Hoot!

I'm sure lots of you crafty people have heard of using a freezer paper stencil to help paint a t-shirt. I've read several tutorials (here's one, and here's another) and knew I wanted to try it out. Once I knew the general jist of things, I sort of discarded all instructions and played it by ear.

First step was to get paint. I went to Hobby Lobby and was surprised to see a much smaller selection than I'd hoped for. They had TONS of puff paints, but I didn't want that texture in my finished product. The paint I would've purchased was $5/container... and I just didn't want to spend that much money. I ended up with what is actually screen-printing paint, for $2.99/container. Much better, and cooler colors to choose from. I also grabbed some generic craft/glue brushes. My brushes were $1.50 for six, so about $.25 apiece... I guess it's not as great of a craft to me if it costs a significant amount of money, so I like to keep things inexpensive.

I really thought I had freezer paper at home but alas, all I had was waxed paper. Not the same. SO, my second trip out was to WalMart, where I found a massive $5 roll of the stuff. They must have been out of generic and smaller rolls, because I didn't notice a cheaper option.

I created a "Jesus Loves Me" design back at my house and printed it out on normal paper (I wondered if it would be possible to just print directly to the freezer paper... maybe I'll experiment with that another day). I then transferred this design onto the freezer paper by tracing first with a pencil, and then second with an exacto knive to create a stencil. Make sure that your design is face up on the matte side of the freezer paper. You want to be able to iron the stencil to your tshirt before you paint, which means glossy side should be down.

The cutting out of my design took the longest, maybe because I don't have the steadiest hands or maybe because I've never done this before, but more than likely because I was eating Ben and Jerry's ice cream at the same time.... now that, my friends, is multi-tasking. Once I was satisfied with my stencil, I ironed it onto the onesie I was decorating. I made sure to put a piece of cardboard between the layers of the tshirt first, so that I could be ready to paint right away.

I painted in my stencil carefully. It would have been easy to tear off a piece of the freezer paper with my cheapo brush, even though it was ironed on. It was best to paint inwards toward the center of the design. Another thing I'll do next time is use a different brush for each color. Rinsing brought extra water and you'll see in my final product that it may have been what caused the bleeding. A crisper design could be attained with a more dry brush.

After the paint dried - the tube said 24 hours, but I decided overnight was long enough (I've heard that it's OK to use a hairdryer to speed up this step) - I  just peeled off the freezer paper to reveal a neat design! I had been worried that the freezer paper would leave some kind of residue on the t-shirt, but it didn't! The smaller pieces (like the white spots on the "e"s) needed the help of an exacto knife to come off. Last step: use a rag between the iron and the paint to heat set the design.

That's all she wrote!! I had so much fun making this. I have four more onesies and already have an idea for my second freezer-paper craft :)

Edit:

 Here's my second onesie! I love the way this one turned out. I wish the circle border had come out better, but hey, it's pretty cool anyway.

Alphabet Flash Cards

I snagged this idea recently from Homemade by Jill.

I created flash cards on Microsoft Publisher by creating a booklet - much easier to set up the margins and page size in this program than in Microsoft Word. This way, when I print out the booklet, I'll have two pages per sheet and only one cut to make per page. In Word, I always end up having to measure and trim once or twice to get whatever size I want.

Jill's flashcards use clip art. I've incorperated some photos into mine. Here are a few:



Jill shared her flash cards on her site, or, if you'd like a copy of my file, I'd be happy to email it to you.

Silhouette

I've been working on a mini-scrapbook for Elana's first Iowa State fair trip and came across a profile shot of her from our visit to the Huxley Farmer's Market a couple weeks ago. I decided to skip tonight's page of the State Fair scrapbook and make a quick silhouette instead, using the picture I'd found.

First thing was to cut out Elana's head - this was harder than I'd imagined, because I wanted to get the curls of her hair in back onto the final product. I switched to a razor about halfway through for a bit more fine-detail control.

Next, I laid the photo face down onto the cardstock I'd decided to use, a blue textured piece. After straightening it out so the base of the photo would be level, I traced around the photo. Then, a second cut around with the razor, this time to create the shape in the blue paper.... and I immediately realized I'd have to do change my method.

