Happy Rockin’ Birthday!

It has been too quiet around here and I’m sorry for that. I don’t like it. Especially the last couple of weeks when I actually have produced a few things, but haven’t had the opportunity to photograph them. It makes me nervous for how things are going to be when the new baby comes in a few weeks. Having done this three times before, I know that I’m going to be doing good just to stay afloat for a month or so before we all settle into a rhythm (full disclosure: I had to type that three times before hitting on the right spelling). Sigh. Them might just be the breaks, peeps.

But anyways…

Rana celebrated her 8th birthday this week! Granota was completely in awe of this milestone and repeatedly asked me if I could even believe that I had an 8 year old. As a sort of birthday present/sort of just because, I painted t-shirts for the girls (I know it always seems that Konik gets short shrift, but Michael’s didn’t have any t-shirts in his size; I’ll get him taken care of later). As might be expected if you know us at all, Axl Rose was the subject this time. Both girls had mentioned in the past wanting Guns N’ Roses shirts. Besides the fact that they generally don’t come in tiny sizes, they’d probably get sent home from school for wearing anything with a picture of a gun on it. A portait of Axl was the safer choice.

I used the same technique that I did on Rana’s bunny shirt, but the portraits were much more complicated than a simple little cartoon. There was a LOT of cutting involved with these and it kind of fried my brain. Once that was out of the way, I got to the fun part of painting. Again, three coats of paint seem to do the job. I applied each one in a different direction to be sure to cover any exposed fabric. And as you can see from the in-progress photos, I didn’t care one bit about painting “within the lines.”

After the girls were asleep, I put the finished shirts on their beds for them to find in the morning. That next morning I heard gasps and squealing and excited chatter. I always like that reaction.

Rockin’ her rockstar t-shirt

Even though it was Rana’s birthday, I couldn’t leave out the one who started it all

Watch out, elementary school

 

The mother of invention

It’s been quite a week here in Frogland. We had two first days of school, a kindergarten parent-teacher conference, and said kindergartener’s 6th birthday. Whew! All that stuff takes planning and preparation leaving me not much time to do anything crafty last week. But I did squeak one thing in…

Rana has an aqua-colored t-shirt that is in fine shape other than the very dark purple and obvious popsicle drip right on the front. I really try hard not to send my kids to school in stained clothing and we really needed her to have this shirt in her clothing rotation (anyone who hasn’t been following awhile should know that our financial circumstances are… well, let’s just say you’d be surprised at what this family of 5 lives on). What to do? Somehow we needed to camouflage that stain. What better solution than painting over it?

Not a big stain, but it’s hard to miss

T-shirt painting is a lot of fun to do and I love the results I get from a method I found several years ago. It’s a multi-step process, but in the end it looks screen-printed rather than the t-shirt painting you are probably envisioning from your junior high years. No neon puff paint here, my friends. Unless that’s your thing, in which case, by all means, puff paint away.

First order of business is to choose your design. You don’t want anything overly complicated unless you’re a whiz with an X-acto knife. Line drawings tend to be the easiest to work with. You can do a little photo editing on a real picture if you want or, as I did this time, just go straight to clip art. I found a cute little bunny that I knew would make Rana’s heart melt and printed it out in three different sizes. If you are not lazy like me, you could probably measure your available painting space and then size the picture accordingly. But darn, if that t-shirt wasn’t all the way across the cabin and I didn’t want to walk over there to measure it. Besides, I tell myself, that sheet of paper was going to get printed one way or another; may as well fill it up.

