Show-And-Tell Saturday: Pins from the Past

I don't remember exactly when I joined Pinterest, but it was a little while before Pinstrosity was born. I obviously had goof up projects from Pinterest (hence, Em and I made this blog), but I also had some fun successes as well. I thought I'd pull those out of my picture archives and show you some of the pins I tested back in 2011 and 2012 which came out successfully. These are all pins I'd do again, and some I already have repeated. Give them a shot! 

Pin Report #1:

http://growcreative.blogspot.com/2012/09/easy-watercolor-portrait-tutorial.html

There was something about these that really just caught my eye. I loved the simplicity with still being able to create a portrait that resembles the actual people. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be; the instructions are excellent. 

I followed her instructions almost exactly. My only tweak was how many colors I "posterized" to in PicMonkey. I did 4 colors rather than the 2 she suggests. This gave me a little more "definition" and "shading" in my final picture. I traced the design on using her directions, and then applied the watercolors. Here's what I ended up with:

It even won a blue ribbon in the county fair this year! 

Pin Report #2:

http://holidaysnobs.blogspot.com/2011/09/ding-dong-witch-is-dead-or-smooshed.html

I first saw these in 2011, which was also the first year we really did much by way of Halloween decorating. They were so fun and easy to make. 

I bought a pair of stockings, cut the legs off and stuffed them with stuffing. For the shoes I dug a pair of black shoes out of the thrift store bag, sprayed them with spray adhesive and dumped red glitter on them. I then glued the stockings into the shoes, used a spatula to tuck the top ends of the legs in the crack between our porch and our house and voila! Witch legs. Cameron helped me gather twigs to tie to a stick to make the witch's broom. They stored well and we used them last year on our front porch. They're a hit with anyone who visits. 

Pin Report #3:

http://lilsprinkles.wordpress.com/2008/09/11/you-are-cordially-invited/

I was getting ready for my sister's baby shower and found this picture online and decided I wanted to make something similar for the invitations for her shower. Only this picture didn't link to a website and I didn't know how to google search an image yet (I've since learned and the link I gave you goes to the original source). So I looked at the photo for a while and finally came up with a method I figured would work. I tested it and it worked, so I put together a tutorial of my own. 

http://madebymarquette.blogspot.com/2011/07/onesie-baby-shower-invitations.html

Pin Report #4:

http://www.zazzle.com/this_is_a_manly_apron_for_a_manly_man_doing_man-154707030877184327

I saw this idea when I was looking for "manly apron" ideas for Christmas one year. We were trying to do a homemade Christmas and I just needed an idea of something I could make for him. I've used this twice now: that Christmas and then again as a wedding gift for a friend:

http://madebymarquette.blogspot.com/2011/01/christmas-gifts.html
http://madebymarquette.blogspot.com/2011/09/his-and-hers-aprons-wedding-gift.html

Pin Report #5:

Original idea from http://pizzazzerie.com/diy/diy-chocolate-stirring-spoons/

I was putting together a Christmas box to send to my sister and decided to try making these hot cocoa stirring spoons. I didn't have as pretty of supplies, but it was really easy to make and they were really yummy (we had to test one ourselves of course...couldn't send her anything nasty).

And then these next two aren't really successes...but not really failures either. More like Level 1's on the GCT Scale. 

Pin Report #6:

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/119556565077829136/

I did this, only I used those sticky hooks on the walls to attach my string to. It held for a few weeks, but then came crashing down randomly one day. It did keep them all out of the way, but it was kinda obnoxious trying to pull rolls out or put them away without knocking others down or munching edges.  So this one is just a "meh". 

Pin Report #7:

http://ekwetzel.com/2010/green-cleaning-10-simple-habits/

The instructions say, "Freshen the air each time you go to the bathroom, with this handy trick. When you get out a new roll of toilet paper, place a few drops of your favorite essential oil in the cardboard tube of the toilet paper. This will release the scent of the oil each time the paper is used." We didn't have any essential oils, but we did have perfume oils that we use when we make bath salts, but I figured that'd work. It smelled good for the first day after applying the oil, but then after that the scent was gone. We still don't have essential oils, so I haven't been able to test this one out correctly yet. Anyone try this and have it work? 

Well there you have it. 7 Pinterest projects from the pre-Pinstrosity days. Give them a shot!

Shaving Cream Painted...Pumpkins?

One of my favorite days in elementary school was when we had to clean our desks. The teacher would come around and spray a big glob of shaving cream on our desks and we'd get to smear it around, paint with it, write in it, and have a marvelous time "cleaning" our desks. In college I went on a big group date where we were supposed to paint with the shaving cream, but it just turned into a shaving cream fight. Shaving cream is just fun for kids ages 2-937. 

Lindy sent us in a Pinstrosity dealing with using shaving cream and food coloring to paint with and her pictures had me laughing pretty hard. Here's what she was going for:

The Original Pin

http://theoutlawmom.com/2012/10/09/preschool-halloween-art-shaving-cream-swirled-pumpkins/

Lindy says, "Our finished product was not the Pinstrosity, it was the steps that got us there that went all wrong. All wrong, in like, 2 minutes...I saw this craft on Pinterest and thought, that will be a fun activity to do with the boys. They will love swirling the foam with their stick and seeing the colors combine, just like the little girl from the original post. So you can imagine my surprise, when, before I could even get the food coloring into the shaving cream, my boys were head first into their work stations. Their sticks were buried beneath the foam and they were clapping their hands in excitement as foam flew across our kitchen. I tried to persevere, thinking if I could just get the colors in, that would slow them down as they swirled. Umm, not at all. They squished all the colors together making a strange green color using their hands, feet, knees, etc. The party came abruptly to an end when they both found out shaving cream does not taste good and burns your eyes!"

This first picture is my absolute favorite. When I first looked at it I smiled. And then as I sat there looking at it longer I started laughing harder and harder until I was crying. 

The Pinstrosity

And here are their finished shaving cream painted pumpkins:

So this seems like a Pinstrosity and a Pin Win all at the same time, and it's awesome. It's bringing the kid out in me and I want to go paint with shaving cream now. Too bad the hubby doesn't have normal shaving cream (here's his take on shaving), and I just use regular hair conditioner for my legs (works way better in my opinion). I may have to go buy me some shaving cream and see what sort of art project I can come up with for me to do. Please tell me I'm not the only child stuck in an adult's body. Well, even if I am...I'm happy with my inner kid...keeps life entertaining and adventurous!