Photo: Johnny Miller
In her new book, Sweet Designs, sweets stylist Amy Atlas offers more than 175 recipes and dessert displays perfect for DIY brides on their wedding day. Here, Atlas takes us through her colorfully crafty idea to transform Necco Wafers into a graphic table runner.
First, a little background on the prosaic little Necco Wafer, an acronym for the New England Confectionery Company, which was created more than 160 years ago. Would you believe that Admiral Byrd hauled two and a half tons of the little disks to the South Pole and that the U.S. government requisitioned a major portion of them for its troops during World War II? The Necco Wafer is practically indestructible, which is good news if you make a table runner out of it (which will give you candy cred for a lifetime)! You might want to approach this project as if you're hosting a quilting bee—invite a few friends over, heat up the glue guns, and start "quilting." I used an Omnigrid straight edge, a tool quilters use to make perfect squares.
MATERIALS
Waxed paper
1 5x3-foot-wide piece of neutral netting or tulle
72 2-ounce rolls Necco Wafers, brown and black separated out
TOOLS
Gridded ruler mat with 1-inch markings, such as an Omnigrid
Hot glue gun
Photo: Johnny Miller
DIRECTIONS
1) Lay sheets of waxed paper on a gridded ruler.
2) Spread the tulle or netting on top of the waxed paper. Measure and mark the tulle 6 inches from each edge to create a frame. You will be gluing the wafers in strips inside the frame.
3) Using the gridded ruler as your guide, hot glue the wafers to the tulle, logo side down, in strips in a rainbow pattern. Vary the lengths of the strips (see Template Index, page 337, and download the tem¬plate at http://blog.amyatlas.com). You will be creating 48 strips. Make certain the glue is dry before proceeding to step 4.
4) With the help of a friend, flip the runner over so that the waxed paper is facing up. Gently peel away the waxed paper from the tulle. Flip the runner over again so that it is Necco Wafer side up.
5) Position the runner in the center of the table. To store, place the runner between two sheets of packing paper and roll into a log. Place in a plastic bag and store at room temperature.
Photo: Johnny Miller
Extra tip: Use a piece of fabric with multicolored pastel polka dots, or white dots on a pastel background. Ideally, the dots should be at least 1 inch wide. Alternatively, you can sprinkle inexpensive confetti dots or Necco Wafers over a solid-colored fabric. Kids love to sprinkle these around; invite them to help you.
—Amy Atlas
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