T-Shirts, Stencils, and Paint

My new favorite craft is painting shirts! Why pay $30 for a workout T when you can make one for a fraction of that.

The following stencils were made by Jen at Stronger With Jen G they are awesome and I'm super excited she sent them to me!  The stencils were made with Silhouette Cameo and sticky vinyl.   

 

 This is the same stencil, they are generally only used once, but I loved it and very carefully removed it and reused it.

 I <3 burpees! Who doesn't :-)

These shirts came out pretty cool but I did learn a few things in the process.

When I started working on these shirts my first thought was I would use them to work out in.  The black shirt is a Dankin work out shirt from Walmart.  (I had this shirt liked the fit and had worked out in it.  Since it was still pretty new I decided to use it for this project). It's not a silky feeling moisture wicking kind, but the t-shirt feeling kind.  The stencil stuck great but I did learn it's better to dab the paint on vs brushing it on.  Brushing it on causes the stencils to peel up if you aren't super careful. I used soft t-shirt paint.  It's expensive but I have found it holds up better.

I liked how the first shirt came out so much that I decided I wanted one just to wear around and not necessarily workout in it.  I had a grey t-shirt (just a plain old Fruit of the Loom grey t-shirt) and decided to give the stencil a second go.  I had read about a lot spray paint diy t-shirts so this time I used black spry paint, yep just paint from Home Depot. The pros, it covers fast and there no mess to clean up, and it is washable in the washing machine. The cons, you have to cover every bit of shirt not covered by the stencil or you will get paint in unwanted areas and it doesn't hold up to heat in sweat in certain conditions.  I wore my shirt on a very long road trip in a car with no ac sitting in the sunny window.  Where the shirt was wrinkled the paint stuck together.  I think this is a pretty easy way to paint a t-shirt, especially if you are making them for a specific event and don't plan on sweating in a car alllllll day.

Shirt number 3 had it's own challenges. I actually went and bought this shirt because I wanted a moisture wicking tank top (simply because that's the kind of shirt I want to do burpees in, lol). What I didn't think about at the time was color of the shirt vs color of the heart.  Duh, blue or green would have been a better choice.  So I ended up doing everything in white. I wasn't sure if I would have enough paint so I left the heart for last.  And I did run out of paint.  As it turns out the second kind of paint I used let the pink through a little more giving it a slightly different color.  Sticky vinyl stencils don't work as well on the slick fabric.  The B of burpees is an example of where it lifted. I still love this shirt and work out in quite often.

These next shirts I made :-) 

The give blood t-shirt is a regular old Fruit of the Loom t-shirt in neon yellow.  I made these stencils with my Cricut and Freezer paper.  It worked great! I wasn't sure about the whole freezer paper thing but it worked like a charm and it's so much cheaper then vinyl.  The paint is a combination of spray paint and acrylic craft paint.

 And finally the 4th of July tank! This one was all over face book so I decided to give it a try.  The blue is metallic blue spray paint, the red is acyclic craft paint.  This has done great in washing machine and the dryer :-)

 There are so many cool ideas out there and so many different ways to paint things.  Hopefully this has inspired you to make a t-shirt too!

Ok, May Just One More Project Before Moving Day

I am the kind of person that likes to be busy.  If I'm not busy then my mind jumps to all of the things that need to be done in the next few months and starts freaking out. Yes I have tried to work on that but well that's just how my mind works.

Well I have had the last day and half off and my mind has done a lot of going crazy.  But on the up side I have come up with my next project!

Who out there has seen the up-cycled cribs made into benches! I sure have and I want to make one!  The theme I am going with hot pink with black zebra stripes!  Ok so I'm not a girly girl, I don't like pink or animal print stuff, but that stuff is selling like crazy so I'm going with it.

Once again I will state that I love living on an Army post! You can get so much stuff for really cheap.  So far I have bought the perfect pink paint, I already have black on hand, 2x4's left over from an old project, free sheet of plywood, and I'm supposed to be getting the perfect crib parts from a lady here on post as well. So far that's my only hang up, she takes 3 days to get back to me on anything.

