Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Pinterest Challengin' it up.....

If you read Young House Love , (which in my world should read: "If you breathe") you've heard of the Pinterest Challenge....or ....
A challenge created by Sherri and Katie, to help all of us get out of our pinning ruts. Basically everyone will create one Pinterest inspired project and post it today! While I recently posted a list of stuff I wanted to try from Pinterest, and still plan to try these at some point, I had some serious time constraints this weekend so I had to resort to a smaller, but still fun project. Also, the smart bloggers posted about this challenge last Tuesday to let you guys know it was coming (AKA to help any other bloggers get involved) but as I've mentioned before I'm a failure as a blogger (in fact here's a list of why I suck) so I did not....also I was behind on my google reader and was not aware of it until later in the week...#WINNING

For more fun "Pinterest Challenge" projects check out these blogs:
Our Fifth House
The Ugly Duckling House
Bower Power Blog
and of course Young House Love...
and I'm sure there is a ton more out there!
Onto the fun stuff...or at least fun for me stuff:

Here's a not so big secret...I have a black thumb. I tend to kill plants, like all of them. I recently heard about "air plants," a plant that requires no soil or water...aka a plant that could actually survive in my house. So I bought one from the local nursery. Now the task was to find a planter for it, and then I saw these (they are for sale on Etsy, but originally found on Pinterest so it's solid):
Source
I was immediately in love. They weren't terribly expensive, starting at only $25 with shipping, but I knew I could do better (besides the challenge is to make something not buy something)...in fact how does $4 sound? Here's what went down...

Sorry about the terrible phone picture...it was late...and my toe was broken...and I was super tired...and possibly a little buzzed...
A hobby lobby store plastic toy animal (actually got a few more the next day!), dollar store spray paint I already owned (never use dollar store spray paint BTW), frog tape, and some gold craft paint...oh, and the hubby's drill (I'm sure you could use a knife for this too, it's plastic people). That's right. I just spray painted the toy, and then dipped her little feet (she's white and gold so of course she's a female...or Liberace) into some metallic craft paint I also already owned for a little glitz. Drilled a small hole in the back...and now a small elephant fashion show...ya know, like you do...
Warning: bad phone pics ahead...Must. Get. New. Camera. Now..




I love her little gold feet, tail, and tusks...
A little hint: if you're as weird as I am and find the need for an elephant shaped planter in your life and decide to try this yourself, try to use good spray paint, I just used what was in my large spray paint collection and this was the only one white I had left, but the plastic didn't absorb the spray paint well and it took like 5 coats...which is annoying when it's 11 at night and 30 degrees outside...and like I said before, you're a little buzzed. Shouldn't have been a problem with non dollar store spray paint though.
And now Ellie (yes I'm nothing if I'm not creative) resides on my office shelf which needed some glitz...oh yes, that hits the spot:

How about you guys? Any super cheap/simple/weird projects around the casa lately? Anyone else have a hard time explaining to your mom and sister on a shopping trip, that you MUST find a plastic elephant? Anyone else participating in the Pinterest Challenge? Leave me a comment so I can check it out!

I'm also Linkin' this up over at homemade ginger for her Ginger jamboree party! Check out all the other fabulous projects here!
And finally, linking up at 52 mantels for her Thursdays are your days link up party! Check out the other fun projects/recipes here!

19 comments:

  1. What a fun idea! Have you ever thought about selling these? Anything that looks like a ceramic animal are big sellers nowadays. And I know a little girl who could use one in her nursery :)

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    1. Don't see my self selling them, but I could definitely make a hot pink one for a little girl's nursery :)

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  2. How cool! I'm heading into our playroom now to see what old animal toys are lying around!

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    1. I do suggest asking before you steal from your children :)

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  3. O.m.g. I'm in love. Great job!

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  4. She's right, you should sell these!

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    1. Thanks Theresa! I wouldn't feel right selling them since I got the idea from Pinterest, but I'm happy to make them for friends/family/myself :) Here's the link for the similar one's that are for sale on Etsy if you're interested:
      http://www.etsy.com/shop/BloominHappy2009?ref=seller_info
      I'm not sure if these ones are plastic, but anything animal shaped is so big right now!

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  5. How did you get the plant into the toy, did you need to cut it.

    We made a few ornaments in the same way as you and also struggled with the spray paint but really loved the results once we got there http://madeinmorningside.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/morningside-zoo.html

    I'm your newest follower btw :-) xox

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    1. Hi Ashleigh! Thanks for reading! I just had my husband drill a hole in the top of the toy elephants back and stuck the bottom of the plant it in. The great thing about Air plants is they require no soil or water, so I literally just stuck the bottom of the plant in. I'm told every two weeks you just take the plant out and submerge it in cool water overnight, and it's supposed to keep it alive, so we'll see :)

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  6. Cute! I love how it turned out. I would LOVE for you to link this up at my Ginger Jamboree Link Party!!

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  7. So cute and creative! I have never heard of air plants - I must look into this :).

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    1. Thanks! Yes they are the perfect plant for those of us who lack green thumbs :)

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  8. Ellie is so cute!! I really want to make one of these too :)

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    1. Thanks Tamsyn! Hopefully you can come up with a better name for yours :)

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  9. I love it. And air plants are awesome. I'm a houseplant killer myself and those and succulents do really well.

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    1. I know Tranae! I was so proud to keep a plant alive longer than a week :)

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  10. This is super cute! Ive been eying the animal planters on Etsy for a long time; never thougt about making one myself. Thanks for the inspiration!

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    1. Thanks Rachelle! It was the easiest project, so you definitely should make one yourself!

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