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| Pinterest experiment butterfly snack bags, harder to make than it looks. |
From the pictures, you might think…that’s pretty cute! But let me tell you, making these snacks for Lila’s 4 year old VPK class today was anything but easy. Well for me at least. I must completely lack normal adult gross motor skills…because I totally and completely suck at Pinterest.
When I saw it was Lila’s snack day this week I thought, hmmmm maybe I can do what my Facebook friend Nadia did for her daughter. Here’s what they looked like. I mean they are cute little butterfly snack bags, how hard can it be? I even messaged Nadia to see how long it took her…only 30 minutes. Ok, totally doable. Plus I won’t get sucked into the Pinterest vortex looking for ideas online, and come out 4 hours later exhausted, overwhelmed and feeling totally inadequate as a mother. Because that’s what Pinterest does to me.
And seriously, how hard can it be to paint some clothes pins, glue on some googly eyes and pipe cleaners, and clip on to a bag…right? Plus Lila loves art…she can totally do this without me.
Yep, that’s what I thought. Until 30 seconds into the project Emy painted all over my brand new Vince shirt. Thanks babe! Pink too, my favorite. I have to say though Lila did a tremendous job painting them.
But being the perfectionist that I am, I waited for them to dry and painted the backs too. And the underneath part. Why? No clue. I seriously have issues. There goes the 30 minutes allotted for this “quick” snack project. Took longer than anticipated….obviously!
Next up it’s the googly eyes. Lila will loves this! Uh, not so much. She was distracted, bored, and the eyes were too small…so I had to do it. After of course she dropped the bag of eyes and they spilled all over the floor…not once but twice.
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| Minions? |
Elapsed time: 1 hour. And counting.
Lila totally loved drawing the faces on them…for like 3 whole minutes! Next up was the pipe cleaners for the antennas. The kids did enjoy this part, cutting and twisting the pipe cleaners. And hitting each other with them. Unfortunately though, the Elmers Glue wasn’t holding.
Maybe I should have actually read the instructions, but I’m so impatient who really has the time for that?! So I used the hot glue gun. Because hot glue guns are totally appropriate for small kids. And we came literally within an eighteenth of a millimeter of Emylia (21 months) almost burning her little toddler hand off. She’s an octopus and can reach anything…anywhere…seriously like Inspector Gadget.
Elapsed time: 90 minutes.
The kids are now screaming for dinner, so I quickly hot glued the pipe cleaners on. Worked like a charm! As I was serving dinner though I thought…uh oh. What if the hot glue actually glued the clothes pin together. No…that couldn’t possibly happen….
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| Oops! Glued the little guys together…. |
But it did. Only on a few though….and my hubby pried them open this morning. I have to say though, they worked out pretty well, looked cute, and my daughter and her class loved the snack. So much so that the kids all wanted to keep their butterfly clip. Was it worth the 2 hours off and on it took us to make them? Nope. Will I do it again? Maybe…when I forget about this project. But I did learn a few valuable lessons from my first big pinterest experiment:
1. Wear old clothes.
2. They’re kids, who cares if they are perfect? (hard for this perfectionist to swallow…baby steps)
3. Remember art projects are fun, and messes happen. Just be prepared for the cleanup.
4. You are not a bad mom if you just buy Teddy Grahams on snack day.
5. I’m not the only one that sucks at Pinterest. Check out the pintester. This website makes me feel a WHOLE lot better…and she makes me laugh. A ton. Thanks for sharing your fails! And she’s letting us join her movement.
Though I love perusing pinterest, and finding a bazillion creative ideas…I am simply not a pinterest mom. I just don’t have the time or patience. And you know what? I’m totally ok with that.
I think they turned out super cute…though after 45 minutes I probably would have given up. Way to be dedicated. I also love that you involved your daughter in the project.
Have a good Monday.
Cherin // masterfullyme.com
You could do it! Thanks, and I checked out your site…so have to try the Pomegranite project…someday.
Adorable! I actually remember my mom coming into my preschool class and doing a similar project with us, except instead of snacks they just pinched together colored paper for the wings. Very cute 🙂 Check out my blog to see my Pintester submission!
Thank you! Love your site design, and food looks amazing!
These are adorable! Crafts with kids are always longer and messier. As long as you had fun with them it is all worth it.
Thank you! Loved your purple shoes btw…you are braver than I. What’s modge podge?!
Those are so cute, and you win the Patient Mom prize. I think I would have given up long before that. 🙂 And isn’t it sweet that they all loved it? Makes it a little more worth it!
Thx for the love…love. I can’t wait to tell my hubby your patient mom comment…hopefully he won’t keel over from laughter! Thanks for inspiring us — and proving it’s ok to fail. At least at Pinterest.
They do look adorable! Congrats for persevering though to the end, despite ruined shirts and dropped googley eyes =)
Thank you!
Those are super adorable! I did a similar project in kindergarten, I love it!
~Megan
Gracias! Wait, when you were in kindergarten?
I totally would have painted the whole clip too (and know I would have run into the exact same issues you did!). They turned out so cute though and all that matters is that the kids enjoyed them. What a way to brighten a snack!
Glad I found another mom who gets the painting the underneath part!
Actually got a LOL out of me at the antenna glue gun part (my experiences with glue guns this week pin testing won you that laugh). Awesome job. They are so cute… and as a former art teacher, I applaud your tenacity to continue after the eyes had been dropped a second time.
Thanks! Not so great with the glue gun. Must peruse more of your site!
For some reason I love the idea of you telling someone this story and someone else overhearing you talking about eyeballs falling all over the floor, TWICE. Sorry they took so incredibly long, but they really did come out cute!
Lol! True…that would be good. Thanks for reading!
Super cute. I totally don’t do any crafts with glue. I end up glued to everything…even myself. Great job.
yes, who knew glue could be so dangerous?!
You are not alone in your perfectionist tendencies. I often find myself screaming in my own head “OMG, NO ONE WILL CARE BUT YOU!” And then I spend another 30 minutes tweaking whatever it is until it’s perfect. The clips turned out really cute, and congrats for not injuring yourself with the hot glue gun. I’ve never used mine without ending up with self-induced minor burns.
It’s kismet Heather, finally someone that understands my OCD perfectionism Thanks for not judging, and reading!
These are super, super cute! And there is no way in hell I would do it with my kids, because I am NOT a patient mom and would so not win that award, lol! You have my admiration!
Please don’t misunderstand, I suck at patience! But I didn’t give up…this time at least. 🙂
I’d have given up before I started, so well done for actually getting it done! They’re adorable too!
Those are freaking awesome! And go you for attempting those WITH kids! My 2 boys are similar ages AND NO WAY IN HELL would I attempt it with them hahaha Totally agree on the “pinterest vortex”…I’m really good at pinning, not so much on the execution:-)
Art projects are FUN! is totally my new mantra. They look great and you lasted a lot longer than I would have. I think I might have painted them and said, “Okay, good enough!”
Is it weird that I want to do this but I don’t have any children? Ill just make themed ones for my friends 🙂
I think they are adorable! Take it from a mom with grown children – those are the things they remember. “hey, remember when we made butterflies for snack day?”. Good on you!