Diy Little Mermaid Cake (no piping skills required!)

I don't know about you, but when it comes to decorating cakes, I pretty much suck. It is not a skill set I possess and even though I've tried really hard to learn, it's just not happening. I can bake a cake, but when it comes to fancy frosting and piping....no. Just, no.

Lucky for me, I have some awesome relatives who DO possess said cake skills, so its not often the kids go without awesome birthday cakes (you can see what I'm talking about HERE, HERE, and HERE ), but what happens when mamma is on her own and the kid requests a Little Mermaid Cake? 

Well, I discovered a little secret (well, its probably not really a secret) .... frosted, but NOT decorated cakes from the bakery! In my case I used a huge cake from Costco (hello...$18.99!!) Obviously, I could've just ordered something decorated from the grocery store bakery, but Costco cakes are a really good deal, taste super yummy(ours was chocolate cake with chocolate mousse filling) and are huge! There's only problem with Costco cakes...you are limited on what they will actually decorate your cake with and they don't offer any character cakes. Lame.

My solution?

How about a Costco cake combined with a cheap play set from Amazon? #winnerwinnerchickendinner !!

This is what you'll need to recreate your own Little Mermaid Cake:

• Frosted (but not decorated) Cake
•  Little Mermaid Mini Castle Playset (*aff. link)
• Crushed Graham Crackers
• Blue Sanding Sugar (*aff link)
• Assorted Candies in Coordinating Colors

Follow the steps below to easily build your cake!

If ordering a cake from Costco, just specify on the order form which flavor cake you want with white frosting and with piped edges, but no design.

My daughter loves these little sets and they are the perfect scale for a cake, not to mention its a built in gift for the birthday kid! 

I place the castle first so that I can squish it into the frosting. This keeps it stable if you will be transporting the cake. Follow up by sprinkling crushed graham crackers around to resemble a beach.

Sprinkle the blue sugar where you want the ocean to be. I found it helpful to press the sugar into the icing slightly to help it stay in place. 

Place your figurines around the cake. My daughter really wanted to recreate the scene where Ariel gets her legs, but I thought it was best if Ariel kept her clothes on for this one. 

We happened to have leftover candy from our goodie bags so we used it to embellish the cake even more. My daughter had a lot of fun telling me where to put all of them.

It's that simple!!!

If I didn't know I made it, I would've totally thought it came done from the bakery, wouldn't you!?

Letter E - built by my husband | Cake Stand - Vintage | Plate - IKEA | 

I almost didn't even write this tutorial because of how easy it was, but then I thought, why not!? I'm sure there are lots of times when we want to add our own DIY touches to a party, but things like frosting and piping a cake are out of our comfort zones. This solution is so easy that your kids could probably do it themselves!

I really hope you will give this idea a try and if you do, I want to see your cakes!

How To: Turning a Sketch into a Digital File

How have you all been?

I hope your family escaped the wrath of the whatever tummy bug is going around? Our family was not so lucky and one by one we all went down over the past week. Having a house full of sick people obviously doesn't make for much getting done around the house, but it did give me A LOT of time for sketching.

Today, I thought it would be fun to share with you how I turn my rough sketches into digital files for use in my fabric designs and other products. I can't say my process will work for everyone, but its still fun to see how a sketch can evolve. Oh, and if you are professional designers out there, no judging...I'm pretty much self taught unless you count my one and only semester at the Art Institute.

(Disclaimer: I use *Photoshop Elements for all my design work. My version is old, PSE 9, but I make it work. If you are familiar with PSE this tutorial will make sense, if not, I suggest learning the basics before moving on to more advance techniques. I also use a *Bamboo Tablet instead of a mouse whenever I'm working in PSE--- *indicates affiliate links)

So where do I start?

First I start by sketching my design ideas on regular old paper. If I am stuck on how something looks, I might Google images for reference or I look at things around the house. One thing I try NOT to do is look at other fabric designs or artwork, so that I can keep my designs unique to me. Its amazing how much influence we glean from all the media available and it can be hard to stay original. As I develop my style I find it easier to not be influenced.

Next I take my sketches and transfer them to white paper using regular old carbon paper. During this step I have a chance to clean up my lines and simplify my design.

I then take these "cleaned up" drawings and scan them into the computer. Or if the image is too large for my scanner, I take a clear photo of the image and upload it my computer. Once on my computer, I use the "lasso" tool to isolate each image and move it to a new blank file. At this time, I can make the image as large or small as I want by sizing it to fit my new file. I don't worry if the image gets distorted or blurry, because in the next step I fix that!

