Cake Postcard

With spring comes birthdays and with birthdays come cake. So what do you do if you can't be there to see your friend or family member blow out the candles? Why not send them a piece of cake through the mail! It may not be edible but it's the thought that counts, no? I saw this DIY cake postcard on SheKnows and just had to see if it was as easy (and yummy!) as it looked.

Head to your hardware store to pick up these supplies:

* 1 large sponge (they sell 2-packs at Home Depot if you want to make two at the same time!)
* A serrated knife
* An x-acto knife
* Spray paint (I opted for brown so it would be a chocolate cake)
* Acrylic latex caulk (again, I went with brown because chocolate cake must have chocolate frosting!)
* Spray adhesive
* Paper for the "postcard" (I used an old manila folder)


First, take a sponge and using your knife, cut it at a diagonal as centered as possible. You would think it's easy to cut through... it's not. So go slowly and as evenly as possible.

If you don't cut evenly and slowly, it may come out like this. Whoops.

I also opted to cut off the end so it didn't have rounded corners.

Next, use your x-acto knife and make a shallow rectangular cut in the middle of the sponge, so as to emulate two layers and "frosting" will go in the middle.

Spray paint your sponge in a well ventilated area (i.e. - outside) and from every angle (and I mean every angle!). I missed some areas around the bottom so the yellow sponge was visible but I ended up covering most areas with caulk later. Wait for it to completely dry before doing anything else.

Once the sponge is dry, measure out how big the paper "postcard" should be. You can use card stock, a folder, scrapbook paper, whatever you like.

Cut out the card and using your spray adhesive, glue it to the unpainted side of the cake.

Now I have zero experience with caulk but by a wonderful mistake, I found a fast and easy way to apply the caulk. First, make a diagonal cut at the top.

Next, put the caulk gun in a big plastic bag and using your foot, slowly apply pressure. What will happen is the end of the caulk gun will pop off and all the caulk will come out the back, instead of through that little slit you made. Now you can just squeeze it out with your hands into the plastic bag! Neat, huh?

Do NOT try this on carpet. I was extremely lucky and didn't get any caulk on the carpet but you might not be so lucky. So again, do this activity outside or on newspapers to protect your floors.

Once the caulk is in the bag, cut a small corner off and squirt out the caulk into the shallow sections you created earlier, to resemble the "frosting" between layers of cake.

And this is the fun party - apply caulk to two sides of the sponge and swirl it around to make it look as realistic as possible. You can use the plastic bag, a paintbrush, or a toothpick to make the desired effect.

Now comes the waiting game. Put your "cake" in a safe location and let it dry for 3-5 days (mine took 4 days, though I played it safe). If you don't move the piece around on whatever you've set it on, the caulk might attach itself to it. For example, I put mine on a piece of cardboard and didn't move it at all... so... cardboard was attached to the "frosting":

If this happens to you, get off as much as you can and using a damp paper towel, you can rub off the rest.

Add a cute message (I wrote, "Hope this year turns out to be a 'piece of cake'"), run to the post office, and get your stamps (mine cost $2.70... did you know you can't take pictures inside of a post office? Random fact of the day).


Once it's addressed, put your cake in the mailbox and voila! Your cake postcard is ready to be devoured... by the United States Postal Service.

TOTAL COSTS: About $25 to make 4 (supplies from Home Depot)
$3.89 for a 2-pack of sponges
$9.99 for 3M 77 Super Multipurpose Spray Adhesive
$3.76 for spray paint
$4.33 for caulk
$2.70 for stamps to mail the postcard
Serrated knife, x-acto knife, and manilla folder already on hand

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: 3-5 days to dry + an hour and a half of prep work
10 minutes to cut the sponge
5 minutes to cut the center line
1 hour to let sponge dry after spray painting
10 minutes to add caulk
3-5 days to let dry

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 2 out of 5
This was surprisingly easy, especially considering I had never used caulk before, but the plastic bag really did help with applying. Be very careful not to get caulk, glue, or anything else on your workspace because this can get messy very quickly!

