Bleach Pen Designs

For my kid's birthday I make them shirts with their age on it. Normally this is appliqued or embroidered but I thought it was becoming a little to feminine for my son. Enter the bleach pen shirt art.

                                                                           Source: showtellshare.blogspot.com via Sarah on Pinterest

When I thought about a bleach pen I thought it would be like a sharpie filled with bleach, it isn't. It is more like a tube of toothpaste that you squeeze the thick bleach out of. I loved the tip to iron on freezer paper to the back side so it doesn't soak through and saved me from this cookie sheet/towel contraption I was going to use. I used a black pen so I let the paste sit overnight and my end results were a nice light orange (not the pink I was afraid of).

I did have a little trouble when an air bubble came out of the tip and created a small halo. Didn't ruin the shirt but I think it would have been nice if that didn't happen. I would recommend that you start with simple designs that allow for some creative mistakes. My son loves his "new" shirt and I think this would be a great way to redesign clothes that have stains on them.

Another five pins! 

Magnet Paper Dolls

I have been thinking about this pin for a while and finally remembered to pick up some magnetic sheets!

                                                                                           Source: onepearlbutton.com via Sarah on Pinterest

The tutorial was easy to follow and I only made one small change, I used regular printer paper.

The best part of this craft was picking out the clothes. I really would like to make the whole set but might wait until my daughter is a little older. The tins were 99 cents and fit the dolls perfectly!

Below is my version.  The picture on the right was when I tried to use the non-adhesive sheets and glue them myself. That turned out to be thick and the clothes didn't stick to the doll... should have followed the directions!

 

Great craft for kids 5+ to help make. Lots of fun looking through the old magazine pages and picking out outfits. These would make perfect stocking stuffers or toys to play with while traveling.

Vase With Rubber Bands and Spray Paint

                                                                                        Source: rachelmahan.tumblr.com via Sarah on Pinterest

This Christmas my goal was to decorate using things I already own. I saw these awesome vases and just knew I could make these suckers. I didn't have vases but I did have random glass jars of green chili sauce, jelly and olives and figured these would do!

The original craft can be found here. He uses yarn and tape to get the effect but rubber bands definitely sounded easier. I was happy to see that the original also called for jars that were washed "sparkly clean." I couldn't get mine sparkly clean so I left some of the goo from the paper wrappers and hoped for the best.

My naked jars.

Wrapped in rubber bands... feeling good about this craft so far!

I balanced them on the handle of my plunger because it was handy and now I have a nice sparkly handle plunger.

After three coats of silver spray paint (what I had on hand after Halloween.)

With the rubber bands removed they are living up to my expectations! The paint wasn't totally dry because I am impatient and I left some random finger prints.

Add the tea lights and enjoy the glow.

 

The process was really easy to do and I would only change two things next time:

1. Use a different color spray paint. The silver looks too aluminum can-like to me.

2. Plan on a way to cover the threads of the jar... oh wait I did do that after the fact - here is the result. 

I added a ring of glitter but that still didn't cover the jar threads enough and I probably should have used a ribbon like the original post called for.

I gave this craft 5 pins because it is completely do-able and if you are patient and have clean jars/vases you will get something worth of display on your mantel.

Let us know if you tried this craft and how satisfied you were with the results!

Cheers,