Saturday, June 29, 2013

DIY Bleached T Shirt

This week at the Silhouette Blog for the Weekly Shape Challenge, the flower ornament design from Hero Arts was chosen for the challenge shape.  I saw the flower and I knew exactly what I wanted to try to make with it.

I loaded the shape and cut it out using my silhouette cameo, onto freezer paper. 


After cutting the shape I placed the flower cut out onto the bottom corner of an old v-neck shirt i had hanging in my closet.  When putting the image that was cut on the fabric, make sure the wax side of the paper is on the fabric, then you will need to iron the pattern so it will stick to the fabric.  I set my iron to medium and the freezer paper stuck to the shirt.


After you have ironed the pattern down, make sure you put something inside the shirt, like cardboard so the bleach doesn't go through to the back of the shirt.
I didn't use straight bleach, I mixed it 75% bleach to 25% water to dilute it some.  I added the bleach and water to a spray bottle and started spraying.  The only advice I would offer is to make sure you spray from a distance if you want the splattered look.  I was a little to close, but it was my first time and an old shirt, and I am still happy with the results.


Here is after I sprayed the bleach mixture on the shirt, I think this was only about 3 minutes after.  I then removed the freezer paper and rinsed out the bleached area.  Then I washed the shirt and hung it up to dry.


This is the shirt after I removed it from the washer to hang to dry.



Here is a close up of the pattern!


Friday, June 28, 2013

A Little Red, White, and Blue

Taking a look at this weeks Weekly Shape Challenge on the Silhouette Blog, and seeing that it could be any project summer themed, I decided that I would make a set of 4th of July coasters.

I picked out the graphics that I wanted to use for this project and sized them down to fit on the coasters.  I loaded the paper and went to getting all the pieces cut out.


I added a thin coating of mod podge to the coaster and put the paper design on the coaster and then added another thin coat of mod podge on top to seal the paper. 


This is right after adding the top coat of mod podge, it was hard to get a picture while doing this step.


Here are all 4 coasters while they were drying.  After they completely dried, I let them sit for about 30 minutes to make sure, I sprayed a coat of clear sealer on the coasters.


When they were completely dry I added felt pieces to the back of each coaster so there will be no scuffing of tables when using these.


Here are the coasters tied up with a bit of twine.  These would make a great gift also, but I think I am going to keep these for myself.


Saturday, June 8, 2013

Easy Glass Etching Tutorial

I get so tired of walking into my girl's bathroom and seeing their stuff all over the counters.  So I decided to make them glasses with their names on them so their things wouldn't get mixed up.

I started out by finding the font I wanted to use with the silhouette studio.  This can be done using sticker letters also.  
I sized them to be proportionate to the glass and then put a square around each name to make it a little easier to make the name straight when adhering.


I loaded contact paper, only because I ran out of vinyl, but I found that for projects where I am just using it as a template it works just as well.
I set the cut settings to vinyl and cut out the templates that I would be using.


One cut, I removed all of the excess contact paper.  I removed the name area and put them on the glasses.


I used armour etch, this can be found at craft stores and I found mine at Hobby Lobby.  I applied the armour etch with a sponge brush to the letter areas.


After applying to all the letters I let the etching cream sit for between 5 to 10 minutes.


Once the 5 to 10 minutes have passed I rinsed off the excess and removed the contact paper, then washed the glass completely.


Here are the completed glasses.  Now maybe my girls can be a little more organized!