Lacy Look Dresser

It's not Mod Podge.

Modge Podge lace onto front then paint over. love the texture!

This dresser is a DIY project, just not the one described in the Pin.  Sadly, the domain for Home Idea Maker has expired at the time of this post, so I had to check Google's Cache, but happily it's there.  From the creator's own content:

You’ll also need paintable wallpaper to make the lace look on the drawers (this one is Allen and Roth from Lowes). 

And also:

Attach the wallpaper with a light adhesive spray and then you’ll need to paint it, with two coats if it absorbs the paint too much. 

There it is.  It's not lace, and it's not mod-podged on.  It's not that you couldn't try lace and mod-podge, but that's not how this look was achieved, and if you go that route, you need to prepare yourself for that.  Fabric is probably not going to have the depth that this wallpaper does.

Glowing Waterbeads

You keep using that word...

Glowing waterbeads - these things are so cool and easy to make!

Wow!  A Pin that combines two of my favorite things!  Water beads and claims of glowing when that's not what's happening.

My main beef with this one is the definition of "glowing."  These water beads do not glow in the dark (or anywhere else); they must be activated with a black light, at which point they will look like the picture above.  That doesn't qualify for "glowing."  

For those of you who did not memorize the Aurora  Borealis Drink post:

"This may be a good time to get into the way certain kinds of luminescence work.  Luminescence is what it's called when something gives off light.  The type of luminescence that Pinners seem to love the most is photoluminescence, which means that matter absorbs energy and then emits light either immediately or as a delayed process.  

When you have a delayed release, you have something that glows in the dark.  Glow in the dark paint and other items slowly let go of the radiation they have absorbed (I'm talking about light here, not nuclear fission), and that energy is seen as visible light.  When the energy is gone, the object stops glowing.  This type of luminescence is called "phosphorescence."

When the glow happens immediately, as soon as you apply the energy (and it disappears pretty much as soon as the energy source is shut off), you have fluorescence."  

Since these beads require a black light, their reaction is classified as "fluorescence" rather than "phosphorescence," and according to the rules (which I may have made up), only phosphorescence can legally be referred to as "glowing" or "glowing in the dark."

As for how to make these, they're the same water beads from the previous "Water Marbles" post, but instead of using just regular water, or even food coloring in water, these beads are soaked in water that has fluid from a highlighter in it.  

That's it - that's the secret.  You open a highlighter, you mix it with water, and you soak your hydrogel beads in it.  THEN you get a black light, because as you know from using highlighters, they don't glow in the dark.  But they do fluoresce.

Glow Stick Xylophone

Can you paint with all the colors of the glowstick?

So cool! Glow stick xylophone. Put the glow sticks in cups of water and an aura comes off in the dark, when you tap them. Gotta try this!

There's not a whole lot to say about this one.  I mean, if you click through the Pin (which goes to the old version of the blog, but the new version has this disclaimer as well), the author herself states, "THE AURA IS JUST A CAMERA EFFECT!!!!!!"  Yes, in all caps.  Yes, with six exclamation points.  You can feel how tired she is of fielding questions about why someone else's glowstick xylophone didn't work like this.

So it begs the question - when someone read this and pinned it originally, did they just have bad reading comprehension, or did they deliberately mislead everyone by pinning a supercool picture and a pretty ridiculous (but apparently in the realm of "just believable enough") explanation?  I'm aware that the internet is full of trolls, I just didn't expect them to frequent mommy blogs and find pictures like this upon which to wreak their havoc.  

Anyway, as the creator of this picture very correctly asserts, "THE AURA IS JUST A CAMERA EFFECT!!!!!!" so stop bothering her about why your glowstick xylophone didn't shoot up auras upon being played.  

Beautifully Burning Dandelion

This is what happens when Drogon tries to blow on a dandelion head.

