DIY Puppy Art

One of my sons is obsessed with puppies!  He has always loved them and I was in the mood for a new project so I decided to make him a custom piece for his room. 

 I started with 4 pieces of cheap pine which I put 2 coats of black stain on.  I wasn't sure what I was going for but I knew the black stain wasn't enough so I pulled out the acrylic paints.

  I put off white, blue and brown on a paper plate with a bit of water.  Using a paper towel, I began rubbing the wet paint right on to the stained wood.  I used one color at a time.  I kept adding more and more paint and it became weathered looking.  I wiped it on and smeared it off with the paper towel.  I made sure to stay going with the grain of the wood.  

Mocha Madness!

I wanted to try a new twist on chocolate cake for my coffee loving friends.  So I experimented a bit and according to my husband, this is the best tasting cake I've ever made!  And it was SUPER easy to do!

To get the mocha flavor, I used a box of chocolate fudge cake mix and substituted the water for vanilla flavored coffee that I brewed at home.  Before I added the coffee to the other ingredients I made sure it was room temperature.  I wasn't sure if it would work hot or not.  After the cake was baked, I soaked more coffee right on to the cake with a basting brush.  

I also made regular chocolate buttercream and added quite a bit of room temperature coffee right to it.  I cut back a little on the milk and continued adding coffee and powdered sugar and cocoa until the flavor and consistency were perfect.

Keely's Big Girl Room Make Over; Part 2!

The biggest change in my daughter's Big Girl room is her new bed!  I got SO lucky and scored this super heavy, iron bed from the 1920's on Craigslist for $50!  And my husband's BFF even picked it up and delivered it to our house for us!  It was white and in great condition.  I spray painted it hot pink.  Inspiration for her room came from two rooms in particular, which I saw on pinterest.  They gave me amazing ideas and I was able to translate them on an extremely small budget.  Check out the other rooms here and here for some incredible ideas!

We also moved Keely's bookshelves (which she's had since birth, a Target purchase.) to the same wall as her headboard.  I was lucky that she decided to keep her pink walls, which meant I didn't have to paint!  We also kept her name on her wall that I painted years ago.  We found the bedding at Home Goods for $40.  Keely picked it out.  It's totally different than what I was thinking of getting but it's her room and she liked it so I went with it.

Even though I did little bits and pieces over several weeks, the day the bed went in the room was a big deal!  I decided to keep her out of the room while I set up the bed and bookshelves.  We brought her in with her eyes closed and had her open them on the count of 3.  She loved it!

Keely's Big Girl Bedroom Makeover!

I am in the process of making over my 7 year old daughter's bedroom so that it is more "Big Girl".  She loves to read so I wanted her to have a cozy spot to relax while she dives into her books.  

  

Here's what I did...

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.  

A Little Piece of Happy....Family Chalkboard!

How cute is this?  My friend gave me a gift card to Hobby Lobby so I went shopping!  Check out what I bought!  I picked up a large chalk board and hung it in my kitchen.  I also grabbed 2 sets of chalk markers so I would be able to decorate with ease.  My husband added some cheap molding around it so that it had a more substantial frame and I painted it to match the other trim in the house.  Then it was time for some fun.....decorating the chalk board!

This was the first thing I put on it.  The kids thought it was funny that the house rules included things like have fun and laugh.  I actually searched Pinterest for sayings about "home" and this was the one I liked best.  

It makes such a cute backdrop for photos of the kids too.

Too Stuffy For Me....Part 5 ~ Chair Make Over!

My living room/dining room... soon to be game room and craft/sewing rooms are still a work in progress. A few weeks ago we tackled the chairs to set around our new chevron table.

Here's what we did...

Before and After!

King Piggy Cake from Angry Birds!

 My little one loves the Pig King from Angry Birds so he asked me to make him a cake with him as the main focus.  I had no clue how to do this but I stumbled through it and it turned out pretty cute.  Here is what my little one's cake looked like for his super fun Angry Birds party!

Ta-dah!  One homemade (and not perfect) King Piggy cake!  He loved it!  

Here's what I did...