After my image is opened in the new file and sized where I want it, I open a new layer and pick a paintbrush tool. Depending on what I'm after I may start by "painting" first or I might just outline the whole image. I won't go into to much detail about how I achieve the final result, but basically I start playing with different paint brushes, colors and textures until I get the look I'm after. I always work in layers so that I can add in and take away things as I progress. This is no different than what I do when I am painting in real life - just lots cleaner and easier to walk away from!

If you're not comfortable "painting" on the computer, you can also do a real painting and scan/upload it into the computer. I reference THIS tutorial from Jones Design Company whenever I'm turning paintings into digital files.

Once you have your completed digital image, you can use it in so many applications! I used the bunny to create this fun fabric design (coming soon to my Spoonflower shop!)

I also uploaded my design to my Society6.com shop so you can purchase my bunny design as art prints, pillows, and mugs!

I think this little lady would be the perfect addition to anyone's spring home decor! Or darling in a little girls room!

Bunny with Floral Crown | Society6

You can find her handsome companion there too!

Dapper Rabbit | Society6

Don't you think they make the cutest pair!?

These guys will also be available in my spring fabric collection. I'm just waiting to approve my designs and then they will be shoppable! Can you believe I submitted 28 new designs in just the last couple weeks. That's CRAZY!

School Desk and Chair Makeover

It's back to school time!

Are you sending your kids off to school or homeschooling? Either way, its just a crazy time of year, isn't it?!

I WILL be starting home school preschool with the older two kids next week (I'm so excited and scared all at the same time!) and in the spirit of the season (and so we would have somewhere to do school work) I decide to makeover a couple desks that have been sitting in the garage all summer.

These types of desks are pretty easy to come by at thrift stores and yard sales and usually are fairly cheap, they are also fairly ugly...unless you like beige and brown...

Personally, its a little too blah for me, so I decided to paint it. I taped off the wood parts of the chair since they really can't come apart and I also removed the tabletop from the desk.

I gave everything one light coat (you really just need one, even tho it can be really tempting to do multiple coats, it will make any distressing you want to do lots harder!) of aqua spray paint - my favorite is Rust-o-leum - and then let it dry for a couple hours. After it was dry I took some rough sandpaper (80 grit) and went over all the metal parts of the desk to rough it up and expose the metal underneath. I love the distressed look and its a great finish for kids, since I know they would  just beat up the finish anyways. 

To revive the wood on the chair, I wiped it down with a mixture of olive oil and vinegar. It helps clean and hydrate the wood all at the same time. For the desk top I went back and forth on what I should do with it. It is a laminate material, and even though it isn't real wood it IS super durable for a work surface. I may hit it with some chalkboard paint in the future, but for now I am enjoying the light wood tones and the aqua colors together.

I styled the desk in front of a giant school chalkboard that I had leaning against a wall - I have plans to hang it, but it hasn't happened yet. The globe was my husbands when he was a kid and we picked up the rodeo pennant & school box at a local auction.

I plan to keep the school area clean and simple and clutter free and I still can't decide if it should go in the office upstairs or in the living room....I might be in denial about how much it can take over. Any suggestions? There are some great homeschooling room designs out there that I have been using for ideas, but real life advise is always welcome! So, obviously, this won't be how we set up for homeschooling, but I couldn't resist a little styling session for the blog!

 I have another bigger double desk that I've decided will work better so I'll blog about it once I get the home school area set up! In the meantime,....this little desk and chair set is up for grabs. If you are in the Boise / Nampa / Caldwell area, feel free to email about making it yours!

DIY Reclaimed Wood Countertop

Finally its counter time!!

Considering that we anguished over this dang island for months and months, the actual counter top took hardly any time to complete (except the clear coating process, but more on that later). 

After we finished the concrete counters, we were not looking forward to doing the same thing on the island, it was time consuming and messy and I was really wanting to bring some wood tones back into the kitchen. The only problem was I didn't want to buy new wood and reclaimed wood can cost a pretty penny. So basically our counters have looked like crap for the last few months. 

Suuuuper classy....

I was starting to think we would never get new counters, when a trip to see family in N. Idaho yielded us a ton of old wood. It was all just laying in the woods at my mother-in-laws house. I showed it my husband and before I knew it we were hauling it home with us! 

Yay for FREE wood, moss and all!

Once we had our wood it was time to get to work!

Step 1: 

We removed the old counter...(since I'm married to super hunky strong man, ours just lifted right off)....buh bye laminate!!

Step 2: 
The old counter had a framed out section that extended out to make a bar. For our plan we needed to eliminate it. Justin used a saws-all to cut it off flush with the cabinet base.

We opted to leave all the other counter framing in place (all those 1x2s) since they were already level. There were a few boards that came loose when he lifted off the laminate, so he glued and stapled them back on as well.

