Thursday, May 30, 2013

The Pintester Movement!

There's a really funny site called The Pintester that I recently discovered (but everyone else probably knew about it lightyears before). Holla at ya, Sonja! I don't know why I said that and now I feel kind of awkward. Hmm. Awkward internet silence.

Aaaanyways, Sonja Foust, creator and writer on The Pintester, created something called The Pintester Movement which encourages people to finally break down and try that one pin from Pinterest that they've been meaning to do for ages but keep staring at longingly from afar. I signed up for it because I was bored and it seemed like a cool idea and I was feeling impulsive and I figured it would make for fun reading later. Plus Sonja Foust is really funny and provides amazing commentary, which I'm looking forward to.

Here's what I decided my challenge pin would be:


I've had it pinned for forever and kept meaning to get to it but didn't. If you link out to the instructions, it looks simple enough. The lady even let her young child do it, so I figured it couldn't be all that hard...but I was still skeptical because the internet is full of lies! No, it's not really full of lies. But this thing doesn't seem to be very well monitored so you never know if something is true or not until you try it for yourself.

So I did. I gathered an old white t-shirt that I never wear because I spilled bacon grease on the side (don't ask how that happened), my glorious collection of Sharpies, and a bottle of rubbing alcohol together to make this potential disaster happen. The instructions called for one of those wee little dropper things but I don't have one and I don't want to buy one since I've never needed one up until now. Also, I'm cheap. I figured using the tip of a paintbrush to make the alcohol drop would work just as well.

I got all the stuff together and then remembered I needed a plastic cup and a rubber band. I can only do so much at once, you guys. So I went and got those and started drawing designs on the t-shirt like the instructions said to. The small child looked like she was really into it so I thought it would be fun...or I'd inadvertently get high on Sharpie fumes. Either way, it's a win.

Yay, supplies:
(please note the dramatic lighting)


Yay, drawing designs:


After the alcohol was dropped on:


Results?

All in all I think it looks okay. The main thing is to stick with colors with similar tones and in the same hue family so you don't end up with brown blotches. I'm not sure how the 8 year old girl got her designs to spread and not show  random lines in the design like mine turned out, so if you figure that out do let me know.

So I guess this is kind of a success...it turned out like the directions said it would but I'm left somewhat unimpressed. It was kind of like seeing "The Great Gatsby" all over again because after it was all over I was left sitting in my seat thinking,"So...it's over now? That's it?" and then I walked away confused and twinged with disappointment. (FYI, the book is waaaaaaaaaaaay better than the new movie. The older movie was waaaay better than the new movie too, but not "waaaaaaaaaaay" better than the book.)

It's okay though, I got to smell Sharpies and sanitize my hands with all that rubbing alcohol simultaneously so it wasn't a waste.


10 comments:

  1. Hey, not bad! Glad it was fun, even if it didn't turn out quite like the pin. ;) I haven't seen Gatsby yet, but I didn't really like the book (eep! English majors everywhere die-- I'm sorry!) so I might skip it. ;)

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  2. I have a slight sharpie addiction and I've had this pinned for a bit. While it's not exactly like the pin, it's still way better looking than every tie dye project I've tried. I may have to do this with my crafty 12 year old. Thanks!

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  3. I liked the older movie better than the book but probably because no one was asking me to 'compare & contrast' various parts of the movie with other various parts of the movie. Lack of testing tends to make me like things more.

    I hadn't seen this pin before but I think my boys would like trying something like this.

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  4. Replies
    1. It held up pretty okay in the washer, it only faded a little bit. I made sure to put it in a load by itself just in case it bled everywhere.

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  5. Oh,the original used 91% alcohol. Bet that's why hers spread more.

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  6. Not bad at all! Looks pretty to me :)

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  7. Hmmm... maybe it would spread better if you wetted the shirt between the drawing and dripping stages? I dunno. That might mess with the alcohol results, though.

    I just want to pipe up and say that I tried this project last summer, and the Bic permanents (which I manically prefer over Sharpie-- I know, I'm crazy) DO NOT WORK with this project. Apparently whatever reacts with the alcohol and spreads prettily isn't in the Bic markers.

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  8. Maybe that would help. I"ll probably experiment with this more later.

    I'm glad to know Bic markers don't work. I was kind of wondering if Prismacolor markers would work or not. They come in every possible color so it would be awesome if it would work.

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  9. Hmm, I've been wanting to do this too, maybe fewer patterns?

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