It is like a strange feeling.... your brain suddenly think something along these lines:" If i was able to make a baby of course i will be able to make a bedside cabinet out of corn starch and a bobby pin"
it's the revenge of McGyver;
Forget wanting to be a "Charlie's Angel" or in the "A-team" all you want to be is Martha Stewart assistant.
So what's a mum to do in order to satisfy these strange cravings???? Enter Pinterest the place where all is possible, everyone is a craft person, and everything seems achievable....
I have been falling down the Pinterest Hole all week and mostly my imagination was captured by the all elusive "Button Bowl"
....
you can find pictures of it all over the tinternet, Pinterest, google, youtube.... but hey, loo closer and majority of the pictures bear a strange resemblance .... that's because it is always the same picture....( below 2 pictures from 2 different blogging sites.... please spot the difference)
.... So i started to wonder.... could it be real? could you really make a "fetching" bowl out of only glue and some buttons?
The first blog i read had 35 comments, 29 of which were from people that were declaring the experiment a fail.... Still I refused to give up, how could Pinterest lie to me? I continued to research and the more i looked the more i found proof that it WAS possible, a bowl could be made out of simply:
- a balloon
- glue
- buttons
following the instructions i just needed to look through the house for all of those buttons i was saving for an occasion just like this one, some Mod Podge (WTF is that????), and a balloon....
...Thank you Amazon for the glue, the buttons and the balloon... where would Pinterest Mum be without you???
Once everything arrived i was ready for action:
Balloon blown, put it in one of Amy's mini baskets, sponge brush and glue at the ready i began to paint it on the balloon....
up to this point all straightforward... and it looks like on the internet... well done Pinterest Mum...
Wait for 45 minutes and wait for first coat of glue to dry...
Return to the project and add more glue....
now here is the first split on the internet, some say add a LOT of glue, some say not a lot of glue,Some say add the buttons fast, add the button slowly, add big buttons, add small buttons
...
After having tried this is what works for me, slather a fair amount of glue, not too much not too little, wait 15/ 20 minutes for the glue to become a bit thicker and tackier and then start applying your buttons;
Focus on one area of the balloon at a time; I started with the top and work my way around side by side (i know a balloon has no sides but you know what i mean, rotate it and do one bit at a time).
A small suggestion is to hold your balloon with one hand while you are either painting the glue on or adding the buttons.... should you not hold it prepare to learn new and inventive swear words to accompany the fall on the floor of your balloon and consequent dislodgement of all of the buttons you painstakingly attached during the previous 20/30 minutes....Once you have done attaching all of the buttons ( i had bought 200 but i reckon it would have been better had i had 300/350 of them) put the bucket somewhere where it can dry and forget about it for one hour or two ... Once the first coat is time to add more glue to give strength and substance to the project .... i followed the internet advice and added A LOT of Mod Podge ... it took 30 hours for it to dry ( and not completely)
in hindsight it would have been better to add less glue and do 5/6 coats of it...
After 30 hours the glue was dried, and i have to say i was a bit apprehensive about popping the balloon.... the moment of truth had come
But i took courage and went for it, i decided to make a small cut at the top of the balloon instead of popping it and this is what happened
( imagine the sound of escaping air accompanied by the voice of my husband rooting for the bowl to collapse on itself)
IT WORKS
My faith in Pinterest is restored
The Internet is full of truth
Today saw the birth of a new ME, the crafty me.
LONG LIVE PINTEREST MUM
.... New project making a lamp shade out of string ....