Next is time to gather your supplies. (Note: If you don’t already have these items, this wouldn’t necessarily be a frugal solution to hiding a stain. If I had had to buy all these things just for this project, I’d have been better off just buying a new shirt. As it is, though, this was a great way to make use of things I already had)

• your picture
• craft knife
• freezer paper
• masking tape
• cardboard or some other surface you can cut on safely
• fabric paint and small paint brush
• iron

Freezer paper is NOT the same as wax paper or parchment paper, although it should be found in the same general vicinity

Rip off a piece of freezer paper just slightly bigger than your printed design. With the masking tape, tape your design onto the matte side of the freezer paper (that means the shiny side is down, folks). Slide the cardboard underneath and begin carefully cutting out your design. Here is where a little forethought comes into play. You need to decide if your final painted picture is going to be merely the outlines or a filled in picture. This makes a huge difference in where you cut. Whatever you cut out is what the end product is going to be. In my case, I wanted just the outline of the bunny, so I had to cut out the line; that also included the dots for the eyes and the little nose and mouth.

Cutting out the black line itself

If you are cutting the outline, save all the little pieces from the interior of the design because you will need these to reconstruct the picture. For me, that meant hanging onto the little feet and tail, body, and the head (minus the eyes and nose). You will also need the “frame” of freezer paper around the design. I guess I should clarify there — you won’t need to save any of the printer paper (unless you want it for reference); it’s the freezer paper pieces that you need to hang onto.

Alright, once your design is cut out, carefully reconstruct it on the t-shirt, again with the shiny side down. That’s important! Check that you’ve got it placed right where you want it. You can undo it if you have to, but it’s better just to get it right the first time. Since the whole purpose of me painting this shirt was to hide the stain, I strategically placed the bunny so that its soon-to-be-painted ear would cover the popsicle drip.

Purple stain will be hidden in the line of the bunny’s ear. Little feet pieces carefully placed.

Now, you’ll need your iron. I turn mine on to “3” which is the setting just below where the steam kicks in, so whatever that corresponds to on yours. Once the iron is heated, carefully lower it straight down onto the freezer paper design, being careful not to fold over any edges or shift any of the little pieces. If your design is bigger than your iron plate, you’ll want to carefully lift and set down in any areas that weren’t covered. It only takes a few seconds for the freezer paper to adhere to the fabric. Once the pieces are stuck on, you can do a couple quick swipes of the iron to make sure that all the edges are really pressed down; you don’t want paint leaking under the edge.

Just prior to ironing — you can see how the pieces don’t quite lie flat, but they will once the iron hits ’em!

After all that, NOW you are ready to paint! For painting, I really recommend the “soft” fabric paint. It will stay flexible with the fabric and won’t peel or chip off, even after several washings. Case in point: a t-shirt I made for Mr. Gren several years ago. He wears this every week, so it has seen the washer many, many times. Still looks great!

That there’s a movie quote.

I used three thin coats of paint to get good saturation and color for this little bunny. I didn’t wait the “recommended drying time” — just a couple hours in between. I did, however, wait a full day between the last coat of paint and removing the freezer paper. I didn’t want to take any chances that late in the game. The paper removal is very satisfying. The larger pieces rip up without any problems whatsoever. The tiny pieces may require the use of tweezers, but once you’ve grabbed a hold of them, they come right off, too. Genius. I don’t know who to credit for the freezer paper method, but it’s brilliant.

Peel away

One cute bunny t-shirt where before was a stained t-shirt!

As far as she’s concerned, this is a major improvement — bunny trumps plain shirt any day.

And just for bonus fun, did you know that you can bake a cake in a bread machine? We’ve had many interesting iterations of birthday cake since we moved to the cabin (no oven, peeps) as I’ve experimented with different ways to conjure up something that the kids would accept as suitable birthday cakeness. I used a regular cake recipe, removed the mixing paddle from my bread machine, and poured the batter in. It seems like a lot, but it does all fit and it doesn’t overflow during the baking process. My bread machine is an Oster — nothing fancy — but it does have a 1 hour “bake” setting (supposedly to set jam? Dunno). The cake took two hours to bake, which wasn’t a big deal other than I didn’t start early enough and had to stay up til midnight to babysit it. Of course, it comes out in loaf shape, but the taste and texture are great.

