Pinterest Test Success

I try quite a few of the things I find on Pinterest. In fact, much of what I make is inspired by Pinterest in one way or another. In spite of being a giant time suck, Pinterest is a fun place that's wonderful for igniting whatever creative flame you have deep inside. That being said, not everything I try works. For example, this cute little jar of Easter Peeps Bunny Smores did NOT turn out as expected. I followed the instructions, but mine ended up as a mess and so did my mom's. I don't judge the Bunny Smores project too harshly, though, because the jar turned out so darn cute.

My Pinterest test successes include DIY fabric spray, toilet paper roll air freshener, DIY fabric softener, and DIY fruit infused water . Now, I can add these cute little Easter eggs to my Pinterest test success list.

The idea isn't original. Blow up a balloon, wrap it in string/yarn/thread/whatever that's been soaked in some sort of stiffener, and let it dry. Then pop and remove the balloon. You're left with the string/yarn/thread/whatever in the shape of your balloon. I used 1/2 cup of liquid starch (you can find it at Wal-Mart) and 1/4 cup of all-purpose flour as my stiffening agent. My material was either crochet thread, twine, or something that's like a really thick crochet thread (sorry, I don't know the name). The balloons were some we had in the closet from birthdays past. What's a little different about this project than most I've seen using this technique is that you put a little Easter surprise inside the balloon so that it's left inside the egg when you pop the balloon. Cute and fun!

First of all, this project is messy. Be prepared. Second, make sure you buy things that can fit inside your balloon. This isn't that big of a problem because you can carefully stretch the balloon neck quite a bit before it tears. So, I put my toys inside the balloon, blew up the balloon into something egg shaped, and tied it off. Then I mixed my concoction and soaked some string. I had no idea how much string would be needed so I didn't cut it ahead of time. Be careful about tangles, though (you cross stitchers will know what I'm talking about). I got the string good and wet and started wrapping.

The wrapping part wasn't nearly as fun as I thought it would be. Maybe it's my symmetry OCD? Maybe I left the string too wet? Either way, I had a hard time wrapping the string in what I thought was a visually pleasing manner. In fact, I got a little discouraged and didn't even wrap the last balloon I'd prepared. Maybe I was just having an off day.

Anyway .... when I thought I'd wrapped enough, I cut my string, secured the end onto the egg (under another string), and set this baby in a little Dixie cup to dry. The next day, they were all nicely dried and it was time to get the balloon out. NOT as easy as I thought. For some reason, I thought I could just pop the balloon and pull it out with a little pair of locking forceps leaving the toy behind. No. I popped the balloon and it shriveled up on the toy. So using my forceps and scissors, I had to CAREFULLY cut the balloon into a bunch of pieces and pull them out one by one. The end result was nice, but it was more labor intensive that I'd expected. Well, I mean it took a few minutes instead of 15 seconds. Gee.... I think I was having a bad day. Maybe I need to try this one again.

So here are my finished products. My daughter was very excited about this project. After I took the photos, I told her she could have all the eggs. They lasted about 2 seconds after that. This is a fragile project, guys. Don't give a 3 year old free reign over the final result if you want it to survive.

This bunny head is an eraser

The duck is an eraser (and this is the thread that I didn't know its name).

A cute little dinosaur

Another photo of the bunny egg

Here's a slightly blurry dinosaur

And the duck again

Overall, this was a Pinterest test success. Looking back, I must have been having an off day for craftiness. I think I'll give this one another try and maybe I'll enjoy it more.