But hopefully I can get everything together and this weekend I will create away!

FInished Dresser UpCyle

Here is the finished dresser! I love it! If we weren't moving I would totally keep this :-)

Dresser Progress

Making progress on the dresser upcycle, it came apart pretty easy and all but one shelf is in good shape

Base coat on the dresser parts

 Black color on the dresser parts

I think it's gonna look really nice when it's finished :-)

Dresser Upcycle

Check out this cute little dresser, it has a lot of potential! This is gonna be a fun up cycle :-)

The World's MOST Adorable Children's Table

OK I'm sure there are tons and tons of super cute tables out there for children, so is this the world's MOST adorable? Most likely no, BUT it's got to be up there right.  I like the way it turned out so much wish I had a reason to keep it :-( While the list of uses in my last post was pretty good we a moving in a few short weeks so this cute little upcycle needs a new home.

Children's Table Upcycle

I got this little table last week thinking it would be a wonderful upcycle project. It could continue on as a newly refinished children's table, or for those without children it could be a nice little plant stand? End table? Corner table? The ideas are endless! Due to my current color collection I am choosing teal for the top and lime for the legs.  I hope this project turns out well I think it has the potential to be a really nice piece once it's finished.

Stay tuned for the final results Friday :-)

Guitar Part 2

I finally finished the guitar top and neck.  With a little help from Cricut the new decoration came out really nicely.  Anyone need some music room decor!

Quick Craft: Coffee Mugs

I finally gave custom coffee mugs a try!  Deciding what type of font to use was probably the hardest part of this whole project :-)  I practiced a few times on a piece of paper then wrote on the mugs. I then baked them at 400 degrees for 40 minutes as shown in this tutorial.  Even though it takes some time to bake these and let them cool I decided to post as q quick craft because the amount of time I was actively working on them was about 5 minutes.   

I love the shape of these mugs, I kinda wish I was keeping them :-)

Happy Friday! FInished Flur de lis Bar Stools

Here is the end result of my bar stool up cycle.  Personally I'm not a huge fan of how the distressing came out on the seats, but I posted these for sale and they sold in 30 minutes so the distressing was deffinately wasn't a bad idea :-)

After sanding down the stools I painted the legs a satin black (I love this paint by the way, it's the same paint I used on my coffee table project).  The Flur de lis was done in black and gold and the wood was stained with a dark wood stain.  The tops were then sealed with a matte finish.

I was a little sad to see these go but also really happy they were so well received

Making Progress :-)

Here are the bar stools with the legs black and the flur de lis solid black, so far I am really pleased with the progress :-)

Bar Stool Up-Cycle

This weeks project is to refinish 2 of these bar stools.  The wood is in great condition, they are sturdy, and don't rock.  The finish isn't the best though so it's time for a cool new makeover.  

I'm considering doing another Flur de lis project.  I want to paint a black Flur de lis on the seat, with the rest of the seat being stained, and the legs painted black.  Time to get to work :-)

Guitar Shelf Project!

Yay my guitar self is finished! I'm so excited with how nice it turned out :-)

Guitar Progress, Heat Guns, They're HOT!

Ssooooo, taking apart a guitar can be a bit of a challenge.  The heat gun worked great, once the glue gets a little hot its pretty easy to pull the pieces apart.  Just a warning though, there is fine line between heating up the glue enough to melt it and causing the paint to bubble up.  Since I will be repainting this guitar I'm not too concerented about the bubbles, but it is extra work because now I have to sand the bubbles smooth.  Also once you set the heat gun down don't bump it, it's still really hot and I have some burns to prove it.  

These are two pieces, I got them apart without damaging either of the pieces.

By the time I had worked all the way around the guitar the glue at the beginning was once again hard, so I went back around the entire edge and reheated the glues enough to pull it off but not so hot I would  burn myself.  

Next I sanded the bubbled paint smooth, and gave the entire body a light sanding to help the new paint stick, and remove any rough edges from the inside.