Dandelion on fire. Bucket list for this summer... It burns all different colors! :)

This one is pretty straightforward.  You can burn a dandelion head.  However, they don't have any special chemical properties that cause them to burn with these colors.  This is a manipulated photo.  The original is below:

 via Imgur

So if it's still on your bucket list to burn a dandelion, you go do you, but just know that you won't get any amazing colors.  It doesn't mean you did it wrong or your dandelion is defective (though I think Defective Dandelions would be an excellent name for a band).  

(Edited 6/13/2015 because original dandelion pic was removed - found a new one)

Glow in the Dark Paint: Part 2 - Glowing Plant Pots

When something seems too good to be true, you know what they say...

Welcome to the long-awaited Part 2 in our series of Glow in the Dark Paint!  Like Part 1, this is going to be a lengthier entry.

Rustoleum's glow in the dark paint on flower pots

This is an extremely popular Pin.  It even made an appearance on Buzzfeed.  However, I'm wondering if the word hasn't already spread to some of the earliest adopters that this is false.  There are a couple of links to Pins that used to have this picture, and those Pins are missing now.  Methinks they were deleted when their owners discovered The Truth About Glow In The Dark Plant Pots (DUN DUN DUNNNNN!!!!).

The popularity of this Pin speaks volumes about the desire that we have to believe without thinking.  Someone puts a caption about glow-in-the-dark paint, and everyone repins it because they want so badly to believe they can create this beauty for themselves.

But looking at this picture, there are several hints that would indicate this is not glow-in-the-dark paint.  For one thing, it's not dark outside in this picture.  Anyone who has any experience with glow-in-the-dark materials knows that it usually has to be quite dark before the glow will show up. 

Another clue is that the grass surrounding the pots is lit by the glow.  Again, glow-in-the-dark items usually don't glow strongly enough to illuminate much area around them, and this picture shows a pretty bright spread around each pot.

If you go to Amazon and check the reviews on "Rust-Oleum Glow in the Dark Paint," you'll find some very disappointed people:  

"Sad to see a name I trust like Rust-Oleum on this. I have a light beige paint in my daughters room and we tried to paint just a few glow in the dark flowers. Even after 5 coats this did not glow at all."

"The Rust-Oleum brand is usually pretty good, so I didn't even think to look up reviews. Turns out, this product is TERRIBLE. I left the light in the room I painted on for an extended period of time and then turned off (during the night, so there was NO light anywhere) and there was NO glow whatsoever. "

"I bought this rust oleum glow in the dark spray paint to spray my plantpots so they would glow at night did everything i should and NOTHING the dont even faintly glow ..Would not reccomend waste of money"

As you can see from the last quote, the customer wanted the paint specifically for plant pots.  This is the kind of disappointment that inaccurate Pins inspire.  Thanks, Pinterest Trolls.

And this isn't the only version of "glow-in-the-dark plant pots" out there.

 I haven't done this yet, but it said Rust-Olem glow in dark paint. I got this pic from someone else so I can't even say they are actually this bright. 

So what is The Truth?  It's that these pots are not coated in glow-in-the-dark paint.  They are lit internally by electric lights.  In case you doubt that statement, Sweet and Simple Living tried this project and came to this same conclusion.  

Where can you get these planters, since painting your own won't yield the results you're looking for?  Some Pinners believe the pots in the upper picture are sold by Certified Lighting, but there does not seem to be anywhere to actually order these pots on their site.  The pots in the lower picture are from Rotolux, according to Dornob, but going to the site they linked to sends you to KuL Designs when you attempt to view the planters.  You can also find lighted planters at Konstmide and Home Infatuation.

I think that last one offers a product that is the closest to the original Pin.  

The mystery picture

Paper towel holder for garbage bags

The most interesting thing about this Pin is that it looks like an awesome idea, and no one seems to know where it came from.  Every time I find this Pin linked to somewhere new, it's always "Hey, this is a great idea!" with no link to where it originally came from or how to do it.  

You might be saying "But it's so simple!  They don't HAVE to explain how to do it."

Au contraire!  Have you tried?  Have you attempted to thread a roll of trash bags onto your paper towel holder?  

