Pinterest Challenge Update: Two Projects Done!

This week I really got in the mood to work on some crafty projects and then it just sort of took over. I've been missing this part of my creative life, and so I've really enjoyed trying to get it back again, using Trish's Pinterest Challenge as an excuse.

Source: designspongeonline.com via Suey on Pinterest

The first project we did was the Calendar Journal. I first saw this when Kailana of The Written World posted about it here. You can also find out about it here on the original post. The idea is to take index cards and date them for each day of the year, then use old postcards to divide them into months. Then each day you write something you did that day, labeling it by the year. So after many years, your index cards will be full of stuff you did on that particular day for all those years. Make sense?

Anyway, I thought it would be a good project to do with the girls, and they agreed! But I must say, we took the idea and totally changed it up. Here's what we ended up doing:

We decided we wanted more permanent sturdy containers for the cards, so we went to Hobby Lobby and ended up with these tin boxes with handles, which we then painted and sticker-ed up. Then, we got stacks of both white and colored index cards (which we didn't cut in half as suggested in the original instructions) and divvied them up between us. Then, instead of using postcards, we decided to create our own month dividers. My 13 year old daughter created them using google images and photoshop. I just picked a handful of pictures from our files and got them printed. Then we laminated them. Also, instead of using a date stamp for all the index cards, we just sat and hand wrote the dates on them all while we watched TV one night!

The supplies: white tin box, stickers and stacks of cards.
Cost: Tin boxes: $6.50
Stickers: $3.00
Cards: $3.00
Printing of photo dividers: $2.00

Here's Toto painting her box.

This is how the cards fit into the box... perfect!

Toto's finished box.

Toto creating her monthly dividers on Photoshop.

Here she is writing the dates on the crads.

JJ finally joined us and is putting stickers on hers. She didn't paint it.

Here's my finished box, vintage style.

JJ and Toto show off their boxes.

JJ's finished box.

Here's what our divider cards look like... Toto has the monthly themed ones,
I just have random fun pictures. JJ has yet to make hers.

Here's what it looks like with the dividers and a couple of example cards.

We had a great time doing this together, and I hope we can all keep up with writing our one thing down each day, for years to come!
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Source: annies-eats.com via Suey on Pinterest

The second thing I did from my Pinterest board was make this for dinner one night. It's called Black Bean Lasagna, and the family enjoyed it, but they did say, "It tastes very healthy." So you can take that however you'd like! (Here's the original link to the recipe.)

The casserole in progress... bean mixture, canned tomatoes, grated cheese, lasagna noodles and salsa.

What it looked like all put together before cooking....

.... and after cooking.

I currently have projects three and four in progress, so I'll save those to report on when they are done! But one of them has to do with quilting! Wahoo! I can't wait to show you!

How's your crafty projects coming along?