Loaf o’ cake. Beautiful pink frosting achieved via beet puree. Mr. Gren took this mid-way through the icing process, so forgive the unevenness.

So what do cake and t-shirt have in common? It all goes back to that saying, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” If we had a more substantial cash flow ’round these parts, I wouldn’t have been forced to come up with creative solutions to everyday “problems.” Have you ever been forced into creativity out of necessity? How did it turn out?

Psych-osis

It’s not that I’ve been unproductive this past week. On the contrary, I’ve gotten a lot done! But it’s all on the same mystery project that I showed you awhile back. And y’know, I’d just rather not show it again until it’s finished! Well, mostly done, anyways. My self-imposed goal was the 4th of July. That would imply some sort of patriotic theme. I’ll let you be the judge of that once I reveal it. Anyways, I didn’t want to leave you high and dry, so I dug through my photo archives to find a couple of crafts I did way back when.

Probably my favorite TV show is Psych. Love it. There are some episodes I can watch over and over again and laugh myself silly every time. I used to be fairly active on craftster.org (my name is grenouille78 if you want to check out my old stuff) and I loved participating in the craft swaps. Unemployment and general lack of funds have taken their toll on that pastime, unfortunately, although I hope someday to be able to join in again. One of the swaps I participated in was themed all around the show Psych. There weren’t many of us in that particular swap, but we had fun.

If you aren’t familiar with the show, the two main characters are Shawn (James Roday) and Gus (Dule Hill). In the first several seasons, Shawn was always coming up with goofy aliases for Gus. So the first item I made was based on that concept. I bought a pair of black Guess jeans at the thrift store, cut them off at the crotch and made a purse out of them. I lined it with red fabric and top-stitched it in red (my swap partner’s favorite color was red, otherwise I probably would have done it all in green in keeping with the theme of the show). Then, I adorned the bag with several of Gus’ nicknames. My original plan was much cooler. I had bought an acrylic stamp that looks like one of those “Hello, my name is…” badges. I was going to stamp it all over the purse and then paint the names in. But the weave in the denim prevented the paint on the stamp to come out clearly. Too bad. It would have been funny. I did have a moment of genius when I realized that I could paint over the E and last S on Guess and turn the purse into a “Gu s” purse. That’s what I’m talking about.

Pick a name, any name

The back with handy built-in cell phone and chapstick pockets.

Gus who?

The second Psych-themed craft I have is not one I made for the swap, but inspired by what I received from my swap partner. I have another friend who loves Psych, so I made her a set of Shawn and Gus salt & pepper shakers. Just a little easy printing and decoupaging. But it’s fun! The only tricky part is spreading the glue smoothly enough that the brush strokes don’t show up all over their faces.

Black & Tan, meet Salt & Peppah

So there you have it. A little Psych-inspired fun. I follow Dule Hill and Tim Omundson on Twitter and it sounds like next season is going to be great judging by the little snippets and teases they leave us. They’re filming in Vancouver right now (oh yeah, Happy Canada Day, eh. Hug a maple for me), enjoying this same cool and damp summer that we are here. That’s right, we’ve got a high of 64 today, although that may be a bit optimistic. Hey, anywhere else in the country, send us your extra 20 degrees and we’ll all be happy!

Now back to crocheting until my hands break off at the wrist!

 

Positive outcome from negative thinking

I am addicted to glass jars. I hang onto nearly every one that comes into my house. Pickles, jelly, salad dressing. It’s like a two-for-one deal! I get the contents and this fabulous, multi-purpose reusable container! The shelves in my laundry room are full of jars. A couple of months ago, I realized that the jar collection was getting out of hand and gave away a box free on craigslist. But there are still plenty to choose from (plus, we keep buying jelly). I needed a quick craft today and decided to do a little glass etching. I have tried my hand at this before and it’s really a pretty simple craft, especially considering the great results you can get! The two main things you need to do this are 1) something glass with smooth surfaces (a drinking glass, vase, mirror, whatever) and 2) etching compound. The etching compound is available at craft stores; I’ve only ever seen this brand:

Look! It’s even new and improved!