Those of you who have already given this a try are nodding your heads.  The center of a roll of trash bags is NOT like the center of a roll of paper towels.  Most paper towel holders are specifically designed with the cardboard tube in mind.

But hope is not lost!  Your intrepid blogger has located what appears to be the very same paper towel holder seen in The Mystery Pic!  Feast your eyes on this!  It's the Awavio Paper Towel Holder, and it's all yours for $12.99 (I am not affiliated with Awavio or Organize It in any way).  The key to using a paper towel holder to dispense trash bags is to find one with a small rod rather than a larger diameter bar.  Then you can thread that bar through the trash bags and take advantage of your wall-mounted brilliance.

Technicolor Lemons

When life hands you lemons....

Let oranges or lemons soak in food coloring… Freeze and you could put them in a super cute punch.

Lemons injected with food coloring for a pretty centerpiece.

These are but a couple of the many Pins floating around that seem to show lemons that have been dyed lovely rainbow colors.  It's a very popular idea.  There is an entire board dedicated to Rainbow Lemons, as a matter of fact.

How did they do it?  One Pinner suggests injecting the lemons with food coloring, but Mad Art Lab tried that and (spoiler alert) it didn't work.  In fact, they tried a number of ways to color their lemons, and it didn't work.  

Others tried as well:

Here's why it cannot be done.  Because that picture has been Photoshopped.  Here's the original, and it's not even lemons - those are oranges!

Ambersweet, a new cold hardy orange variety

So stop stabbing your lemons with syringes and drowning them in food coloring.  Enjoy their lemony goodness for what it is.

Yes, MOAR silver spraypaint

Spray painted sea shells!

Ahhh, Silver Spray Paint, is there nothing you cannot do?

Well, yes.  For one thing, the picture above is not a DIY silver spray paint project.  These shells are professionally silvered, you can buy them from Creel and Glow, and they're a bit pricier than you might expect.  The most affordable option is $40, but most of the shells are over $100 a piece, going up to $1500. 

I understand wanting to create a less expensive option for such a lovely look.  And it appears the the blog that originally posted the picture  was using it as inspiration for a project idea, rather than presenting the picture as her own work.  It's the Pinner who decided to label a picture of professionally silvered shells as "spray painted sea shells!" who is in the wrong here.

In any case, the link from the pin doesn't work anymore - the blogger removed taken that page.  I don't know if they got complaints from fans who couldn't get their shells to come out like the picture, or if they were asked to remove the image by the owners.  One more Pin with a broken link.

Spraypaint a Pumpkin Through a Doily

Well, at least it's not silver this time

Using a paper doily and spray paint to make a fancy pumpkin. by joanne

This pin goes to Indulgy, which is an inferior version of Pinterest.  That's annoying - but what's worse is that it doesn't even go to the correct Indulgy post, it goes to a black pumpkin with silver glitter on it.

Okay, so that's enough to qualify for a post here, but then there is the pin's description, which is also erroneous.  This pumpkin project is actually from Better Homes and Gardens, and they did not use spray paint; they used a stencil brush and paint.

So there you go.  

"Fangs" for coming to my party

Spray paint some dollar store fangs for great card holders with person's name on them and/or what the food on a buffet is. 

Again with the silver spray paint.  It's nearly as popular as glow sticks.  If someone finds a way to combine silver spray paint and glow sticks, they'll be able to take over the world.  Or at least the corner of the world occupied by Pinterest crafters (a not inconsiderable portion).

On to this particular pin.  The picture here is not showing cheap plastic fangs that someone painted.  These are from the Pottery Barn.  They don't appear to carry them any longer.

I'm not saying you couldn't do this, but I am saying that what you're seeing in the picture are professionally produced silver fangs, not Dollar Store fangs that someone gussied up on her own.

If you can't duplicate this with silver spray paint, you might try painting the teeth black and then using silver Rub n' Buff.

Chrome Pumpkins

Shiny!

Chrome metallic spray painted dollar store pumpkins!

These look great.  Very shiny, very metallic.  Similar to the Mercury Glass Pumpkins that I posted about before.  Silver pumpkins are apparently very "in" this year.

