Pinterest Challenge
Can You Smell That Smell?
Yup, the faint smell of bacon, spray paint, and sweat can only mean one thing… it’s Pinterest Challenge time (not sponsored by Pinterest or anyone else, just dreamed up by Katie Bower to make us stop pinning and start doing). So let’s do this thing, people. Let’s do it together. In bikinis (let’s be honest, bikinis haven’t been an option for me since having Clara).
It all started last June when Katie called me to say that she thought we should challenge ourselves to make one thing each season that’s inspired by all the gorgeous stuff that we’ve pinned (and call it… wait for it… The Pinterest Challenge). It’s a welcome slap of stop-pinning-and-start-doing. Because I’ve pinned over a thousand things and have only done about 1% of them. Yikes. And we ended up having such a great time with our first Pinterest Challenge last summer, and our second one in the fall, that we’re psyched to be back with the belated-but-not-forgotten winter edition (hey, it’s technically winter for a few more weeks, right?). So put on those sweat bands and let’s get this DIY party started!
The only rule is to do your own personal take on something inspirational that you’ve pinned (and link back to the original creator of the project that inspired you, be it a company like Anthropologie or a personal blog that got your wheels a turning). The project can be anything: big or small, decor or sewing or cooking related – or beyond! The first time around John and I made a clothespin light fixture for the laundry room (aka: big), and last time I tackled 38 homemade holiday ornaments (aka: small).
And this time, believe it or not, I thought I’d seize the opportunity to attempt a truce with my arch nemesis sewing machine (more on our “it’s complicated” relationship here) and try my hand at a homemade beanbag for the bean’s closet (which I mentioned here over seven months ago – so it’s about stitchin’ time). I’ve already pinned a ton of ideas, but I’m not sure which shape/fabric I’ll end up going with (here’s hoping my riff isn’t a lumpy misshapen mess) – but I’ll be back with all of the deets when I (fingers crossed) complete the challenge by next week.
Oh and you’re probably wondering who else is playing along with me and Katie Bower (aka: The Esteemed Bacon-Eating Pinterest Challenge Founder – who is actually nominated for an Apartment Therapy Homie in not one but two categories this year, woot!). Well, we thought it would be fun to ask different folks to “guest host” with us each time, so we’re thrilled to have:
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Erin from The Great Indoors (who whipped up a fun art project during our Fall Pinterest Challenge that compelled us to invite her to team up)
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Cassie from Hi Sugarplum (who fancied up a wreath during our last Pinterest Challenge that also inspired us to ask her to climb aboard)
So here’s the part where I extend my arm with a crooked smile and a true fear of sewing in my eyes and humbly invite you to join in on the fun by doing your own spin on something you pin! We figured we’d give everyone (and ourselves) the weekend to work on stuff and reconvene next Wednesday morning (the 14th) to share our projects. We’re hoping this’ll turn into the same über fun share-fest that we soaked up this summer and fall (check out all the amazing linked-up projects here and here). So just drop in next Wednesday to see what we’ve done – and to submit links to stuff that you’ve completed so we can all check it out. Maybe we’ll even pin a few things. And so the vicious cycle continues…
Psst- One more time, for the people in the back: regardless of the fact that I say Pinterest ten million times (well, not literally…) this wasn’t paid or perked by them or anyone else. We’re just eye-candy obsessed gals who love a good pin-fest. Sometimes while watching a certain lovable serial killer or a show about the zombie apocalypse.
Fall Pinterest Challenge: Ornaments A Plenty
It’s Wednesday the 2nd… so it’s time to share this season’s (completely unofficial) Pinterest Challenge (not sponsored by Pinterest or anyone else, just dreamed up by Katie to make us stop pinning and start doing).
I actually tackled ornaments (since the winter edition of our little Pinterest Challenge won’t be until January), which I mentioned last Wednesday when Katie, Ana, Erin and I issued our little get-off-our-bums-and-make-something challenge.
