrils. Here and there I used the hair pins to snug them into place and then at the bottom cut the ends to land softly at the base. For the large bow I free hand folded and cinched the ribbon and then used hat pins to hold it together. If you wanted to you could do this in advance and sew a stitch or two to keep in all together. Once in place I took some more hair pins and highlighted the top of the cake and set it all into place.

Sadly the glints on the small gems doesn't equate in the photo- but I am so happy with the naive innocence and grace of this cake that I have kept it for display in the studio.