You know those “nailed it” memes floating around the web, where people try something they found on Pinterest and have a complete fail? If you have any doubts about how often this happens, check out Pinterest Fail or do a quick google search by the same name. Some of these are HILARIOUS. But it’s easy to laugh at someone else’s pain…

Until it’s you.

I’ve had my share of projects that didn’t exactly go as planned, or ones that I’ve had to really pull out the stops to save. But I lead a relatively craft-charmed life, really. I’m not trying to be cocky. A combination of dumb luck and excessive preparation for new tasks usually leads to a positive result.

Imagine my horror when the simple idea of using a cut lemon as a stamp turned into this:

testing fruit stamp on paper

WHA??? WHY??

The acid of the citrus literally repelled the paint and made it chunky and weird.

fruit stamp fail

Seriously, I have no idea how other people have successfully done this. I’m just glad I tested on paper first before ruining a perfect and unsuspecting tea towel.

I was able to get a few decent stamps – mostly by accident – but I was about to throw in the towel (probably would have done the towel a favor) on this when an idea hit me: maybe if I coated the surface with something to seal it, it could work. So I got out my trusty Mod Podge and gave that a go.

modge podge for fruit stamps

This was really a long shot…and by the looks of it immediately upon application, also a fail. But I let the lime sit overnight to dry. I walked past my dried up citrus project dozens of times over the next few day, glaring at the cut fruit like a betrayal. Et tu, fructus?

All I wanted was a summery dish towel! Much to my surprise, the Mod Podge did help. It wasn’t perfect, but I’ll take it.

lemon fruit stamp

Let’s not look so closely.

fruit stamped tea towel

It’s more like an abstract interpretation of citrus.

citrus stamped dish towel

What do you think? Fail-worthy? Passable? Have you ever attempted the citrus stamp?

 

4 Responses

  2. Melissa

    I usually love your posts but I get the feeling this was an old draft you’ve been holding on to. I could be wrong but wasn’t this your kitchen in the home you sold months ago?

    Reply
  3. Melissa

    Please forgive my prior comment. I was confused with your post and another blog post that I saw recently. Your kitchen is almost identical with this other person’s former kitchen and you both attempted the same craft idea! Again, so sorry about that!

    Reply

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