Photo Emulsion Screen Printing

One of my favorite thing about new clothing is screen printed fabric labels. For someone who makes clothing it is also a great way to brand your creations that looks very professional and bonus,can’t be cut out. I love the look of screen printing and have tried it with Mod Podge and contact paper, but the photo emulsion method that produces the fine details for labels seemed really intimidating. There is chemicals that have to be properly mixed, special fabric that has to be used, and a special light source to expose the screen with fancy charts and tables to figure out the exact times for the size your a working with. It was overwhelming and seemed like a lot of work for something that was going to be on the inside of a garment.
I had this mini screen clothing label tutorial from LilBlueBoo bookmarked forever and finally just decided to bite the bullet and do it…and it was easy!!! It was quick to use the sun to expose the screens and I didn’t have to spend money on lighting equipment that I wouldn’t use a lot. The lines are so crisp, I can’t wait to use them (waiting for nap time)! I still need to tape the edges, but that won’t take long at all.I used a small one piece box to hold my “sandwich” and it worked perfectly. It was super easy to just flip the lid open to expose and flip back shut to carry inside. I do have a couple of suggestions if you’re going to do this project:

• Make sure that you get a nice even coat of the emulsion. It is hard to get it even, if you absolutely can’t get it even make sure the “excess” is near the edge and not right in the middle where your design will be going. A thick spot will be exposed differently and the emulsion will be harder to remove in that spot spoiling an otherwise good screen.
• Once you uncover your screen to expose it do not move anything thing, no small adjustments, tweaking, or messing around!!! You’ll end up with a blurry design.
• Two transparencies are enough, splurge and go to the office supply store and get them made if your printer sucks. The more layers of transparencies you have the harder it is to keep them all perfectly aligned. Tape them together in more than one place to keep them from shifting.
• Don’t worry about exact times when exposing, when the color has changed it’s ready.

Finishing the project made me feel like a rock star and it has also made me super excited to make some more custom designs, I have plenty of emulsion left. I’m thinking sugar skull “craft of die” totes and t-shirts. Do you have any requests?

Keepsake Ornaments

I spent the weekend making our keepsake ornaments. Every year I like to make photo ornaments for myself and Grandma. At the last minute I found this great tutorial to make snowmen photo ornaments and since I was already planning to make the hand print snowmen I decided to make my Mom a set of a dozen new ornaments.Here’s my set, I just LOVE them! Now I need some fancy ribbon to tie on the loops.Here is my Mom’s set. I included some plain round glitter ornaments and some embellished cube glittered ornaments. I can’t wait for her to see them!
I loved making all these ornaments and the kids liked helping a little too. I have a ton of packages to wrap and a special surprise planned for this week, it’s going to be a busy week!!!

Glitter Ornaments (and 1 Wreath) with Friends

Today was a crafting with friends day at my house. We decided to make the glittered ornaments that are all over Pinterest. I had Future floor polish (instead of Mop and Glo) and plenty of clear ornaments and glitter.
This is serious crafting! As you can see Lisa (oobbles) had to be different and make a wreath like we made last year (minus yarn balls). The glitter ornaments are super fun and easy to make, we all wanted to rush out to get more ornaments and glitter.
Here are some of the finished ornaments, Sheena’s on the left and Kashoan’s (kraftykash)on the right. We had good luck with every glitter we tried, but you do get the best coverage with super fine glitter. Here are mine all ready to be embellished further, I’m thinking monograms and snowflakes.
FYI there is a rainbow of glitter all over my house!

Making Stamps from Tub Toys

Yesterday I shared a link to a video tutorial from Traci Bunkers on making your own stamps on my Facebook page, if you haven’t already, you should go and watch it now!
I decided to use some extra pieces from some tub toys and now I’m eyeing all the flip flops in the house. This is a very quick project - in about 15 minutes I had a nice selection of new stamps. I really like that you can redo any that don’t turn out or that you don’t like (notice there is not a robot stamp). I do think that you get a crisper image (which is what I like) using a firm and flat object that won’t slide around. I would love to have a knitted or crocheted stamp, but you would have to use a stiff cord or something besides yarn to get it to work.The stamps are very realistic looking, my husband asked me how I got the prints to be 3-dimensional. It reminds me of photocopying things laid directly on the glass in black and white. My favorites are the buttons (of course), the washers, and the clothes pins. I can’t wait to make more of these. What would you use to make an interesting stamp?

