So tempting, so tantalizing, so NOT REAL. Pinterest is the mother of all modern urban legends. You cant help but be sucked in by the beautiful pictures and mindlessly simple solutions. But of course it has a dark side. All of today’s DIY Gone Wrong features are Pinterest inspired fails.
Up first we have Deborah.
It started so innocently. I love those little bleached bottlebrush trees and there’s a million pins out there how to DIY bleach them, so yeah, I’m gonna do that.
I bought a couple of cheapies at Walmart, and because I didn’t like them all that well, ordered a Department 56 package set from Amazon for $10.
I got out my plastic tub, bleach and trees and set to work. The first try, I left them in the bleach-water for the requisite 10-15 minutes and NOTHING. So I added more bleach and left them in a little longer (an hour at least). Some green bleach-water, and not much else.
I dumped it all out, filled the tub with just bleach, threw the trees back in and left it all for the rest of the day. Here’s the result:
The Walmart trees were obviously made from green plastic; no amount of bleach was going to make them anything other than green. They also had a kind of “flocking” on the branches and some “snow” substance. The flocking partially disintegrated and the snow must have been a glue of some type because it just became extremely gummy. I managed to get most of the gummy off the larger tree but just left the smaller trees alone. And a lot of the “needles” are falling out – the top of the larger tree is just wire. Fail #1. Oh, but those other trees. Goodness me. They are kinda beyond words. The branches of the larger trees stuck together, so they look sorta like Italian cypress trees if you squint at at them, and like blonde drowned rats if you really look. The needles bleached out fairly well, but the snow on the ends is a day-glo mint green. And the wire rusted, so even the really small trees that might work have big blobs of rust. Fail #2.
AND, there are chunks of branches falling out. Like, my trees have alopecia, or more accurately I guess, just went through chemotherapy.
So mangled, so hilarious.
Christine from Lets Get Crafty gave birth to a project that was inspired by not one but 2 Pinterest ideas.
This button bowl:
and the penny countertops that are taking over the world:
I love the look of pennies and they’re everywhere so finding them would be easy. What could possibly go wrong?
At this point I was already running into trouble. I realized I put too much of the glue on which created a balloon slip-n-slide for the pennies. After awhile I just wiped off the glue and put a light layer back on but waited for it to become tacky and then stuck the pennies on. The sliding was at a minimum and I was coasting right along.
I let the penny bowl dry overnight before coating it with the glue. Then I waited. And I waited.
You can still see a glimmer of hope in my eyes at this point that all would be well with my penny bowl but alas she was never meant to be…
Again, here is the bowl..er…sculpture of pennies that just sagged and appeared to be melting until it finally came to rest.
Christine has a video on her blog of the moment she pulled it out of the mold and it is a little bit hilarious watching it melt. But she is just so cute about it makes you say awwww!
I think that this is a really cool project that would totally work if you used something more rigid than Mod Podge, maybe some sort of clear epoxy?
I loved everything about this fail submitted by Dani, and instead of paraphrasing her post, you just need to click over and read it, it is super funny.
Tomorrow I am featuring my favorite DIY Gone Wrong submission (because it is TOTALLY something that I would have done.)
These are hilarious! Very inspiring. Maybe I’ll make another craft fail today and blog about it – way more fun to read! And thanks for sharing my stalker candle holders 😉
I LOVE these posts…they are so funny! Thanks for featuring my Penny Bowl Fail! I made onto the radio with my Chalk Paint Fail at https://www.letsgetcrafty.org/chalk-paint-fail/
…I guess I’m destined to be remembered by my failures! That’s cool.
Christine
Too bad about the trees! I have bleached many many many bottle brush trees and re-dyed them with RIT. It worked beautifully for me. I use the ones from Michaels in the sort of ridged plastic packaging. I bleach them for a while and then I rinse and bleach again. I used to use my stainless steel sink but we have a white cast iron sink now so I use a plastic tub.
I just looked at your picture again too. The only other difference I see is that I ALWAYS use only Clorox brand bleach. The original stuff. Not sure that would make a difference but it could I suppose.
Regarding the penny bowl…It didnt work because of the weight of the penny itself and the lack of strenght in modpodge. The weight of a button is a lot lighter, its plastic and it adheres to modpodge. Simple physics and chemistry at play. I had my share of DIY failures also. Boy, do i get it!! its just so frustrating!
