Pintester Movement: Ho Ho Ho Edition

Please check out the Pintester's site for more fun posts!

Last time I  participated in a Pintester Movement, I didn't have a blog. I posted on my website... but there was no way to leave comments. I found this to be depressing and unfulfilling. So I reposted that original post on my brand-spankin' new blog... here. Yes, I started a blog specifically so I could participate in Pintester Movements. Who knows... maybe I'll actually think of other things to talk about. Maybe not.
So feel free to leave me lots of comment on that page.. or this one!

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For some reason, I wait 'til the eleventh hour to finish these projects. I am not by nature a procrastinator. But when it comes to these Movements... I wait. I am waiting for witty to come. But witty has not come, so I press on. Here I sit at 6pm... waiting for the spray paint to dry on my ornaments. It's due in just six hours. But I think I can get it done.

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I love mercury glass. So when I saw this pin, I decided I had to try it! However, no matter how hard I searched, I couldn't find where this post/picture/directions actually came from! It is only a picture with vague directions written under the picture. I have a sneaking suspicion that the ornaments are actually mercury-glass ornaments... not spray-painted fake ones. But I am going to try it anyway.

I ordered the Krylon mirror glass spray from Amazon, as I had no clue where to buy it. It was pricey... but no cost is too high to participate in a Pintester Movement... right?

The next step was to find cheap, ugly ornaments. I didn't want to just use round balls, as that would be boring (that's what she said). I wanted ornaments that had fun shapes! And no glitter. The Dollar Store was a bust, as all their ornaments were glittered out. Unlike the Pintester, I'm all for glitter. But spray painting on top of glitter did not sound like the way to go with this project.

 

Glittery ornaments at the Dollar Store

So I posted online to my neighborhood buddies. And as before, one of them came through for me! She brought over three ornaments. One was already silvery-looking, so I wasn't sure that would work [in fact, I didn't bother by the time I'd tried to paint the other two]. But the other two were perfect for this experiment. Or so I thought. Turns out it matters what the finish is on the ornaments. The shiny finish worked much better (it's hard to tell, but the ornament at the bottom of the the picture below has a matte finish, and the other red ornament has a shiny finish).

Ornaments donated to the cause by a wonderful neighbor

I found a box and poked a hole through the top. I'm sure I saw this technique in the last Pintester Movement. I put a bent piece of hanger wire (Joan Crawford was just plain wrong... I use wire hangers for all sorts of projects). I figured that way I could hang the ornament and spin it around to paint all sides. What I didn't think about was the top part of the ornament (what is that called?). I didn't want it to be be painted, but I didn't have much of a choice.

So for the second ornament, I found a small flower pot and a skewer. I pulled off the top of the ornament and stuck it on the skewer upside down. But this was the matte ornament... and the paint did NOT stick to it. It just dripped right off. Contrary to what you'd think, the paint did stick better to the shiny ornament!

 

And did I mention I now understand why they card you at Home Depot when you buy spray paint? I am pretty sure I got a contact high from this stuff. It actually hurt my lungs at one point. Plus, I got some on my finger and I was worried I'd end up like the Goldfinger woman (dead, according to the legend). But it did rinse right off.

I let it sit for an hour per the instructions. The shiny ornament did not work. The paint didn't adhere to it much.

 Matte ornament (paint no sticky)

 Shiny ornament: After I painted it I noticed I'd missed a spot!

 Shiny ornament: Once I touched up that spot.

I asked my daughter to hold the ornament so I could show how it turned out. For some weird reason, this is how she wanted to do it!

Take the $10 you would spend on the spray paint and buy yourself some pretty silver ornaments. 

My First Pintester Movement

Here is the link to the Pintester's blog.

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I decided to try this pin... making a "DIY Self-Watering Wine Bottle Planter. The directions sort of glossed over the whole part about lighting the string on fire, so I also referred to this youtube video to understand the process better. When you're lighting flammable things on fire, I find that it's best to try to understand what you're doing.

I didn't much need or want a self-watering wine bottle planter, but I thought it sounded like fun to set string on fire and cut wine bottles in half.

The first issue I had was that I had no wine bottles. I drink wine from a box... I'm classy that way. So I asked a neighbor and she came through for me. She was concerned about me setting fire to flammable material, but I didn't let that stop me.

	The hardest part of the entire process was removing the label from the wine bottle. I soaked the bottle in water and scraped off what I could. I removed the rest with adhesive remover. It doesn't work nearly as easily as you think it would. But for you all... I persevered.
	Once the label was removed, I collected the rest of the items needed: Scissors, string, nail-polish remover (with acetone), matches and a bucket of water.
	I wanted to set up my tripod so I could record the dramatic event! This was the only part of the whole process where I was injured. The damn tripod pinched me. It doesn't look very painful in the picture, but trust me... it hurt!
I also asked my daughter take photos with another camera... to record the flaming of the string and the possible injuries to her mother. She was NOT happy about it and tried to talk me out of it! Again, I persevered. Here's the video of my experience. It's long... which only increases the anticipation!
	So now that you've enjoyed the mayhem that ensued... here's the result: LIES!!!!!!
FAIL.

[I reposted this because I didn't have a blog when I did this the first time around]

First blog post ever

This is my first blog post. I'm testing. Testing. Testing Testing. Is this thing on?