Wood String State Art

Not sure what wood string state art is? I wasn't sure either until I saw this post by The Harpster Home and wanted to give it a try. If you have wood, string, nails, a hammer, and a printer, you too can also make this unique piece of art! You don't have to do a state, either. I've seen some people on Pinterest and Etsy do reindeer, snowmen, polar bears... or you could spend $50 on one like this but making one is MUCH cheaper!

The original post called for a 12" x 12" piece of wood but I went with a 9" x 12" and focused on the lower peninsula of Michigan (sorry Yoopers!). Make sure you have a LOT of nails and a LOT of string before you even get started. I didn't have enough string so I ended up using sewing thread, which worked fine but was pretty thin.

So using scotch tape (or painters tape, as the original post called for), tape down whatever it is you're going to outline with nails so it doesn't move around the wood. Then, one nail at a time, nail down around the edges of the design. When you're done, remove the paper design.

Take your string, tie it around one nail, and start going back and forth between the border nails and the heart nails, just zig-zagging back and forth. Be sure to pop in a podcast or music because this will be as boring as the hammering part.

One big mistake I made? The heart around my hometown wasn't fully nailed into the piece of wood, so the nails got pulled in all directions, making the heart look sloppy:

Once your'e done, though, you'll have a unique piece of art that didn't cost much and would make a great holiday gift!

TOTAL COSTS: About $17 (MUCH cheaper than the $50 piece on Etsy!)
$9.99 for the wood from Michael's
$2.19 for thread from Vons
$5.20 for 4 packs of nails from Home Depot (be sure to go with the nails with heads on top - I ended up using 15 nails for the heart and 125 around the state)

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: Almost an hour
35 minutes to go around the state with hammer and nails
20 minutes to go around with string

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 2 out of 5
The hardest part is just making sure the nails are far enough into the wood so that they won't move - don't make the same mistake I made!

Thanksgiving Table Runner and Candle Sticks

Want to put together a rustic, yet festive Thanksgiving table? With some scrap wood and string, you easily can. I found this video from Vintage News Junkie and found it a little confusing but eventually figured it out enough to share!

First, you'll a table.
Next, you'll need string. Any kind will do.
Finally, you'll need scrap wood pieces.

Once you have your supplies, take your string and measure out a length longer than the length of the table. I thought "Oh, my table is 55", I'll have the string be 58"." That won't work because you're wrapping the string around the wood so you're going to lose some inches. I could have had a longer table runner had I made my string longer! So to be on the safe side, go for 10" longer than the table, if you can. The more, the better. Once you have your string the length you want, make three other strings that same length. Now you have four strings - tie two together and the other two together.

Next is the annoying part and it probably took me a good 10 minutes to figure it out. Take your wood and one pair of string and stick the wood in the string, so there's a piece of string on top and a piece under.

If you like simple directions: twist the string and place your second piece of wood. Twist the string again and place down another piece of wood. Keep doing this until you run out of string.

If you like complicated directions, watch the video I mentioned.

Once you've done this, do the same for the other side, which felt a lot like weaving (right string goes under, left string goes above, left string goes under, right string goes above, etc.).

Unfortunately because my string wasn't long enough, I was off by about 3" on either side of the table. ::insert sad trombone::

But honestly, no one is going to notice at Thanksgiving when your table is set up.

Now that you have your table runner completed, want some festive candlesticks? Check out how to make apple and twig candlesticks here, otherwise find things around the house! I grabbed some popcorn kernels and candy pumpkins to fit the bill!

TOTAL COSTS: $4.25
$4.25/bundle of 15" scrap wood at Home Depot
String, popcorn kernels, candles, and pumpkins on hand - just find things around the house to decorate your candle holders! Find leaves, find acorns, find pinecones!...unless you live in Hollywood, in which case you won't find any of those things...

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: 35 minutes
20 minutes on the left side
15 minutes on the right side

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 3 out of 5
The most difficult part is just getting the string on the wood. It's not impossible, just take a while to get the hang of it. Once you do, it's a piece of cake!