The 80’s Called and Said Make Barrettes

Too bad the 80’s didn’t check the stores first to see where I could find the special barrettes.  For the record I went to W-mart, Dollar General, Hobby Lobby, Walgreens, Russ’s Market (grocery store) and Ben Franklin’s, the only place that had this particular style was Ben Franklin’s.  I followed this tutorial from Wrights ribbon, nice and straight forward.  I have two tips to make it go a little faster:  first use darning needles on the ends of your ribbons to make the weaving through easier and second, on step 3 arrange the ribbon across the bar before you pull it through the center, this helps keep it nice and flat.  I also tried gluing the ribbons together, I wouldn’t recommend that, it was a sticky mess and really didn’t make it any easier.
This project was a hit with Little Miss and with all the “hair bling” I’ve been seeing I’m sure these will fit right in.  I think I might need to add some beads to the ends of the ribbon (that’s why I’ve left them longer).  I also think that shaped beads for holidays would be super cute, like red, white and blue stars for the 4th of July.  What do you think? 

Kids Unisex, Inexpensive, Lounge Pants

When you have a boy and a girl there are very few hand me downs, maybe a coat or Halloween costume, but the regular daily clothing is so different and color specific that there is virtually no cross over.  These pants aren’t like that (unless you make them in pink or something) and they are so easy, I whipped these four pairs up in an hour and a half, including pressing, cutting, and sewing!!!  The key is using bandanas, the edges are finished which cuts out a lot of work and bandana prints look cute on everyone.There are tons of tutorials on making these pants and they pretty much are all the same, stack your bandanas up, fold them in half, cut a “J” shaped crotch and sew up (more detailed instructions here).  It is easy and inexpensive to buy bandanas, I bought the red/black and the yellow at Hobby Lobby (on sale) and the other two at Wmart, all were less than a dollar each.  The Hobby Lobby ones feel stiff and might be scratchy, I think they are starched.  I am hoping that after the first wash they will feel a lot nicer.  The printing is really irregular on all of them, which makes it impossible to match things up, but I don’t really think that is going to be too big of a problem, they’re lounge pants, not formal wear :)  I also think that when they are being worn by children who rarely stand still no one will notice.
They are sooooo cute, I’m thinking there are only two problems, deciding who gets what color and not going overboard making a ton of these.

Wishful Wednesdays

These are my top five want to craft projects right now:Hobo Drawstring bag on MADE, it’s a cushion cover from Ikea!!!!!
Laundry basket dresser, the answer to the forever mess that is my laundry room, now I just need some power tools.
The pieced tunic dress from Lilblueboo,  I have the pattern and it’s printed out, now I need to tape it together and cut out.  I want to screen print some fabric for this too.
Star stenciled lawn from Pink and Green Mama, this is going to be sooooo much fun, and the kids are going to love it!
Suitcase Display, I love this idea for shows and easy to pack up at the end of the day.  The whole article is loaded with great display ideas.  I have a collection of interesting vintage cases just waiting to be freshened up (I hear kitty litter works miracles) and decoupaged.
Thumb print journaling/self portrait, I have made the photocopies, now to find the time.

Imperial Trooper Jacket

I absolutely LOVE making clothes from upcycled t-shirts!  It seems like I am constantly bookmarking new projects to try.  The t-shirt to spring jacket tutorial from I Am Momma – Hear Me Roar was one of the projects on my very long list.  I seem to always be making stuff for Little Miss, but not that much for Little Sir.  When I found this Imperial Trooper t-shirt I knew I had to use it to make him a jacket.  I actually purchased a brand new shirt to cut up just for him and his love of all things Star Wars.The shirt was an extra large adult shirt, so instead of using a premade boys shirt I made my own.  I used the Sienna dress pattern from Lilblueboo like I did with the Little Man shirt, adding a bit of width to the body and a little length to the sleeves.  I also used the custom screen printed fabric I made Monday and fabric that I discharged dyed years ago. 
I really like how it came out, I’m not so sure Little Sir likes it though.  He hasn’t wanted to wear it to school, but it has finally gotten warm.  I’m hoping that by this fall it will be a little less roomy and he’ll be a lot more excited to wear it. 

Screen Printing Round 2 – Contact Paper

I had so much fun with my first try at screen printing I wanted to give it another try.  I found this tutorial for using contact paper from Lilblueboo and couldn’t wait to try it.
It was very easy, the most time difficult part was cutting out the design.  Sticking with a simple design is really the way to go, but I think that is true for all screen printing.  I was very excited to have my own custom, one of a kind fabric. I used a bone folder to burnish my contact paper to my fabric screen from the inside.  I made several prints from each screen and they all came out wonderfully.  When I washed the screens some of the smaller pieces from inside the stars came off, but the large one is still intact and could be reprinted.  I really thought this was a great project.It is perfect for a small scale printing and I think it would be great for kids (with adult help/supervision of the cutting).  I was able to make numerous copies of my designs, the design edges are crisp, and I can remove the old design and reuse the screen again, win!
Check back later this week to see what I made with this fabric.