I know, I know – it’s not even Thanksgiving yet. I’m one of those one-holiday-at-a-time peeps too. But it was actually oddly satisfying to feel so “prepared” for the upcoming holiday season. And I’m kind of in love with all the happy little ornaments I squeezed out. I actually ended up making 38 ornaments! Here are just a few of the things that inspired them (all found thanks to Pinterest, but originally from here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here):
As are the rules, I took inspiration (or Pintspiration, har-har) from the above projects and then I did my own spin. Which added up to those 38 aforementioned ornaments that I whipped up. My method? Good ol’ trial and error. I just played around and made stuff up as I went along. Here’s what I ended up with:
- 12 faux ceramic animal ornaments (inspired by the A stuff above)
- 18 colorful swirl glass bulb ornaments (inspired by the B stuff above)
- 3 patterned ceramic ornaments (inspired by the C stuff above)
- 4 faux antler ornaments (inspired by the D stuff above)
- 1 skeleton key ornament (inspired by the E stuff above)
Here they are now:
And here’s how I made each type:
FAUX CERAMIC ANIMAL ORNAMENTS -
- Purchased a pack of small plastic zoo animals from Michael’s for $4 (with coupon)
- Primed them all with white spray primer
- Use small drill bit to start a hole to screw small ring hooks into the top of each one so they could be hung
- Painted 4 of them white, 4 of them lime green, and 4 of them navy (w/ acrylic craft paint from Michael’s)
- Added colorful string (the kind used for friendship bracelets from Michael’s) for hanging
COLORFUL SWIRL GLASS BULB ORNAMENTS -
- Purchased three six packs of glass ornaments (in small and large sizes) from Michael’s for $9 total (with coupons)
- Removed the ornament cap and poured a decent amount of 99 cent craft paint in one of three colors into the ornament (exact colors I used: “Limeade” by Apple Barrel, “Metallic Emerald Green” by Folk Art, and “Magenta” by Folk Art Shiny)
- Slowly swirled the ornament around to spread the paint and create a nice “spun” effect (I aimed to cover 50% of the glass with paint for a not-too-much-and-not-too-little effect). Here’s a video to show you just how easy these babies really are:
- Allowed each ornament to dry overnight
- Reattached the ornament caps in the morning after the craft paint dried
- Added colorful string (the same kind used for friendship bracelets from Michael’s) for hanging
PATTERNED CERAMIC ORNAMENTS:
- Purchased three ceramic ornaments from Michael’s (for $5 total with coupons) along with three Sharpie markers in navy, magenta, and plum (also from Michael’s for another $5 with coupons)
- Drew magenta and plum chevrons on one ornament, hot pink continents on another (for a modern globe effect), and nested starbursts on the third ornament (in navy, plum, and magenta)
- Switched out the stock red ribbon for colorful string (yup, the friendship bracelet stuff from Michael’s)
- Oh and I’m planning to paint the gold cap of the globe ornament someday (white or orange or navy or pink… not sure yet)
FAUX ANTLER ORNAMENTS -
- Purchased one square of Premo Sculpey clay in lime green from Michael’s for $2
- Sculpted two small shield shapes and two larger ones
- Used a needle to create two holes for hanging and a stick to create two indents where each stick antler would be glued
- Baked according to the Sculpey directions to permanently harden them
- Used crazy glue and sticks from the front yard to create faux antler trophy
- Added colorful string for hanging (more of that friendship bracelet stuff from Michael’s)
SKELETON KEY ORNAMENT -
- Grabbed rusty old skeleton key (a sweet gift from a friend)
- Used spray primer and white craft paint leftover from faux ceramic animals to paint it white
- Added the friendship bracelet string for hanging
As for where I’ll display the not-so-Clara-friendly ornaments (well, they’re all super friendly for looking, especially all the zoo animals – just not so friendly for touching when it comes to the glass and ceramic ones), I’ve always loved the idea of a half-height tree on a round pedestal table like this – so we might get a real tree for that (and plant it in the backyard when the holidays are over). But on to the money stuff – here’s the budget breakdown:
- $4 for plastic zoo animals (from Michael’s)
- $2 for ring hooks for animals (from Lowe’s)
- $3 for spray primer for animals (from Lowe’s)
- $3 for acrylic paint in navy, white, and lime (from Michael’s)
- $2 for friendship bracelet string for hanging (from Michael’s)
- $9 for 18 clear glass ornaments (from Michael’s)
- $2 for magenta & teal acrylic paint (reused lime paint from animals)
- $2 for Primo Sculpey clay for faux antlers (from Michael’s)
- Total: $27 (so each of the 38 ornaments was 71 cents on average)
Oh and don’t forget to check in on Katie, Ana, and Erin to see what amaaaaazing projects they whipped up (they’ll be sharing theirs sometime today as well)!