Lets get down to brass (silver?) tacks:  This picture is misleading.  It was obviously taken soon after these pumpkins were sprayed.  After the paint cures, the shine is diminished:

Live Love DIY

That's pretty much it - if you use metallic spray paint on Dollar Store (or probably any) plastic or foam pumpkins, they will be a little dull.  Still pretty, but the pin should use this picture because it's more realistic.  

Masks With Glow Sticks

Hint: Not Glow Sticks

masks + glow sticks = great Halloween inspiration

Nope.  Not glow sticks.  It's never glow sticks.  

I feel like Dr. House.  "It's never Lupus."  I mean, how many times has a glow-in-the-dark pin ACTUALLY been done with glow sticks?

This looks like a case of someone either making a bad guess as to how this picture was achieved, or they actually did read through the description and decided that glow sticks would probably work just as well, so they put that in their description.

These masks are being illuminated from within by electric tea lights:

From Craftster

If you want to see how they did it, there's the link.  It's not hard, but it's not glow sticks.  Anyone who looks at the pin should be able to tell by the radiance and color, but you never know what people will believe. 

Someone should try it with glow sticks and post their picture.

Glass Block Jack O'Lantern

Talk about the missing link...

Square glass votive from Michaels filled with string lights (battery operated ) felt cut-outs for the face and wrapped in orange tulle and topped off with a black bow and black pipe cleaners, corkscrewed. CUTE! :)

A Clear glass block from Michael's or any craft store, paint or glue black fabric on for the face, add battery lights or a candle, then a bit of tied up orange tulle or chiffon.

light block jack-o-lantern. Clear glass blocks at Michael's or any craft store.

This looks like a great do-it-yourself project.  And it very well may be a great project, but the pins with this picture (so far) do not lead to a tutorial.  The links in those pins lead to....nowhere.   

For the first pin I found, the link returned "Blog not found." 

For the second pin I found, the link returned "Page not found." 

Same result for the third as the second.  It's as if this picture is cursed!  

Even when I eventually tracked this picture down to an Etsy seller, that page disappeared after I bookmarked it for use in this post.  I'm guessing that Etsy's new business plan was unsavory to this seller and she decided to move her shop.  She's set up at 805 Design Co now, if you're interested in her creations.

Those broken links bother me.  They bother me because I suspect that those bloggers are the type of people who take pictures they don't own and pretend to have done a project that they have never actually attempted.  If that's the case, then I'm glad their sites/pages are gone.

I mean, what happens?  You do a Google search, find something that looks cool, and then just pass it off as your own with a little creative writing?  That sucks.

Plus, they're just wrong.  That is not a "votive" (nor is it a "votive holder").  It's not using black fabric or felt cut-outs for the face.  

That is an acrylic block with vinyl on it.  

Let's have a little more honesty in our online crafts.  I'm not saying it would be impossible to reverse-engineer this project, but give 805 Design some credit for coming up with it and also creating a picture that apparently appealed to everyone.  Not everyone can photograph their creations in a way that inspires others.  Not everyone can come up with the idea for a craft like this, so it doesn't matter how easy it looks to you - you didn't think of it.  Give the person who DID think of it their due.

Okay, rant over.  Have fun making your acrylic block jack o'lanterns.  Me personally?  I'd go with the thin acrylic block, battery powered LEDs, vinyl mouth and eyes, orange tulle, and some decorative Halloween ribbon.  Maybe a few black and orange pipe cleaners wrapped around a pencil to coil them nicely.

Glowing Bubbles

Not to burst your bubble, but this isn't going to yield glowing orbs of soap and glycerin

Cut open glow sticks & pour them into bubble solution. Glow in the dark bubbles. Summer nights here we come!

There are a few reasons why this pin doesn't work as described.  First, some kinds of glow stick solution mixed into bubble solution change the properties of the bubble solution so that you cannot make bubbles with it.  Second, even if you manage to get bubbles, they are unlikely to have enough of the glow solution to make visibly glowing bubbles.  The bubbles are just too thin to contain enough glow solution to appear to the naked eye.

