DIY Bleach T-shirts

A few months back I attempted to make a bleach pen and the results were... disastrous, to say the least. I veered away from any projects that involved bleach and t-shirts because I was sure I was just going to screw them up. Well, I came across this post from PracticallyFunctional and this post from Brit.co and thought, "You know what? One Pinterest fail isn't going to stop me!" so I tried these two and you know what? They actually turned out ok! So if you think you're just going to screw it up... trust me, coming from a master failer, you'll be fine.


Bleach Striped T-shirt:

To get started you'll need the following:

1. A t-shirt
2. Some bleach
3. Some water
4. Masking or painter's tape
5. A spray bottle (I just recycled an old one I had on hand)

To begin, start by laying out your shirt and placing your masking or painters tape across the shirt. If you want to use a ruler to get perfect stripes, you can, but I just eye-balled it. Make sure the strips of tape are long enough to wrap around the other side.

Once the shirt is covered in tape stripes, flip it over and continue the lines on the other side with tape.

Try to overlap the tape perfectly, otherwise your lines won't look at seamless.

Next, pour 1 part water and 1 part bleach into a bottle (I did half and half) and place your shirt in a place where you're not afraid to get bleach on it. I opted for the bathtub... figured bleach could only make things better in there! Spray the front, flip it over, and spray the back.

How long you want the bleach to sit is entirely up to you. I opted for 10 minutes but should have done 5 minutes because I got blurred lines (::insert Robin Thicke reference::).

Once your 5-10 minutes are up, remove the tape and rinse the shirt under cold water.

Hang dry for 24 hours before showing off your work! Now aren't you glad you didn't spend $25 on something you could just as easily make yourself? I know it's not perfect but I kinda like it better this way!

Bleach Stencil T-shirt

Now I used this stencil of a cute little owl, cut out all the white parts with an x-acto knife, and taped it to a tank top (if you print out your stencil on transfer paper with spray adhesive, that works too, but I just used card stock and Scotch tape).

Just like before, spray with your 50/50 bleach/water mixture and let it sit for 5-10 minutes.

Rinse it out with cold water and let it air dry for 24 hours before wearing.

Because my owl wasn't completely flush with the shirt, there are some areas around the eyes that didn't turn out as well but overall, I think he's adorable!

A couple things to keep in mind:

#1 - Wherever the bleach water touches, it will stain, even if it's not part of your design (make sure your bottle doesn't leak).

#2 - The longer you wait for the bleach to set, the lighter the color.

#3 - This is a smelly project - wherever you are, you'll smell bleach so please be in a well ventilated room! And yes, the shirts will have a faint smell of bleach when dry so don't be surprised.

Have fun making your shirts your own! Or better yet, make some as gifts for family, for Halloween, for your company softball team... the possibilities are endless!

TOTAL COSTS: About $10
$3 for t-shirt from Goodwill (tank top already on hand)
$5.87 for Frog Tape from Home Depot
$1.79 for bleach from Vons
Bottle already on hand (recycled)

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: 20-30 minutes + overnight
15 minutes to make the stripes/cut out the owl
5-10 minutes to spray bleach and let sit
Overnight to dry

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 3 out of 5
To get perfectly straight lines without any bleeding takes practice and you might not get it on the first try (like me) but keep at it and you'll get into a rhythm. If you're using a stencil, make sure it's centered exactly where you want it, otherwise it might look a bit... off.

DIY Red, White, and Blue Yarn Wreath

While perusing the interwebs to try and find something easy, AND cheap, AND patriotic to put on my front door for the upcoming 4th of July, I came across this Etsy listing. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, you can spend $30 on a wreath OR... you can make it yourself and spend a heckuva lot less. My stars were made of paper, not wood, however paper is a lot more accessible for folks than wooden stars AND you can have them be any size you want! The best part? You can remove all of this for the next holiday wreath instead of having to buy another!

So here's what you'll need to make your own Independence Day wreath:

* Red, white, and blue yarn (you can either buy skeins at your craft store or do what I did and find a cheap sweater at Goodwill and pull it apart!)
* A wreath (mine was made of styrofoam but you could make one out of cardboard -- it's going to be covered up anyway!)
* Scissors
* Tape or hot glue (I used tape because I want to reuse this wreath for other holidays)
* White card stock paper

Start by taping or gluing your yarn to the back of the wreath. Then, just wrap it around and around and around and...

