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  • Hi, I’m Emily

    Emily Fazio

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Our DIY Wedding Favor Garden

January 11, 2013

Hi guys! I’m popping in today to show you the favors that I made for our recent wedding. Know, while perusing this, that my inspiration came from Rachel at Transient Expression. I saw and repinned her project back in the springtime, and when it came time to figure out what we wanted to gift our friends and family, her design blew most other ideas away. Check out her tutorial here.

DIY clay pots as wedding favors.

In my head, handmaking favors seemed like it could be a gigantic pain in the keester, the kind of thing you imagine the bride and her mom and sisters hurriedly and unemotionally throwing together the night before the wedding in a last minute panic. That’s probably why shops like The Knot and MyWeddingFavors have worked hard to market the ease of ordering custom favors, like soap, and mason jar drinking glasses, and my favorite, Hotty McHot sauce which I’m sure tastes awesome.

None of those were really our style, and honestly? They’re all kind of overpriced for what they are. As I hinted in our wedding update from last August, we knew we wanted to do handmade favors, and those options were fun, creative, DIY-able, and affordable (I purposefully omitted the winning favor at the time). Rachel’s concept of making mini planters out of Sculpey clay was more costly than some options, but it wasn’t break-the-bank crazy and all in, our mass quantity of 75 planters amounted to be about $1.33/each. It would have been slightly less had we sourced succulents in the springtime.

I started by buying the biggest freakin’ box of Sculpey that I could find, on a day when one of my 50% off coupons was valid at Michael’s Crafts and Things. Sculpey’s one of those popular polymer clays that stays maleable until baked (like Fimo and Premo), and you probably haven’t played with it since you were in 4th grade art class, but it’s sold in small packages in a multitude of colors, as well as larger packs in more limited colors. Conveniently, I wanted white, and Sculpey offered the best value.

Biggest box of Sculpey at Michael's.

Rachel’s tutorial tells you most of the need-to-know tips. Soften manageable chunks of clay in your hand, and start making a ball that’s approximately the size you want your planter to be. Like Rachel, I also found that it was easiest to scoop the clay innards out before cutting facets into the outer surface of the planter, and I also found that leaving the solid molded ball to chill in the freezer for 5-10 minutes before starting to scoop (and again, before cutting the facets) helped it to return to a firm, more scoopable state. On top of that, I can say that you shouldn’t make dozens of golf ball sized Sculpey nuggets far in advance of when you’re going to use them, they will get 1) furry, assuming you have shedding pets, 2) smushed, or 3) dried out in the fridge or freezer (really, any more than just 5-10 minutes at a time in the freezer and the clay will be unfortunately brittle when you’re carving into it).

To scoop the clay balls, Rachel used a melon instrument, but I used what I believe is officially, a strawberry huller. It’s toothy edge made it easy to carve into the clay. I did, however, burn through two of these hullers during the 5-month course of making the pots; our latest one that has held up the best was this one (not shown in the photo below) from Amazon.

Scooping out the clay for our DIY pots.

I tried to be uber-careful and perfect with the first few planters I molded and carved, but quickly learned to be not so particular. A few tips from my experience:

  • The outer smooth edge is going to inevitably morph a little bit as you’re scooping and applying pressure to it. It shouldn’t be a big deal though, you’re going to carve off all of those fingerprinted surfaces anyways.
  • Holding the clay in your hand helps you to gauge the thickness of the pot; you don’t want it to be too hallow, or else you’ll chance cutting through the clay completely when you’re making the faceted edges, and then you’ll have to start from scratch (I did this about, oh, 25 times).
  • When you’re cutting your faceted edges, hold the planter in your hand and do your best to only touch the uncut surfaces.
  • Start cutting facets at the bottom of the planter so that the finished piece has a way to sit upright, and work your way around. Use your sharpest, non-serrated knife, and make nice swift, shallow cuts towards you, like you’re slicing a small block of cheese in your hand.
  • The top open edge of the planter will likely look really rough when you’re done. At this point, I froze the carved pot for another 5 minutes and then sliced right over the top to create a smooth and finished top edge.

Carving our wedding favors out of Sculpey clay.

As I said, I created our mass of mini-planters over the course of 5 months, doing anywhere from 4-10 in each sitting. I baked them all immediately, finding the best results in using the real oven and a foil pie plate. The thickness of each planter varied, but everything hardened up after 20 minutes in the oven. Note: I tried our toaster oven a few times. It works, but it will also toast the edges of your facets and leave them looking burned. Fair warning.

That's a whole lotta DIY planters.

Our finished menagerie was a lot of fun to look at, although when I look up close all I can see are flaws. From afar, and in mass, they’re adorable.

How to make DIY faceted planters.

Early on in the process, I self-rooted a piece of succulent and planted it into one of the pots just to see if this idea would work. Not only did it survive, but it flourished on our kitchen windowsill over the course of a few months with semi-frequent waterings. The water, you should know, does stay nicely in the planter, it doesn’t seem to saturate into the clay enough to seep through onto whatever surface you have it positioned on.

