Pinterest Inspired 5!

If you have girl parts and you don't know about Pinterest yet.. 1.  I'm sorry.  2. Let me know if you need an invite.

For us seasoned Pinterest-ers, we're used to being able to scroll and scroll and scroll and click more pins and scroll and scroll and scroll...  We know what we've already pinned (usually), we know what the most popular pins are, we know that while lots of "boards" are being built, its not often we put those boards to use.  Unless you're getting married, then you probably do.  But you're special.  Have a cookie.  Or go workout.  Whatevs.

I'm one of those pinners who pins and pins and pins then in times of sweet desperation I'll run to the computer to my recipes board and pray that I have all the ingredients for at least ONE of the millions of recipes I've pinned.  I have been known to do Pinterest inspired stuff before though.

Usually, when I take a Pinterest project on, I end up combining several at the same time.  I'll explain more later.

My biggest motivation for doing something Pinterest inspired?  20SB was doing a Pinterest Inspired Challenge!  It was also an excuse to do something on Pinterest that I'd obviously wanted to do if I had pinned it... right?

So the goal was:

(image)

I'm super lucky that it's that time of the year when school is starting.  Michael's was practically having an everything is on sale, sale.  Additionally, I found several 11x14 and 8x10 frames there were only $2 EACH. That wasn't a typo.  They were TWO DOLLARS each.  SCORRREEE!  ANDDDDDD.. there was a 45% off most painting supplies (including the canvas and acrylic paint that I would need for this project) and their standard 40% off one regular priced item.  I came out with 3 huge bags of stuff at $35!!!!  WIN.

So, the supplies you will need for this project:
-Your mini-canvas/whatever you decide to paint.
I found some 4 to a pack 4x4 canvases that were thinner (the wood the canvas was mounted on) than the individually packaged canvases, but the 4 pack was cheaper (despite the individual canvases being buy one, get one for 1 cent, so essentially buy one, get one) so it was for me.  I ended up with 12 canvases because I felt like 8 wasn't enough, 9 was ok, but 12 was for me.
-Your colors.  The Joann's instructions said 5 colors + white and gave you the names of the ones they used here.
My colors aren't red, so instead I went with a dark brown, a medium blue, a darkish green, a lightish green, yellow, and white (if you are interested in technical names of the colors I used, please email me/leave a comment and I'll try to get those for you).  Also, I picked up a bottle of gloss for good measure.
-Paint brushes/sponges/something to rub the paint on the canvas.
Different brushes/sizes of brushes will leave different patterns in the paint.  Be aware of this.
-A squeeze bottle.
This is to drizzle the paint over the painted canvases.  They sell these at Walmart.

Price: Around $20 with all the sale items, discounts, and coupons that I found/used.

Pre-Crafting Instructions:
Grab a drink
Put your cell phone near by, just in case
Turn on some music
Find an empty space to work on
Ensure that whatever you're wearing is proper "crafting clothes."  This one is especially important when dealing with paint.

Instructions:
1.  Unwrap all the canvases.  Despite the fact that I got a 4 pack, each canvas was still individually wrapped.  Seriously?  Ugh.
2.  Make sure your surface is covered with something you are ready to destroy.  It was good I had such large Michael's bags!

3.  Decide how you are going to paint your canvases.  Having a game plan was very helpful.  I liked the pattern they used, but I was using 12 tiles instead of 9 so the diagonal was a bit awkward.  Instead I went with rows of color.  Very ombre-ish, but with different colors.
4.  Get to paintin'.

Remember what I said about different patterns from different brushes?

All the canvases were painted!

5.  Once all the canvases have been given one coat, decide if you need more coats of paint or not.  I did 2 coats on all but the blue because the blue was way thicker/darker than I had anticipated.

coat #2.  This pattern was from a sponge.

6.  Craft other things while your canvases are drying.  (I'll get to this)
7.  Once all canvases are dry, apply gloss coat(s), if desired.

This dried clear, but it irked me while it was drying....

8.  Once all canvases are dry... again, set up your canvases in the pattern you are going to leave them in.  If you want the stroke marks all going the same way, this is a good time to make sure that is going on.

9.  Squeeze whatever paint color you desire into a squeeze bottle.  Don't be shy with this.  If you run out of paint, you're going to have splatters.  Think of when the ketchup bottle runs out and you're wearing your favorite white shirt...  splatters.

This is not mustard.. although it looks pretty suspicious.
This was not enough paint.  I got some splatters.....

10.  Swirl squeeze bottle over painted mini-canvases in whatever pattern your heart desires.  Let out your inner child.  This doesn't have to be perfect, which is why I chose it... because artist, I am not.

Final pattern.

11.  Separate canvases so they can dry.

12.  Wait for all paint to dry... again.  Once everything is completely dried, do whatever method is your favorite for hanging stuff on the wall.  I'm going to add sawtooth hooks (or just put nails in the wall and hang them on the loose nail since they are so small) and put about 1 inch between each canvas when I hang them on the wall (there are no pics of this yet, since the paint is still drying).
13.  Enjoy your Pinterest creation!





So what was my side project?

Well, 10 million years ago, when I arrived back in Amerikuh, I wanted to CRAFT ALL THINGS!!!  I spent about $100 at Michael's for Cmas crafts and I picked up some photo frames (no, I do not have a photo frames obsession, I have a preparation to give gifts obsession).  One of these frames was in preparation for this:

Goal:

(image)

I had Teh Bear hang up the empty frame in the bedroom for me back when he came in February.  So, since Feb, I've had this empty frame just hangin' on my wall.  But I had plans for this frame, yes, yes. 


Materials:
-Empty/glass-less frame
-Letters made of wood or cardboard or whatever material pleases you.  I went with wood when I discovered an entire aisle of wooden letters during my 2nd trip to Michael's.
-Paint/yard/paper/whatever you want to decorate your letters with... unless you don't want to decorate your letters, that is ok too.

Price:  $15ish depending on the frame you purchase and letters you get.  Again, I got my stuff on sale/with coupons.

Instructions:
1.  Hang frame.

You sweet, sweet, lonely, empty frame.

2.  Paint letters.

3.  Wait for letters to dry (while using another Pinterest inspiration).

(pinterest inspired)

Use tacks to hold painted items up so they dry!!!  GENIUS!!

4.  Hang letters.

Ok, so they aren't really hung, but I'm also waiting on an &.
I'm trying to find one before I purchase one online.

 So, if you made it this far, you've experienced THREE Pinterest Inspired things.
1.  Painted mini-canvases with super awesome 3 year old inspired swirl.
2.  Letters frame.
3.  Using tacks to hold up painted stuffs.

HOLY MOLY!!!!!!!!  I do know that once I finally get my mini-canvases hung, I'll have to update this post (or make a new post, who am I kidding) with the final product hanging on the wall.

So my total for both projects:
$35ish.  That's not an exact number, but still pretty damn awesome for 2 crafty projects, one that involved canvas (which I always forget how expensive it is).

If my directions weren't clear or these projects weren't intuitive enough, feel free to ask me questions in the comments or by email: canIdecideanotherday(at)gmail.com!!!