2 Back to School DIY T-shirt projects!!

So....I took the entire summer off from blogging. It has been wonderful but I am glad to be back.  And since my kids start school next Tuesday I have a project list forever long that I am dying to get to. These next two projects for back to school are more of my Pinterest finds. How did I ever survive before Pinterest?
 

 
The first is a DIY painted stripe T-shirt. All I needed was a plain white T, some painters or masking tape and basic acrylic craft paint. I choose neon because I am on a neon kick right now.

Lay your shirt as flat as you can and don't forget to line the inside of the shirt with wax paper or in my case an old plastic IKEA cutting board. (so that the paint does not leak through to the back side)

Next place your tape to desired stripe length. I just made sure mine got progressively closer together.

 

**TIP- I used pieces of tape that were long enough at the ends to attach it to the table. This kept my shirt secure and stable while I painted it.**

 

The rest is easy. Paint. Let Dry. Peel off tape.

 

Super cute trendy shirt that cost under $10.00.

 

This next project did not go so well.
It's a Watermark Tee and it did work, but it was also a for sure my "tester" and I'll tell you why...THE GLUE. That darn glue. I was suppose to use the BLUE Gel glue you find in stores, only I could not find it anywhere!! So I used the next best thing which was the clear Gel glue. And technically it totally worked (dye wise) but the letters bleed together everywhere so much that you can't even read what I wrote. Not to mention that because it is clear...I had a hard time reading my own writing when I was putting it on.

I'll give you the quick tutorial anyways because it does work you just have to really make the glue come out in a thin line.

Start with a plain white T,  BLUE Gel glue, and a small bottle of RIT dye. Choose a quote, or a lyric or a saying you love to write on the shirt in glue.

I choose to write the word Love in as many languages as I could...but you would never be able to tell looking at it.

Next, let it dry completely. I let mine sit for over 24 hours. Then follow the directions on the back of the RIT dye container.

 

Voila! Another cute and creative shirt for Back to School!

Serious DVD makeover!

My dream is to walk into every single room of my home and every little thing has a place and is organized. Because it will be 17+ years before I have all my mess makers out of my house....I just like to dream. But when things start to look something like this:

...(a close replica of all of our family DVD's) then things have got to change.

Husband brought home a bunch of these awesome storage boxes and we got to work pulling DVD's out of their cases, put into sleeves, labeled and alphabetized.

.

.

When all was said and done. ALL of our massive collection fit nice and neat into these 2 boxes.

I'll tell you, I loved this project so much I went around the house looking for more things I could downsize.

I love it. My kids love it. Project 1 of 3,497----DONE!

Crap to Craft~nick name T-shirt

I didn't have a ton of time to put together a birthday present for one of my sons best friends so it was a little last minute. But I actually think is is one of my favorite gifts that I have ever made.

We went to the store and got him a fun little Nerf gun and I bought a plain white T-shirt.

I love thinking up projects for my Silhouette and I was determined to think of a gift idea for this little boy.

His name is Ryan, but in his family he is called by a bunch of cute nick names. His mom even wrote up a post about them all on her family blog so that's were I headed to find them.

Once I had them all saved I entered them into my program for my Silhouette and organized them all cute with different fonts.

Then all I had to do after they were cut out was set them where I wanted them and ironed them on.

Easy peasy and the birthday boy ended up LOVING it!

Crap to Craft~ shabby apple inspired skirt

**BTW, I have started a new summer project- HERE- and would love your help!:)**
.

Ok, first off I have to explain that this project DID NOT start off as "Crap" that's just the name of my refashion posts. We got that straightened out? Great, In fact, this project actually started out as a beautiful dress.

A beautiful dress given to me by my sweet friend Tiffany who made it a little small so she mistakenly thought that I was small enough to fit into it.

Not the case.

I apparently have what some would call Swimmers Shoulders and couldn't even put my arms through.

I didn't want this beautiful fabric to go to waste and I remembered this beautiful skirt I saw over at Shabby Apple and I had to make it!!

I cut the top off the dress. I totally reshaped the bottom turning it into a pencil skirt and....believe it or not....put in MY VERY FIRST ZIPPER!!!!

I can not tell you how excited I was. I have been sewing for about 6 years and have always been afraid of zippers till now. Dumb. I have missed out on a world of possibilities.

So this is the finished project:

I think I am in love!

Pretty darn close to the one at Shabby Apple and custom fit to my rear.

.



More zippered skirts are in my future. Love. LOVE them.

Crap to Craft- fun summer sandals

It's cold here. I had a swimsuit sent to me to review about a month ago (review and giveaway on that soon to come to Leelou) but it has been so windy and overcast here I haven't been able to get some sun on my pasty skin to take pictures in it.

