If you follow me on Pinterest, then you know I pin about a million things on any given day. I'll pin some funny stuff, I'll pin things to eat, I'll pin crafts to make. Let's be honest here, pinning is fun, but do we ever really make all the things we pin? I don't. I get inspired, then go and buy tons of crafting supplies I will never use, and then by the time I get it all together I'm so over the original craft I've completely lost interest. Sound familiar?
A few weeks ago I came across this pin. It's the lazy person's version of Subway Art. You know for those of us who don't have fancy cutting machines, or the patience or skill to pull off freezer paper stencils. I totally roll my eyes at myself that I actually know what freezer paper stencils are. That's the kind of crap you learn when you pin at two in the morning. Anyway, this pin looked like something I could do with my girls, and isn't that what summer is all about? Doing the messy crafts with mom when she actually has a bit of time. Ok, that's a lie too, I literally scheduled this activity. As in I planned nothing else for this particular Thursday, since it was my day off, and I knew we could fit it in, if we did NOTHING ELSE. How's that for motherhood?
The craft itself is pretty easy. Buy some finished wood boards, any shape, we picked squares. Buy some paint in your color of choice, or use whatever colors you have on hand. Make sure you have some Mod Podge, or buy some if you need it. Don't worry, it's not scary, it's just glue. Then after you buy all this stuff (and foam brushes or paint brushes if you need them, like we did), take it all home and go through some old magazines you have lying around. Since I'm the magazine queen, we had a lot to choose from. This is the fun part, start tearing out what you want on your board. Now since I was trying to stay as close to the original pin as possible, I looked for words or quotes. Caitlin decided that she would rather put animals on her board, so that's what she looked for, and Mackenzie? Well Mackenzie painted her board, lost interest, and decided to play with Barbies after cutting a few magazine pages in to pieces so small they have alluded the vacuum ever since.
So we painted, mutilated a few magazines, slapped a few coats of Mod Podge, and ta-dah, something that resembles a collage board or an inspiration board.
I won't lie, I was surprised at how much fun I had. I remember being a teen and making collages. I was tempted to put things like lipstick and shoes on the board, but once I got going I was able to find quotes from some pretty inspiring actresses like Melissa McCarthy and Amy Poehler. I feel like this is the perfect thing to put in my office/craft room whenever I get in there and finally clean it. Until then, it's just hanging out on a shelf. I also made this board during a time of writers block and wouldn't you know that something as simple as this got my mind moving and the words just followed. Funny how that happens.
So if you are looking for some last minute crafting to do with your kids, or if you just need to break out of a rut, this may be the craft for you. It's simple and messy, and it looks great even if you can't cut straight.
Which as you can tell, isn't one of my finer skills.