I made a 4 layer cake, alternating yellow and chocolate.  And I put homemade chocolate buttercream in between each layer.  I used wrapping paper to cover my cake board.

Too Stuffy For Me...Part 4! Love Sign

DIY Distressed Love Sign!

I saw a sign like this on Pinterest and fell in LOVE with it!  I knew that with a little help from my husband I could make it and hang it in the new game room.   To check out the post from Pinterest, go here! 

I am really into reclaimed wood lately but it is SO expensive.  I thought I'd try distressing on my own to see if it could look good.  This is what I made and I'm super happy about how it turned out!  

You can make this...

From this!  

Here's what I purchased...

1x12x48 Pine (3 of these)

1x4x48 (one of these)

1x3x48 (one of these)

1x2 pine for the back

Kona colored stain

Total cost...$35

DIY ~ Pin the Beak on the Angry Bird

My Little One is having a little Angry Bird party in a couple of weeks.  I don't want to spend a lot of money but I still want to make it cute.  This is a "Pin the Beak on Red Bird" game that I made for a whopping $1.50!

Here's what I did...

I purchased a red and a yellow poster board at the dollar store.  They were only 50-70 cents each.  Then I Google imaged a picture of Red Bird to copy.  I sketched Red Bird on the red poster board.  Then I took some craft paints I had at home.  If you don't have craft paint, you can get some as cheap as 75 cents at Michaels or JoAnn's.  I painted his tummy, eyes, beak and eyebrows using white, yellow, and black paint.  I made the dark red spots with red paint and a touch of black paint.  You can also just buy the color red you want but I'm cheap and I really didn't want to go to the store.  I just made due with what I had to work with.  Next I outlined the entire bird, as well as, his eyes and beak in black paint.  Then I cut him out. 

For the beaks I used regular computer paper to trace the beak on red bird and then I cut it out.  I used the cut out on the yellow poster board to trace as many beaks as I would need (one for each kiddo).  I used the black paint to outline the beaks and then cut each one out.  

I plan to stick a piece of double sided tape on the back of each beak when the kids play the game.  This big Red Bird will hang on the wall during the party pulling double duty....party game AND decor!  Woot!  Not bad for about $1.50 and about 45 minutes time to create.  

Let your imagination go wild too.  I'm sure you can do this with any party theme you choose.  Pick an easy to draw character and create a fun game for the kids.  Good luck and have fun creating!

No Sew Angry Birds Masks

My Little One is turning 4 this month and he is obsessed with Angry Birds!  So naturally we are having an Angry Birds party to celebrate!  I always do homemade parties and they are always on a budget.  I made these adorable little masks yesterday!  I still have to add a piece of string to hold them on but I was so excited about them I wanted to get them posted.   Don't worry if you don't sew...all I used were scissors and glue!

Since my mom and I do sew, we had enough felt between the two of us that these were totally free to make!  But even if you don't have any felt at home, it's really cheap and you don't need very much.  

I pulled up Google images of each pig and bird I wanted to create.  Then I drew a picture of it on some paper.  I cut out the drawing and used it as my template to cut out the felt.

Too Stuffy for Me Part 3 ~ Chevron Table & Chairs

As you may know, we are in the process of turning our formal living room and dining room spaces into a family game room and craft area.  It's something we have been doing slowly and as cheap as possible.  This past week we conquered the game table!

We started with this Craigslist purchase for $80.

My super awesome husband did the math and taped out a chevron pattern on the top.  I have no clue how he did it.  My brain does not work when it comes to this sort of thing.

I painted a creamy white over the tape to prevent the contrast color from bleeding under the tape.  It only took a few minutes to dry.  Then I took some left over wall paint (from the striped wall) and I painted the top of the table gray.  I waited about 15 minutes then I peeled the tape off while the paint was still wet.  I let it dry over night, then sanded the top very lightly the next morning.  Then I applied a layer of Mod Podge as my sealer.  I think you could use any kind of sealer or clear acrylic spray  but I had a ton of Mod Podge in the house so I painted it over the top to protect it and make it shiny.

Ta-dah!  Here it is!