I forgot to take a picture of the body primeered oops :-(
Here is the body white with floral print

And here is here it is with the outside painted as well

The Guitar Upcycle Adventure

I have been a musician most my life, I started plying music when I was 10, one of my most loved instruments is the guitar.  I have some really cool guitar upcycles on the internet, but I all my guitars are for playing I could never dismantle them, so when I found this free guitar I jumped on the chance to try a guitar up cycle!  It is a pretty cute guitar, even if pink guitars aren't really my cup of tea.

The biggest challenge though? How do you take apart a guitar with destroying it?  One project need the  body with the top removed, another calls for the top and neck.  After doing some research I have found a heat gun is what is used to melt the glue and pull apart the pieces.  Well, I have a heat gun so lets give this project a try!

Finished Coaster Project

I'm a day late, but this week has been a bit wacky! Here is the update on my coaster project :-)

This picture came out a bit dark, but I chose paper with the old big wheel bicycles on them.  I think it would have been really neat to do it in several different colors, but I only had it in the green/blue combination.

I cut the paper down into squares that fit the coasters, and used mod podge to adhear the paper.  The next day I sprayed them with high gloss finish and let them dry for another day.

They are now home on our coffee table and end tables :-)

Custom Coasters Upcycle

I have seen a lot of DYI tile coaster tutorials out there, here is one that I perticularyly like tile coaster tutorial I have been thinking about getting some tiles and giving this a try, then I came across theses...

                                           

Tile coasters, and I thought why not cut out some of the steps and just upcycle these into a coaster design I would like!  I'm off to pick out scrapbook paper!

Ta Da a Yoga Bag

After thinking about how to make a yoga mat bag, I thought why not make things easy on myself and and use the leg of the pants.  So I cut the pants in half... 

I then drew lines to make that leg square, I used another piece to draw a circle for the bottom, then 2 more pieces for the draw string and shoulder strap.  I used the length and diameter of a rolled up yoga mat to determine how long and wide the bag needed to be...

I squared everything up, drew lines to sew along, and trim, and then I got to sewing.  The pieces I made for the draw string and strap I turned inside out and ironed flat before attaching them to the bag.  The pieces went together quite well and I think this little bag came out pretty cool! Check it out 

 Have you ever made a yoga bag? If so I'd love to hear about it!

~Sara

Sweat Pants or Yoga Bag: New Project Monday!

I got this pair of sweatpants free, I was super excited not only did they have this cute design but they were the capri style with the elastic bottoms, all of which I love, but then I discovered they had a big hole in them (well now I know why they were free) so there went my awesome pair of sweatpants.  But since I hate wasting things I though there has to be something I can do with these.  After some thinking I thought why not try to make a yoga mat bag.  I go to the gym a lot and see a lot of people carrying around their yoga mats.  I haven't seen a Pinterest post on this and I don't have a pattern so this should be an interesting project :-) 

Big & Rich T-shirt Upcycle

Once I had my sewing machine out  I couldn't resist doing one more t-shirt upcycle!

This is my Ft. Polk Big & Rich T-shirt, as much as I like Big & Rich it is an XL and destined to be a sleep shirt.  But since I was in my upcycle mode I decided to change that!

 This shirt is black so instead of using a pen I'm using this fabric chalk to trace the outline, these can be found at a fabric store. They last forever my mom gave me this one.

 I picked this white t-shirt for my outline I like the way it fits and its of similar thickness of fabric.

Here is my tutorial from yesterdays t-shirt upcycle (From too big to perfect)

Here is the my Big & Rich  t-shirt now :-) much better! 

 
I do have question for anyone out there that does t-shirt up cycles, how often do you come a cross a t-shirt (or tank top) that while it is cute, it is just horribly made?  While I was working on this shirt I found that the silk screen is really uneven, also the distance between the neck and shoulder seems were different.  I ended up taking more off one sleeve then the other to make up for it.  In the end everything worked out splendidly, but it sure throws a wrench into the works when you are working to get every thing even and it turns out it's the shirt itself throwing you off.

I would love hear your thoughts and comments.

~Sara