Step 3: Next we added a layer of MDF, extending the bar side a couple extra inches to create as big of countertop as we could fit in the space. Our countertop surface area was too big to accommodate just one sheet of MDF, so each section was glued and secured with the nail gun,

We made sure to leave enough room for the reclaimed wood that would be coming next.

Step 4: 
We sanded, cut and began installing the reclaimed wood. If we owned a planer, this would've been perfect time to use it, but sadly we do not. Instead, Justin sanded each board and then using a metal straight edge and a circular saw, cut each side so it would sit tight against the board next to it. I wish I had photos of this, but it was one of the more intense parts of the counter top install. Lets just say, he wasn't able to get a straight edge until we bought the biggest, baddest metal level I've ever seen! My tip - make sure your straight edge can't flex from side to side. There are several straight edges out there that will extend and those will not work if your boards are really long. 

Once the boards were prepped, we glued and nailed each one into place.

When all the boards were installed, we sanded until everything was smooth and level.

Step 5: 
After the top boards were installed, Justin cut boards for the edges. We decided a mitered edge would look the most professional. He also added a board to the underside of the counter so that it would look finished from underneath too! Again everything was sanded so it was smooth when you run your hand over the joints.

By the time it was all said and done we had nice thick looking counters!

 Step 6:
We needed to fill the knot holes & gaps between the boards. This is a case of do what I say, not as I do! We tried several methods to fill the imperfections on the counters which led to fail after fail. So frustrating! Normally we would just do wood filler, sand, then stain the whole counter so everything matched. but in this case we didn't want to cover up all the cool imperfections or change the color of the wood. Even though I wasn't planning on staining, we still wanted the counters to be easy to wipe down. We tried filling the imperfections with the clear coat (way to runny ), then plain wood glue (hoping it would dry clear - it didn't dry at all).  Finally I filled each and every crevice with wood filler, sanded it smooth and then went back in using a tiny paintbrush to stain just the wood filled areas. It was a pain in the tushy, but it did the job. We should've done this to start or bought a clear epoxy kit, but hey, live and learn right!!

Step 7:
The last thing we did was apply our sealer/ clear coat. For this step we chose to go with  Minwax Spar Urethane in a gloss finish. We considered a lot of other options, including the highly touted Waterlox, but in the end we decided to go with the Spar because my husband had used it a lot when he used to work in a stain shop. Spar Urethane is often used on bar counters, so it should to stand up to a few kids and some novice home cooks! I should note that we do not plan on using our counters as a cutting surface.

When the first swipe of clear coat went on I about fainted - it was SOOOOOO pretty! There is a slight amber tint to it which brought out all of the beautiful warm wood tones in the boards. I had seriously considered going for a grayed wood look, but with our current floors and all the other grays happening in the kitchen the warm wood was perfect! (We even plan on updating our already made over fireplace to coordinate!)

Unfortunately, coat number two didn't go on quite as easy. I did a light sanding with 220 grit paper and then started to apply another coat. Part way into that coat, I started noticing tiny bits of dried clear coat were being left on the counter. Chunks of it! I was so mad!! Luckily another light sanding took most of it off  and I bought a new brush to do what I hoped was the final coat. Due to the nature of old wood, it ended up not being the last coat the counter needed. I again cleaned my brush really well and when I went to do my final coat it started leaving crap on the counter AGAIN!! Can you imagine how I felt! GAH!!!!

So that's where we are at on our counters. I have since done another light sanding, but I haven't been motivated to do the FINAL final coat. I did a little research and came across some tips on applying spar urethane with a rag, so might give it ago next round!

Despite all the mishaps with the clear coat, there has been one good thing to come from all this extra sanding...

... I've decided I'm a huge fan of the matte looking counter over the glossier counter!! So whenever I do the final (praying its the final) coat I will use a matte finish instead!

So,...here we are today...a mostly done counter that I love the heck of!  Even though it is not technically finished, it is working quite nice for our family. It wipes up super easy with my normal kitchen cleaner. Not to mention, its just so pretty to look at!

Oh, I forgot to mention, before we started this project we measured our stove to make sure it would still fit with the added thickness of the new wood. It did, but just barely...so if you decide to tackle something like this, MEASURE!!!!

We still have a ways to go in the kitchen, tile for the walls, floating shelves on the island side, repairing the island, adding counter supports and finalizing the paint color of the island. I talked about the options for it in this post: Picking and Island Color

Want a quick look at a before and after of the island?

Before...

...after paint...

...with new counters!

Wish me luck, I plan to start tiling this weekend! 

UPDATE: The tiling is done! Check it out HERE

Custom Baby Gate

This post was first published Jan, 2014. 

