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Sunday, March 23, 2014

A Craft A Week: Week 10 - Run or Dye Race T-Shirt Refashion

Ever heard of the Run or Dye race?  Check it out here: http://www.runordye.com/ Maybe they'll be coming to a city near you.  Anyway, my coworker Charisse put together a Team for AECOM called the AECOM DyeHards.  I immediately signed up because I saw the pictures of this race last year and it looked like a blast!  At first it was just going to be me and my coworkers, then Hubby needed to work at an Open House on campus so it was me and Reed.  Then Chase was going to be home for the weekend and then Blake too.  So now it was me and the 3 kids going on a 5K.
 
We need shirts!  The Dyehards planned out wearing white shirts and using tape to spell out DYEHARDS, then after the dye we could peel off the tape and our tape would be spelled out in white.  I bought me and the kids cheap white shirts from Hobby Lobby and I had some Washi tape from the St. Patrick's Day project.
 
Start with a shirt:
Spell out your words with the tape:
If using Washi tape, it peels off really easily so I recommend using some puffy paint to outline the letters and help keep the tape stuck down on the shirt.  Plus it adds more flair!  I even added some glitter to spice it up more - and hide the gloppy spots in the paint.
Then I made some for the kids.  This one is for Chase:
This one is for Blake, I thought he would appreciate less flair.  I was wrong though, he liked Chase's better and then his letters kept coming off because I didn't outline them with paint.
This one is for Reed:
At this point I was trying to get them done and liked how Blake's looked so I skipped the paint outline on the tape.  Later I realized again how I wish I had taken the time to do it - Reed peeled off all his "stickers" before we even left the house that morning.

As for a re-fashion, do you know how we all make those fleece blankets with the tied sides?  Well, I did that to the sides of my shirt, but not ONE picture shows the side.  Here is the tutorial I learned this from: http://connectthedotsons.blogspot.com/2011/03/diy-husbands-large-t-shirt-to-fitted.html
I've tried this re-fashion twice before, once last year for Donut Dash 5 and the first time I did it was for a Halloween shirt I wore in 2011, but alas I have no good photos of those either.  The tutorial will have to do.

Alright, so Dawn came over and we all carpooled downtown to meet the rest of the DyeHards before the race.  We wanted to take a group shot:
And I wanted a Mom and Kids shot:
Once we were all together, we headed to the start line where people were already throwing dye everywhere.  Chase and I took this selfy and I love it!
When the race started we took off with the pack.  Dawn and the kids and I were all walking and the rest of the Dyehards were running or jog-walking.  The plan was to meet at the end and take an "after" photo.  Along the race there were several Dye Zones where volunteers threw dye at you, your shirt, your hair, everywhere!  Before we ever got to the first Dye Zone a fellow walkers husband accidentally threw a HUGE HANDFUL of orange dye right in my face.  Lovely.  Everyone around me was laughing - I was too - and we kept on truckin'.  I think that was the sign that everyone thought I wanted dye in my face because at every Dye Zone it was similar.  Gag.  Hack.  Cough.  By the end, with the sweat and trying to rub some off, I looked like some sort of army person trying to hide in the trees, I looked ridiculous and the rest of my group looked all cute and smiley.  Ugh.
Anyway, after the race we went to lunch at Subway looking ridiculous then back home for immediate scrubbing and bathing and scrubbing and more scrubbing.  Finally we looked normal again so we packed up and went camping for the night!
Today I am super sore in my arms from pushing Reed in the stroller and my thighs are super sore also.
Dawn and I would like to do a run once every other month.  We will skip April, maybe just do some hiking on the American River Trails.  In May we want to do the Race For The Cure on Mother's Day weekend.  I'll need to find some pink gear to wear and some more re-fashions to try.

Recap:
If I were to do it again, I would buy shirts from another store.  I noticed that the shirts we bought from Hobby Lobby did not hold the dye like shirts my friends purchased from Michael's (see Dawn's shirt in the middle, she was right next to me the whole time and her shirt turned out amazing).  As I said above, I would make sure the tape is held better with some puffy paint and I might even use a different kind of tape or masking tape.  I would try harder to keep my face cleaner so I could feel pretty in my photos.  And I would make sure I actually got a picture of the hard work of tying the sides.  Duh.

Next Project:
I want to work on my downstairs bathroom.  The "theme" is: ocean.  I bought the following picture from Personal Creations.com and it was delivered with a broken frame (of which I am going to re-craft), but they shipped me a replacement that will arrive this Friday.
Of course it says MIKE +JENNI rather than RYAN + LESLIE.  But when it arrives I want to add to the bathroom with some of the other ideas I like.  If you Follow me on Pinterest I have a board called "For My Bathroom" that I've been saving inspiration photos.  I'm not 100% sure yet what I am going to make this week, the bathroom is very small and there is no room for a table with knickknacks so it all has to be wall decor.  Here is some inspiration:
Please comment, cheer me on, send me your thoughts and encouraging words and as always I would love to see pictures of what you are working on!


