Tutorial Tuesday #9: Bridesmaid Totebags

I am so excited I can finally sit down and blog again. I am also super excited I get to share my first tutorial in forever today! I still have a lot of wedding projects that I never got to share, so don’t be surprised if that’s what most of my tutorials are for a while. Oh, and Christmas crafts. 

Today I want to share with you one of my favorite projects from the wedding. And funny, it wasn’t even a decoration. These were actually my bridesmaids’ gifts.I made a lot of handmade things for my gifts to try to keep it cheap. Because let's be honest, weddings are a rip-off. 

How I did it was really easy but a little time consuming. 

Here's what you need to make your own tote bag

Supplies:

Blank linen tote bag (Hobby Lobby)

Fabric Paints or Acrylic Paints (In whatever colors your heart desires) and Fabric Medium

Masking Tape

Ruler

Freezer Paper

Cricut or X-acto knife and Monogram Template

Foam Brushes

Instructions

1. I taped my bags front and back to make stripes. I used my ruler to help guide where I put the tape and I made my stripes an inch long. You could do any pattern you wanted really, but stripes seemed easiest to me. *Also, make sure you put paper inside of the bag to keep the paint from bleeding through.

2. I mixed 1 part fabric medium and 1 part acrylic paint (brown) and painted my stripes. I ended up doing two to three layers. But be careful, because the tape likes to buckle once you start painting. 

3. After the stripes dried, I took all the tape off. 

4. To make my monogram, I used the same technique as in my Muggle T-shirts and my Keep Calm T-shirts. 

5. I tied a large ribbon around each of them and a stamped "handmade for you" label. 

6. I filled the tote bags with a homemade pumpkin body scrub (recipe found here), a pair of brown flip flops, a hanger I made for each of them, and a makeup bag I had monogrammed with each of their initials. The makeup bag had some of my favorite things in it. Examples - Lipgloss, Essie nail polish, sunglasses (the ones we wore in the pictures), nail polish remover, a small candle, and some other stuff I can't remember. 

And there you have it. My bridesmaid totes. And just for the record, these would be great gifts for any occasion! Not just weddings ;) Hope everyone had a great Tuesday!

Tuesday Tutorial #7: Upcycled Sandals

Today's tutorial was very much inspired by a shopping trip. The other day I was out looking for wedding shoes at Macy's. But, being the shoe fanatic I am, I obviously got side-tracked by all the other cute shoes. I came across these flip flops and wanted to try them on. 

 [source]

Sadly, they didn't have my size. And truth be told, I didn't have the money. Even if they were on sale. So I went about my hunt for wedding shoes. And didn't find those there either. Although, I did end up finding some later. But that's irrelevant. I got home and it hit me that I had some super old T-strap sandals that I hadn't worn in a while and I had fabric to make some bows. So, using a technique I had used before, I set out to make my own version of these sandals. Here's how mine turned out.

I obviously could never take photos for Macy's online shoe department. But whatever. I think they turned out well, despite the dirty label and visible foot print from being worn so much.

Here's what I used and how I did it

Old T-straps
Fine glitter
ModPodge
Paint brush
E-6000 glue
Fabric

First, I mixed together a little ModPodge and about half of the bottle of Martha Stewart glitter into a small bowl.  I then painted on four coats of the mixture and let each coat dry in between.

While the coats of the ModPodge mixture were drying, I made my bows using the same tutorial I used for my bow shoe clips.  Once all my coats had dried and my bows were made, I used a little E6000 to adhere the bows to the front. And viola! My own version of the Macy's sandals. I think they turned out rather charming (even if they are a little beat up!) 

Well, that's all I have for today! Hope everyone has had a wonderful Tuesday. Thanks for stopping by! :)

Tutorial Tuesday #1

So, I've decided to try a weekly theme to help me stay motivated to update my blog and give it a little more organization. It may also help me branch out and post about things other than just crafts. I mainly hope this helps when school starts back in August. But for now, I don't want to think about school. As you can see, today is my first "theme" - Tutorial Tuesdays. Since this was kind of a spur the moment idea, today's tutorial isn't anything special. In fact, I've actually already done it before with my Muggle T-shirts. 

The BFF and I spent the last 2 weeks of school before summer making and re-making our summer bucket lists. We're slightly crazy, we know. The biggest thing on our bucket list was crafting, crafting, and more crafting. (Remember the last item on my summer bucket list post?) Mainly because we spent so much of our study time whining about how we would rather be crafting. So, here's to getting it out of our system. 

After deciding our whole summer would be spent crafting, we also decided we needed appropriate T-shirts for the occasion. Why? Because we are super duper cool. That's why. See?