Featuring Fabulous on Friday

I have a HUGE back log of projects that I really want to do and today I’m going to share some of my favorite tutorials from some of my favorite blogs.  Oh, and if you get to any of these projects before I do I’d love to see how they turned out.
Hula Hoop Dome Tent from Obsessively Stitching  FYI she did a whole week of tent tutorials.
Hand Sanitizer Holder from A Lemon Squeezy Home.  Make sure to check out all of the purse week posts.
Embellished Tee with Multi-layer Flowers from Make It and Love It.  I love her decorate my home series too.
The Warhol Dress from MADE.  I can not get enough of her all about the boy series, good boy DIYs are hard to find.
Every time I visit any of these blogs I leave inspired, what are your favorite inspirational blogs?
Have a super crafty weekend!

Let’s Play Name that Commercial

It’s a pillow, it’s a pet,…and I bet if you have kids you know the rest of this song. I loath that commercial and even worse was that those pets were everywhere this holiday season. I saw a pile of them at the office supply store, because when I’m buying ink and paper what I really want is an overpriced stuffed animal/pillow. There was no way I was paying $20 for a pillow (that’s really just a rectangular stuffed animal).

Little Miss wanted one sooooo bad, I almost caved, but now I’m really glad that I didn’t. My friend Tiffany from All Things Crafty just published a tutorial on how to make your own pillow pet clone, with a pattern! I have seen a few variations and hers is definitely my favorite because the head is sewn on during the body construction which means no hand sewing the head on and it’s on there good. Now that I don’t have to worry about any beheadings (brothers play rough) I am free to design a super special pet. I went with a bed bug with polka dots, zebra stripes, and a pink belly. I know that might seem like an odd choice, but really I was going with one of our nightly rituals. Little Miss tells me, “nighty, nighty, don’t let the bed bugs bite” and I say, “and if they do, hit them with a shoe, until they are black and blue” and yes, I know we are a bit special here :) She was slightly disappointed that it wasn’t a puppy (pillow pet), but only for about 10 seconds, the new pet has yet to be named. She was very excited that she could take it to Grandma’s house the next time she went (seriously, straight from the commercial), this project was a success! I always forget how easy it is to work with fleece and it’s so soft and comfy.

Organized: Menu Planning

I love organizers.  At the beginning of a new year there are new calendars and organizers on display in every store, this year we’ll start fresh and be really organized they seem to say.   But really all those organizers are all the same and this year isn’t any different than last year.  It seems like the only real difference is the size or the decorations on the cover, I need custom and I need something special that can’t be found in any store I shop in because obviously all those organizers on the shelves don’t work for me!  I going to be sharing all the new organizers and organizing techniques I’ll be trying this year in my new Organized series, maybe this will really be the year I finally get organized.

I bet a few of you snickered when I said I loved organizers, after all you have seen what my house looks like, surely I’m not organized.  I really am, but only when it comes to certain things and still in a cluttered way, if that’s is possible. 

One of the areas that I feel I am somewhat organized at is grocery shopping and meal planning.  I want to go grocery shopping and not have to go again for weeks (well, maybe once a week for fresh fruits/veggies and milk).  In order to do that I have to have a menu, I don’t plan it out by day, but I do have enough recipes for 10 – 15 dinners.  I make all sorts of different stuff, so I don’t have a rotating menu.  Usually I make a few standard recipes and throw in a few new ones too.  It takes me an evening to select the recipes, make the list, round up the coupons and go to the store, but then I don’t have to do it again for a few weeks and I do this late at night after the kids are in bed, there is no way I would take them on this marathon trip!  When it’s time to decide what’s for dinner I check my list and decide and then dig through a mountain of cookbooks, recipe cards, and print outs to find the recipe I need, not the best system, but it sort of works.  There are recipes everywhere and I have been know to misplace a few of them here and there.