I have since revised it and added a cut list and graphic to help aid in building the gate! 

I hope you find it helpful! 

Thanks!

aka... "let's try to keep Little Man from plummeting down the stairs"

Project Kid's Bathroom: DIY Antler Hair Accessory Organizer

This week we will be revisiting past #projectkidsbathroom posts leading up to the BIG REVEAL of the finished bathroom! I know you have all been waiting and I am finally ready to share the space! So join me each day this week as we look back at all the project we've done! You can catch up by clicking the links below:
Part 1 : The Before Part 2 : Tile Part 3: Chunky Wood Shelves Part 4: Sliding Door Window Covering
This little DIY is one of those things that I totally created on the fly - no prior planning at all.

I was working on #projectkidsbathroom (haha, its been soooooo long since I gave a bathroom update ...oops) and had these antlers I wanted to hang. Originally I was thinking they would be part of the gallery wall, but then I got an idea!

What if I could turn the antlers into functional storage?

DIY Concrete Counters Poured over Laminate

Oh, yes.

You read that correct.

We got all sorts of crazy and decided to pour concrete right over the laminate counters in our kitchen. I'm going to share how we did it with you - the good and the BAD because I want you to be able to learn from our mistakes.

Here's what we starting with:

We really wanted to banish the laminate, but per usual, our budget was itty bitty teeney tiny. We were in the process of saving up to buy quartz of some type, but then we got our new apron front sink, and well, I wasn't about not to install it. So the sink kicked our brains into get creative mode...(to read how we installed an apron front sink in existing cabinetry - CLICK HERE.) The only way to fit the sink in without major modifications to the sink base cabinet was to have it sitting about 1/2 an inch taller than our existing counter tops. There went my plan to just skim coat the counters with Ardex Feather Finish, as it would have taken forever to build it up 1/2 an inch.

*NEW* App Icon for Averie Lane + how to add it to your iPhone home screen

That's right!

You can now have Averie Lane right on the home screen of any mobile device!!

It super easy and I even put a mini tutorial together for you!

Chair Upholstering 101 - the unprofessional guide to giving a chair a makeover.

BIG things happened over the long weekend, so while I work on getting a post put together, I'm going to change direction a bit and talk about something different today. We are talking chairs. If you follow me on Instagram (which you totally should...) then you have been watching me make over a set of these...

Isn't she lovely. Well, ok, not so much.

Picking a Cabinet Color + how to prep for new hardware

What looks good from a distance, but up close is a hot mess?

Yes, a Monet (haha, Clueless anyone?), but that's not what we are talking about today.

We are talking about these...

...can everyone give me a collective, "ewwww" ...

That's my reaction every time I get close to my cabinets.

I want to love them, but I don't. 

So, while my husband was at Army over the weekend (and progress was stalled on the fireplace makeover) I decided it was high time I decide on a paint color for my nasty cabinets.

From Left to Right we have: Caribbean, Flagstone and Tailors Chalk.

I thought for sure putting them up against our "yet to be finished" concrete counters would surely leave me with a clear winner. 

Nope.

So, I pulled out the secret weapon that I hinted at when I showed you our new schoolhouse light.... 

I totally thought my new hardware from Build.com would help make up my mind...

I chose the beautiful Heirloom Silver 5 inch pulls .
It's classic hardware and guess what?

They look amazing next to every color!

Well, that's not very helpful, now is it!?

Seeing the hardware made me just as stumped as ever. I even sent pictures to my mom and sisters for their opinions. 

Really that just made me even more confused. 

I like them all. I can envision them all working. 

So then I started thinking about accessories and how I wanted the room to function. As well as how the kitchen relates to what we are doing on the fireplace and the already finished laundry room. 

Finally I had a clear winner. 

 Any guesses on what I chose?

I'm going to be totally mean and not tell you yet, but I WILL tell you how I am prepping for my new larger hardware!

You might be thinking, "but Amber, they aren't too different are they?"

Well, other than being larger, they also sit out further from the cabinet front, so I can actually fit my hands around them. Also I will be using them on all the drawers as well as the doors! So no more knobs! Yay!

First, I took off the old hardware on just the drawer fronts. (lucky for use we get to use the existing knob hole for the handles on the doors)

Then, I used this stuff...

and squished it into all the old screw holes. Its a little bit stinky, but it works great and sands down perfect.

The drawers got filled on the island too.

Now I have to let it dry and sand everything down. Then we will be ready for PAINT!!!

 This post is a review of Build.com. 

I was provided with items from their website and asked to do a review of their website/product.  As always, my opinions are 100% my own and are no way influenced by my sponsors.