We got the inspiration from all of the "Keep Calm" posters always seen on Pinterest and in the blog world and used the same technique as my Muggle shirts I made for the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 premiere.  We were actually able to find and downloaded the Keep Calm font. I then used my Cricut and the Sure Cuts a Lot software I have on my computer. The only problem with this is that the SCAL only works with the hardware on the Cricut Personal (the first one ever made). Although, this was much easier than printing it out and cutting the font with an X-acto knife, the X-acto knife method will still work, but will require much more patience. Then we ironed the words on and went to painting.

And these were our final results!

I think we are all set to craft away the summer. What do you think?

Happy Tuesday!!

DIY Painted Striped Shirt

Long time no blog.  Yeah yeah, sorry sorry. Yesterday marked 6 months until the wedding and lately, that's all I've had on my mind. I've also been way less focused on school, which will probably take its toll during my GI final this coming Friday. I will be SO GLAD when this module is over. Needless to say, I haven't enjoyed it as much as the previous two. It's just....too much stuff. However, my two patient interactions this module were awesome. And probably the only reason I haven't completely burnt out yet. It's so amazing to me how every person has a different story to tell. Granted, a medical history isn't necessarily the most happiest of stories, but it's still really cool to hear each one. 

But enough of the sentimental blogging. 

I've been working on quite a few projects for the wedding (and the blog) but I either haven't completely finished one to show it to you, or its a gift that I can't show you until the wedding is over. So, today's post is a random spur of the moment project I saw pop up in the craft blog world and I wanted to take my own shot at it. As you've already learned from the title, it's a painted striped T-shirt. 

I thought this was the coolest idea. I wish I could share the original idea with you, but I just saw it one day scrolling through Pinterest. So, instead I'll just give you my own tutorial.

Supplies:

 

Plain white T-shirt

Fabric paint*

Foam paintbrush

Masking tape

*I used acrylic paint mixed with a textile medium to make it fabric paint

How To:

 Use your masking tape to make stripes down the shirt. I used a ruler to make sure they were the same width all the way across. I also put a strip of masking tape vertically on each side. (But I didn't get a picture of this). I did this because I only wanted my stripes only go across the front. 

Before you begin painting, make sure to put some scrap paper inside of the shirt so the paint doesn't end up bleeding through to the other side.  Then, dab on your paint with the foam brush until each stripe is covered. I decided to alternate my colors.

 Let the paint dry and slowly peel off each piece of tape. 

And now you have a new piece of clothing in your wardrobe. :)

 Or at least a new, cute, pajama shirt?

It needs something...like a necklace. Or another stripe. 

I promise it's not a crooked as it looks. ;)

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Muggle T-Shirts

It is the day I (along with everyone else) have been waiting years for. 

Tonight is the premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part Two

That's it.  Then its all over.

The most epic book/movie sequence of my generation.

No more midnight premieres.

No more jumping in my car and heading to the theater as soon as tickets go on sale.

No more standing in line 3 hours at the theater before the movie actually starts.

No more dressing up in my best Hogwarts related attire.

Its quite sad, really. (Said in my best Hermione accent.)

However, I couldn't be more excited to see this movie.

That leads me to today's DIY project:

Muggle T-shirts

My sister and I made T-shirts the last premeire as well, but instead of using the iron-on letters this time, I decided to take a different approach to make them look more Harry Potter like.

What you'll need:

Black T-shirt

White Fabric Paint

Foam Paint Brush

Freezer Paper

Exacto Knife

Self-Healing Mat

Iron

"Muggle" print out (I used the Harry P font that I found here)

**My font size was 375 for a size Small t-shirt

Step 1- Cut out your stencil

Place the print out on the self-healing mat, and place the freezer paper over the print out.

Make sure the shiny side of the freezer paper is down.

Then, carefully cut the outline of the word with your exacto knife.

Don't forget to cut the holes in the g's and the e!

Step 2- Prep your shirt

Place a clean piece of freezer paper inside your shirt, shiny side up.

I also put a piece of cardboard underneath the paper, but I don't think this is really necessary.

Smooth out any wrinkles on the shirt.

Step 3- Iron on the stencil

Position your stencil cut-out where you want

Gently iron down your stencil

About 15 seconds is all this takes

Step 4- Paint

Lightly dab your fabric paint onto the stencil.

I just used a small, cheap foam brush for this part and I only used 2 coats of paint.

Step 5- Let dry, then wear!

Tada! You're finished. How easy was that?

Now put on your best muggle smile and go watch some Harry Potter! :)

As for me, I am going to kick off my Harry Potter Party that I've been planning the past few days.

No worries though, Professor Trelawney wants you to know that there will be another blog post in the near future!