Saturday, March 22, 2014

A Craft A Week: Week 9 - St. Patrick's Day

On Thursday night March 13th as the sun was setting in the evening sky, Chase, Reed and I pulled out ALL my beads and bead wire to make crafties!  I was inspired to work on a beaded suncatcher, Chase had no idea what to make and settled on a beaded bookmark while Reed made the biggest mess I've ever seen with using just beads.

I began with a piece of driftwood we brought home a few weekends back from San Francisco and wrapped some thicker wire around it making a few fun swirls.  Then I took some gold bead string and made four long strands: one redish colors, one yellowish colors, one blues, and the last had purples.  I don't have much to say about my suncatcher.  All I did was string beads on a thread and then hang it outside.  Hubby actually gave me a compliment on it, so maybe it is cooler than I thought it would be.  I want to try a more wire-artistic version another time, maybe fill my whole backyard with them!!

Earlier that evening Chase and I were being silly with the iPad Photobooth App and were making silly kissy faces... here is my share (does this count as a craft? It takes talent to look this good!):
 
 
That Saturday I took Chase and Reed over to Hobby Lobby to get some St. Patrick's Day craft supplies and also my next week's craft project supplies: more t-shirts.  We are doing another run, the Run or Dye!
 
I didn't have much time alone to work on the St. Patrick's Day goody bags and hadn't bought the treats yet, so I played around with a t-shirt refashion idea I saw on Pinterest and was hoping to pull off on an upcoming camping trip.  Here is the tutorial: http://wobisobi.blogspot.com/2012/07/no-sew-halter-3-diy.html
 
I happened to have a very similar t-shirt in my hands and proceeded to work my way through the tutorial.  First I cut off the sleeves like so and then cut off the collar and made it a V-neck, just like the tutorial shows.
  
 
Then you flip the shirt over to work on the back.  The tutorial shows you dotted lines drawn on the photo of where to cut and you can see the result in my photo below.  Basically it becomes long straps from the front that come all the way down the back to your armpits.  The middle of the back is sliced in half to create the straps for the back.  These will get tied together, but first you need to make a twist or knot in the front.  The tutorial can show you that... mine turned out stupid.  I either needed to play with a bigger shirt or this is just not for me.  The knot wouldn't lie pretty like the picture in the tutorial (maybe another big boob fiasco) and then I hated how the straps ended up getting tied together in the back like two large clumps of knots on your back that would NOT be comfortable if you leaned back against a chair.  This project needs some tweaks before I wear it... I have some ideas...

 
On Sunday I ran to the grocery store and bought a few items to make my St. Patrick's Day treat boxes for the kids and treats for the St. Patrick's Potluck for work the next day.  First I had fun in the kitchen making Muddy Buddies.  This was my inspiration... Oooooh  Aaaaah!
 
 
I followed the basic recipe on the back of the Rice Chex box, but I added a LOT more powdered sugar at the end to really soak up the chocolate-peanut butter goo coated on the cereal.  The only M&M's I could find that were green were the mint ones.  I think it was a good combo, Hubby seemed to really enjoy it!
 
Then I mixed up the Lucky Charms cereal treats (like Rice Krispie Treats, but using a different cereal).  I made them using the Rice Krispie Treat recipe but substituted Easter color marshmallows instead of regular marshmallows.  Honestly, I think these treats tasted BETTER than the regular Rice Krispie Treats do.  I think my coworkers agreed, they were gone quick!  Here is where I got the idea: http://bloomdesignsonline.com/2014/02/st-patricks-ideas-from-bloom.html
 
Here is what my treat platter looked like at work... with a few fun photo enhancements I've been playing around with...
 
 
After making the goodies, I snuck upstairs while Reed was taking his nap and crafted some treat boxes for the kids goodies.  I didn't take great photos during this process, it was hard to arrange the paper so you would know what I was doing.  I used a full 12x12 sheet of scrapbook paper of each goody box.  I origami-folded it a million ways to figure out what I was going to do and then I cut this shape out (I played this picture to death on a new App called Rookie on my iPad).  Here is where the idea came from: http://insidebrucrewlife.com/2013/02/st-patricks-day-boxes/
 

 
When you fold the sides up there are flaps that don't line up to form a straight box; these I folded in and taped to the adjoining side to hold the box together.  This is where I couldn't take a good picture to show you what the heck I am talking about.  Here is a picture of all the sides folded up and taped, and then I cut a little design on the top rim.
With the leftover pieces I had cut out of the scrapbook page I made little handles the exact size of these rainbow AirHead Xtremes Candy ropes.  I stapled the handles on and laid a candy rainbow on the top of it.

