If I had a dime for every time I saw a necklace in a shop and thought "hey, I could make that myself!", well...I'd have a lot of dimes. Problem is, other things would get in the way of me actually going ahead and making said necklaces, after that initial thought. Important stuff, too - like needing to binge-watch the new season of Orange Is The New Black or take super insightful Buzzfeed quizzes. I mean, how else would I know Which Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Am I, Actually? (My answer: Donatello.)
Well, nothing staves off procraftstination (hahaha get it? I'll be here all week) like crafting with friends! A couple of my amazingly creative pals and I got together over the summer to make some stuff, and it was a lot of fun. Here are two necklaces I put together - they're insanely simple, I know, but baby steps, right? - and they will not be the last!
As a certified bookworm (and bookstore employee for over half a decade), the thought of cutting into books makes cringe like no other! So while I loved the look of book purses, I didn't pursue it much until one of my old managers asked if I could make her one out of an old, unwanted textbook.
This book purse is a few years old now, but it's still one of my favourite projects - simply because it gave me a chance to reuse something in a creative way! It was a challenge to put together, but so much fun! More photos after the jump.
Project post: Shoebox projector (Pinned it, Did it!)
My last Pinterest-inspired project was a success, so I hoped to make it two for two - but alas, it wasn't meant to be. According to the original pin, a nifty projector for your cell phone/iDevice can be made simply by using a shoebox and a magnifying glass! A way to project Parks and Rec videos from my phone on my wall, for the price of free?? I knew had to give this MacGyver-worthy project a try.
Encouraged by sites such as this one, I ransacked my basement for an old magnifying glass, and whipped out my saw. After removing the lens part, as per the instructions, I cut out a corresponding hole from the shoebox and used a buttload duct tape to hold that sucker together. Then, I lined the shoebox with black construction paper, bent a paperclip to make a holder for my iPod, and turned out the lights! So here's what happened...
Nothing. Well, almost nothing. My room was pitch black, and at full brightness, this was the best image I got:
When Ron Swanson clips failed to load, I tried to view a video of a very adorable panda cub rolly-polllying down a slide, and the above image was the best I got at full brightness. I tried shifting around my iPod to no avail, then moved to a windowless bathroom on the off-chance that there was some light-seepage somewhere. No dice. The lessen here, kids, is that if a project sounds too good to be true...it often is.
Project Ingredients: shoebox, black construction paper, duct tape, paperclip, magnifying glass, saw (or some other way to remove the glass/lens part of the magnifying glass)
Time: more than what it was worth, that's for sure. Three episodes of Parks and Recreation
Overall grade: D - I'm not failing this project, because i could've failed spectacularly in some way and not know it...but D for the quality, and for getting my hopes up in the first place. I just wanted to see Ron Swanson dance while on snake juice, or a panda discover the magic of gravity while rolling down a slide! Is that too much to ask?? (Don't answer that.)
Confession time: I'm a serial Pinner. I've pinned more projects to my Pinterest page than I'd probably ever be able to finish in a lifetime. And not gonna lie, but I've failed spectacularly at more than I care to admit. (I mean, have the cookie-dough-bowls worked for anybody??? My attempt, like these others, just left me with lumpy sadness.)
Nothing is worse than getting your hopes up for a project, only to completely butcher it in the execution, or learn it was faulty to start with. To that end, I hope that I can learn something, anything, from documenting my Pinterest successes and failures. Though I've been attempting pins for a while, I didn't think to start taking pics until this project - a DIY gift bow, which I chose because my house was devoid of gift bows and like a true procrastinator, I had run out of time to get more. Here's how it went:
Project Ingredients: ribbon (length depends on the size of your bow, and I found that stiffer ribbon was better), scissors, tape
Time: less than one re-run of How I Met Your Mother
Difficulty level: super easy - a well-trained lemur could do a respectable job
Overall grade: A! Pinterest success!
More photos and the original pin/directions after the jump!
Original pin - Source: http://www.pinspire.com/pin/show/8791211
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