Inspired by Pinterest in 2011

I started out using Tumblr at the beginning of 2011, but soon had to see what all the excitement was about with Pinterest. To me, Pinterest seems to have more crafts/creative ideas than I found on Tumblr, and I like being able to organize my pins into boards. I made the switch and have been addicted to browsing ever since. As I look back at my creativity in 2011, I owe much to Pinterest, including:

Learning to Crochet
I found so many lovely pins of crochet projects, I actually bought yarn and a hook and taught myself a few basic stitches. I'm proud to say I made two scarves sized just right for the boys, plus several scarves for their stuffed pals (good way to practice), and I'm nearly done with a scarf for myself.

Framed Word Art Gift
I printed the free Christmas scripture word art from A Simply Klassic Home and framed it as a gift for my older son's principal.

Good Eats
For Thanksgiving, I made this turkey(ish) veggies and dip platter, based on this Turkey Veggie Platter from Eating with Food Allergies.

Admittedly our turkey, made with a loaf of round pumpernickel to hold a spinach dip, is less artistically formed, but the boys had fun making it, and I received compliments for being so clever.

A few days before Christmas, the boys and I made up two yummy pretzel/chocolate treats I saw on Pinterest -- Holiday Pretzel Treats from Family Fun (also called Rudolph Noses on some pins, using only red MandMs) and Pretzel Hugs from Cookies and Cups. The boys loved helping and naming all the reindeer noses, and our family loved eating them -- I even got a few requests for the "recipes."

Christmas Elf Mischief

Since it was our third year with Sprinkles the Elf, we already had moved past the "sitting on the shelf" ideas to a few silly tricks and such, but thanks to Pinterest, Sprinkles had increasingly clever hiding places and mischief to make. Poor little elf, he had more inspiration than he had days or energy to execute! (Sprinkles hanging out in the freezer in the photo above was inspired by Beatrice.Killam's photo on Flickr.) 

30 Days of Gratitude Mini Book

Having pinned a few mini books from Lisa Ottosson, when I saw her Gratitude List Mini Book, I was inspired to make my own and keep a record throughout November. It was a perfect way to focus on a month of giving thanks.

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Thank you, Pinterest, for providing so much inspiration in 2011! If only I could drag myself away from the never-ending stream of creativity and MAKE more of what I pin. Here's to plenty of creativity and inspiration in 2012!

Some Halloween Craftiness at the 11th Hour!

Thanks to Pinterest, I've seen thousands of inspiring ideas. My problem is getting around to changing that inspiration into action. With Halloween kicking off the end-of-year holidays, I think I finally have some motivation going -- it only waited till 10:30 last night to finally kick in (yes, that would be the night before Halloween)!

I had picked up a bag of Halloween pencils from Target several weeks back with the intention of making some kind of little tag or card to go with them for my oldest to hand out at school. Despite the early purchase, I still hadn't done anything with them. So I fired up Photoshop and made little flags to wrap around the pencils.

Halloween Pencil Flags

Everything is from the Too Cute to Spook elements pack from Creativity by Crystal, except the font I used for "From your friend Robby," which is Harry P from dafont.com.

When the boys get home this afternoon, I have these two little guys ready to greet them in the fridge at snack time...

Juice Box Mummies

I have seen this idea in several places, but one of the original sources I can trace back is here from Parents.com. I used crepe paper and googly eyes, and I made another one for Robby's lunchbox but just did black marker eyes (sometimes too much distraction at lunch isn't a good thing).

I also happen to know that our "Elf on the Shelf," Sprinkles, will be arriving later with a surprise too, but more on that another day.

Thank you Pinterest for some extra Halloween fun. Happy Halloween everyone!