 
 
 
Last I filled them with chocolate coins, a Godiva mint chocolate patty, and some of the treats I made in the kitchen earlier that day and immediately brought them down for my kids to devour!  Blake ate his all gone in like 20 minutes and then walked over to the kitchen trash and threw away my hard work.  Chase finished his candy throughout the evening and left his goody box lying around the house for the next week.  Reed took a day or two to eat all his treats and then used his goody box to put LEGOs in until the handle ripped.  PERFECT!!  :)
 
Next week, which is already done pretty much, I need to create shirts for me, Chase, Blake, and Reed to walk in the Run or Dye event.  That's all I will have time for because of how busy work has been and because Chase is going to be in a school performance and each night has to be driven back and forth to school for practice and we need to bring him dinner each night in between.  It is going to be a busy week!

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

A Craft A Week: Week 8 - T-shirt Re-Fashions

So not as bad as last week, but it's now Wednesday and I was trying to post on Monday. Same excuse too: work, work, and more work.  I am lucky I enjoy my job as much as I do, but I sure do love crafting.

Last week my challenge was to re-fashion t-shirts.  Specifically I was going to re-fashion what I referred to as the non-flattering race t-shirt I was going to be wearing to the Donut Dash fun run.  I also needed to design a race t-shirt for my youngest who wouldn't have one.

So here is a picture of the race t-shirt... actually not bad at all, but I was committed to making a change.


First I shortened the shirt by cutting off the bottom hem.



Then I cut off the high irritating neck and made it an off the shoulder look by cutting more off on one shoulder than the other.  This is all I did as far as styling my shirt because I happened to grab a men's medium instead of a larger size that I would have more room to play with.  I did however add some fun to the back with white puffy paint.  Our little friend Jessen's name made it on the back of the t-shirt in the "In Honor of" list.  For more information on how Jessen is doing and ways to help raise money for awareness of neuroblastoma, check out the Facebook Page "Love, Jessen".  We were able to raise a $500 donation for Donut Dash, I was hoping we would have made the shirt, but we didn't... so I added Blake's name on our shirts.  Blake is a survivor of Ewing Sarcoma, we are planning our 1-year-cancer-free party soon.


Next I worked on Reed's shirt.  I bought a plain small red t-shirt at Hobby Lobby and hand drew the Donut Dash logo on Reed's shirt along with "Donut Dash" and "SEIS" to match our shirts a little.

Then I looked at the leftover scraps of fabric and thought... t-shirt scrap wrapped bracelets?  Pinterest here I come!  I searched it, I found it, I did it!  Here is the picture I found with a tutorial on how they made theirs (link to site below pic):

http://cfabbridesigns.com/craft-projects/t-shirt-bracelets/
 Do you remember the neck piece I cut off?  Well, I sliced it in to strips, stretched the fabric to roll it and make it longer, tied the pieces together...
 

...and wrapped them around a few hardly-ever-worn bracelets I've had since I was hip in my 20's.
 
 
 
     So above is a group shot of us, the best I will show of my shirt BECAUSE... WOW, I look terrible in an off-the-shoulder-shirt.  I didn't realize that with an off-the-shoulder-shirt and my size D's it would make me look like an XL.  NOT FLATTERING.  I should have just left the "non-flattering" race t-shirt alone because it would have made me look much better.  I need a shirt that hugs just under my bust because that is the tiniest part of me.  If I had got a bigger shirt and had been able to also work the side seams as well as the neck it might have turned out awesome because I could have taken it in under my pits.
     The other picture is of Reed and I at the halfway point (you know... where you stop for the ooey-gooey delicious donuts) and you can see Reed's shirt as well as my bracelets.  It was a fun day and I had a great time until I got home and looked at the photos.
 
So "next week" (aka right now) I will be working on St. Patrick's Day fun!  Here are some photos of what I want to accomplish (LOL!)
http://insidebrucrewlife.com/2013/02/st-patricks-day-boxes/
http://www.ilovebrightonford.com/2013/03/diy-st-patricks-day-ideas.html
http://bloomdesignsonline.com/2014/02/st-patricks-ideas-from-bloom.html
 
http://allourdays.com/2012/06/diy-beaded-sun-catcher-finished-friday-link-up-your-finished-projects-too.html
 
     The first picture is of some St. Patrick's treat ideas: Chinese food type containers decorated in green with rainbow handles filled with gold candies; Chex-mix treats with green M&Ms; Lucky Charms and marshmallow treats.
     The set of pictures is the bigger craft, I want to make a sun catcher with the hundreds of beads I have in my collection.
     A side craft I am tackling with the kids is making wands.  When we went to the ocean in San Francisco the other weekend we collected drift wood and feathers and shells.  This is what we want to make...


