Stencil a St. Patrick's day shirt (using freezer paper)

Can I admit something to you?

I'm not Irish.  *Gasp*  I know!  How surprising!

I've never felt the need to celebrate St. Patrick's day.  But, strangely... now that I'm a mom I feel the need to celebrate this and every holiday with Chuck.  President's day? St. Patrick's day?  Passover?  Bring them all on.  I relish the thought of dressing him up in holiday themed gear.

And since St. Paddy's day is just around the corner, what better way to celebrate than dress him in green. So last night I donned my crafting hat and made this "lucky charm" shirt for Chuck to wear.

Not too shabby, right?  It was my first time trying out the freezer paper stenciling technique.  Isn't it surprising how nice and crisp the lines turned out?  Wow.  This is definitely a technique that I'll use in the future.

The Craft Fair

was this past Saturday.  Oi vey!  I never realized how much effort it takes to design a product, make a product, package a product, set up shop, and then sell a product.  Yikes.  We're still recovering from all the preparations.

Tita Tina did pretty well selling her paintings.  I had some sales (mostly from family members- thank you for coming by and supporting us!), and I made enough to just cover 90% of my material costs.  Wowzers.  For all of you who do this in real life, I salute  you!  Truly, crafting is not for the weak.

All in all, I'm really glad we tried something new.  Now I can check something off the old bucket list.  I'd like to try this venture out another time in the future... but next time I'll think of different crafts to sell.... Hrmm....

Oh yeah- here are some photos from the fair!

Card making

Hi guys.  

I'm currently freaking out about Saturday's craft fair.  

So, I'm taking a short blogging hiatus to concentrate on card making.

Wish us luck.

  

See you on Monday.

What's up, Chuck?

Lately Chuck and I have been going outside to feed the birds and blow bubbles.  

These are some of my favorite moments of the day.

"Hello" stamped pants

Since I've been making tons and tons of stamps, I thought I'd take a short break from card stamping and decorate a pair of pants for Chuck.

They were really easy to make, but I'm just going to include the tutorial down below in case anyone feels the urge to stamp "hello" on a bunch of clothing.

Materials:
- pants
- fabric paint
- pencil
- paper
- scissors
- craft knife
- glue
- cardboard
- paint brush
- craft foam

Directions:

1.  Create your stamp.  I just wrote out the word "hello" on a piece of paper in a font that I liked.  Then, I cut out my word, traced it onto a piece of foam, and used my craft knife to cut it out  Then, I glued the word backwards (mirror-image!) onto a piece of cardboard.  Then, I just trimmed my cardboard. After letting the glue dry overnight, I had a lovely "hello" stamp.

2. I followed directions on the fabric paint bottle to properly prepare my pants for painting.  (Ooh!  Alliteration.)

3.  I slipped in a piece of cardboard into my pants leg to make sure that my fabric paint didn't go through to the other side.  Then, I painted fabric paint onto my stamp, and pressed down onto my pants.

4.  Hmm. The initial results weren't quite as bright and vibrant as I had hoped.  So, I took out my paintbrush and carefully painted over my word.

5.  Then, I just followed the directions on the bottle and laid the pants flat to dry.

We've already worn the pants once and put them through the wash.  The paint stayed put  and still looks good.  Phew!  Now Chuck has some happy and friendly pants to wear around town.  Easie-peasie.   I'd like to decorate some other clothes.... once I emerge from my card-making dungeon.  (Ack! Is anyone even going to buy my cards?  Freak out time!)