Easy Homemade Pirate Cake

Here is an easy to make pirate cake that the kids go nuts for.  Even if you don't decorate a lot of cakes, this is one you should be able to tackle.  

I made a double cake and frosted a crumb coat.  As you can see, this cake was very crumbly!  After the all important crumb coat, I stuck the cake in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes to let the crumb coat harden.

Next I frosted the sides of the cake in blue buttercream.  Then I used a toothpick to draw an outline of where I wanted the ocean and beach to be.  I spread brown icing on the beach side and blue icing on the ocean side.  The nicest part about this cake is that you don't have to get any of the frosting smooth!  Just smear it on!  I even used my spatula to make the water extra wavy.

Painted Backyard Furniture

 My backyard chairs needed some love.  They were boring brown and the cushions were shot.  I decided to spruce them up with a can of spray paint and some new cushions.  Now they are bright and cheery.  And they look brand new!

I found some cushions for $15 each at Home Goods.  

This is what my chairs looked like before I painted them.  Faded cushions and plain tan metal.  The chairs are really comfortable and they're good quality so I thought a coat of paint would bring them back to life.

Too Stuffy for Me Part 6....Hand Painted Sign

Its been a while since I posted anything new about the living room and dining room transformations.  I'm still working on them slowly but surely.  My latest addition is this painted sign.  

It's very similar to the LOVE sign and is actually hanging on the same wall.  I used the same technique I used on the LOVE sign and painted these sayings I found on Pinterest.

  

Here is a shot of both rooms that I took with my panoramic camera.  My wall is actually flat (not curved).  You can see how the two rooms are connected, yet still separated by a hallway down the middle. 

 I thought the second sign helped balance out the big LOVE sign. Sorry for the cruddy lightning. 

The opposite wall has a faux "built in" made with Ikea cabinets and bookshelves.  I keep meaning to blog about this installation so here is a quick mini post about it.

We purchased the two lower cabinets and three bookshelves from Ikea.  Then we painted the back of the bookshelves the wall color (photo wall).  We stacked the bookshelves on top of the cabinets and added a piece of trim to the fronts of the bookshelves (where they come together), as well as trim where the bookshelves and cabinets butt up against the wall.  We also added crown molding around the top.  Then we painted the new trim to match the bookshelves.  My dad did the installation for us.  He braced all of it to the wall so it actually is built in.  I know it would cost a fortune to have this made from scratch but it only cost us about $400 total!  I obviously still need to accessorize it but that's not in the budget for now.

 Here is a panoramic of this side of the room.  As you can see, I still have no sewing table but we will get to it eventually.  In the meantime the empty room makes a great hula hooping area for the kids! :)

Happy decorating!

For more posts about this room transformation check out the links below...
Painted Stripes
Love Sign
Photo Wall
Chevron Table and Chairs
Chair Make Over

Camp Cash!

We survived birthday season!  

We just had my son's 6th birthday party....Camp Cash!  With the exception of the party favors (homemade tents), this party was extremely inexpensive and very easy to do!

Here's what we did... 

We had a Smore's bar! 

We had several types of chocolates, different flavors of marshmallows and two kinds of graham crackers!

Easy Bear Cake

 My son just had a camping themed birthday party and I wanted to make a special cake for him.  After searching the internet and Pinterest we decided that a bear cake would be perfect!  Even though this cake looks difficult, it's one of the easiest I've ever done!  You can totally do it too!

I came across an adorable polar bear cake here.  I loved it and decided it would be the cake to use as inspiration for my son's.

Here's what I did...

Angry Birds Party

Here is my Little One's Angry Birds party!

I'm not that great at printables and I don't have the money to buy them so I do my best.  These were made in my word program.  I just made text boxes and filled them in with different patterns and free clipart.  

Thank goodness for these FREE PRINTABLES !   

Construction Cake With a Twist!

If you are looking for a little change in your standard construction cake, here is one I did using the same technique as I used on my other construction cakes...but this time I changed the colors a bit!  Check it out!

Here is the original cake I posted.  And here is a tutorial for a similar cake if you want to know how to do this yourself.

Just changing the colors a bit gave it a totally different feel.  I actually ended up using my cousin's construction vehicles once we got to her house.  They were red and blue and looked adorable.