A quick post before we hit the road...

Shane and I are going to leave for Cedar Rapids in a couple hours, so I thought I'd take this little bit of downtime I have to share with you some of the things I worked on this week. 


First, I finished up a couple Christmas presents... 


For Madyson (14 yrs old), I bought a little wooden drawer thingy at Michael's. Her room is painted hot pink and neon green, so those are the colors I painted it. Around the polka dots and on the neon green knobs, I painted on some glow-in-the-dark paint. :) 
(oh, and sorry about the color variation in the pictures, I used two different settings on my camera when taking these. but the true colors are the bottom picture with the flash.)

For Jake, a very adventurous kid who loves playing with Lego's and creating his own little worlds, I bought a wooden castle thing from Michael's and painted it. I love the treasure chest and the skeleton bones on the back. :) 

gold dubloons!

I also made a T-shirt for Jake. My friend Cathy and I tried this technique last summer on a few black t shirts and tank tops. 

Here is a quickie tutorial for you: 

Materials: 

T-Shirt (dark colored)

Bleach-water (you can dilute it however you like, the best solution I've found is about 70% bleach 30% water. This time, however, I used a much more diluted mixture that wasn't nearly as potent.)

duct tape

spray bottle

cardboard

A WELL-VENTILATED AREA

Start with a dark-colored shirt, preferably black or navy blue. 
I bought this navy blue shirt from Target. 
Tape off whatever design you like on the front and/or back with duct tape. 

After taping it off, you will want to tape something like cardboard to the hanger the shirt is on so the bleach won't seep through to the other side.


Spray your t-shirt (in a well-ventilated area!) with the bleach-water, and see the colors change right before your eyes! 
(using some pics from last summer, since I forgot to take a few this time!)

Cathy spraying her tank top.

after being sprayed. you can see the result of my t-shirt
after the duct tape was removed! 

And the result of Jake's T-shirt from today: 

went from navy blue to gray!

Shane's mom has also been making Christmas ornaments, and of course I had to help glitterize them! ;) 

sparklyyyyy.

To make these ornaments, blow up a balloon slightly to a small round shape. (don't use helium quality balloons. you want them to be nice and round.) 
Take cotton string (looks similar to hemp) and cover it in either Elmer's Glue, Mod Podge, or starch. This one, I believe, was done with Elmer's. Wrap the string repetitively around the balloon,to your liking. tuck the end of your string into the top at a secure enough spot and let it dry.
When it is finished drying, pop the balloon, and take care of any leftover glue that may have stuck onto the string. 
Once it looks clean, use spray adhesive (or mod podge could work too) and cover the string in it. 
Then, glitter it up!! Let it hang to dry overnight. 


Enjoy, and have a Merry Christmas, crafters!! 
<3 Meagan.

Christmas Ornaments!

Update: I know I posted the other day about my grandpa and his failing health, well, this morning Charles Kenneth Lane passed away peacefully in his sleep. He will be missed terribly by his friends and family. R.I.P Grandpa Lane. 

It has been such a sad day, and Shane went to work this morning so I haven't really had anyone to talk to. So, instead of lying in bed and grieving all day, I decided to do some creating to get my mind off things. 

Today, I made Christmas ornaments. This is a great project for kids and adults alike, and very inexpensive!

I started off using these materials: 

paper towel roll, elmer's glue (i eventually switched to my hot glue gun)
glitter, a pen, scissors, ruler, clothespins, Mod Podge

First, cut the paper towel roll into quarter-inch strips. 

Once it is cut up, glue the strips together forming a star. Now, I tried each ornament out a different way. First, I just used Elmer's Glue... if you're using Elmer's glue, make sure that you use the clothespins to hold the pieces together in the star shape until it dries. (I also did a few with my hot glue gun, and that worked MUCH MUCH BETTER and I didn't have to bother with the clothespins. BUT if you don't have a hot glue gun, Elmer's is fine. 

After the glue has dried, remove the clothespins.

Then, spread Mod Podge all over the inside and outside of the star.

Once it's covered in Mod Podge, cover it in glitter. 

After glitterizing it, set it somewhere to dry. (should take anywhere from 20-45 mins depending on how thick you put the Mod Podge on.) 

DRY, you bastards, DRY!

After it is dry, add a piece of string or an ornament hook and you've got yourself a pretty, sparkly new ornament!

Have fun!