Friday, October 28, 2011

More Pinterest Ideas

I freaking love Pinterest.  I've been busy the past couple of weeks whipping up little crafts here and there for a variety of events.  First, my friend Pat got a great idea to make a "30 Sucks" gift for our buddy Tim's 30th birthday.  Here are the papers I made for it.  Pat stuck all the suckers in a blue vase and a florist block from the dollar store.  He loved it, but unfortunately, we forgot to take a picture of it!

Notice the papers are Duck colors!

Since Tim's was such a hit, I went ahead and made another one for one of my very best friend's 30th birthday party the next weekend.  She absolutely loved it!  Sorry about the crazy lighting - this was taken in a basement, surrounded by red table cloths, and on my iPhone.  Recipe for photo disaster.  You get the idea, though.  I used a pink, square vase I already had, bought a rectangle florist block from Fred Meyer and cut it down to size, then stuck in 30 Dum-Dums.  The "30 Sucks" sign is hot glued to a chop stick and the "Happy Birthday" sign is hot glued to ribbon that is hot glued around the vase.  Super cute and cheap!
Idea from this Pinterest link
I then got crafty for myself last week.  I had been staring at all kinds of DIY necklaces on My Style board on Pinterest and knew I could make something cute with these grey seed-bead necklaces I had laying around.  Armed with this "pinspiration" of another necklace, I got to work.  Using two pairs of needle-nosed pliers, I put two jump rings on opposite sides of each necklace (there were three necklaces), then laced one end of each of the necklaces onto one bigger ring.  I braided the necklaces together, then ran the rings at the end onto a bigger ring.  I looked all around my bathroom for an old necklace chain I could take apart, but couldn't find anything.  So, I took "pinspiration" from this ribbon and pearl necklace and used some yellow ribbon.  Yellow and grey are all the rage.  Grellow, anyone?

Here it is! I decided to model as I was stuck in traffic.  Totally acceptable use of time.

It's a little long, but for being free, I love it.

My next project was for 3 baby's birthdays.  We were invited to two different first birthdays and a 2nd birthday.  I knew I couldn't make all of the gifts, but I thought I could make at least part of them.  For the two year old's birthday, we gave her some felt food (orange slices, bendable bacon, and eggs - not pictured) and a little shopping basket full of cut-able food.  She loved it!  For one of the one year old's birthday, we gave her a set of felt food with a really cute baby pot and pan set with mirrors and rattles on it.  She seemed really excited to play with it when she opened it!  The third party was cancelled last minute, but I also made her the felt food and got her a recycled plastic tea set.  It's so adorable, I can't wait to give it to her!
Once I decided to make felt food, I found tutorials for making felt food everywhere!  Even when we went to the Pumpkin Patch, there was a booth selling tons of felt food and other felt toys.  It was awesome!  I'm really excited to make more felt things, since it was so easy!

Here is my last project - Brains in a Jar! I saw this and instantly knew I had to make it for something.  I don't usually like scary things, but this was so cool!  I stayed up a little too late last night baking, making frosting, and putting 6 of these little jars together.  Then, using a round cookie cutter, I cut the rest of the cake I had baked and placed each round inside a cupcake wrapper, smeared a little strawberry jam on the cake, and piped on some squiggles of the greyish-pink frosting.  The website that these were pinned from had a free printable for the jar lids, so I just glued some onto toothpicks and stuck them in the mini cupcakes.  I WISH I would have taken a picture.  They were so cute and so yummy!  Oh well, maybe next year I'll remember to take more pics.  Or maybe not! :)    I brought them to school for a little Halloween celebration in the staff room for the teachers.  We don't celebrate Halloween with the kids, since a large portion of our population doesn't celebrate at home.  But who says the teachers can't have some fun?!

 So, does anyone else love Pinterest as much as I do?  What projects have you been working on?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm so sad I missed seeing your brains in a jar! mmm... lol so super cute. What did you used to make the bendable bacon?

Unknown said...

To make the bacon, there are two pieces of felt. Once I sewed the lighter brown on top of the darker brown, I shoved a pipe cleaner inside the two layers, then sewed each end closed. So simple!