Fun Pinstrosity Feature!

So readers, today has been a school, work, workout, then work again day...so we don't have a failed craft for you today...but we do have something fun and exciting for you :)

We were mentioned and linked to in the New York Times Style Section!!!!

It's awesome that this website has become something that so many people feel they can relate to, that was the point all along! Awesome-sauce.

So swing by the New York Times' post, and check it out!

We are beyond excited about this :)

http://www-scf.usc.edu/~ganeshsu/itp104/newsarticle.html

Here is the link to the article.

Happy Wednesday All!



I was hoping to get a real post up today, but it just didn't happen. I got to see and be with my mom for the first time since she was life-flighted out out at the beginning of the month and it has been absolutely wonderful. She is improving each day, I am so grateful to have her alive and recovering. I am sad to leave today and go back home, but hopefully it won't be long before she is home. She is one amazing lady!

I hope you all have a great Tuesday and I'll be back for regular posting on Thursday.

-Marquette

Mix It Up Monday!

Mix It Up Monday is here for Marquette and I to add things that would normally not fall under the category as a "Pinstrosity"...but today I have a Mix It Up Monday that might just help you avoid one!!

 

I got onto Pinstrosity's Pin Board on Pinterest, and they suggest people to follow. Well this was one of the recommended sites and I thought it was pretty fun. There are some fun things on there and you should swing by sometime!

 

 

 

Pinterest News

www.pinterestnews.org

 

 

We are in no was affiliated with Pinterest News, I just thought they were a fun website. Check it out, let us know what you think!

 

Happy Monday Pinstrosipeeps!

 



Show-and-Tell Satuday: Tron Legacy

So if any of you readers knew me in real life, you would know the unusual obsession I have with Tron Legacy.

 

Do you remember the old Tron movie with Jeff Bridges? ( I LOVE HIM BTW)

 

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-qZHIXQ-XAaUQEx6NIvoJh0CjgHPuUEJWSIuox8r8oijTKfl9ivZcEDaqLtWxq53yiVIO9zFDRikK0M_a1DNfWhQro8HB2_v12WcF7aYEd_ESw2xkiyu7gXhBFSVKjc1eRXgNFmKtqhBM/s1600/tron-1982-jeff-bridges.jpg

 

Well here he is in the 1982 classic. I just love everything about the movies. Really, poor Chip has to hear about it whenever I watch them (at least once a week in my house...serious geekery).

 

Well anyways, here is my show-and-tell, for Halloween last year, I went as Quorra, and Chip went as Tron! Marquette and I threw a Halloween party at her house and  it went AWESOME everyone got really into it, the games were fantastic, the costumes were are fun and creative, and everyone had a blast (here is further details on the details of that) . In fact, I am already in the works for my costume this year :)

Nerdy.

 

 

 

Here are the original characters we were going for:

 

TRON

 

http://www.filmofilia.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/tron_legacy_image_02.jpg

 

QUORRA

http://toferet.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/tron3_quorra.jpg

 

http://adventuresofafangirl.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/tron-legacy-quorra-banner.jpg

 

And here are our versions!

 

 

 

It's hard to see but I have a little skirt like Quorra's and everything.

I had a lot of fun making these and believe it or not they really weren't that hard!

 

For Tron:

All black:

Leather jacket

Men's Skinny Jeans

Gloves

Helmet (we borrowed, wasn't black but it worked)

 

For Quorra:

All black:

Leather jacket (ours were faux leather, we got them at Rue 21 for pretty decent, and bonus now I have a leather-ish jacket!)

Mini-skirt

skinny jeans

gloves

Black platform closed toe wedges

Black wig ( I cut it to look like her hair)

 

 

For our "disks" We took the orange sports cones the small round ones you can get at Wal-Mart for three bucks and used an Exact-o knife to cut out the center, spray painted them, then put the reflector tape on.

http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/ProductImageCompressAll300/A0SV_129840514363754303qDinjgBxFM.jpg

 

 

The reflector tape was the most expensive part to all of this, we got two rolls from this website.

 

http://www.tapejungle.com/products/Reflective-Tape-Engineering-Grade-%252d-50-YD.html

I believe we bought the 1 inch size.

 

 We had leftovers and it was REALLY easy to work with. We simply used White Reflective tape. This is the stuff you can put on trucks or bikes and what not, and it removed pretty well from all the clothes when we were finished. I just followed the pictured and cut the tape in half or in 3/4 where was needed and placed it on the clothes like is seen in the pictures! Voila!

 

 I am off to do movies, paint nails, and craft with my girl Camille!!

Hope you all are having an awesome weekend!

 

 

 

 

 



"Nailed It" Guest Post

Marquette here and I'm back from Girls Camp! Camp was wonderful, but I am sure glad to be home, clean, and in a building with only 2 other people in it. But I'd go back in a heartbeat. It was great. 

