Don’t you just love Pinterest? As of July 17th, I’ve been “pinning” for a year. I’ve had so much fun collecting and pinning ideas and dreams. Until Pinterest, I was a “filer.” I would tear apart magazines and file the articles, crafts, etc. in my huge filing cabinet (which is overflowing, btw). I still do some of that, but most of my filing is now online via Pinterest. If you’re someone who has been meaning to check it out, this is a little Pinterest tutorial I wrote last year.
I go through Pinterest cycles – pinning a ton of things for several days, then I’ll go several weeks without getting on Pinterest at all. Some of my pins I’ve actually tried, some pins I’ll definitely try in the future, and some I’ll never try (but they’re still great ideas or things good to know just in case I want to try them one of these days.) Today, I’m sharing a few ideas I learned on Pinterest that worked, and worked well. Do you use Pinterest? If so, have you actually used some of the things you’ve pinned? If so, leave a comment and tell us! And if you’d like to follow my Pin boards, you can click here. (And if you need an invitation, e-mail me with YOUR e-mail, and I’ll send you one.)
These Pinterest Picks actually worked… beautifully!
Homemade Chalkboards
I made several “homemade chalkboards” like one of these last summer. One I made out of a picture frame with glass. I painted the frame with regular craft paint, then I painted the glass with chalkboard paint. (Bought that at Wal*Mart) I gave it to a friend, and it’s still holding up well.
I also took a wooden frame similar to the blue one below, spray painted the frame red, and painted the wooden back with chalkboard paint. It’s hanging on my porch with a greeting for our guests.
I just love chalkboard things, and making one out of old or unusual frames is a super easy and inexpensive idea! They can also be made from Dollar Tree silver metal serving trays, old plates found at thrift stores, or just about anything that can hold paint. I’ve seen recipes for making your own chalkboard paint so that it can be a color of your choosing, but haven’t tried that yet… so I can’t say if it works or not. Have you tried it? Does the homemade chalkboard paint work as well as the store-bought???
Coffee Filter Flowers
This craft is one we did last weekend. Coffee Filter Flowers. So easy, fun, and pretty. Instead of using the food coloring and water as suggested in the post highlighted, we colored the edges of our coffee filters with crayola markers then used a water spray bottle to mist the flower. It worked well – especially since we didn’t have several hours to let our flowers dry. The flowers below were on the website:
And these were some of our flowers:
Decorate your own Coffee Mugs
I’ve wondered about this one, but y’all… I tried it the other day and it WORKS! I can’t wait to experiment with other dishes and colors of markers!
The instructions simply say:
Take a plain mug, write with a Sharpie, then bake in the oven @ 350 for 30 minutes. These mugs were my first tries:
HOWEVER… There was about a week between the writing and the posting of this post… and I’m sad to say that after several turns in the dishwasher, my cute little cup ended up looking like this:
I think it’s safe to say that these aren’t dishwasher-safe. I’m going to try to get the writing off and start over, and this time, I’ll just wash by hand. Rubbing alcohol will remove permanent marker from slick surfaces, but after it’s been baked in… I just don’t know. But that’s what I’ll try first. I’ll let you know. If you have tried this and have some wisdom to share, please speak up!
DYI Charger Clip
This little idea has been a life saver at night. A binder clip attached to the edge of the nightstand. It holds both my iPhone plug and iPad plug.
So simple, yet so Genius!
Praying for your children ideas
This pin/site contains 31 ideas for praying for your children – one thing each day of the month. I do something similar, but not exactly the same things. But I know it works!!! If you need ways to pray for your children/grandchildren, this is a super way to cover everything that is important!
Plan on trying soon – in dealing with GIRL DRAMA
Girl drama anyone? How about grown-girl drama? It seems that we girls/ women just can’t completely get away from it. Lifeway Girls Ministry had two great articles recently about it, and I’m definitely going to tuck this away for the next time girl drama hits our household.
How to deal with “girl drama” –
One last thing for today: I KNOW with certainty that this is true:
Hope you have a wonderful week with the Lord, my friends. He is ever faithful, and will not leave us nor forsake us, nor has He forgotten us. He loves you, and so do I! 🙂
Mandy says
Pinterest is fantastic! I may be a little addicted. 🙂
I recently picked up the ingredients (white dry non sanded grout and acrylic paint in various colors) to make homemade chalkboard paint. Any color I want! How great is that!? I am finding it difficult to find a source to confirm whether or not it is dishwasher safe, though. But today is raining, and I just may try it out. Just thought the colored chalkboard paint might, if you hadn’t already tried it, interest you and add a little pizzazz to your future chalkboard creations.
Melanie Dorsey says
I enjoy Pinterest and like you come and go on it.
Do you use spray paint chalk board paint? I’ve not had success with the spray paint type. And I was just looking at coffee filter flowers on Pinterest this morning! Yours look great.
SmellingCoffee says
Thanks, Mel. I use the brush on chalkboard paint. Never tried the spray on kind. I have, however, spray painted a base coat of flat black paint on surfaces as a base for the chalkboard paint. (It needs to be sanded a bit, though when I do it that way.)
I pinned a lot of coffee filter flowers on my “get crafty” board. 🙂
Jen
Sheila says
I too love pinterest. I go in streaks too. I love all your favorites. Bummer the sharpie on the coffee cups didn’t work out. Now I need to go follow you on pinterest ; ) Have a great day! Sheila
SmellingCoffee says
Thanks, Shelia! Blessings to you, too. 🙂
Jennifer