In my do-over, I traced the outline of the photo onto the back of the blue cardstock. This way, if I followed with my razor on the line (as opposed to just inside it) the line wouldn't show on the final piece, and my cardstock copy would be more true-to-shape.




 Here you can see the original photo, my first (unsuccessful) attempt at a traced/cut image on the cardstock, and my second attempt in the works - the traced shape on the white/back of the cardstock.

Once the shape was cut out on the blue cardstock, the rest was easy-peasy-meat and cheesy. (ha). Pasted the blue cardstock onto the orange floral paper I'd chosen, and stuck it in the frame! Most useful tool was definitely my new paper-cutter! Best 12 bucks I've spent on a craft item, hands down. Want to change an 8"x8" piece of paper into a 5"x7"? NO PROBLEM! Presto changeo.



Forgive the glare on the glass!

I am so happy with such a simple thing!! Hope you like it too. I've seen these done with traditional paper choices, and I've seen wrapping paper used, too. Just some ideas :)

Blue Mason Jar

Elana and I went garage-saling this morning on a whim, and we found tons of great stuff.

I am now the proud owner of a punch bowl - and lemme tell ya, that's been a long time comin'! I love to entertain and host/throw parties so I seem to always be borrowing punch bowls or using (not as pretty) pitchers. This was only $5 and better still, my purchases will help fund missions trips for Christian Veterinary Missions - cool! Because I've been there, you should all know that this new punch bowl will always be available for you to borrow.

My best find of the day was at the Bethesda Lutheran Church, where they asked for donations to benefit Good Neighbor Emergency Assistance. I found a very sad, dirty mason jar with no lid. It has a blue tint to it and a rusted-out wire 'handle' of sorts attached to the neck. I rescued it, and after a good cleaning and a few twists of the pliers to get rid of the rusty wire, it has a new home in my downstairs bathroom. It's days like today that I'm glad I've hung on to my bottle brush! I don't have a before picture, but here is what it looks like now:

I also got a chance to run into Miss Laura Logsdon, who is heavily involved with the Volunteer Center of Story County and whom I went to high school with! She seems to be doing great, and helped me buy a back/chair pillow thing for Elana's reading corner. Proceeds from this donation sale went to - you guessed it - the Volunteer Center of Story County! I love that these three sales were for good causes. Two birds with one stone, as they say!

Yellow Casserole

A couple weeks ago I grabbed a couple yellow squash (squashes?) with little to no idea as to how to cook them. Today I decided I was sick of looking at them sitting on top of my bread box, and decided to check out my favorite recipe website, www.allrecipes.com for some ideas. I found this recipe and decided to give it a shot. Keep in mind that I'm not from a squash- OR creamed corn-eating family :)

Here's a little before pic of all the ingredients. The recipe called for a 9x9 pan, but I think this 8.5x6.5x2 is much prettier :)


After reading a few of the reviews I decided to follow the advice and pan-cook the veggies before adding them. While I cut onions I kept hearing Chef Ramsey saying "NOT GOOD ENOUGH!" hahaha. Don't worry, my self-esteem is not affected by my ability to chop onions. So, I got my onion in the pan of melted butter and went to add the squash... wait... how the heck do you cut these things?! Enter helpful website number two: www.recipetips.com, where I found this page. Needless to say, I took the onions off the heat while I studied.

Okay! The rest of the recipe was a matter of combine and stir. First photo is the mixed recipe in the pan, and on the bottom, golden brown and finished baking. In the words of Paula Deen, "Does that look to suit ya'll?"

DELICIOUS! A must try, guys! I will say that next time I'll probably lay the veggies in the pan and pour the remaining ingredients on top so that there's veggies in every bite. Now, this is a side, and I'm not sure what I'll eat as an entree with it. Probably PB and honey on wheat. Fancy tastes, I know.

I can, however, tell you what I WON'T be having for dessert: 5 Minute Microwave Chocolate Cake. I've been reading the blog New Dress A Day and Marisa, the author, featured this recipe on Sunday (the 15th). This recipe came out tasting... like a cake made in a microwave. It would probably be better with some ice cream, but I mean, really, what ISN'T better with ice cream? I highly recommend the blog. She's on Wordpress.com, so you have to do your following by email, but it's worth it :)