I'M READY FOR THE SUN!!!

And to get me in the mood, I had to make some fun summer sandals for my girls. My mom made some of these the other day for them and I had to make more. I'll have to take pictures of the ones she made they are multicolored and fun for all the birthdays I have next month.

You start with a simple pair of flip flops.

Buy a pack of small water balloons and tie them on. You need 100 balloons for each shoe. I tied them twice to make sure they held.

They end up something like this:

You can pull and poke them to shape the way you want them. Adorable and the whole project cost $3.00!!!

Crap to Craft~ maternity shirt refashion

.

I have been organizing my closet and trying to downsize. So I came across a few shirts that I thought would be great to refashion into something for my girls. I was inspired by this adorable $40 skirt from JCrew.

I assure you this project does not even need a tutorial it is so self explanatory but here goes.

Oh, and because I despise doing tutorials this is the step I was on before I remembered to take a picture.

It was just a plain maternity Tee when I started out. I measured the length on my daughter to see where I wanted it to hit (plus a little over an inch for a casing) and cut the shirt straight across the top leaving the hem of the shirt as the bottom of the new skirt.

I grabbed some elastic and made a casing on the top of the shirt.

Wala....plain skirt done. But now I wanted to make it girly and nothing says girly better than ruffles. I didn't have any chiffon like the JCrew skirt used so I decided to skip it and just do the ruffles.

I cut one inch strips of fabric out of the rest of the shirt leftovers and sewed down the center with a long stitch and pulled the bobbin thread to make the ruffles

.I layed them where I wanted them...pinned and sewed them right on.

.

.

That's that!

I loved it so much that I grabbed another shirt...

and made one for my littlest daughter.

.

Comfy

Easy

and FREE!!!

for baby

So I have been doing a bit of sewing the last few days. Thought I would cross another "gotta make this some day" thing off my list.

.

This baby blanket/play-mat is one I just finished.

Idea and tutorial found here.

Even though all the cutting took forever, this thing actually was really quick to put together.

I didn't find the exact background material that I wanted so I had to pick another. Besides the fact that it might make your eyes cross a little after a while I LOVE it.

To be honest, after I made it I kinda wanted to keep it for my own. :(

Great project, fun for a gift.

Magnetic Tin Advent Calendar

.

Christmas is in sight and coming at us fast.

I have seen tonz of fun advent calendars out there and wanted to try my hand at a new kind this year. Actually I am giving this one as a gift so I wanted to package it all cute too.

I started with 25 little tins that have see through windows on the lid and come in a clear little bucket.

Next ,I had planned on finding cute vintage Christmas pictures to put in the little windows but ended up just printing off some pretty numbers because I didn't have my number stamps at home. I made them a bit smaller than the lid so I could sandwich them between the window and clear contact paper...making them all sealed up and protected. (also you get a sneak peek of the next days goodies)

.

I used the paper inside the bucket they came in as a template and quickly cut out some Christmas paper to make the gift self storing and cuter.

Then I stuck a STRONG magnet in the center of each tin before I filled them all with some of my favorite Holiday treats.

I could have stopped right there but thought it would be fun to include a strip of paper inside each one that lists one activity or idea for you (or someone your giving it to) to do that day.

Some of the things I thought of were:

- Build a giant fort & have a tasty snack!
- Make a Christmas craft for your teachers at school.
- Christmas dance party! Listen to Christmas music & dance away...
- Curl up under a warm blanket & read a Christmas book.
- Hot cocoa & games night!
- Nail painting party! Paint your nails Christmas colors or paint someone else’s for them.
- Go for a drive to see our neighbors Christmas lights
-Christmas coloring & craft night!

-Etc...

All done! I packed them all in and they are ready to go.

I figure you can stick them on any magnetic surface, like a fridge, in any shape you want. But here is a tree:

and in rows:

happiness first aid kit

A week or so ago my kids had 3 friends having birthdays during the same weekend. So with only 2 days, not enough time to sew something, and a "need to be held at all times" baby I had to get creative!

I took a look around my house and tried to pull something out of thin air..... or my cupboards.

I had tab top cans..

scrapbook paper....

tape, scissors...

and candy.

Thus was born- The Happiness First Aid Kit!Inside each can is candy, with either little trinkets, jewelry, a little paint kit, or bath fizz balls. (You can find my tab top tutorial HERE.)

I also had my kids choose some sweet things they would say to the Birthday Person if they were sad to help cheer them up. Then they wrote their little messages down and I placed one in each can so when the can is opened that is the first thing they see.

Each can has a "Open Me If...." scenario on the front and on the back is a cute little word.

They are all placed into a Kit and are to be opened as needed!

Fun, inexpensive,different and sure to put a smile on a sad little face.