Last week I asked my friend Lauren if she would be interested in doing a guest post for us. She is the author of "The Diaries of a Wimpy Mom", a hilarious blog about what it's really like to be a mom. I'm not even a mom yet and I find her blog hilarious. You should check it out. She posted up her guest post on her blog, which I'm reposting here today for you to enjoy. So without further ado, I give you Lauren's Pinstrosity diary entry: 

Dear Diary, 

     Last week, I tried doing my nails all cute-like. You know how Pinterest has so many fabulous ideas on how to make you look glamorous? Well, I gave it a shot. I went with the style below, since I was heading to California to relax on the beach. Very lovely nails, am I right? 

     

     Here's how mine turned out: 

     Not so fabulous. Can you even tell my middle finger has an anchor on it? (Don't answer that.) Not to mention, about ten minutes into this nail makeover, two of my nails chipped. Fifty points goes to the first person who can tell me what the secret is to not chipping your nails. More polish? Less polish? Clear top coat? HELP. I'm going to go ahead and classify this project as a Pinstrosity. For those of you who don't know what Pinstrosity is, you have to check it out. It's a blog that takes submissions from fellow Pinteresters (like myself) whose projects don't *quite* turn out the way Pinterest portrays them. It's very entertaining. 

            As for our vacation, I learned the following: 

*Life in general is easier when you have a wiener. Yes, a wiener.My toddler had to use the restroom (while driving) more times than I could count and I was just grateful it wasn't me instead. I imagined me squatting there, at the edge of the running board, parked on the shoulder of the I-10 with both the passenger and backseat door open to hide my nakedness, balancing a squat, yet still having a stream of urine heading southward down my legs as a police officer pulls over and arrests me for indecent exposure. The horror. 

*People living in beach homes like to use sheer curtains. Even to cover the bathroom window. The one right next to the shower. Maybe I need to be more like Tobias Funke; I'd worry less. 

*Wheels don't roll in the sand. Hauling a wagon full of 53 pounds of human flesh, a boogie board, a Camelbak, and a gym bag full of beach toys/towels is a full blown workout. I kind of felt like this. Notice there is no horse. I was the horse. Some of you are asking, "Where was your husband?" Oh, he was just dropping our car off at the shop. (See below). 

*Life is not that fun when your air conditioner goes out 2 hours into your 6+ hour drive. 

*Chick-Fil-A doesn't taste as good in CA. 

*Polaroid moments are not as Polaroidy when you try to whip out your camera phone to take a picture only to realize the camera part doesn't work because it previously took a dive into the toilet. 

*Sand will find it's way into every crack in your body. We spent many minutes cleaning out sandy hineys. (Where was this stuff when I went last weekend? And more importantly, what's it made of...?)

*Without the MAP app on our phones, we'd have eaten the same thing every day and only gone to the beach and back. 

*CA has more interstates than anywhere I've ever seen. 

*There are more ugly parts of CA than pretty parts. (Sorry, Californians. The people are super nice, though!)

*The Goodwills in CA are not as good as the ones in AZ. ($2.99 for a VHS? Come on.)

*Private parts are not very fond of 50 degree ocean water. 

*And last but not least, driving with a feisty infant is extremely masochistic. My daughter is the embodiment of a shaken two liter of Diet Coke with a Mentos dropped into it, strapped to a rocket and taken on a roller coaster. 

     But all in all, we had a blast and our first family vacation was a success. 

Sincerely, 

Me. The Wimpy Road Tripper. 

T-shirt Skirts and Sewing with Knits

Anyone else love the schedule ahead feature on Blogger? I do. It's made posting all this week possible while I'm at Girls Camp and up north to be with my mom in her 4 week long (we're praying it's not longer) hospital stay. Technology sure is a wonderful thing. Until it doesn't work and then we curse the computer/phone/car as if it is "their" fault. 

Anyway...that really has nothing to do with today's post. I'll get on with it now. 

Sarah sent us in a Pinstrosity she ended up with when she tried to make a cute summer skirt for herself. Here's what she was going for:

The Original Pin

http://sewlikemymom.com/the-shirt-skirt/

Skirts made out of t-shirts! I love it. I'm thinking my growing belly needs one of these. There's still enough warm weather left here to warrant a skirt like this. 

The Pinstrosity

"While searching Pinterest for new project ideas, I saw this pin on turning t-shirts from Goodwill into skirts by cutting off the top of the shirt from the armpit up and shirring around the top. It sounded like a simple enough project, and something that even a chubby lady like me could wear, so I immediately headed down the street to Goodwill to scrounge through their limited supply of men's t-shirts. There were a couple that would have made cute skirts, but none of them were long enough for me. Since the pattern essentially turns the shirt into a tube of fabric, I figured I could just buy some knit fabric, sew it into a tube, and go from there. After all, how hard could it be to make a simple tube?"

