I heart Gee

So after my Conan shirt disaster I knew I had to get back on the craft-horse and keep working.


We have these huge canvas prints of Jesus in our church and Phoenix absolutely loves them. Whenever he see's them he runs up and goes "Gee! Gee! Gee!".  It's such a relief to hear him ask to pray or beg to go to "Gee's house" since he also cusses....Everything in moderation.


Anyway I was inspired by his love of Gee to make these shirts for him and my niece.


Material Needed-


Freezer paper 
Xacto knife
Fabric paint- Black and Red (the red kind was the pearl finish which put nice sparkles in the heart)
Plain cotton tshirt

(If you print this size it's perfect for kids. But next time I do this for adult sizes I would blow it up some more)


Step 1: Trace the stencil onto the DULL side of the freezer paper and cut out using an xacto knife.

Step 2: Iron on the stencil (and inside image pieces) to your t-shirt with the waxy side touching your shirt.

Step 3: Slip a piece of paper or cardboard inside your shirt. Fill the stencil with fabric paint. Don't glob on to much paint or you'll end up with my Conan results. 

Step 4: Allow the shirt to dry about 4 hours (or whatever the paint bottle says) and then peel stencil off, cover design with a cloth and heat seat with an iron.

And there you go! 

I also have so many more ideas for freezer stencil designs that I decided to start an Etsy shop. I don't consider myself some super duper awesome crafter that people would actually pay for my stuff, but I've seen a lot worse on Etsy so I decided to give it a shot.


Stop by Gee House and stay tuned for more designs.

Disclaimer: I'm still very new to this so if you have any questions let me know or click here for more freezer paper help.
 
Enter the giveaway before it ends!

Embellished Shoulder Pads

A few weeks ago I stumbled upon my new favorite fashion DIY site P.S.-I made this and fell in love with these embellished shoulder pads.  


Now I'll admit that as much as I loved them my husband, sisters, brother-in-law, mom, brothers, and the dog all thought I was crazy.


But I really saw potential in it and wanted to go for it.


After $100 and 3 craft stores later this is what I ended up with.


So if you are brave enough to try this here's how you do it.


Need:


Shoulder pads- (The original DIY seems to use like big full pads, I used half pads)


Feathers - Peacock and Black is what I used.


Metallic Fabric Paint (I used Lumiere by Jacquard in Pearl Turquoise- and I LOVE this color.Any other ideas what I can use it for?)


Gems


Rosette Trim (optional) I had a very hard time finding anything similar in stores that the original had, so I bought wedding floral picks and had intended to cut off the stem and glue the base down. But I ended 
up not using them because they didn't look right.


Safety Pins


Glue Gun


Simple tee shirt- Walmart


This is a pretty simply DIY so I won't walk you through it. But here are the pictures of the steps.

The trickiest part was securing the shoulder pads. I initially wanted to velcro the pads to the shirt so they would be easier to remove to wash the shirt but they wouldn't stick right. So I used safety pins. This is a step you'll have to mess around with on your own to make it easiest and most comfortable for you.


I also didn't make them sit right on top of my shoulders for two reasons. 1. The pads weren't really flexible enough to sit on the shoulder and 2. I'm only 5 ft tall so I thought it might be to much on me.


So there you have the completed project. If you follow me on Twitter you saw that when I started the project I let all my naysers get in my ear and I wondered if it was fashion roadkill, but honestly I'm pretty surprised how they turned out and I love love love love them.


So how did I wear these you ask? I'll show you that tomorrow (Here's how I wore these) so make sure you come back.....patience makes the heart grow founder.


Any questions just let me know?


What do you think? Have any other cool fashion DIY (that don't require a sewing machine) I should try?

Freezer Paper Stencil- Conan O'Brien Tshirt

Is anyone else as excited as I am over the crazy beautiful weather right now? Mmmmmmmm......It's gorgeous!


We're taking Phoenix to the zoo today to spend some time together before Daddy hops on a plan to LA for 3 weeks. Daddy has tickets to the Kids Choice Awards so he has explicit instructions that if he runs into the one and only ORIGINAL Justin (Justin Bieber YOU wish!) he is to call me PRONTO!


But first I wanted to show you what I made yesterday.


Hopefully last month you stopped by MADE to score some great tutorials on all things BOY. This has become one of my favorite blogs!


Dana came up with this adorable Conan O'Brien tshirt and I wanted to make it for Phoenix. I had to explain to my Dad and siblings why it was Phoenix needed a Conan shirt.


The reason? Well although I am on Conan's side in this whole Jay/NBC/Conan debacle I honestly don't watch his show (or any late night) but I like putting Phoenix in relevant pop-culture stuff. It makes me think other parents are like "Cool his parents must ROCK!" (or be 22). I'm pretty lame huh?


So he needed a Conan shirt.


I followed the tutorial Dana had posted here and here.

After TWO hours of cutting the stencil out I was finally able to get this.

And after over night drying

this is what I ended up with.

I'm a little torn because


A. I'm wondering if Conan looks a bit like Hitler? That would NOT be cool to put my 19 1/2 mth old in a Hitler shirt

and....


B. I'm wondering if the words are so messed up that you can't read it and it looks messy?


Not to mention the paint I smeared.

My 10 & 8 year old sisters say he should wear it and Shawn says its art and doesn't need to be perfect. But I think he's just saying that because he doesn't want me to beat myself up to much and stop crafting all together.


But I learned with my first project that crafting takes patience and PRACTICE. 


What do you think? Should I use the shirt as a rag or let him wear it?

Sticker Craze

Three cheers for me! Yay! Yay! Yay Alex!

I finally completed my first craft project. Gosh...I've been wanting to do some type of craft project for ages, but I was intimidated by all the directions and paste and paper and scissors that I just day dreamed about being a crafter.

But Samster Mommy posted this great sticker book tutorial and I knew it would be a perfect addition to our car toy box.

I'm not going to jack her tutorial and post it here because that would like Blogarism (like plagarism?) so click here and you can get all the details on how to make the sticker book.

I made two, one for the house, one for the car. My first didn't turn out as "neat" as I would like it. But the second one looks a lot better.

Crafting requires patience. I think that's why the first turned out kind of "unfinished" looking. But I took my time with the second one.

(Put it all together while watching The Bachelor. Booo Vienna!)

Go to Samster Mommy for the full tutorial but here are some pictures from my books in various stages.