Homemade Cow Centerpiece

My friend recently sent me a photo of a milk jug-turned-cow and told me it was a great idea for a wedding centerpiece for a farm-themed wedding. My first thought was, "I would never have a farm-themed wedding" and my second thought was, "I will never have another wedding, so it's really not about me right now, is it?"

And, as luck would have it, we actually had a nearly-empty milk jug in our fridge. When I used the last bit for coffee the next day, I looked at the empty milk jug and asked if it wanted to become a cow.

(And yes, I did actually ask it because I work at home, by myself, with a cat. And Pete works 14 hour days twice a week, including the day this story took place. And when I call people, they only answer because they are concerned that something must be wrong since I called instead of texted. But really, if I call you. You should answer. Something must be wrong with me if part of my daily communication involves an empty milk jug.)

The milk jug did not reply -- I'm not that crazy -- but I took the silence to mean that yes, this homemade cow centerpiece project was happening. (In case you are concerned about a lack of social interaction on my part, don't worry. I did receive a text from a friend while I was making this. And Pete came with me to shoot the final photo. I'm not a crazy cat lady just yet.)

Homemade Cow Centerpiece

What You'll Need:

• Empty milk jug (washed and dried)
• Glue Scissors
• Three sheets of cardstock (one each of pink, white, and black)
• Battery-operated tea light

What You'll Do:

Cut a thick strip of the black cardstock (my strip was about an inch and a half, but yours may vary based on the size of your milk jug).

Cut that strip in half. Add glue to one end and roll the black strip into a small cylinder. Glue this under the milk jug as legs. Let it dry completely.

If your jug won't stand on its legs, you can tape a "u" on the inside. Have the two sides of the u inside the cylinder and the bottom of the u at the cylinder's base. Then, affix the bottom of the u to the milk jug.

Using the black paper, cut out two round circles. With the white paper, cut out two smaller circles. Then, go back to the black and cut out two even smaller circles. Glue them in this order to create eyes.

I free handed these, but I did fold the piece of paper in half before cutting so they would be symmetrical (even though it doesn't look like it at all in the photo above).

Cut out two large "spots" from black paper to glue onto the milk jug. Try not to cut too evenly or it will look more like a cloud than a spot. Also, be conscious of the circle "ditch" in the milk jug. You'll want to cut a spot large enough to cover that. Glue one spot over that, then another on the other side.

Time to make the ears.

Cut a white sheet into a ear shape. Cut the same shape, but smaller, in pink. Glue them in that order to make your ears. Glue them above the eyes on your cow.

Trace the milk jug's top to make a pink circle.

Glue that onto your top.

Cut a long, thin pink strip. Glue it around the rest of the top.

Now, I understand this pink nose sort of makes my cow look like a pig. You could make his nose black or white instead, but I just thought it needed some color other than the pink in its ears. This is a wedding, and anywhere you can add a pop of color is alright with me.

In  the underside, just a plus sign with your scissors. This is where you'll slide in the tea light.

Be sure to only use a battery-operated tea light in this. You don't want to set it on fire.

Ta da.

So cute, right? You could definitely use nail polish remover to take off the lot number and expiration date from the side of your cow's face. If you are using this for your wedding, I definitely would do that.

Isn't he just so cute?

He's even cute at night too.

You could actually turn on the tea light when you are setting these up and then allow them to illuminate when it starts to get dark out. You don't want to try and dig in your cow to get the tea light when you are already using these as your centerpieces (it's not that easy, honestly) so make sure you pick up tea lights that are long lasting.

BRIDAL BABBLE: Would you make this homemade cow centerpiece?