If you’re a creative, you’ve spent time on Pinterest. And if you’ve spent time on Pinterest, then you know that there is a wide range of DIY inspiration out there—from projects you’ll never even want to do, to projects you really want to do (and are totally feasible), to projects that look super awesome but you kind-of know would be impossible to duplicate (even if the person who posted the project did it and swears it was worth all the effort).
I thought it might be fun if we here in the Studio started testing a few pins each month just to see how doable they really are. Here is our first batch!
Pin#1: Ice Cream Cone Garland
Original Creator: Growing Up Gabel
Our Review: On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the easiest, this project was an 8
This project required limited materials, demanded no specific artistic skill, and could be done in under an hour. It could also be customized easily; I personalized the color scheme to match my own decor, so that if I hosted a party and used this garland, it wouldn’t clash with the existing fixtures. The biggest obstacle was trying to keep the ice cream cones from spinning once the garland was hung—one side of a project is always better than the other, and we wanted the “pretty” side facing out. Other than that, though, great project! We recommend trying this pin!
Use the AdTech LoTemp Mini for this project.
Pin #2: Dragon’s Eye Mason Jar Luminaries
Original Creator: Mom Spark
Our Review: On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the easiest, this project was a 6
This project was one we wanted to customize and thought seemed really easy to make our own. Instead of Mason jars, we picked up some square votive holders at Michael’s, along with some clear jewel embellishments that were about 1/4 the size of your average dragon’s eye. To create an ombre effect, we sprayed the votive holder with Aleene’s acrylic spray and then sprinkled the wet adhesive with gold glitter, then applied the jewel embellishments. They didn’t quite come out the way we envisioned; perhaps next time we will use glitter glue and clear glue to create our own embellishments?
Use the AdTech HiTemp Mini for this project.
Pin #3: Scrabble Tile Garden Markers
Original Creator: 5 Dollar Dinners
Our Review: On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the easiest, this project was a perfect 10!
The great thing about using Scrabble tiles for creative projects is that the tiles do most of the legwork in making the project seem both creative and streamlined. We added a little green paint to the craft sticks in order to make them more garden-themey, but with a little painter’s tape to keep the lines straight, even that didn’t make the project any harder! The only obstacle we hit is that this project is ideal only for plants and herbs with short names; since craft sticks are typically about six inches, herbs like “Parsley” or “Cilantro” are hard to spell all the way out on craft sticks using Scrabble tiles.
Use the AdTech HiTemp Mini for this project.
Pin #4: Floral Napkin Rings
Original Creator: Crafts Unleashed (Consumer Crafts)
Our Review: On a scale of 1-10, this project was a 6
We modified these napkin rings pretty significantly. First of all, since it’s getting close to that time that we need to be planning for Thanksgiving, we swapped out the spring colors for autumnal harvest colors. We also forewent the labor of making each flower by hand and instead picked up some faux flowers and fall embellishments. The trickiest part was wrapping birch paper around cardboard cylinders. In the end, we just wound up the birch paper a couple times and glued a seam to hold it together, and that worked well—and looked great, too!
Use the AdTech LoTemp Mini for this project.
Pin #5: Pom-Pom Clutch
Original Creator: Aunt Peaches
Our Review: On a scale of 1-10, this project was an 8.5
Once again, we modified the project. (Well, I did—this was an Alexis project all the way!) I really wanted to find a clutch with vertical stripes, but on short notice I settled for a change purse with horizontal stripes. Instead of pom poms, I used this tutorial for making fabric flowers and found a brightly colored floral fabric to pair with the striped clutch. In the end, I’m a big fan of how mine came out—it’s much more my personality than the pom-poms, and I foresee many people asking me where I got it… at which point I’ll get to say, “I made it!”
Use the AdTech Project Pro for this project.
Do you have a pin you’d like us to test? Fill out the contact form on this page or recommend a pin over on Pinterest!
That’s all for today! Let us know what you think!