Pinterest Addiction

First, I have to admit that I have a serious addiction to pinterest. I avoided it for the longest time not having any clue what it really was but then one of my friends at the boys school told me that it is simply a way to organize the good ideas you find on the web. I started thinking about all of the web pages I have bookmarked with good intentions to go back and implement in some way ... And I never do go back because I can't ever find those good ideas again or completely forget about it and end up having a million meaningless bookmarks. I got an account, made some pin boards, and organized all of my favorite internet ideas on my boards. Easy. Perfect. Helpful. But then I discovered my friends boards and more importantly I discovered that there are even more great ideas out there which will help my crazy life right now. And I pinned some more! Motivated by nesting, I have actually implemented a few ideas. The first is two melted crayon projects. They both turned out so cool but the first was so messy I don't actually recommend it.

1. http://thefullmoxie.com/2012/07/11/diy-melted-crayon-art/

While she makes it seem so easy and kid friendly she fails to detail the crayon mess which this project leaves in its wake. My boys did enjoy the smashing part of the project. Also, it takes a long time for the iron to melt the crayons and the boys lost interest and quite frankly so did I. I added a towel between the paper and iron to protect my iron. Gorgeous now, not worth it at the time.

2. http://larasaysahhhhh.mrakulus.com/melted-crayon-art/

While this seems far too complicated for a three year old and 18 month old this was a more successful and controlled project. The boys got a kick out of glueing the crayons on the canvas although I had to fight to keep pink and purple off this particular picture (I had a vision which differed from theirs). They helped with the tape to spell our last name. And the boys also loved using the blow dryer to melt the crayons and we got instant results. They even glued on the flowers themselves too. I ended up taking water colors to our last name so it blended in even more ... I'm not sure if I would do the tape again, there is a lot going on in that picture!

As I find more great Pinterest ideas I'll share. Next up, homemade dishwashing detergent although I'm still testing it to see if it really cleans as well as store bought.