Procrastinated Pinterest Challenge

In case you aren't an avid home improvement blog reader, you might not have heard of the Pinterest Challenge. It's hosted by Bower Power Blog, Young House Love, Ugly Duckling House, and Our Fifth House. I read Young House Love more than once a day (Philip has to remind me from time to time that I shouldn't talk about John & Sherry as if I know them in real life - it gets weird), and through their blog I also started reading Katie Bower's posts. I would recommend them both! 

So the challenge was to stop pinning and start doing, by creating something inspired by Pinterest with the deadline of Tuesday, October 30. I'm obviously late...but better late than never.

I had planned to make the monogram holiday wreath I've been drooling over from Our Unexpected Journey but have been encountering difficulties with finding supplies.

Determined to come out with something, my friend Brittany and I continued our search at Dollarama. Having given up on this beautiful wreath (for now) we ended up coming home with some canvas and craft paint. I don't have a lot of craft supplies so we bought everything, but it only cost $5.32 and future projects will cost even less as I accumulate some supplies!

The project was inspired by this splatter painted chevron idea by Baby Black Bird. 

Brittany and I both decided to make one so we got started with taping. I only had one roll of masking tape that I could find (a lot of our stuff is still packed or just randomly strewn around the house) and so Brittany used the masking tape and I tried my hand with good ol' clear scotch tape. I am one of the least patient crafters around, so I very quickly gave up on trying to make them all even. We were also limited because I couldn't find a ruler. In the example above, the lines were all carefully measured and beautiful, as you can see below mine weren't quite like that. If you have a ruler, definitely measure, although I kind of like how mine turned out a little wonky and homemade-esque. You can see how some of the gaps are super small and then they are suddenly bigger in other areas. 

Instead of the mess of splatter painting, I just started putting dabs of paint in different colors anywhere I wanted. At first I really did not think it would turn out. Definitely thought it would end up in the thrift store pile by today based on the first few minutes.

We had bought primarily pastel type colors, but then I borrowed a bunch of paint from my mom as well and so it started looking a little more aggressive than I had intended.

I added some more pastel colors on top and then forced myself to quit because it was just getting to that point where I kept adding for the sake of adding and it was going to be terrible. At one point I started painting up and down the whole thing smearing them together into a browner shade than I'd like and freaked out a little.

Still looks crazy right? Oh my...also just noticed a foot in this picture...that looks strange. Anyway this is when I decided to call it quits and let it dry as-is, no idea how it would turn out.

Brittany ended up doing hers more ombre style, with different shades of blue. Looked super neat!

While waiting for those to dry we painted some wooden letters spelling J-O-Y with white and glitter paint, that's why you'll see those in the background of some of the tape peeling off ceremony photos.

Once the tape was off, this was the finished product. I must admit, I'm super pleased with it. Not quite sure where I'll put it yet, I'm thinking either the bathroom when it's renovated, the mail organizing place once that's set up (it'll be kind of my work station in Philip's office), or maybe in our hallway frame gallery. None of these things exist yet, but they're pretty vivid in my imagination.

The finished product! Now I just need to either paint the sides a solid color to cover those nasty staples, or put some ribbon or a frame around. That's for another day.

Anyone else finish any projects they saw on Pinterest? Share the link in the comments!