I used Clorox bleach and it worked on the ones from Walmart a. Dollar store. I used Wilton food color to dye because I didn’t want to get out and buy rit dye. I have had some horrible Pinterest fails too lol
Glad to know all DIYers have! Lol
I have done the tree thing successfully! The trees DON’T bleach completely white but you can BUY them already white at JoAnns. The key is to use the correct dye. I purchased little packets of Cushing’s Perfection Dyes (made for synthetics) for other projects and they will dye these beautifully. They have like 94 colors to choose from too and the packages are inexpensive. I’ve also used those dyes to get GORGEOUS (but totally non-edible) Easter eggs in intense colors.
You gotta do a segment on all the recipes that look amazeballs but are nasty IRL. Srsly! Ha! Love this post, M!
These are too funny! And I ‘ve had the same thing happen to me at times with the bottle brush trees. The outcome depends on what material the “brush” is made out of….I bought trees at Hobby Lobby that bleached perfectly fine but I’ve also ordered some from the internet which just disintegrated into a slimy mess!
I haven’t laughed this hard in a awhile! Thanks for the expose!
I love the idea of a penny bowl! These posts are great. I’ve really enjoyed them!
That is to funny, those trees look so sad
Hi,
I just did a batch of trees. They turned really fast. Could it be the bleach you used? I used Clorox. I thought they were all equal but maybe not. I do mosaics all the time. I use the glue with a spot of hot glue to hold it until it dries. That works really well when doing round surfaces.
Now those Christmas trees made my night. I almost peed my pants!
SO glad I didn’t try the tree thing! I have been obsessed with bottle brush tress and debated ordering the natural sisal ones or trying to bleach cheap (readily available ones). Horrible 🙁
I wonder if the pennies are too heavy? Little plastic buttons would be so much lighter… But hey, fun post! I’ve got a couple fails myself.
Not sure if I’ve said this before but I’m loving this series! Oh the things we put ourselves through!
I’M SO GLAD SOMEONE FINALLY HAD THE NERVE TO POST ABOUT THEIR FAILS…AND HERE I THOUGHT I WAS THE ONLY ONE WHO MADE MESSES OUT OF SOME OF MY ATTEMPTS! IT EVEN MAKES ME HESITANT TO TRY TO DUPLICATE SOME OF THESE PROJECTS…THANK YOU FOR SHARING!
I’m so glad that I am not alone when failing to bleach bottle brush trees! My first two attempts ended up like yours. I used straight straight bleach and did nothing with one set of trees. The second set of disintegrated when I was rinsing the bleach away. I was about to give up but you know know what they say, third time is the charm! I mixed water with the bleach and low and behold the green disappeared! I wasted almost two bags of trees (they are not cheap up here in Canada) and my hands stunk of bleach for a few days. Thank you for having the guts to share your crafty messes with the rest of us!
Love these fails! And for a second there, I was hoping that the penny bowl would work.
And Dani is rad – I loved her candle holder post!
I just bleached bottle brush trees last week and they turned out great! You should always mix water into your bleach solution, because beach is too strong by itself. I learned this lesson in high school when I bleached a shirt that turned into rags. I put the trees in the bleach solution and let them sit in there until they finally bleached out – about 24 hours (as opposed to the 1-2 hours of the “fail” example). I did notice that each tree bleached differently, and absorbed the dye differently. So if you love them, don’t give up. Mine actually turned out cute!
I’ve just had some much needed laughs! Thank you for sharing!!
I’m laughing so hard! I should’ve submitted this one before, but I’m still gonna’ send it in case you get some extra time (bwahahahaha yeah right) to read it! https://sarahtunes.wordpress.com/2013/09/12/pinterest-said-to-have-napkins-ready-frankly-id-like-to-express-my-dispinterest/
Check out Ashley’s trees: https://ashleyannphotography.com/blog/
I just tried the trees tonight. There is not much left of my package of four from Hobby Lobby. They look like like an over bleached, over permed head of hair falling out:(
I will try again and watch closer this time. Oh and dilute with water. And not put a top on the container (to keep all pets out of the bleach. It actually got HOT)
I realize that this an old thread, but it is Christmas once again…I had not laughed this hard in ages. I had tears coming out! Needless to say I will not be trying this. ?