                     
                                      http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=354195.0#axzz2voU56kWV


As always I encourage you to participate with me; share with me what cool things you are doing for St. Patrick's Day.  I would love to hear from you and I would also love if you shared a photo of your creation.  You can also leave a comment for me to encourage me on, that's always appreciated.
 
Take care and I'll chat with you soon!  Love, Lady Beetle
 



Friday, March 7, 2014

A Craft A Week: Week 7 - Framing


It's Friday and I fully intended to write this and send it Monday morning.  What happened?  Work happened.  What a busy week.  My craft challenge was to tackle many of the empty frames around the house, the favorite photos I've always wanted to print, the artwork I've owned and never hung, blah, blah, blippity blah.

So I had gathered up all the frames, pictures, artwork, etc. to work on.  It sure did make a mess of my guest room.  I made a list of what I had with measurements and a list of what I needed.  On Wednesday, I went to Michael's with my 40% off one item coupon and LUCKY ME! they were also having a BOGO on frames sale!  I bought a few frames and headed home.

Thursday night I framed the Fingerprint artwork from my wedding.  Obviously this is a special piece, but it is even "specialer" because my Dad painted it!  At my wedding the guests pressed their thumbprints in to each flower petal and then signed their names.  It's been in my closet ever since, but now it's finally framed!  It still isn't hung because I need help from Hubby to make sure I get it straight.  I changed the rotation of the piece from portrait to landscape because if you look at the picture of the unframed piece, the bottom two petals is where Hubby and I placed our prints.  I decided I didn't like how that turned out because once it was all done it looked like Hubby was all alone off to the side and this is supposed to represent our union.  Soooooo, I switched it up a bit.  It didn't exactly work out in the frame.  I am going to just live with it, but maybe I can find a solution: problem is that the matting is just a hair too short on the sides; tape? another small matting to hide it?



The next piece I framed was artwork I bought on Etsy from Petek Design.  I bought it back in 2011 before the wedding because I loved it, but I thought maybe it would be a cute wedding gift for Hubby (and me).  For whatever reason I didn't give it to him, I think because I didn't want him to hate it.  He never even laid eyes on it until the other day when I framed it, hung it, and he LOVED it!

https://www.etsy.com/shop/petekdesign

Not the best photo, but here it is hung over our bed :)
The next few pieces were fun-for-the-kids pieces.  One was a circle painting me, Chase, and Blake painted one day at some kids birthday party.  Same thing, I had hung on to it for 2+ years because it turned out so cool, but then I shoved it away in my closet.  The other two are caricature drawings of the kids and one of me from eons ago.  Hubby is not a fan of caricature drawings but for the time being I like how it adds interest to our hallway.


On Friday I intended to print a lot of pictures for all my frames, but it didn't happen (darn work).  I was able to print one of Hubby and Reed fishing to put in the puzzle-picture-frame Reed made for his Daddy for Fathers Day last year and has been sitting in a drawer since.

I was only able to print one other picture - Reed holding a Lady Beetle - that I had plans to fill in my photo collage frame jewelry box case with Reed's Lady Beetle artwork and other Lady Beetles.  I downloaded an AP on my iPad called PopAGraph that allowed me to use my photos and pop out a specific color and make the rest of the photo B&W.  Cute!  I didn't get around to printing enough pictures though and my collage frame looks pretty silly right now, it needs a lot more work... a lot!

 

Saturday the family packed up and drove to San Francisco for the weekend to visit Hubby's folks.  I really wanted to bring my drift wood frame craft idea, but I didn't have time to get it together before we had to leave.  Later that night the kids, Grandma Gumi and I were hanging out and I had the idea to play with origami paper!  We made frogs and butterflies and throwing stars and Gumi made a Japanese Samurai helmet; the boys made paper airplanes; and I made... a picture frame!

I got the idea from PINTEREST! (Duh!)  Here is a link to the instructions if you ever want to check it out: http://diy-projectss.blogspot.com/2013/10/paper-flower-picture-frame.html?m=1Blake tried making one along with me, but to be honest... we both got really confused a few times.  Oh well, it's neat.

So that wraps up my Week of Framing.  I will hopefully continue to get the photos printed and the kids crafts framed because I really want my house exploding with my favorite memories and artwork of all kinds.

Next Week (which is right now and almost over) I will be working on T-Shirt Refashions.  Our family is participating in a fun run called the Donut Dash and I want to make the non-flattering race t-shirt fun to wear.  I think I will probably cut the neck to be off the shoulder and cut the bottom hem off.  I might work on some other shirts over the weekend too because I have so many ideas!  If you have a Pinterest account you can check out my board of shirt refashions to get some ideas of what I want to do.

Please post some comments, I made it easier to leave them, you don't need to join or whatever.  I'd love to hear from you, hear about your crafts or see some pictures of what you are doing.  Chat with you in a few days!