After seeing how well it blossomed, I got ambitious and bought a whole bunch of the cutest little succulents at Home Depot and Lowe’s over the summer, broke them into mini-branches, and began to root them in soil and glasses of water. This didn’t work, possibly because I didn’t pay them much attention (they’re succulents, how much attention do they need?) and the ones that hadn’t been potted yet dropped dead as soon as the weather turned cooler (note: the test planter still continued to thrive).

The only issue with this project was that I chose to do it when succulents were in mass all over all of the hardware stores during the summer. The week before the wedding, succulents were nowhere to be found, and we began to panic as we drove to all of the home improvement stores and garden shops within a 30-mile radius. Yes, even though succulents are primarily indoor plants in New York, they are considered seasonal merchandise and quickly replaced with Poinsettias during the month of December.

In all of our stops, we were able to find 6 plants that were lush and branchy enough to fill our planters, one of which being a pretty rainbow succulent splurge which I only got a few good pieces off ($17), and a couple of those pre-made succulent gardens that cost $7 but only have 3-4 plants in each container. Our best value was in the jade plant, which I was hoping to avoid originally because it’s not as cute and kind of awkwardly sized, but at $10 for a healthy pot, I was able to fill over half of the planters.

Planter mayhem the week of the wedding.

The non-Jade’s were delightfully cuter.

Planter mayhem the week of the wedding.

Total cost for 75 planters, as I’m calculating it, is $1.33/each

  • $25 for clay
  • $5 for extra strawberry huller
  • $50 for succulents
  • Soil (free, I used what came with the plants that we bought)
  • Electricity for oven (immeasurable, throw on $20)
  • Labor is also immeasurable, but I did most of my work while watching TV at night and not during the billable workday.

Cute little wedding favors using DIY clay planters and succulents.

If you’re thinking of a spring- or summertime wedding favor idea, this might be the perfect fit and more easily produceable. Thank you to Rachel for the inspiration!

Share

DIY  / Wedding

Emily
I'm a home improvement enthusiast living a very merry, DIY-filled lifestyle. As a freelance writer, you can find my work on many popular home and garden sites, including HGTV.com, Home Living Handbook, a Pursuit Channel for Men's Journal, and other outlets. Follow me on social, or drop me a note.

37 Comments


Michelle
January 11, 2013 at 12:27 pm
Reply

I think these are really cute. I’m a plant person, so I’d be tickled to receive something like this.



Shannon
February 27, 2013 at 10:43 am
Reply

Those turned out really well! You’ve always been so fearless when experimenting with new mediums! I’m totally a succulent failure, well actually a total plant mom failure. My friends joke that plants come to my house to die…with love of course. They know how hard I try : )

Do I remember correctly that you have a plant/tree that you’ve been measuring on top of a table over the years? Or am I making that up



    Emily
    February 27, 2013 at 11:06 am

    Haha, you’re right Shannon – I do have a succulent that I’ve been keeping tabs on for several years (it’s in my line of sight right now, and it has several new growths since I showed it off last!). I find that less is more with these guys, they just don’t like to be near cold windows (which must never be much of a problem in the south).

Shannon
February 27, 2013 at 10:53 am
Reply

I absolutely LOVE these!! :) They are so stinkin’ cute!

I also participated in the challenge and built an herb planter box! :)

Thanks for sharing!

Shannon
Fabulously Vintage



    Emily
    February 27, 2013 at 11:06 am

    Hi Shannon! I’ll be sure to check yours out! Glad you liked my little clay planters!

Stacey
February 27, 2013 at 10:53 am
Reply

This is so incredible!! Thanks for sharing! I can’t wait to try it myself!!



    Emily
    February 27, 2013 at 11:22 am

    Glad you liked it, Stacey!

Katie
February 27, 2013 at 10:54 am
Reply

These are so adorable!! Forgive my ignorance (I’ve never planted anything in my life) but how do you root/plant/break off the plants from other pots/larger plants? Thank you!



    Emily
    February 27, 2013 at 11:24 am

    For rooting, normally, I’d let the broken pieces sit in a shallow glass of water for a few weeks. They usually take pretty easily, and then when the roots are established you can transfer to dirt. I’m happy to say that most of our leftover succulents from the wedding are still doing fine, I just water them lightly every week to ensure there’s enough water in the planter for the plant to continue to root well. Thanks for the nice comment, I’m glad you liked the project!

Teresa @ wherelovemeetslife
February 27, 2013 at 10:55 am
Reply

How freakin cute!!! I love these! and they seem very doable…



    Emily
    February 27, 2013 at 11:24 am

    Super easy! Hope you try it too!