Here's a video of someone attempting to mix a glowstick and bubble solution.  They did get the bubbles to form, but they don't appear to be glowing.   They very well may show up with special photography equipment in a very dark room, but to the naked eye and the camera they used, nothing showed up.  However, the experimenters did note that when the bubbles landed and popped, the pool of solution did glow.

Finally, the picture that is on this pin is NOT of someone dumping an opened glow stick into a jar of bubble solution.  This picture is of someone attempting to use Super Miracle Bubbles® GLOW FUSION™ Bubble Solution.  This product is similar to a glow stick solution, in that you mix the parts together to get a chemical reaction that causes the glow.

However, even this solution, which is designed to create glowing bubbles, failed to produce any visible-in-the-dark bubbles.  Those people had the same experience with the invisible bubbles popping and then the solution from the popped bubble would be concentrated enough for the glow to become visible.

Maybe the best way to get bubbles that you can see in the dark would be to get some highlighters, mix their contents with bubble solution, and blow bubbles under a black light.

Word to the wise - glow sticks have a glass capsule inside of them; this is what you break to release the activator.  If you cut open a glowing stick, you risk also releasing glass shards.  Be careful.

"Glow in the dark" drinks. Again. Moar.

If you drink this, and then go to the bathroom, and there is a black light, what happens?

#glow #drink #spooky #halloween

Glow in the dark drinks

Again with the glowing drinks.  Which don't really "glow in the dark" so much as they fluoresce under black lights.  If this stuff really glowed in the dark, you would NOT want to ingest it.

The secret here is that tonic water (which contains quinine) reacts like this when you hit it with a black light.  That's it.  Oh, and I think that the starts here are Jell-O Jigglers made with tonic water as well.

Tonic water isn't something everyone enjoys - it's bitter.  So if you try this, maybe go easy on the tonic water; it shouldn't take much to get the desired reaction.

Say What?

Looks delicious

Add paint and glue to dryer lint.

I had to include this one, even though it's not false or even misleading.  What it is, is incomplete.  Add paint and glue to dryer lint?  WHY?  Who is doing this?  Why are they wearing gloves and mixing up paint and dryer lint in a perfectly good bowl?  

I had to know.

Turns out, this is a recipe for fake moss.  You mix up some green paint with your lint, and then while it's still tacky you press it to whatever you're trying to add moss to (tombstones, statues, creepy trees).  

So there you go.  If you're doing Halloween props and you need some fake moss, grab some dryer lint and some paint and go to town.  

Milk Jug Ghosts

To be fair, it can be really hard to tell the difference between electricity and candles.

Line your driveway or walk way with these cute milk jug ghost. Draw a face on the jug with sharpie, cut out the bottom but make sure it can still stand, put fake or real candles (scented if you want) on the ground, light it on your driveway of walkway, carefully set your jugs on the ground, and you have milk jug ghost!!!

Whoever decided to make this pin decided to upload a picture directly to Pinterest rather than linking to the source.  Which is here, and clearly defines the lights inside those jugs as a "string of 50 clear low-wattage holiday lights" just in case the photo, which clearly shows the string of lights inside the jugs, isn't enough for you.

The way this pinner is suggesting you do it, you will not only not get this look, you'll also be asking for melted plastic and possible fires (but scented fires, so does that make it better?).

Halloween Window Clings In Dollar Store Frames

What could be simpler?  Or less accurate?

Use dollar store frames with window clings! Could use different clings for each holiday!

Well, these are not technically Dollar Store frames; they came from Walmart (close enough, though, right?).  That's not what's wrong here.  What's wrong is that those are not window clings.  Those are vinyl.  I'm not saying window clings are a bad idea, but they sure would not look as nice as that vinyl.  And good luck reusing vinyl for different holidays.  

Here's the source of the project, and she has created a very nice PDF of instructions for people who are interested in creating this look.