"First I figured that, since the length of fabric I bought was the perfect length off the bolt (i.e. the 2 yards I bought, still folded in half from the way it was put on the bolt, was a good length for the skirt I wanted), I could just cut it in half lengthwise. I prewashed it, then cursed when I realized the crease down the middle had now disappeared, and my fabric refused to be folded flat again. My mom suggested just sewing it all into a long skirt, shirring it like I was planning, and then hemming it to the correct length. Which probably would have worked if I knew how to sew with knit fabric. She had to come over and help me, and we both flailed around for a while testing out my new sewing machine. We got the tube sewed to *about* the length I wanted it, then tried to shirr the waistband... only to have the elastic thread bunch up in the back. We ended up with a hole in the fabric from cutting away the snarled elastic. At this point I gave up, and now I've got a pile of violently bright aquamarine knit fabric taking up space in my craft closet."

"No photo, sorry! I didn't really have any good opportunities for pictures, and all you'd see is a pile of fabric anyway."  -Sarah

Sewing with knits can be a pain in the tushy (why do we just say pain in the neck or pain in the butt? Why not "That was a pain in the clavicle!" or "That was a pain in the armpit!"...really?). As a beginning seamstress myself, I haven't had much experience with sewing knits and my usual library of sewing information is sitting in a hospital bed right now, so I don't want to bug her. So I turned to Google for answers and found three really great articles with lots of great tips on sewing knits. They have tips for needles, for stitch types and lengths, for how to cut the fabric, how to wash it, etc. So if you're going to be working with knits and you're not too experienced in that area, check these out before jumping into your project:

http://prudentbaby.com/2011/09/by-craft/how-to-sew-knit-fabrics-sewing-with-jersey-101-2/

http://www.threadsmagazine.com/item/24079/tips-and-tricks-for-sewing-with-knits

http://www.denverfabrics.com/pages/sewinginfo/hsc-sewing-hints/sewing-fabric-knits.htm

Happy sewing!

Duct Tape Craze, Creative or Crazy?!

So Marquette is off in the throws of our church's girls camp and so your stuck with me this week! Muahahahahah!!

 On a bright note, we have fun stuff for you this week so make sure and check in with us all week! Woohoo!

 

Stacey is feelin' the heat, the summer heat that is, and I have to admit I have been too. It is IMPOSSIBLE to work out when it is humid, I feel like I can't breath!! For those of you who aren't familiar, Marquette and I live in Southern New Mexico and have been enjoying the heat, however seeing as it is monsoon season it has been HUMID (for us anyways) and all of us down here feel like we are going to DIE! I don't know how all ya'll in Florida, Georgia, anywhere where it's humid really do it! How do you deal with it?! I feel like I am dying! :(

 

 

Well anyways again with the heat, Stacey sent us this Pinstrosity, she told about how it is just too hot to send your kiddos outside to play and I can't blame her, so she stayed inside and they did Duct Tape crafts!!

 

This is a big trend right now, and the Duct Tape company even holds a Duct Tape Prom competition every year. If you haven't seen this Google it, its really pretty amazing! It's a bunch of super talented creative kids! I love it!

 

**Enough chatter lady, where are the pictures?! Cue impatient blog hungry reader haha ;)**

 

The Original

http://pinterest.com/pin/187532771953710242/

 

http://pinterest.com/pin/31032684902244361/

 

Stacey used two pictures as her Pinspiration, however she had a hard time finding an actual tutorial for a duct tape hat.

With that being said, here are her and her kiddos creations!

 

The Pinstrosity

How cute are they?!?! (the kids lol)

 

Well they aren't exactly baseball caps, but they do make hat status, I'm thinking more of a Peter Pan look?!
What do we think readers?!
She had a hard time with the amount of tape on the roll depending on what type of pattern you got.

Note to readers: Glow In the Dark does NOT have very much on it haha

 

Her first misstep was buying the tape and then deciding on a project.

Always decide your project and then grab your materials.

The other snag she ran into here was that there weren't any written directions just pictures.

Well I think I have an answer for you Stacey...Drum Roll Please!!!

The duct is put on top of an actual baseball cap.

 

I feel this would be the best way to do it anyways, it gives you the structure you need, the shape, and well it's just dang convenient.

Not to mention I think that is what is going on in the original photos as well.

 

So there it is, mystery solved! If you don't have a hat on hand, this would be a great time to go to the thrift store and get a cheap used one, you can wash it in the washer and then tape it up. Or the dollar store for that matter, it doesn't have to be cute so it can be any color or logo really.

There are few things in this world I WILL NOT buy from the thrift store including but not limited to:

Underwear

Swimsuits

Lingerie

Robes

Hats

Socks

Food

Lotions/soaps etc. (some leniency given to unbroken seals and packages)

 

Well HATS are USUALLY on the list, but seeing as the hat itself will not be near the skin (lice anyone? head sweat? Being a cosmetologist I just have lots of horror stories). I think you will be ok using a thrifted hat for this since it is fully covered by tape when it is all said and done.

