How I make a Dandelion shirt

I originally saw the Dandelion shirts on Pinterest. Following the directions, I made one for my eldest and my niece. The shirts turned out really cute but everyone though the fly-aways looked like butterflies of dragon flies, so I revamped my methods. Here's how I made my following shirts step-by-step.

Step One: Paint the stem. I've been using Tulip Soft fabric paint.

Step Two: Draw the "Fly-away" seeds. I used a fabric pen by Zig and used an upwards flicking motion . You need to iron over the ink to set. It is best to iron before painting further (I did forget to do this, while the shirt wasn't damaged, the Tulip paint did stick to the iron) You can  interchange the first two steps but I found drawing the stem helped with placement.

Step Three: Paint the flower head. I spread  a mix of white and silver glitter fabric paints into a thin layer to dip the bath puff in. I made multiple pounces until I got the flower head as big and as dark as I wanted. I found spreading the paint allowed me to pick up a little layer of paint that I layered until I was happy with it.

Step Four: Painting the fly-aways. I cut a small piece of netting off my bath puff and scrunched it up to paint he fly-aways. A couple of dabs on scratch foil was needed to get the right balance of netting. Like the flower head a couple of layered passes were needed in some spots. I left some fly-aways lighter and some darker and defined to give depth, though the picture is hard to tell.

Optional Step Five: Add Iron on gems to flower head and/or seeds. I don't have a picture of this but did add gems to another shirt. I used and Imaginisce I-rock tool.

The Most Important Final Step:Wear and Enjoy

Wow, it has been a while. Ifinally have a finnished addition to my house which means... CRAFT ROOM. My own space. Only problem is organizing all my stuff, YIKES!!! I have picked up a few new crafts along the way too. I finally picked up needle knitting, YouTube is my best friend. I love it, everyone got new scarves for Christmas. Then, right before Christmas, I picked up spinning. Yes, I am now spinning my own yarn though I still go nuts in Joann's yarn section. I am still making cards though alot of that stuff is still being brough out and put into it's own place in MY ROOM. I have also made a few shirts with my girls. I tried Sharpie Tie-dye. The girls loved that. I also tried Dandelion  t-shirts I saw on Pinterest. This is the original link. Here is my first attempt.

Cute, isn't it. My only issue was everyone I showed it too thought the little fly-aways (we always called them Santa Clauses when we were little) were butterflys. So for my second try I changed them alittle.

I like this a little bit better.

Close up pic.

I has been a while but I have swapped my "craft of the moment". A girlfriend of mine introduced me to Knifty Knitters. I have always wanted to knit but alas, as many times I have tried to learn I cannot get the hang of it. Well, I never thought to try loom knitting which is all Knifty knitters are. So I got hooked, no pun intended. My kids are fascinated, the youngest two cannot wait for which hat I will make them next and the oldest has caught on and has even made herself a scarf (at 8 and she has ADHD this is an amazing accomplishment). Check out the products of my new addiction.

This is a scarf I made using 2 strands of very fine variegated yarn. I can never start simple and this scarf is made with a honeycomb stitch I saw on youtube.

As I said my eldest made herself a scarf and this is it.  She did a great job. I just did the start and finished it off but she did the rest. 

Now I am off to do more.

Today I finished up a baby gift for one of my co-workers. It's a girl and she (my co-worker) decided on pink zebra for her baby's room. I had not originally planned on making her gift, just the card, but when I saw this quilt kit I couldn't pass it up.

Beautiful pink and brown fleece patterns including zebra, pink satin and super soft brown plush fabrics just perfect for a baby girl.

I also made her card. My standard 6x6 with a white base. A medium pink embossed with Cuttlebug swiss dots. I lighter pink shimmer paper with 2 embossed lines along the edges. The baby is a digi stamp from Digi Doodle Shop (check them out), printed on X-Press It paper and colored with copics. The leaves are a Sizix die and the roses are made from Spellbinders Rose Creations and Retro flower punches. I have yet to figure out how to make fitting buds so these were bought along with the white mini flowers. The stick pins were hand made alone with the pearl sprays. I got to play around with a new product for me, Tattered Angels Glimmer Glaze in Plumeria. I glazed the dark pink flower along with painting the rattle on the tag. So far I am really liking Glimmer Glazes. I also tried it out on some stamps both digi printed out with my ink jet printer and regular stamped with Memento inks. So far no ink bleeding. They don't seem to be water-based like the sprays and have a little odor that I am having a hard time placing at the moment. Enough for now. Later!

Beach Wedding

My BIL got married on the beach last week and I made this card for him and his new bride.

I used Magnolia's Loving Bridal Couple and a beach background colored in copics. I thought the cream color scheme was more "beachy" even though this is her first marriage (his second). I had some shimmery paper on hand in green, pink and yellow and used them to make the flowers and leaves. I used some mini shells, starfish and sand dollars to accent the card. The sentiment is from Fiskars. I also made an envelope box to match.

It's been a very busy month for me, the drywall is up in my addition and most of my free time is spent working on that. Spackle, sand, spackle, sand, paint, touch-up, clean up little hand prints when the little ones get into something. I don't have alot of time to finish cards but I'm gonna post the ones I haven't already.

This was the Father's Day card I made for my dad. The image is from Mo's Digital Pencil Shop. Every one thought this image looks like my younger daughter. I colored it just like her with her mix of girl and boy's clothes (she swipes the boy's clothes from her cousin's hand-me-downs set aside for her brother).

This one is the Father's Day card I made for the kids to give to my hubby. The image is Lili of the Valley.

This was one I made for no particular reason. Yellow was never really a favorite color to use so I was extending my color pallet. The large rose is hand made using my Rose Creations die set.

This is the last. Not much special about it, just playing around really.

Hope you enjoy some of my work.

I made this card really just by playing around. I had no real plan, just the background paper which is called Smitten 12x12 Pretties that I bought at Michaels.  I colored Tilda to match using E37.E33, E31 for her hair and R22,R21, R20 and R00 plus E29,E27,E25 for her clothes. I cut the the corner and border from Spellbinders Floral Doily Accents out of Brown cardstock, embossed them and used Perfect Pearls over the embossed parts. The larger flowers were made from Spellbinders Rose Creations and the smaller were out of a small retro flower punch. The leaf spray is a Sizzix die and MS Pine branch are added touches behind the flowers. I regret to say I have not figured out how to make my own rose buds so those are purchased. Swavorski crystals accent the photo corner and the lower right.