DIY Cake Platter

 I'm always borrowing one of my girlfriend's cake platters and just haven't found one that I like enough to spend money on. Well, a few weeks ago, I found this simple tutorial for a DIY Cake Platter on Pinterest that won me over. I'm always thrifting and I knew I could easily find the materials needed to make my own.

I found an old candlestick holder for $1.00 and an old plate for $5.00. This particular plate caught my eye because the detail won me over. When I got home, I cleaned both pieces pretty well. As I turned over the plate, I saw the word Italy painted on the back. I started googling and found out that this plate comes from a set of hand-painted plates made in Italy! 

To make the cakestand, I put a ring of glue over the top of the candlestick holder. I pressed the candlestick onto the center of the back of the plate to form a ring of glue on the plate. After that, I pulled the candle stick holder off and re-applied the glue both to the back of the candlestick and to the plate where the ring of glue was left. After about 5 minutes of letting it dry somewhat on both objects, I pressed both pieces together. The tutorial says to just glue one piece and attach but my art teacher taught me this method of gluing both sides...it holds better in the long run. To finish, I put some books on top of the plate and let it sit for two hours. 

This is an extremely simple tutorial that I know you will be able to follow. Now it's your turn to go to a local thrift store and start hunting around to customize a cake platter just the way you want it! 

Some tips at the thrift store:

• Look hard. I picked up several plates and put them down because I kept finding a better one. This one was buried underneath some baskets and wasn't even in the plate section.
• If you're a perfectionist like me, make sure that your plate color and candlestick/base matches. If your plate is ivory and your stick is white, it will show!
• If you can't find something you like, don't settle! I make thrift store trips often and the first few times I went I couldn't find anything. They are always getting new inventory so you will find what you are looking for eventually.

DIY Bench Cushion

I don't like to walk out of the thrift store empty-handed. It's always a disappointment when it happens, but to be expected when you want to save money on whatever you are looking for. A few weeks ago the same disappointment dawned on me until something caught my eye as I was leaving. There was a piece of furniture that looked like it had lots of potential sitting in the donation cage outside of the store. I snuck in to get a better look. It was a vintage, wooden filing cabinet. I fell in love. The only problem was that it wasn't for sale yet (and some places are very strict on stuff like that) and even if it were, I would need to think of a way to justify it to Ethan. I asked a worker and she told me they normally don't sell on the spot like that, buuuuut it would help them from having to haul it into the store. The damage? 10 bucks! We put it in the back of my truck and I realized it would make a perfect bench for our entry way :) All it needed was a bench cushion... the only problem was that 1) They are so expensive and 2) It would be hard to find one that fit the exact dimensions. I searched the internet and found this amazingly simple tutorial!

Skill Level:

Beginner/Easy

Time:

It took me 1.5 hours :)

Total Cost:

$15.00 (with leftover fabric and polyfill)

I got my fabric from Wal-mart. It was on clearance for $1.50 a yard. I didn't have a certain motif in mind...I just wanted to find the most inexpensive alternative to a cushion. I bought two yards but one yard was more than enough. I forgot that the width is doubled since they fold it over!

Based off the tutorial and my dimensions, I started to cut my fabric to size.

And then I pinned the edges so that it would be easy to sew with my machine.

After the sewing was finished, I had to sew in the corners a certain way (extremely easy) to ensure clean edges all around.

 The most time consuming part was filling with polyfill. This was also the most expensive material too. $8.97 for a bag at Walmart! The small bag sure wouldn't have been enough but at least I have some left over for future projects.

I sewed the buttons on to balance out the fluff and voila! It was finished.

I should have combed through the fluff better so it wouldn't be so lumpy when I put it in...I recommend you do that if you take on this project!

Here is the tutorial link again --> http://jadeflower.wordpress.com/2010/01/20/diy-sewn-bench-cushion/

PS. Ethan loves it. No justification needed :)

DIY To-Do List

I feel like I'm nesting all over again. I don't know what has gotten into me but I'm on a home decorating kick. I started turning this empty house into a home months into pregnancy, but somewhere in the mix of it all I stopped. I think a big contributor of the desire to pick up where I left off is my friend WeeNo Photography's post which you can find here - they are a super crafty photographer couple in Portland and I constantly see Instagram updates of their new projects. I also think it's from photographing my friend Stephanie's house the other day too.... (you can find that post here). Regardless of where the desire came from, I'm excited to start posting all the progress I make! Here are a few projects I plan on doing:

(all pictures via)

[via ruffled blog]

Make your own milk glass. I never understood the love for milk glass until I saw a collection of it at my friend's house. I would love to put a collection of it on one of our cubed Ikea shelves. I've been looking for some but can't find it so it's time to get down and dirty and DIY!

[via OneSheepishGirl]

My parents got me an Instax camera for my birthday and I've been trying to figure out a cool way to display all the photos I've bee taking. This is an awesome I idea I forgot I pinned a long time ago. It's yet another way to bring who we are into our home.

[via SugarBeeCrafts]

We have been searching for a giant mirror to go over our fireplace but anything that fits our size is wayyy out of our price range. Ethan took the large mirror out of one of our guest bathrooms and now it sits above our fireplace....buuuuut it looks too much like a bathroom mirror. I've been wanting to frame it but haven't gotten around to it. 

[via JadeFlower]

I just bought this INCREDIBLE wooden, antique filing cabinet that happens to be the perfect size for a bench. All I need is a bench cushion, and the most inexpensive way to get one would be to make it myself. I plan on following this tutorial, making this another project on my to-do list.

For more of my DIY to-do list projects, follow my pinboard here on Pinterest! I will try my best to take pictures as I work on all of these projects. Have a happy Wednesday everyone :)