Caitlin @ Desert Domicile
February 27, 2013 at 1:41 pm
Reply

These are fantastic, Emily! I love the variations in each favor and I bet your guests loved them too :)



Vanessa
February 27, 2013 at 6:23 pm
Reply

Emily, these are adorable! I totally want to make some for my own windowsill.



    Emily
    February 27, 2013 at 6:51 pm

    Thank you Vanessa!

Leanna
February 27, 2013 at 6:37 pm
Reply

Those are beautiful! Wedding favors are hard to do right but you’ve definitely succeeded! I used Pluffy clay to make ornaments (http://leannamk.com/diy-clay-ornament-part-1/) and loved how it didn’t stick to my tables or hands. Did you find Sculpy to be pretty good as far as not being too sticky?



    Emily
    February 27, 2013 at 6:53 pm

    Hi Leanna! The clay wasn’t so much sticky, but it did leave its residue on my hands. I kept my rings off while playing with it. Cute ornaments!

Megan @ Two Live Colorfully
February 27, 2013 at 7:30 pm
Reply

These are so fun!! I’m so in love with the geometric trend right now and these are perfect!! Great tutorial!



    Emily
    February 27, 2013 at 8:05 pm

    Thanks a lot, Megan!

Christine @ Casa-de-Christine
February 27, 2013 at 9:12 pm
Reply

These are soooo cute! I have similar ones pinned and a whole lot of sculpey to use up- this is perfect!!



    Emily
    February 27, 2013 at 9:21 pm

    Thanks Christine!! Have fun with your project!

Ellen
February 27, 2013 at 9:59 pm
Reply

Cute!



Kelly @ A Swell Place to Dwell
February 27, 2013 at 10:01 pm
Reply

Why when I go to weddings to do I get mix CDs and candles? Never anything awesome like this. Love them!



    Emily
    February 27, 2013 at 10:57 pm

    Not good CDs? Thanks for the nice comment :)

Ainhoa
February 28, 2013 at 2:23 am
Reply

These are gorgeous!!! I like the idea of using them as favors, too. We had potted plants as centerpieces so we gave them away at the end of the night, as well.



Lysa
February 28, 2013 at 9:06 am
Reply

I absolutely LOVE these! Much cuter than the plastic containers holding my succulents currently on my windowsil. These will definitely be on my to-do list. Thanks so much for sharing.



    Emily
    February 28, 2013 at 9:42 am

    Woohoo! Glad you enjoyed them, Lysa!

Tamsyn
February 28, 2013 at 6:27 pm
Reply

I am so in love with this!! Pinning and planning on making some very soon :)



    Emily
    February 28, 2013 at 10:09 pm

    Woot, woot, woot!

Design Thoughts ~kim
March 1, 2013 at 3:00 pm
Reply

Love these!!!



    Emily
    March 1, 2013 at 3:48 pm

    Thanks Kim!

Chaney
May 3, 2013 at 8:26 am
Reply

This is an absolutely adorable project! I included it in a DIY Mother’s Day gifts round up today (here) – hope that’s ok! Have a great weekend :)

-Chaney from May Richer Fuller Be



Molly
March 12, 2014 at 11:32 am
Reply

Genius project! Can’t wait to try it – pinning it now! Thanks for sharing and putting together a wonderful tutorial.
– Molly



Reese
March 13, 2014 at 3:17 pm
Reply

Hi! Just found your blog via How About Orange. I absolutely LOVE your little handmade clay pots!! Incidentally, I bought a sh** ton of clay last year when my local Michaels was undergoing a renovation and had a huge clearance sale, so I’m very excited to find a good use for them. Even MORE coincidentally, we are getting married next year, and these will make perfect wedding favors (luckily, ours is a small wedding… Phew)!! Our wedding is in the winter, though, so we may have to fill them with something else…… Hm.



    Emily
    March 13, 2014 at 6:01 pm

    Awesome! Hello! If you DO want to use succulents as part of the wintertime wedding, take it from me and buy up a bunch of plants in the summer. This is good for two reasons: They’re in stock at big box stores for not a lot of $$! and also, you’ll have a longer window to help the little offshoots reroot. All of mine that I still have from my own wedding did successfully reroot themselves, but I always figured that they would take easier to the new pot if they actually had roots when I planted them. Good luck!

Victoria
May 6, 2014 at 11:09 am
Reply

Love this. We’ve included it in our Steal List of best DIY planters from around the web. Hope that’s all right!

http://www.bookshelfboyfriend.com/steal-list-planters/

Victoria x



bobby
January 11, 2015 at 5:04 pm
Reply

Hi curious to know how these have survived over the two years. I’ve been doing research on the safety of polymer clays and plants/food and I’ve been weary of putting plants in my polymer vessels for fear of chemicals leeching into the soil.



    Emily
    January 12, 2015 at 4:22 pm

    They’re still alive and kicking! I haven’t grown anything in them that is edible, though…

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  • HI, I’m Emily

    Emily Fazio

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