And now here’s the part where we invite you to share all of the fun Pinterest Challenge projects that you guys have tackled in the last week (right along with us, well at least virtually with us). If you’ve already blogged about it, just:
- click on the blue “Add Your Link” button with the odd cartoon head at the bottom of this post (you might have to do some scrolling, depending how many projects are added)
- add a link to your specific blog post about your project in the url field (not your home page)
- where it says “name” write a descriptive name for your project (ex: “38 DIY Ornaments”) as opposed to your actual name
- we’d also love if you could quickly link back over to our project posts within your own (here’s Katie’s, Ana’s, Erin’s, and ours) – it’s also nice to link to your inspiration project on Pinterest as well as to directly link to the original project/site, just so they get some love too.
And if you’d rather just link over to your project in the comment section, feel free to do that – or even add a link to a free photo sharing site like Flickr with your pics if you don’t have a blog (remember to set the gallery to public so we can all see it). We can’t wait to see what you’ve been up to! Geeked out doesn’t even begin to describe it.
It’s baaaack…
Yup, Katie B (and Will & Jeremy) drove up to VA to pay us a visit this past weekend. Sneaky little Bowers. And among other things, we posed in the yard holding big white signs. You know, the usual. We’ll share more what-we-did details a little later in the week, but for now we’re here to issue the second ever Pinterest Challenge (it’s not actually sponsored or endorsed by Pinterest – we’re just obsessed fans).
My Pinterest addiction runs deep (as you know from this heartfelt post of yore), so a few months back when Katie called me to say that she thought we should challenge ourselves to make one thing each season that’s inspired by all the amazing stuff that we’ve pinned over there (and call it… wait for it… The Pinterest Challenge) I thought it sounded like fun. It’s a welcome slap of stop-pinning-and-start-doing. Because I’ve pinned 1001 things and only done about 1% of them. We ended up having a great time with our first Pinterest Challenge this summer, so we’re back with the fall edition.
The only rule is to do your take on something inspirational that you’ve pinned, so it can be anything- big or small (decor or sewing or cooking related – or beyond). Last time John and I made a clothespin light fixture for the laundry room, but this time we thought something seasonal could be fun (since the winter edition of the Pinterest Challenge won’t roll around until January). So I thought I’d seize the opportunity to whip up a bunch of Pinterest-inspired ornaments for a (hopefully) charming “homemade for the holidays” effect.
I’ve already pinned about fifty ideas, but I’m not sure which ones John and I will end up doing (and what our riff on them will look like) – but we’ll be back with all of those details when we complete the challenge next week. Oh and you’re probably wondering who else is playing along with Katie Bower from Bower Power (aka: The Pinterest Challenge Founder – somebody get her a beard and a top hat). We thought it would be fun to ask different folks to “guest host” with us each time, so we’re thrilled to have:
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the amazing and oh so handy Ana from ana-white.com
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Erin from House of Earnest (who submitted a super inspiring project during our first Pinterest Challenge that compelled us to ask her to climb aboard)
So here’s the part where I extend my arm with an awkward smile and an uncoordinated curtsey and humbly invite you to join in… and do your own spin on something you pin! We figured we’d give everyone (and ourselves) the weekend to work on stuff and reconvene next Wednesday morning (the 2nd) to share our projects. We’re hoping this’ll turn into the same über fun share-fest that we soaked up this summer (check out all the amazing linked-up projects here). So just drop in next Wednesday to see what we’ve done – and to submit links to stuff that you’ve completed so we can all check it out. Maybe we’ll even pin a few things. And so the vicious cycle continues…
One more time, for the people in the back: regardless of the fact that I say Pinterest ten million times (drinking game, anyone?) this wasn’t paid or perked by them or anyone else. We’re just eye-candy obsessed gals who love a good pin-fest. Sometimes while watching certain Beverly Hills Housewives.
