Stickers and Paint on Canvas

Stickers and paint on canvas is equiavalent to precision-cut metal, right?  No?

(Supposedly) painted canvas

I love this-- use ANY canvas, apply stickers, decal, etc., and spray paint. Remove Decals; hang white lights behind it.

DIY Lighting...use tall canvas, apply stickers, decal, etc., and spray paint. Remove Decals; hang white lights behind it. >> Fun idea, love the possibilities!

Sadly, the art in these pictures is not the result of stickers, decals, or stencils.  These lovely lighted sculptures are made of cut metal.  If you look closely, you can see how the surface of the flowers is raised, rather than just a flat canvas.  Also, you can see gradients and shading that are the result of the 3D metal pieces from the cuts, and which are not achievable through the 2D application and removal of stickers.

Someone did attempt the sticker/spraypaint/peel method, though, and while the results are not the same as the metal installations above, I think it came out really nicely.  Check out the upper left and lower right below:

See the full post at Topsy Turvy for more!

Elmer's Glue, It Ain't

Today is a two-fer!  First up, we have:

Elmer's Glue on a white canvas

Elmer's glue on canvas. Then paint the whole thing one color.

Lovely, isn't it?  Is it Elmer's Glue?  Nope.  It's puffy paint.  The artist traced the design they wanted on waxed paper first, peeled them off, then modpodged those shapes onto the canvas.  Clever technique and it came out looking sharp!  And it's definitely not Elmer's glue. Some pinner decided to put that in all on their own.  Maybe they thought it would work, maybe it was just a note for their own use, or maybe they didn't read the actual post and just assumed that's what it was.  Who knows what lurks in the hearts of pinners who post these things that are so far from the truth? Maybe they're hunting for re-pins?  If so, it's working.

This pin in all of its variations is so popular that the Elmer's Glue myth has made its way back to the original source.  If you click through the pin (and then hunt around, because BONUS!  This pin doesn't have exactly the right URL), the blogger has added an update saying that glue does not work.   She's gotten a LOT of comments from disappointed pinners and it's in no way her fault!  Something to consider if you're pinning and inventing descriptions to go with cool pictures you find...

If you're looking for the original super cool project, check it out at Virginia & Charlie.  

For the second part of today's post, we have:

Elmer's Glue on Watercolor Paper

This is REALLY cool!!! All you have to do is get watercolor paper. Then sketch your drawing,outline your sketch in Elmer's glue then paint it with water colors! SO fun!

As you've probably guessed, this one doesn't actually use Elmer's Glue either.  The picture shown with this pin displays an embossed page.

Tracking down what looks like the original (or one of the original) versions of this pin brought way more amusement than usual, when I discovered some hilarious reactions from commenters who took the time to click through to the pin's URL.  Some questioned the original pinner's reading skills, others simply offered the information that the project required an embosser.  But then I ran across this gem: "Embosser can auto correct to Elmer's glue if spelt wrong. It's all autocorrect's fault."  

Well played, commenter, well played.

Make Your Own Glowstick With Mountain Dew

Leave 1/4 of Mountain dew in bottle, add a tiny bit of baking soda and 3 caps of peroxide. Put the lid on and shake - walla! Homemade glow stick (bottle) solution.

And there's a video showing how to do it, which I cannot embed here because they've disabled that.

This would be so cool if it were true. Unfortunately, it's false. Really false.

You cannot get the glowing effect without dumping the contents of a glowstick in there. Sorry, but Mountain Dew is not magical, and it won't let you make homemade glowstick solution.

Chalkboard Paint on a Cookie Sheet

"YES!!! Chalkboard paint on a cookie pan....you can also put magnets on it."

This is circulating pretty widely, and with good reason - this is a lovely picture and the description sounds like something that would be easy to do!

Bad news, guys, this picture is NOT of a cookie pan.  It's a frame with the glass painted with black chalkboard paint.  Not magnetic in the slightest.  Oh, and the URL on the pin doesn't even go directly to this post; it goes to the correct blog, but then you have to page through all the posts tagged with Cricut.  Kind of annoying.

If anyone tries the "chalkboard paint on a cookie sheet" idea and has good luck, I'd love to hear about it.  I have a couple of concerns that are keeping me from wanting to invest the time in that project.  I have my doubts about whether most cookie sheets are magnetic (many are aluminum, which does not attract magnets), and I also wonder how well chalkboard paint would hold up to having magnets used on it - in my experience, sliding magnets over paint tends to scrape off the paint.  It would suck to do this as a gift for someone and have the magnets either fall right off or tear up the chalkboard paint.

Fire Glass

Here's a fun one; Fire Glass!  This has been pinned and repinned hundreds of times, and while it's not completely untruthful, it does imply that you can just run down to your local home improvement store and pick up some Fire Glass to light up your next party.

The full truth is, Fire Glass is just glass.  It's special (tempered) glass that can take lots of heat, but it's still glass. It doesn't burn.  It's used in combination with gas from pipes (the same as you have in a gas fireplace), and that's where the fire is coming from.  

So as I said, the pin is not an outright lie, but it is a little misleading.  And judging by some of the comments I've seen on these pins, there are plenty of pinners who probably walked into Lowe's or Home Depot or even Walmart and asked "Hey, where do you keep your fire glass?  You know, that glass that you can light on fire and it burns clean?"  

Embarrassing.  That's the inspiration for this blog, really.  Because the things on Pinterest should be interesting and fun and TRUE.  

Why Pinaccurate?

How many times have you seen a completely AWESOME pin on Pinterest, only to click through and find out that the link goes nowhere (or nowhere helpful)?  Have you eagerly clicked on a "free pattern" or a "great tutorial" link only to find out that no such pattern or tutorial exists?  Have you found pins that lead to another Pinterest-type site, which in turn leads back to a different pin on Pinterest?  How about pictures where one click makes it painfully obvious that someone made up the description out of thin air or chose a picture that is NOT a demonstration of the technique they describing?

This is why Pinaccurate exists.  Here we will archive pins with incorrect URLs, pins with misleading or downright wrong information, and maybe even pins that are just patently bad ideas.  It's a bit like being a grammar nazi, but with pins on Pinterest, and plenty of snark.

Here we go!