Try, try, try again! Freezer paper stencilling...

I had fail after fail with this project.  I don't know why, but it didn't like me.  I'm happy with the end result, but it took 4 t-shirts, 3 different methods, and a whole lotta cursing to get there.

It all started with my daughter coming to me on Thursday morning and telling me that on Friday everyone was going to wear t-shirts from the college of their choice to school.  Ok, well - not a problem if she wanted to got to school at UT (we live in Austin).  You can buy a UT shirt at Goodwill or the grocery store... pretty much anywhere.  But no, she wants to go to BYU, which is where I graduated from.   Proud mama I am, but I dislike this 24 hr. notice business.  And it appears to be happening more and more often.  Grumble, grumble.  

Have no fear though, I'm pretty good with my hands.  I knew I could probably whip something up for her pretty quickly.  I've seen freezer paper stencilling tutorials all over the internet, but I went with the one my good friend Char wrote up at Crap I've Made.  I really liked the look of the bleach method, so I tried that one first.  As much as I love Char, her tutorial did not work for me.  Maybe she forgot to add that you must actually BE her in order for the tutorial to work.  In fact I tried her spray bottle method as well as a bleach pen method I'd heard of.  Neither worked.  Phooey.

So, going back to square 1 and back to Char's blog, because in the end I still trust her, I tried the painting method, using this:

Worked like a charm!  For whatever reason, my bleaching technique needs a lot of work!  That's ok though, paint and I are old friends.  I should never have strayed away from it to begin with!

Today I am actually going to show you the shirt I made for my son, because I am entering it into the "Let's Hear It For The Boys" t-shirt contest over at "I Am Momma, Hear Me Roar".  And it turned out much cuter then the BYU shirt, anyway.  Tomorrow I will show you the shirt I made for my daughter, along with instructions on how to avoid my series of catastrophes.

The concept for this t-shirt came to me months ago, and it sat in the back of my mind until Adriana came to me with her request yesterday.  I figured I may as well make both t-shirts as long as I was at it.  The big D, little d stand for my youngest son's name.  But I also wanted to illustrate something else that started with "D" on the t-shirt.  And so I doodled and doodled both dinosaurs and dogs until I came up with this:

Love how my little guy rocked his shirt to school this morning!  He had me scared.  No, seriously... he roared a loud and terrible roar for this picture and I had to tell him to keep it down!  Lol.

Here's a close-up:

 

I love it.  Did you know that "RAWR" is how dinosaurs say "I love you"?  

It's true. ;)

Father's Day Ideas

I snatched these up via Tip Junkie, one of my favorite new blogs. She featured a couple of my birthday party ideas last week and now her blog is my blog's bff. ;) Anyway this is my take on some of her tips.

The jury is still out on this first project. It may get another makeover. I poised each of the kids with a letter in the word Dad and took their picture. Mod podged the pictures onto a wooden board with some designs cut from scrapbook paper and a few embellishments.

This cute little jar is filled with ideas of things to do with Grandpop while we are visiting him over the next couple weeks. Each handwritten note has suggestions like "read a book" and "teach me tai chi" on it... 2 things Grandpop loves best and will enjoying doing even more with his doting grandchildren.

Another really fun idea that my friend itybty frog shared with me is to shine Daddy's Sunday shoes and fill them up with treats for Sunday morning. Love it!

And now, if you'll excuse me for a few weeks, I am headed out to UT to run a relay race in the mountains with 28 other crazy women. :)

See you soon!

In which I denounce crafting...

I've refinished the same Christmas gift about 3 times. I made a set of photo blocks for my mother-in-law. Super cute project. But I warn you, it is a pain in the _______ to make. In fact, I might even put that on the tag... "Merry Christmas, your present was a pain in the ______ to make! And peace on earth."

The instructions are to first, paint your wooden blocks - so that the edges or sides you don't use have a finished look. And I didn't do that. I applied my photos first and then painted the sides I chose not to use. Some black paints leave residual behind. And it gets on your fingers. And then it gets on your photos. And if you try to wipe it off the photos you'll take some of the finish off your photos. Even if you've applied a waterproof sealant like mod podge. So, buy good paint that does not rub off. Moving on...

Next you mod podge photos to a 4x4 set of wooden blocks (you dissect the photos to fit over 4 blocks on each side, and they fit together like a puzzle, in the shape of a cube... make sense?) You have the choice of just covering the outside of the cube with photos, or adding them to the inside as well, so that every side of each individual block has part of a picture on it, and every which way you turn the blocks they can form a picture.

Did you know how much mod podge likes to stick to itself? So, mistake #2, do not mod podge photos on the inside of the blocks, outside only. Okay. Moving on!

Before applying the photos it's important to make sure they face the way you want them too. So that your kids aren't upside down on one side, for example. Not as easy as it sounds, I am afraid. I felt like I needed my high school calculus teacher assisting me with this one. UGH!

Maybe it's just stress coming to a head. But I feel the insatiable urge to grab a few of those cute little "I took the handmade pledge" bloggy buttons and mame them. And forget baking anymore goodies, I'm regifting the zucchini-banana-pumpkin-whateverelseisinit bread, too! Hmph!