By show of hands, how many times have we seen something on Pinterest, attempted to emulate it, and wound up with a product that was nothing like what you saw? They've even coined a phrase for this specific phenomenon - the "Pinterest Fail". This happens to me every Christmas season when I see something that I absolutely must do like bake the perfect Christmas wreath cake or attempt hand felted tree ornaments. There's just something about trying to make cute things as Christmas gifts (and waiting until December to do them) that almost guarantees it won't work out the way you planned. Yet, every year, we have the bright idea to do homemade gifts. 

I'm normally a very crafty person and can whip up many a Pinterest-looking thing out of my craft box (sidebar, my craft box is now a craft armoire, and almost every weekend my husband asks me what can be thrown away...NOTHING EVER...not even the dried up paint pens!). There have even been multiple occasions where my Pinterest adventures have involved my husband's, my dad's, and my father-in-law's tools, handiness, and woodshed resources to achieve the most "Pinterest Perfect" product. Sometimes we're successful, like our really cool floating shelves that sit below our tv on an awkward sized wall. Sometimes, we fail so hard we trash the thing and start over, like our queen-sized headboard that turned out to be more like a king-sized headboard that we completely forgot about using stainable wood glue on. The big yellow blobs oozing out are such a homey, rustic touch. 

In my many years of Pinterest attempts, I've found that the key to success with anything you're after is a well-laid out plan. Whether it's a furniture piece, baked goods, or a crocheted diaper cover, the difference maker between "Pinterest Fail" and "Pinterest Perfect" is a plan that reads like a recipe. If you're following someone else's plan, it needs to clearly lay out your ingredients/materials (bonus points if they tell you where to find them, too!), give a basic timeline, then dive into the details of how to get from A to Z. It's also SUPER important that you read the plan all the way through. Sometimes, you get surprised with "refrigerate overnight" or "cure for 24 hours" when you didn't read the plan to the end and thought you were about to cart this baked good off to a friend's house! 

With our undeniable love for Pinterest, we are always happy when a client comes to us with an idea they found on Pinterest. We're also even happier when we have to room to put our own spin on and personal touches on the outcome. Recently, one of our darling clients was looking for a way to capture her son around his 5th birthday in a way that would show his personality well without being too trendy. She scoured Pinterest until she found this awesome idea: black and white photos of her son on a plain background with some of his favorite toys and prized possessions to be printed as engineered prints and framed as decor on his walls. YES! We were SO on board for this! 

We got the shoot set up, got the birthday boy and his items in studio to be shot, and started chatting about getting these photos up the walls the way she saw in the Pinterest post. Two major things we learned in that moment of planning how to finish what we started: engineered prints are massive size (20"x30") prints of photos you get at Costco or Kinko's, and purchasing frames that large is either impossible or crazy pricey. Enter my love for the DIY and the ladies behind Shanty-2-Chic. Do you know about Shanty-2-Chic? Prepare to fall in love...

Meet the missing piece to our puzzle, Shanty-2-Chic's detailed DIY plans for making your own engineered print size frames: https://www.shanty-2-chic.com/2016/05/diy-engineer-print-frame.html 

These plans are detailed with your list of materials, your basic timeline, your step-by-step instructions, AND pictures! It's the perfect plan to get a giant framed picture up on your wall. Estimated materials cost is less than $20 and the 20x30 engineered print is $10 at Costco. If you want to add in the cost of the photo session, you're looking at coming in right around $200, which is still less than it costs just to frame something at Hobby Lobby! This Pinterest inspired option really is the way to go! Best part about this Pinterest project is that you can start and finish it in one weekend - and I only say weekend because you'll want to let the stain dry overnight so it's not sticky or stinky. 

This method of printing and framing photos is so easy and cost-effective, it's a great way to DIY some of your holiday decor as well - those cute PDFs you pay $5 to download from artists on Etsy can also be printed oversized as engineered prints and framed in this same manner. There's really no reason not to try this! Find a fun picture or artist print you'd love blow up to a 20" x 30" and head to the hardware store for materials. If you do it, send us a pic!

- Emma