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