Bleach Pen T-shirts

There is already a fabulous tutorial at Deborah's site. But since I am so gosh darn obsessed with bleach pen goodness AND I know YOU will want all your tutorials in one place, I made a quick one up for you with some extra images of what my sister made.

What you need:

A t-shirt

bleach pen

an old magazine

a design

a sink

a washer

1. I use Target's mossimo Tee's that are (I think) 95% cotton/5% spandex. Place one or two magazines inside the shirt directly under where you will be making your image. Pick an image that is not toodetails (the bleach does bleed a little.)Transfer your design using a pencil especially made for this (if you need to.) You can usually find them anywhere they sell sewing supplies. I was inspired by this image posted by Abby.

2. Draw your image onto the tee using the fine tip side of the bleach pen. Be careful of:

popping bubbles

splatters

your own dang hand!

3. With some material the tee begins to lighten immediately, others you may have to wait up to 30 minutes. After the image has appeared CAREFULLY and QUICKLY rinse the bleach from the tee in the sink with cold water. I have had problems with bleach transfering to other parts of the shirt. After it is rinsed throw it in the washer to wash and then the dryer to dry (ha ha)

4. Wear it proudly!

The robot one I did at the request of C-bug

Felt Beads

I made these beads after seeing a post (ugh I cant remember who it was!) about this foreign site. I was asked for a tutorial in english. I hope you enjoy it.

What you need:

a gumball machine bubble (or a small jar, like babyfood small)

some wool roving- just enough to loosely fill the container

colorless dish soap - I use palmolive oxy plus

hot and cold water

1. Microwave a cup of water (on high for about 30 sec.) Loosely fill the container with some wool roving. This much roving will make a bead about the size of a gumball. Put a drop of dish soap in, fill halfway with hot water, close lid and begin to vigorously shake the container.

If you are doing this project with kiddos, be cautious. But if the water is not too hot for them(use your good judgement) they could even shake the container.

2. Drain the water. This is what your roving should look like. A very loose wet ball of fluff.

3. Rinse the ball in cold water while pressing the ball together evenly. Ice water is best. It "shocks" the fibers. Try to not form any lumps on the ball. Then start firmly rolling the ball in your hands just as you would roll a ball of dough.







4. If you are careful to avoid lumps forming your bead should look something like this. You can trim any loose strands from your bead.

5. You can add seed beads to your felt bead by passing a threaded needle in and out of your felt bead and adding seed beads before passing the needle through again.

If you have any questions or comments feel free to let me know. Feed back is welcome and I would love to see what you do.

Tutorials for the creative life

I decided to start this blog/site after some requests for tutorials at my blog. I hope that you will find them creative and fun to do. I will try to keep them simple and fresh, hopefully updating atleast weekly. I'd like to encourage you to do these projects with the children in your life (if you have them.)Please be patient with me as I develop this site.