Freezer Paper Stencils T-Shirts

There are tutorials for this all over the internet so I'm not going to go into depth with this one. However, I was incredibly surprised by the quality that these stencils produced and will be using this method many, many times again. I just wish we had known about this back in high school when we decorated countless t-shirts for every sporting event and cheerleading camp!

First, I used my cricut to cut the designs in the freezer paper. As you can see, in this instance I used the words "bride" and "bridesmaid".

Then, I used a hot, dry iron to adhere the freezer paper to the t-shirts. Make sure to place the shiny side of the freezer paper towards the fabric. I found a quick swipe of the hot iron adhered the paper very well. There was no need to hold the iron on the stencil for any length of time.





I then used fabric paint and sponge "brushes" from Michael's to paint in the stencil. You really don't have to be very neat with this part of the process. Extra paint on the stencil is no big deal.

At this point let me say that I used a translucent glitter paint for the letters. I really wanted opaque paint but they didn't have any in this color. It took 5 or 6 coats of paint to get the letters to look like this. If you find that you have to do this as well, lightly score the paint in a corner of each letter or design in the stencil to "start" it and then peel the stencil away. If you peel back on the stencil causing a fold as you go rather than pulling away from the paint you will have more success. I hope that makes sense.



The end result:



This was a cheap and cheerful way to do t-shirts for my friend's bachelorette wine tour but the sky's the limit on what this technique can be used for.

Hurricane Irene Pics

I've mentioned Hurricane Irene before in this post.

I just wanted to share soem pictures taken in Sandbridge, Virginia Beach, Virginia, during a break in the storm.

Sandwiched

and ready to quilt!



This one is mostly Sweetwater's Pure line of fabrics in a pinwheel design. I "cheated" and used pre-cuts for this one. I'll be honest, it didn't help it go together any faster. This quilt has been set aside time and time again for other projects. But! will be completed this year. Making that a not-so-record-setting three quilts in two years.

Ps. I l.o.v.e. this line of fabric. I have loved everything Sweetwater has put out and was sooooo disappointed not to get my hands on their Make Life line. I have Sunkissed and Hometown waiting in my stash though!

Sandbridge, Virginia Beach, VA

**Warning, Picture Heavy**

On Sunday, Chris and I drove down to Sandbridge to take some pictures with his family.

The group pictures are on his mother's camera but here are a few I took with my point-and-shoot. And can I just say, I've been seriously impressed with what I've pulled off that little gadget?

Hunt Club Farm

We took Molly McGee with us to pick out pumpkins on Saturday. These pictures may not show it but she loved all the attention she got and the kids she got to give kisses to. She was one popular pooch!







On Sunday afternoon we did a little carving; this is what we came up with:



We used a pattern and knife kit from Michael's. Chris stuck to the pattern. I ad libbed a little and decided to turn the skull into a pirate. I think we both found success with our efforts!

Walmart Rainbow

Left Side



Right Side



It was starting to fade by the time I got out of my car; which is too bad because I would have been able to photograph the whole arch.

How to save a rotting tree...

with concrete!

I have the prettiest red dogwood tree in my front yard. Unfortunately, it is in a sad, sad state. When I bought my house almost two years ago -yikes! two years already?!- the tree was half dead and rotting at the trunk. Slowly but surely I've been pruning back dead branches, a few at a time, with a hand pole saw. This is work. Hard, hard work. Now it was (past) time to deal with the rotting trunk.

Here's the method I used.

I picked up a bag of quick-set ready-mixed concrete at Lowe's.

After mixing this up and beginning to fill in the hole left by the rotting wood, I realized I was going to need some sort of framework.

Hmmmm... what do I have around my house that might work for this purpose... hmmmm....?

I was instantly transported back to my Freshman Design-Build in Penn State's Architecture Department where a classmate and I used bubblewrap to form concrete benches. Maybe plastic wrap would work in this instance...



I wrapped about half way up the whole with several layers of plastic wrap and then filled with my mixed concrete.



I then added some more plastic wrap and some more concrete, working my way up the trunk of the tree.



Filling all the way to the top of the whole, completely covering the rotten part of the tree trunk.



I then waited for the concrete to cure before peeling back the plastic wrap.





If this worked like it should, the tree will grow around the concrete and heal itself. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!