When I saw this Meal planning organizer at Little Big Girl Studio I knew that it was exactly what I needed.  The tutorial is very detailed with lots of pictures and her link for adding binding with mitered corners was easy to follow too.It went together pretty fast.  I used some of the remnants of that Alexander Henry Tattoo fabric and that super bright orange tie dye fabric and random black fabric and some dark green binding also from my hoard.  The only part of the tutorial that I didn’t follow was the interfacing types (I used what I had on hand, heavy, but no idea what kind) and I didn’t add the magnets.  I plan on keeping this behind the menu board that I made.  Now it’s time for me to make my giant list and get shopping!

Crinkly Robot Baby Toy

I thought I had all of my shopping done, turns out that I completely forgot to get anything for the baby. Since he is only eight months old I’m not too worried about having a ton of presents for him, but I do want him to get some super special things. I made this super cute crinkly robot toy (from Prudent Baby) in an evening, I did do some fairly fancy embroidery (fancy for me) otherwise it would have only taken about an hour to cut out and sew up on the machine.

I have also started knitting him this awesome toadstool rattle from the Purl Bee, hopefully there is still time to finish it up. I have one more top secret project in the works for my Mom and I still need to take a fabulous Christmas picture of all three children together and today is the last day of school until the New Year. I’m going to be pretty busy for the rest of the week! Have you finished your Holiday crafting?

Yarn Balls Wreath – The Big Ball Party

After seeing this yarn ball and ornament wreath tutorial on Life Through the Lens, my friend Lisa (oobbles) decided that we should get together and make them. This Tuesday was the day, we were also joined by our good friend Kashoan (kraftykash) and we spent the day giggling our way through yarn balls, ornaments, and hot glue. We had the whole table covered in supplies and beverages. We all chose different colors, I thought it was great that we all made such colorful choices. I love how my wreath turned out, you know I love turquoise and red! It is a lot more sparkly in person, I can’t wait to get this up on my front door. You can see Kashoan’s here and Lisa's is here.

Vintage Styled Halloween Wreath

I was inspired by this tulle and embroidery hoop wreath at My Modish Mood.  I ended up with an great vintage styled wreath and I’m going to share how I made mine so you can make one too!I followed her instructions using a 12” hoop and black netting instead of tulle (cutting strips 3” wide and 26” long).  I folded the strips in half and pulled the cut ends through the loop to attach it to my hoop.  The wider strips gave my wreath a eerie, tattered look. Using scrap cardboard I cut a ring, the outside measured 14” and the inside measured 9”, and painted it black. I cut some pages from an old, inexpensive book and rolled them into cone shapes, securing them with a staple.  I hot glued the cones to the back of my cardboard circle. I made a paste of Mod Podge and orange glitter and applied that to the outer half of my cardboard circle.  The Mod Podge keeps the glitter from flaking off.  It doesn’t look that impressive wet, but once it dried (and it took forever to dry) it was awesome, sparkly, but not over the top!

Using my sewing machine I zigzagged over some string to gather some crepe paper streamers into ruffles.  Zigzagging over string gives perfectly even gathers, it does slightly tear the crepe paper, but once it’s gathered up it is invisible.  The ruffles we then hot glued to the inner and outer edges of the cardboard circle.  I also hot glued my cardboard circle to my tulle hoop.  Be really generous with the hot glue, you want it to hold together well. I aged some white cardstock with walnut ink.  I used the dialtone font in the largest size(72) and printed it at 200% to spell out Happy Halloween.  It came out the perfect size to be punched out with my 1 1/2” circle punch.  I strung the letters onto gingham printed ribbon and attached that to the wreath. Finally I used orange tulle, grosgrain ribbon, paper and buttons to make some flowers/frills for the bottom of the wreath.

Let me know if you make one, I’d love to see how it comes out.

Terrorific Tuesday - Week 2

Silvia Chenault turns a toy bat into an instant neckpiece (but will it bite your neck?)

Phyllis Dobbs shows us how to recycle a t-shirt into a really cool Halloween trick-or-treat bag!

Kate Pullen brews up adorable Paper Cone Witches!

Messy Missy makes a super spooky wreath with Duct tape!

Avalon Potter goes glam with her Halloween Masquerade Ball mask!

Patty Cappelluti goes bat crazy making this spooky bat door decoration!

Crafterella is a ghoul gone wild in her Ghoul Scout Costume. Download the custom patches she made for her costume!

Alexa Westerfield a.k.a. Swelldesigner upcycles a Starbucks bottle into a swell Halloween vase!

Cheryl Ball delights us with yummy candy corn cupcakes!

Pattiewack upcycles an apple tray into a festive cupcake carrier. So inexpensive and easy!

Ann Butler crafts up a boo-tiful holder for your ATCs complete with a black cat!

Glory whips up a super fun and healthy pumpkin-inspired muffin meal for her kids. Love it!

