Make Something

I love all those great ideas that Pinterest has for us.  I love to pin them, dream about doing them, even go as far as starting some of them.  Who doesn’t get lost in the dreams of what wonderfulness Pinterest has to offer!

To be honest, I had planned this post to be a tutorial.  In fact, I’ve be planning this post for maybe a year?  Now it is a Pinterest Fail post.  Whomp whomp.

So, let me show you what not to do….to save you the trouble of doing it and not having it turn out!  If nothing else, I am here to provide with my experiences, good, bad or otherwise!

Do not use paper letters if you are going to paint over them, they buckle with the moisture.  Then the paint bleeds underneath. No crisp edges here.

Make sure there is contrast between the paint you are topcoating with and the papers you used underneath.  There is absolutely no point to this project if you can not read what the canvas says.

On a positive note, the wet paint washed right off the canvas.  Thankfully I had sealed the scrapbook paper with a layer of Modge Podge.  Now I am back to the stage I was at with this project when I first moved into my studio, like 6 months ago!  I think this canvas may need to hung just the way it is and taken down when I’m ready for a do-over…

The whole idea behind this canvas was to add a little fun to our laundry room and hide the chimney clean out.  Our laundry room sees a lot of traffic in the course of the day.  It runs between the front porch and the back entry, plus the door to the main level bathroom is off it.  So, yeah, we see this room a lot!! And it severely lacks any personality.

I’m sure there are other Pinterest Fails out there!!  What project did you tackle thinking it would be EPIC only for it to fail miserably? I’m sure I am not alone in this!!  Help a girl out – show me your fails so I don’t have to  wallow in self-pity alone!!

To be continued, (hopefully with better luck next time!)

Lori

I’ve discovered how much fun it is to make little bottle brush trees.  And how incredibly easy it is, too.  Like, crazy simple.  Like, I can’t even believe it!  I owe it all to Virginia over at Fynes Designs.  She shared a tutorial and I scrolled through with my mouth hanging open.  Please, pop over and check it out.  I love how she has them displayed in her baking pans that hang on her wall.  Makes me want to re-do my newly installed plate wall already, actually.

Anyway, I made some the other night when my friend, Alena, was over.  She made some, too, actually, we made quite a few and a new addiction was born.  I even got the kids doing it!!  And you should see their trees!!  So sweet!  I love seeing what they pick for yarn and how they turn out!

Here’s how to make them – or my translation of how to do it!!

Step 1. Select your yarn or fibre.  Wrap it around a tapered cup or lay out short strands, about 2-3″ long.

Step 2. Insert yarn strands or the looped yarn from the cup between a doubled over piece of wire.  I used 20 and 22 gauge….both worked well, but the heavier is what I would use if I hadn’t ran out.  Give the ends a little twist.  This is where you’ll need to clip your loops if you wrapped it around a cup.  Next, grab the top and bottom of the soon to be tree with pliers and twist, twist, twist.  You will be left with a woolly mess like the one below.

Step 3. Trim the woolly mess into a tree shape.  Trim the wire ends and use a cork as a tree stand.

Here are what the kids made.

These trees are so much fun! I would highly recommend making these!  I’m looking forward to decorating my new house with my new trees!!  Now, I want a cloche to tuck a few of these under….

To be continued,

Lori

We made gingerbread houses today.  And before you go thinking I’m some wonderful mom who handmade the gingerbread, bought loads of different candies and built houses for the kids, I didn’t.  I paid for someone else to take care of all that.  And I would highly recommend you do the same.  No stress, lots of candy, no clean up.  They even wrap them up for transport.

Locally, our United Way does this event each year.  And it’s so well-done, so much fun and so worth it.  I’m happy to support the United Way because they support so many in our area.  I have been fortunate enough to have taken one course sponsored by them and am currently taking another.  And that’s just a drop in the bucket compared to ALL they do.

We went last year, you can read about it here. Since we had so much fun last year, we went again, same crew, same sore bellies full of candy.  We are talking about 20 different kinds of candy, a tray to fill with said candy, hot chocolate and cookies all served up with a smile.  The only limiting factor was your imagination.  Or, if you ate the last candy.  Or your mother perhaps ate it…. Or maybe you ate all the icing intended to be used as glue.

We ate way too much candy, laughed, made a huge mess.  But we made awesome houses and great memories.  Let’s do it again next year!  And you’re invited, too!

To be continued,

Lori