The Truth Behind Pinterest Projects - Paint Chip Dry Erase Calendar

I'm way behind on blogging in general but I'm also behind on blogging about my Pinterest Projects so I guess I will continue to try and get caught up.

I'm a very organized person and I love using calendars to keep everything straight. I know it's totally weird I get it. For years I have been using one of those plain white and black dry erase calendars but I was getting really tired of it. So imagine my excitment when I was scrolling through Pinterest one day and found the pin where you can make a dry erase calendar out of a frame with glass, scrapbooking paper, paint chips (I borrowed mine from Wal-Mart, they were so sweet to let me use them!) and some tape! This is probably one of the easiest projects I have done, but then again my OCD took over making it take longer than it probably needed to.

The first thing to do is to decided how big you want yours to be, I made mine 12" x 16". First things first and I had to get my supplies. I got two 12" x 12" scrapbook paper to use as the background and my frame, for 40% off, at Hobby Lobby, and about 20 of each paint chip of the color I wanted to use from Wal-Mart. You can do as many colors as you want so they more colors you use the less of each paint chip you will need.

First I cut all the paint chips down to 2" x 2", my OCD started to kick in a bit here but it wasn't terrible. Of course I was trying to make everything perfect. This was probably the most time consuming part of the project. After cutting down the scrapbooking paper to fit inside my frame I started to lay out where the squares would go on the background.

 

 

After figuring out where all the squares would go on the background I used regualar wrapping tape to secure all the squares.

 



The last step is to just put it in the frame and hang it up on the wall. I would caution anyone that is going to try this project to be aware of the way it will hang on the wall. Mine had those little triangle things on the back and it was a pain in the you know what to actually get hung up.

I took this project one step further and since I had some scrapbooking paper left over and a few black frames I put the paper in the frames and hung the frames next to the calendar. I use mine for a To Do list and a place to write items I will need at the grocery store

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The Truth Behind Pinterest Projects - Towel Shag Rug

Most everyone is on Pinterest and we all have created these boards that have such amazing and great ideas on them. They look so cool, and of course have to be easy to do... Right? If only that was true. I have started doing some of these projects and at the encouragement of my friend Andrea I have decided to start blogging about my experiences with them. Maybe this will give some people a couple of laughs, or give up the truth about these projects, who knows.

Two weekends ago, Andrea and I were hanging out watching a movie and doing what we always do, looking at Pinterest. She showed me this pin about a rug that was made out of towels, and it was the same pin I had just pinned earlier that day. So we got the bright idea that we would try it out. And I got the even brighter idea that I would make two, a brown one for my bathroom and a black one for my kitchen. Let me just take a moment right here and say that this is not my finest moment is my crafting history. I mean come on I'm the girl that my friends won't let use a glue gun!

The following day Andrea and I set out to gather the supplies and make the rug. We had no doubt in our minds that we would be able to get it done in one day. Boy were we mistaken! We first went to the west Hobby Lobby to find the rubber mat part to create the base. Well of course they didn't have it, so we decided to head over to JoAnn's fabric. SCORE!!! We were able to get it for by the yard there for $3.99 a yeard with a 50% off coupon. (Jenna would be so proud of us!) Next we headed to the first Wal-Mart, yes thats right the first Wal-Mart. We were able to find the towels that we wanted and they were on sale for $2.33!!!! But of course they only had three, and since both of use were going to be making brown rugs we would need more than 3 total. Hence the trip to the second Wal-Mart, where we got VERY lucky and I was able to get the 3 brown towels and 3 black towels that I needed and Andrea was able to get the 5 brown towels that she needed since her rug was going to be bigger. Happily we grabbed some lunch and headed back to Andreas house to wash and dry the towels so we could get started.

Note: Terry cloth sheads like NONE OTHER!!! Be prepaired, if you do this project, it will make a mess! A very big one and you will be finding piece of the fuzzy from your towels for weeks after in places that you have no idea how it got there.

The pin called for the towels to be cut into strips 5-6 inches long and about 3/4 of an inche thick. We quickly found out that this is going to be VERY time consuming. In the time it took us to watch, The Hunger Games, Thor, Captian America, And Iron Man 2 we were only able to cut up 6 towels, and that is with both of us doing it. By myself it takes about an hour and a half to cut one towel up. When we started to tie a few of the strips on we qucikly found that that 3/4 of an inche thick is was way to thick for the base we were using. So we ended up cutting them in half.

When it finally came time to tie the strips on I found that since the towel is so thick that I was able to skip every other row on the base which cut down the amount of towel I would need. I also, found that when I make the one for my kitchen I will skip two rows in between, as well as skipping everyother square. The one for my bathroom ended up being VERY thick and heavy. So I figure that I won't want the one for my kitchen to be as thick.

The original pin said that it would only take two to three towels to make an 18" by 2' rug. Let me say that I had to clue what size of rug I was actually making and had underestimated the amount of time it would take to make this and how many towels it would take. I had to be go out to a third Wal-Mart and get three more towels. I think the only person that actually enjoyed making this project was my dog Nikita. Who kept bringing her toys over and laying on it while I was cutting up strips.

By the time I finally completed this project I was over joyed it was finally over! I ended up running it throught the dryer about 4 times for a 30 minuted to get the majority of the fuzz off the rug. What is nice about it is that since it is made out of towels I will be able to wash it when ever it needs it.

I will tell you if you do want to make this rug prepair for it to take over your life and for it make a huge mess!!! But I do think that it was worth it in the end.