If you can find the right size of window clings and you don't mind those clear borders that all window clings seem to have, more power to you.  If I was doing it, vinyl would definitely be the way to go.

Mercury Glass Pumpkins

Look closely. No, even more closely.  Have you ever grown a pumpkin with a metal stem?

'Looking glass' spray can transform pumpkins into these gorgeous centerpieces! Use a white spray first to get the best effect. Oh, I'm soooo doing this!!! I'll use fake pumpkins from the craft store so they'll last longer

designs that inspire to create your perfect home: 20 Halloween pumpkin craft idea: Easy last minute!!

Things Crafty Mixed-Media art crafts sewing journalling Videos Podcast Make Your Own Mercury Glass Item | Things Crafty crafting videos tutorials reviews books products demos and Podcast

These are all great.  One of the pins quoted above came from Ruffles and Such, where she wrote, "But how is this for a DIY project? Spray paint (or silver leaf) those pumpkins and look how glamorous they can look! I could really get into that kind of pumpkin."

I'm not sure what kind of farmer's markets or pumpkin patches these people are going to, but it seems pretty obvious to me that the pumpkins in that picture are not real pumpkins that have been spray painted or covered in silver leaf.  Nor are they Dollar Store pumpkins.  And they definitely are not someone's homemade Mercury Glass pumpkins.  These are Pottery Barn pumpkins.  The only way this is an "easy last minute" pumpkin craft idea is if your idea of a craft is running to Pottery Barn.  And you know, if that's your thing, I'm not gonna judge.

For the rest of you who want a little more "Do It Yourself" in your pumpkin craft project, you have a few options.

You can try to use Dollar Store pumpkins:

It's a fairly inexpensive way to go, but I think we can all agree that this is not the look most people are going for.

You can use looking glass spraypaint on the inside of a glass pumpkin, and you'll get something like this:

Not bad!  A little more expensive than the Dollar Store route, but closer to the original desired look.

Or you could break all the rules of looking glass paint, and use it on the OUTSIDE of a ceramic pumpkin:

Folks, I think we have a winner!  It may not be shabby-chic enough for some, but I think that's a really nice effect and a lovely addition to anyone's Fall decor.

Fairies in a Jar

What is diamond glitter, anyway?

How To Make Fairies In A Jar This is something everyone will love you can just imagine the look on your childs face when they see this and its something they will never forget so its worth a little work on this one. FAIRIES IN A JAR DIRECTIONS: 1. Cut a glow stick and shake the contents into a jar. Add diamond glitter 2. Seal the top diy

I love so many things about this one.  The misspellings on the picture, the poor punctuation in the description, the instructions to shake hard. . .It's all comedy gold.

It's kind of strange how this very specific description shows up all over the web.  Try it; Google "something they will never forget so its worth a little work on this one."  It comes up in all sorts of places.

The earliest mention I could find was from May 2012 on KWNR.  Who knows where it came from before that.

Something worth mentioning: Diamond glitter is a specific type of glitter.  Most of the people who have tried to recreate this pin have been using regular glitter.  Diamond glitter is ground glass rather than normal glitter.  Theoretically, ground up pieces of glass would give you more of a sparkly prismatic effect, where the people using regular glitter have wound up with dark spots where their glitter blocks the glowing light.

This may be why the instructions say to "seal" the top of the jar, rather than just "put the lid on."  Yes, glitter is the herpes of the craft world and you don't want it getting out, but if you're doing this with children, probably the last thing you want is a bunch of teeny glass shards and probably-toxic glow stick fluid getting loose on your kids.

Back to the pin.  No matter what kind of glitter you use, you're not getting the result in that picture.  It's a beautiful piece of work, but it's not something you can replicate in real life with a glow stick and some glass dust.

The good news is, there IS a way to make a jar that has little glowing spots in it.  To do it, you need to use glow in the dark paint (and no, not the kind you make by using the liquid from a highlighter - that is not "glow in the dark," that is "fluorescent").  

Check out this tutorial by Panka for a very nice illustration of how this can work.