Please don't DIY: Pinterest fails

lifestyle

October 10, 2013

This article was published more than 2 years ago.

Est. Reading Time: 2 minutes

Tobi Abdul
The Silhouette

Pinterest can turn even the most un-creative person into a craftsman extraordinaire. Pretty snapshots and relatively simple instructions gives off the impression that anything is possible and everything is easy.

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Soon after making an account, you find yourself spending hours looking at DIY crafts and recipes, vowing to try every single one. And as much as everything seems extremely doable, there are some pins you shouldn't waste your time trying.

1. Cute Baby Pictures

Whether you want to admit it or not, we have all scrolled through the endless family photos on Pinterest, ooh-ing and aah-ing where appropriate and vowing to do the same when we have our own kids. Please don't. As much you may want to stick your kid, sibling, cousin, or any other baby in a pumpkin and take their picture, please refrain from doing so. In theory, this picture is adorable. In actuality, this is one of the worst projects ever. Babies aren't the easiest models to work with. They cry, squirm, and don’t function well when stuck into things that limit mobility- especially when said things are gooey and slimy. How do you even fit them in there? Short of sedating the baby, I don't see this working at all. Save yourself (and the kid) the frustration and wasted time. Just accept that you are never going to get your children stacked on top of one another, or wrapped up in Christmas lights, or looking gleeful as they're being tossed into the air. Just stick to a Wal-Mart studio, florescent lights, and Photoshop.

2. Decorated Treats

It's easy to forget how artistically challenged I am when looking at all the pretty pictures of decorated pastries on Pinterest. But once I attempted to make my own rainbow cake in a jar, I realized that these "easy treats" aren't easy. At all.

Maybe if you have a Fine Arts degree from OCAD or a baking diploma from George Brown, but what I ended up with was a jar of brown looking goop. There are so many creative food ideas on Pinterest that seem very doable: spaghetti through hot dogs, s'mores inside a cookie, but they are all big fat lies. All you'll get is a high calorie plate of disappointment and sadness. Stick to the roast chickens and pastas and leave the creative baking to the professional moms of Pinterest.

3. Sharpie Cups

As a Christmas present, I decided to make all my friends personalized mugs. There were tons of Sharpie decorated cups floating around the Pinterest-sphere so I thought it'd be easy enough. The markers were streaky but after a while, I finished my design and baked it in the oven. The heat caused the marker to run and smudge and the cup burnt around the edges. It wasn't too bad and I fixed the smudged marker and gave it to my friends. I made one for myself and after one wash, all the sharpie had faded and some was beginning to wipe off. It's not really "permanent" it's more like "permanent as long as you don't use the cup for cup-like things".