DIY Bleach Pen with Stencil

Alright people if you haven't tried the DIY bleach pen designs on your clothes yet then you are missing out! I have seen some DIY's on the internet that walk you step by step through the process, this is not that blog...not for sheer laziness on my part. Not exactly, I would be lying if I didn't admit that to be a contributing factor, the full truth is that it is just so easy a full tutorial would seem offensive to your intellect. ;-) 

Pretty huh! Simply lay your stencil down(work in a well ventilated space folks) on your dark cotton fabric, make sure you put some cardboard in-between your fabric so it doesn't bleed, stipple and smear till you see full coverage, pull stencil straight up carefully and viola! If your impatient like me you'll have a blow dryer handy so you can see the results even faster! 

I told you easy and with some WOW factor!

My awesome stencil from hobby lobby, love that place!

A little free hand action on my leggings.

Sorry for the un-edited pictures, thats the sheer laziness kicking in... I'm a busy mama, what can I say. Hope you enjoyed this "tutorial", if you need more then what I offer (I wont hold it against you) then check out this gal... Also I have yet to try this but I guess you can make your own bleach pen, the name brand stuff is pricey and goes fast, especially if your like me and start bleaching everything in site!

Homemade no cook Play Dough!

I have been looking at several play dough recipes and wondering which one would be the best, in the end I decided to make my own recipe and low and behold it turned out perfectly the first try! So many recipes call for allot of one ingredient like two cups baking soda, that is a whole box! No thank you... I couldn't have figured this out of course without reading and adapting from about five recipes, all of which were mixed by hand where as in I used my kitchen aid and dough hook. I think it proved to be a useful tool albiet not completely necessary but helped I feel in the overall consistency of the dough. The ingredient list is as follows, I purchased basic non organic ingredients as this is a non edible project;

2 cups white flour
1 c. salt

2 tbsp cream of tarter

2 tbsp corn starch

2 tbsp cooking oil

1/2 c. baking soda

2 c. boiling water

Food coloring(we used neon colors)

Just mix all the ingredients in your kitchen aid with the dough hook attachment (or bowl and hand mix). I mixed mine continually scraping down the sides for about 7 minutes on low to medium speed. I then separated the dough into five balls and placed them one at a time into a zip lock bag where I mixed the colors by hand kneading. Once the dough was mixed well enough to not stain my hands I removed from the bag and finished hand kneading. The consistency is amazing, I dont ever recall purchasing a dough this smooth and pliable, it holds it shape so well without being too dry or sticky! It is such a fast and inexpensive project that can be done with very young children, my daughter is almost three and was able to manage most the tasks on her own with very little assistance. Mommy did of course pour the boiling water!  

Ingredients

Her favorite part is to pour and touch everything!

Oops the cornstarch didn't make it into the ingredient photo, she loved the feeling of it!

Checking our consistency, we are almost there...

Finally just right!

Putting our dough into the zip lock bag, I started with the lightest color to avoid crossing colors I didn't want crossed, then wiped out with a paper towel in-between colors.

We were very pleased with our colors!

Now the fun begins!

I should include that we stored our dough in one large Rubbermaid container with a tight fitting lid. My plan is to switch over to smaller containers for individual storage and to hopefully keep some from being completely smooshed together. Ya right, like there is any chance of that, half the dough is already a rainbow of combined color. 

Have fun!

-Gypsy Lov'n

Swim Suit Season

I recently bought the little one a swim suit that she has almost out grown completely, I had it only two months! The endless cost of growing children got me thinking, make your own stuff, well at least some of it...I am no seamstress my any measure, what little skill in that department has come from trial and error and a few wise words from grandma.

It seemed a little crazy though to make a swim suit when I lack proper material and know how, but I decided the heck with it and I must say I am pleased with the outcome. I'll go ahead and include a couple of pictures of the process, I dont exactly feel ready to go full fledge tutorial on you...yet.  So here it is two swim suits for my girl!

I began with a pair of ugly old pants from good old Salvation Army, they consist of 90% nylon and 10% spandex.  I cut them open down the inner leg seams to get a larger piece of material.

I then grabbed a pair of undies that I didn't mind cutting to make my pattern, I traced around them leaving about a half inch allowance for the hem.

I then pinned up my half inch allowance on all sides, this is when the project got a bit awkward, my sides weren't matching and I could tell the suit would sag in the front. I preceded anyway figuring I could guess my way through it.

Then I hemmed...

After hemming I knew I had to do something to tighten up my suit, I didn't have any cute edging so I cut up a pillow case that was missing his mate. I used the trim of the pillow to then trim along my hem, I ran into more problems when I realized sewing around the entire bottoms with my non stretchy lace edging made the suit too tiny. I wasn't planning on side ties for my almost three year old but I didn't have another option...so I snipped and added side ties.

For the top I just sewed a tube, hemmed and added the lace edging around the front, my camera battery at this point was dying so what you dont see is the straps I then added to keep the suit from shimming down! To my surprise the suit worked and the little one LOVES it!

I decided I hadn't tortured myself enough so I made another, this one is a bit more modest which I prefer and even cuter if I do say so myself. ;-)

I made the legs too tight so added the detail to stretch out the thigh, it photographed funny but looks good when taut against the skin.

I think my model likes this one even more then the two piece, yay!

Sadly I did not get pic's of the process but I went about it in a very similar way...trial and error.  So what do you think?

Dylan liked what I did so much she decided to get in on the fun, we came across a brand new Victoria Secret bikini at a garage sale for five dollars! Yep you read that right, it was just one of many scores of the day.  She loved the simplicity of the white suit but longed for more, this is what she came up with, I love it and so does she.

Dylan's before, sweet and simple...

Another pillowcase bights the dust!

Trimmings

Here is the after of the front and bottoms, she hand pinned each section so she wouldn't lose the elasticity in the suit. It is still simple and sweet but now has a touch of personality.

She also went ahead and pinned in the sides since the suit was a bit big in the bottom, great job Dylan!


Hope you enjoyed the post, thanks for stopping by...

-Gypsy Lov'n

It's been a long minute but...

We are back! That was a hiatus of sorts, creativity is flowing the sun is shining and this duo is ready to dive head first back into the blogging world! This time around our posts will be weekly until the demand is made to be...dare I say it...DAILY...lets just focus on weekly for now. Dylan and I have been on a jewelery kick as of late and are very much looking forward to sharing our work with you, and the evolution of our craft/design space. So stay tuned for pictures of our creations and some DIY...see you soon!