Once you've wrapped about 2" worth, glue or tape it down and do the same thing to the next color - tape or glue it to the back and wrap around and around and around. The thicker the yarn, the faster and easier it will be. Thin yarn works too but you spend more time wrapping.

I decided to do the 13 red and white stripes, like the flag, and yes, the red stripe is on top (I'm a little picky when it comes to details!)

Next, the yarn from the Goodwill sweater. Here's a tip: go with a sweater that was handknit, not one that was made by a machine. It's a lot harder to pull a string from a machine-made sweater because the stitches are so tight. I ended up pulling multiple strings and tying them all together which, to be honest, I kinda liked. Gave it a more rustic look.

Once your red, white, and blue yarn is on the wreath, it's time to make the stars. Cut out however many you want and secure them with either glue or tape (I thought about doing 50 but since I'm taping them, I figured they'd blow away if they were that small).

Hang on your door with yarn (if you don't have a hook) and voila! Now while it might take longer to make this vs. spending 5 minutes buying one in the store or online, it's homemade, it's unique, and gosh darn it, makin' something with your two hands is just plain 'Murican! 

TOTAL COSTS: Depends on materials

$6.99 for wreath from Michael's (but as I said, you could use cut out cardboard)

$3 for sweater from Goodwill

$6.99/skein of yarn from Michael's (there's cheaper yarn online but you have to pay for shipping)

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: 6 hours

Keep in mind, I had to untangle all my white yarn, pull out all of my blue yarn from the sweater, then tie all the ends together... needless to say, this will go a lot faster for you if you a.) buy thick skeins of yarn (like the red stripes only took 3 minutes each to wrap!) or b.) if you want to rip apart a sweater, use a handmade sweater, not one made by a machine.

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 2 out of 5

After a while, my left hand started to cramp when I was wrapping the thin white yarn but that was after doing it for a few hours straight. Other than that, it's a very easy project to do and one that would be a great time-suck for your kids (if they're into crafts).

DIY Engraving Glasses

I was browsing Etsy when I came across these beautiful wine glasses with engraved tree branches. I thought they would be perfect gift, not only for the holiday season, but really anyone who needs a glass of wine between November-March. However, when I went them in my shopping cart, I almost fell off my chair - almost $70 (with shipping) for two glasses?! I decided I had to make these for myself so you can make them too!

Here's what you'll need:

1. Glasses (go to a thrift store!)

2. Glass paint (I went with Martha Stewart's Frost Translucent paint - I don't recommend it and I'll explain why at the end)

3. Paint brush (optional) - I didn't use one because the tip of the paint container is so small that it could handle thin lines. However, if you don't want to tire your hand out, I recommend using a brush. Halfway through the first glass, my hand started to hurt from squeezing the bottle constantly.

Next, create your design! You could draw branches like the original, or you could monogram the glasses, write a quote, or paint whatever design you see fit. I'm not an artist by any means but this was a great release for creativity!

Now every glass paint will have different instructions but if you use this same paint, then you can either let it air dry for 21 days or let it sit for 1 hour before placing in a cool oven. With the glasses on the rack, turn on the oven to 350.

Once the oven has reached 350, set your timer for 30 minutes and let them bake. After 30 minutes, turn off the oven and let the glasses cool completely before removing them. Wait 72 hours before putting them to good use.

Note that if you use fine glitter glass paint, glitter craft paint, or coarse glitter craft paint, you can't bake them; they have to air dry for 21 days for permanence. As for whether this paint is dishwasher safe, it most certainly is (top rack recommended). But why don't I recommend this particular glass paint? Because when it baked, the white turned almost... yellow. Not what I expected.

Placed on white stove
so you can see color difference

But there you have it! These would be a great bridesmaid/groomsmen gift, wedding/anniversary gift, or heck, give it to yourself and save the extra $60 for a good bottle wine!

