DIY Garden Bucket (Part 1)

I have a plan!!  That plan is the creation of a super cute and very functional garden bucket of my very own!!  I have about a million-ish garden doo-dads that will fit beautifully in it - plus, I just kinda like them so dag nabbit - I'm gonna make one!! :) 

I saw these super cute buckets at the dollar store today for $3. (insert squeal of delight here!!) :)  I also have a mountain of fabric hidden away in my closet that has been screaming "sew something" at me for ages!!  (ummm....sorry roman shades...you don't inspire me at the moment. lol)  So - here's the beginning of it all...so far, I've made it as far as cutting out the pattern for the inside piece that will "line" the inside of my super cute bucet.  OH!  Rewind!!  I got the clever idea by browsing pinterest.  Specifically  this little gem!! :) It's the creative works from Hoosier Homemade! Lots of great stuff on her site!!

   So - fast forward to tonight...  I have an old roll of news print that I bought from the local newspaper back when they used to print locally.  Sadly - you can't get them anymore since they moved the printing to another site - but...i still have a partial roll and will enjoy every last bit of it. :)










 So - the first thing I did was tear off a hunk of paper big enough to wrap around my bucket.  I figured if I crumpled the bucket around the edges of the bucket it would give me the lines to cut it. 

Once I had my lines all crumpled, I unrolled the paper (see all those nice little wrinkles that form the outline of where I'll cut out the shape of my bucket?? )  **thinking voice sez this is going too easy...I wonder what will go wrong??** 

I traced a pencil line around the arc that would would be teh bottom of my bucket and cut it out.  (notice the arc cut out??  That's the bottom of the buckt. )  Once I had teh bottom cut, I wrapped the paper around my bucket again, and folded back each side so that it would only be as big around as the bucket, plus enough extra to be a seam allowance.  **Note - see the folds on the left and right??  Thats' where I'll cut it out so that it's only big enough to go around my bucket.**

Next step was to cut off at teh fold line to make sure that it was only as big as the bucket. (This will all make sense in a couple more pictures I promise!)

 So now my pattern is big enough to go around my bucket - but it's not the right height.  So - I wrapped it around the bucket again and folded the excess paper down into the bucket to make a crease at the bucket height only.  (Sorry - my genius is showing. :D) 


Once that part was done, I unwrapped the paper to reveal the beautiful crease for the top of my bucket...

(I didn't take a picture of the pattern when i cut the top off - but you can see my scrap under the bucket. :)  So - now my pattern for the inside piece of my bucket is all cut out - I slid it inside the bucket to make sure it's the right size and shape and...it's perfect!!!  See how it wraps around the insde with just enough overlap to be a perfect seam allowance?? :)  (Again - sorry...my genius is sticking out. :) )



And - see how it's just a hair taller than the bucket??  That's the top seam allowance!!  :)  My plan is that I'll sew the skirt around it...but I'll need something to anchor it to - so...I'll need a seam allowance. :)


So - that's all for the first part of my "plan"...I have the pattern made for the inside of my bucket.  Tomorrow (or maybe later tonight) I'll make up the rest of it and maybe even cut out my fabric??  Oooo - the possabilities!! :) 

Jeff Gordon / Nascar Cake

Most of my cakes start out with an idea or a sketch.  Many times - it stays in my head and grows as I work on the cake.  The cakes that I have the most fun with tend to become more elaborate than the originaly "plan", while others are sketched out to keep me on track.  For this weekends cake, I started with a sketch.  Ok - not true - I started by surfing the internet for ideas, since this is my first Nascar cake and I really know nothing about Nascar.  I found a few things that stood out - a round blue base, flames, checkered flags etc.  Then - I moved on to my sketch.

Here it is...

 

 

I also took some inspiration from other cakes that I have done - flames from my hunger games cake, the studded collar for my skeleton smash cake and the bull dogs cake, and the number from the hockey cakes.  Overall - I think it will come together nicely.  The base is currently frosted and in the freezer setting up so that I can base coat it in blue and start to work on the flames. :)

 

Fast Forward and here is the finished product...I had originally wanted to do the yellow background of the flames in fondant...but my fondant wasn't cooperating (although it may have been a user problem he-he) so I opted for frosting instead. 

Here's the top view of the cake.  The 24 is sortof a creatie freehand.  I started by drawing a square the same size as the flag.  Inside that, I sketched out the outline of my 2 & 4 and cut them out.  Then - I laid each of the numbers down on the flag and outlined it in black frosting.  I carefully lifted the paper number off - cleaned up the outline where I needed to and piped in the yellow.  Eezy Peezy! 

 I really like the black belt around the base, but it needed a little extra something.  Wanna know how I made them look like little hub caps??  Ok - I'll tell you, but you have to promise not to hold it against. me. :)  I started but cutting out little tiny circles with my smallest circle cutter.  They were too blah - they needed soem detail so...I searched and dug through all of my drawers and finally found...a whiteboard marker!!!  LOL  True story!  I cleaned off the top of the cap and voila!  Instant hub cap!  I pressed it into each circle, brushed on some shimmer dust and ther you have it - teeny tiny hub caps to jazz up the belt! :) 

 

Overall - I think it turned out pretty much how I had planned and they were happy with the finished product, so - I'll chalk it up as another success. :)   If you have a chance, check out my other cakes on my HolleeCakes Facebook page. :)  Recentlly, I seem to be updating that with greater discipline that my blog. :S  Sorry bout that.