 

With that being said I would like to mention the sad ordeal her little man had to go through with exposed sticky portion of the tape being exposed on the underside of the hat. Make sure that there is no sticky exposed on the inside or you will have some balding going on! Ouch!

 

All in all I think this is completely fixable, and her kids loved doing the project, and the ending product so for that I say it was a win that day!

Any Duct Tape experts out there willing to give us some "Insider Tips and Tricks"?!

Sound off below! We love your feedback!

 

 

 



Mix It Up Monday: Just Discovered a New Pinterest Feature

Happy Monday everyone! I'm currently surrounded by 50+ teenage girls at an annual summer girls camp...and I love it (some people think there's something wrong with me, but I really do love working with teenagers and getting to have some of their energy and enthusiasm rub off). I know I'm going to have a great Monday. I was trying to decide what to show you for today and then I remembered a fantastic new feature on Pinterest I discovered recently. Well...it's new to me at least. Maybe it's been around for a little bit. Do you ever go through your boards and find that you've pinned the same thing to the same board 2 or 3 different times? It's one way to tell something that you really love, but at the same time you hope no one noticed. I went to pin a beautiful Christmas pillow I loved and this popped up: 

Genius! Now I won't have multiples of the same pin all over my boards and feel like a goofball when I go back through them to find the project I want to do. It doesn't catch every single duplicate (I tested it a little), but it does do pretty good.

And to leave you with a chuckle, I thought I'd share a photo we got while visiting the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum earlier this month in 114 degree weather.

[insert "nutty" joke about the heat here] ;)

Show and Tell Saturday: Superhero Mask Headbands

Today's Show and Tell project isn't super exciting or complicated, but that's one great thing about projects: they don't have to be huge to be counted a success. I'm one of the adult leaders at a 4 day Girls Camp next week...and I'm in the final throws of preparation. I'm really excited for camp. Our group has been doing a superhero theme all this year, so we're continuing that at camp (just to be fun and add unity). We made capes a few weeks ago, but I had a fun idea the other day for another fun and simple touch to the superhero theme. Superhero Mask Headbands. As part of the rules, we can't wear masks at camp (except for the skit we're doing, theatrical performances are the only exception to that rule), so I thought I'd make masks that the girls could use for their superhero skit, but then the first day when we show up in our capes, they can wear them as headbands. I didn't really find what I had in mind on Pinterest, so I just forged ahead and made it up as I went and I really like how they turned out. They ended up averaging to about $ .35 a mask...gotta love cheap and easy!

I didn't really have an exact plan in mind, so I just went to Walmart and wandered the craft aisle and found these awesome foam glitter sheets:

The colors our ward was assigned are white and gold. The capes are white, so I thought it'd be fun to have glittery, sparkly gold masks. This was perfect. So I bought 8 sheets (didn't know how many I'd need and they were cheap). 

I went to the classroom at work (I love having somewhere I can bring projects when I'm in town), and drew out a mask shape on a piece of regular printer paper and cut it out. This is what I used as my template to trace the masks on the back of the foam sheet. I just traced them with a pencil and it worked great. 

The next step was to cut them out. The scissors cut right through the foam easy-peasy. No problems there. 

Then it got to the straps. I first thought about cutting a slit in the mask and tying the ribbon on, but I didn't want there to be any risk of coming untied or ripping the foam. Plus I figured gluing it on would make it look better. But then it came to choosing the glue. I haven't had great luck with regular crafting glue on foam, so I decided to just use Gel Super Glue. This stuff was perfect. Definitely use the gel glue and not the liquid glue, it is much easier to control and not get all over and then you don't end up with your fingers glued together and ribbon permanently attached to your shirt. Once the glue is dried, the bond is awesomely strong. I think this is going to work great. 

Update: I chose to use ribbon rather than an elastic band for a few reasons. The ribbon was cheaper overall, easier to attach, and was more adaptable to the various head sizes and hair styles we have in the group. I thought about using elastic headbands and played with one at home before going to the store, and it was really uncomfortable and hard to keep in place when wearing it as a mask (which they'll do during the skit).

Next, I didn't want the ribbon to fray, so I pulled out the normal craft glue and dipped the ends in to try and seal the ribbon. Even though the glue said it was Quick Dry, it took forever. A lady at the store said next time to use clear fingernail polish. Genius idea!

Here you see the masks with the ribbons/glue drying:

And here's my lovely mug and how the masks turned out:

I'm pretty excited with how they turned out and I can't wait to give them to the girls. To make 16 masks it took me about an hour and a half from start to finish, so this is something that you can do small or large scale pretty easily.