It comes in two sizes; this is the larger 10 oz bottle. I now have a lifetime supply of the stuff. When I went to Michael’s to buy it, I had no idea how much of it you actually need to complete a project. I was etching four drinking glasses for a Craftster swap and panicked, thinking that the tiny little bottle wouldn’t be enough. Good thing I had my 40% off coupon because this stuff cost about twenty bucks!! Let this be a lesson to you: Buy the tiny bottle.

Next, you need some kind of glassware. If you don’t have an abundant jar collection like I do or some drinking glasses that need an update, check out thrift stores or dollar stores, or finish off that last lonely pickle floating in its home of chartreuse brine.

There are two schools of thought for glass etching: One requires vinyl contact paper and an X-acto knife; the other requires some paper and fabric paint. It’s up to you, but I prefer the fabric paint method. Here are my supplies:

• Glass container
• Armour Etch
• Rubber gloves (unless you enjoy caustic burns on your skin)
• Fabric paint in a squeeze bottle
• Paintbrush
• Pencil
• Masking tape
• Paper (this is tissue paper, but I used printer paper the last time and it’s fine, too)
• A picture!

I wasn’t in the mood to draw anything myself today, so I exercised my 2nd grade tracing skills and traced that butterfly like a champ! Really, you don’t have to be artistic at all to do this. You can also print a picture off the computer, just make sure it has good, bold lines. Once you have your picture, whether it be by tracing or printing, tape it to the inside of your container.

Oh yeah, you should have a container with an opening big enough to get your hand through if you go the fabric paint/tracing paper route.

Next step: More tracing! Can you handle it? This time, you’ll be outlining the picture with the fabric paint. This requires a little bit of “negative thinking.” In college, I always thought my art prof spent an inordinate amount of time on negative space, but it turns out to actually be helpful in my crafty life. Basically, whatever you want to be etched, needs to be left blank and whatever you want to remain clear, needs to be covered with the paint.

See how I went around the antennae?

Because it didn’t matter much to me how the pattern on the butterfly’s wings turned out, I just went ahead and traced straight over the top of the design rather than try to outline each of those little lines. Once you have your picture outlined, you need to give it a pretty healthy buffer of paint. This is to prevent the etching compound from accidentally etching anything else as you are rinsing it off. Yes, even under water, this stuff is potent!

One of the antennae got covered. Just use a toothpick to scratch out any mistakes.

Then, if you are ultra-paranoid like me (or, just stingy and want to save paint), use your masking tape to seal off around the edges of the paint. You can also remove your template picture from the inside now.

Set your jar aside for a couple of hours to let the paint dry. Watching it is optional.

Stretched your legs? Had some snacks? Got “Tara’s Theme” stuck in your head now? You’re welcome. Alright, back to work! After you lock up the kids. This is actually the easiest part of the whole process, but don’t forget your gloves!! Shake up your etching compound, ready your paintbrush, and slather your picture with the stuff. Forget coloring in the lines, just coat the whole thing, paint and all. After a little bit, the compound will start to foam. Let it sit for 5-10 minutes. The longer you leave it, the darker the etching will be.

I left the butterfly for about five minutes. What can I say? I was anxious to see how it turned out. Keeping your gloves on (for the love of all that is good, don’t take off the gloves!), take your jar over to the sink and rinse it under running water. I use my brush to help wipe off all the compound. Once it is well-rinsed, peel off the paint and tape. This is kind of fun: it comes off as a rubbery exoskeleton of your picture. Wipe down the jar with a little window cleaner and admire your handiwork!

Ta-dah! Custom-etched glass!

You may take off your gloves now. And you should probably let the kids out, too.