TOTAL COSTS: About $10
$1.99 for 2 glasses from Goodwill
$5.99 for glass paint from Michael's

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: 3 hours to paint/bake + 72 hours before use
15 minutes/glass to design and paint
1 hour to sit before baking
30 minutes in the oven
1 hour to cool

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 2 out of 5
The only "hard" part of this project was not letting my hand cramp during the painting. Also, you have to have a steady hand if you want to paint a straight line so if you're doing a monogram, make sure to have a template. It'll make the lines a lot cleaner! If there's a glass paint you recommend, I'm all ears!

How to Make a Hollow Book

After seeing this post on How2DoStuff's blog, I thought a book safe would be a great project to attempt. Lesson learned: do not attempt if a.) you have arthritis or b.) you don't want to get arthritis. I'm not even 30 and my right hand and fingers feel 10x larger than they should.

You have been warned.

For this project I stopped by Goodwill to find a book I could hollow out. The winner? Book 7 of the Harry Potter series. It was cheap, quite large, and considering I've never read any of the books (::insert gasps of horror from Harry Potter fans::), I don't have any emotional ties to the series.

Step 1: Instead of making that glue mixture he suggested, I say go with Mod Podge. It has the perfect consistency. When I tried to make the glue mixture, I ended up wasting half a bottle of glue because I put in way too much water.

Step 2: When drawing your lines, I recommend two things -
     a.) draw with a pencil and
     b.) do not draw near the 1/2" closest to the edges.

By that I mean, do not draw your lines all the way to the end of the pages. If you do, you may accidentally cut the top, which is what I did below. You want to start your cut 1/2" in, not from the edge.

Example of what NOT to do - cut starting at the edge of the page

Step 3: Box cutters might work better than an x-acto knife. I used a Fiskars Precision Knife and could only cut through a few pages at a time. This project will take quite a while so if you're not patient, the more pages your blade can cut through, the better.

After 1 hour of cutting

Step 4: Be patient and be prepared for a mess. It took me 1 hour to get through approximately 115 pages but as you can see, that hole wasn't nearly big enough to hold anything. Also, the original post says, "Dump out all the little paper fuzz" but kids, there won't be a little. There will be a lot of paper fuzz. Big pieces, small pieces.. and they'll get everywhere. On the floor, the table, your cat's paws, your socks, everywhere.

Prepare for lots of clean-up!

Step 5: I didn't see the need to save a page at the very end of the process. I suppose that's meant to give it a clean look but considering my hands hurt like the Devil and I hacked the book to pieces, 1 page was not going to salvage it. Besides, the page I saved by not cutting it was the chapter page, "A Place to Hide" ...clever, no?

My husband suggested lining the inside with velvet but I kinda like how you can see text. However, after 2 hours of cutting page after page, no, it does not look as clean cut as the original. Maybe if you have a smaller book or more patience to cut one page at a time, it will be cleaner.

2 hours to cut 1 1/4" deep

TOTAL COSTS: $3.50
$3.50 for book from Goodwill
Fiskars Precision Knife, Mod Podge and brush already on hand

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: Approximately 3 hours, 10 minutes
5 minutes to initially glue the sides
30 minutes to dry
2 hours to cut out pages
3 minutes to glue sides again
30 minutes to dry

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 4 out of 5
Even the healthiest of adults will get tired and, if using a very small precision knife, will get hand cramps. If you have the patience, go slowly and do this projects in shifts. Do not try to do it all at once!

Vinyl Record Bookends

As soon as I saw this post on Instructables, I knew I wanted to try it! Vinyl record bookends? Yes please! And believe it or not, they're super fast and easy to make!

Step 1 - Gather your supplies

*Boiling hot water
*A pan big enough to dip the record into
*Something to help form the right angle of the record in the water - I used an old picture frame
*Records

I stopped over at Goodwill and picked up Janis Joplin and Dean Martin for pretty cheap! If you have old records that are scratched and unsalvageable, those would be best.

Step 2 - Boil some water. I just boiled some in a tea kettle and then poured into a glass pan. You'd be surprised by how quickly it starts to "melt". Use a piece of wood to hold down the flat part of the record underneath the hot water.

Step 3 - Allow a couple minutes for it to cool and you're done!

TOTAL COSTS: About $6
$2.99 for 2 records from Goodwill

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: 15 minutes
It just depends on how much time it takes to boil your water

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 2 out of 5
The hardest part, which isn't even that hard, is forming the right angle of the record with the wood in the hot water. It's really not that hard and only takes a minute!