Crafty Chica makes the perfect mask to celebrate Dia de los Muertos.

Maya in the Moment has some face painting fun with her little cousin and of course, hilarity ensues!

Eileen Hull has a ghostly good time creating this cute diecut necklace!

That's it for this week! If you are interested in playing in the fun Terrorific Tuesday roundup, e-mail Alexa at swelldesigner (at) gmail (dot) com and she'll send you the details!

Summer Colds and Quiet Time

Ugh!,the dreaded summer cold struck us this week.  My husband, Little Miss, and Little Man have been sick.  There has been a lot of sneezing, coughing, whining, snot, and cuddling, not so much crafting.  I did get today’s project started.

Sometimes I really need my kids to nicely (quietly) play with their toys.  I have a special selection of toys that I use for this.  Toys that aren’t everyday toys and are only played with when I need quiet time.  I found this example which lead me to this tutorial for a cute little memory game and I knew it would be perfect for my quiet game collection. I chose wooden nickels for my base, so I could use the 1” and 1 1/2” circle punches I already had.  Paper Studio’s Spooky Icons paper was just perfect for my matching images and I used some candy corn printed paper for the backs.  I’m going to store my games in a bag like Jennifer from das Sushi and I had the perfect fabric in my stash to go with my Halloween themed set.  I also bought some cute bug and kitty stickers to make non-Halloween sets, but those will have to wait. 

All I need to do is make the storage bag and add another coat of Mod Podge to the back of the nickels and I’ll have this set finished.  The good news is that Little Miss and Little Man seem to be back to normal today.

Have a super crafty weekend!

Quick, Hide Your Hooters

I never wanted one of these things with Little Miss, we had such a hard time breast feeding (nipple confusion, long story) the last thing I wanted to do was wrestle with another piece of equipment.  However this time around it seems like a really good idea, especially this tutorial from  Southern Institute for Domestic Arts and Crafts (found via luvinthemommyhood).  I have never noticed, so maybe all hooter hiders work this way, but the pocket for the nursing pad and the boning at the top so I can see what I’m doing under there are pure genius! This was super easy to do.  I used the fabric I have been using for all of Little Mans stuff and not a heavy upholstery fabric like the tutorial recommended.  Do yourself a favor and use the heavier fabric or the boning at the top won’t hold the floppy fabric out as well (it is still workable and it matches everything else).  I used a scrap of flannel for the corner instead of terry cloth, I was more interested in a pocket than a towel for milky mouths (although I think the flannel will work for that too).  I’m really excited to use this, I know it will be easier than trying to hold a blanket and a squirming, hungry baby and trying to get everything out and in position without flashing the whole world.

Have a happy Forth of July and have a super crafty weekend!

Eco Chic Grocery Shopper

It started off with a plarn tote and was followed by a MEAT bag and now the set is finally complete, reusable produce bags!I used this simple tutorial from Craft Stylish.  I used tulle for the fabric (it’s what I already had) and ribbon instead of yarn for the ties.  I also did not turn the finished bag, but left the raw edges on the outside, I figured you would see the edges either way so why add an extra step.  I made six in about an hour and a half and I can’t wait to use them at the store.  I also need to make at least one more plarn bag, I’ve been collecting and cutting some interesting bags, but I don’t have enough yet.

Have a super crafty weekend!

Fabric Journal Cover

I am a huge fan of Teesha Moore, her visual journals are just stunning to look at and her techniques really appeal to me.  Her blog (Teesha’s Circus) is filled will inspiring eye candy and how to videos. 

In April she shared four video tutorials on making fabric journals that quickly went to the top of my must craft list.  Here’s a link to the first video, but you should definitely browse her entire blog!  I made my pillows and put together a traveling embroidery kit.  I took this with me to the hospital when I had little bun and it has also been to the park and on a play date.  I have really enjoyed working on the individual pillows, it very meditativeHere is the outside, I have finished the embroidery/quilting, but I may go back and add beads or sequins or other embellishments.  It was hard for me to let go of my super neat and matchy matchy obsessions (it is still pretty matchy matchy).The inside is a mess, and while I like it the messiness of the stitches makes me a little uncomfortable.I also did some shisha (mirror) embroidery on some of the pillows.  I have been wanting to try this tutorial for a looooooonnnnggg time.It was easy and addictive, I will be using this technique again!

I still need to add the pages, but I’m not sure I’m done embellishing the cover yet and I also want to add some type of closure.  What are your favorite inspiring sites?, I’d love some new inspiration!