DIY Stars – door décor, t-shirts, & popsicles

With Independence day not too far away, we’ve been trying to do some prep for the holiday. This post is all about the STAR projects we’ve done – Door décor, t-shirts & popsicles.

The star décor was my personal project, inspired by THIS PIN. I first drew some stars on a piece of paper and scanned in my favorite design on my computer. Then I printed 3 different sizes to use as a template for cutting them out of wood. The band saw was a lot of fun to use and was really fast cutting them out.

Then came the sanding and painting. I used Rustoleum double coverage spray paint – primer, apple red, navy, and white.

After a couple coats on both sides, and letting them dry, I sanded the edges for the rustic look. Then finished it off with a coat of gloss clear coat.

The complete finished look came after I drilled a hole through the top of each star and looped some rope through. I tied them (and glued them) together at the top, making sure their lengths varied, and hung it on the door. Pretty simple!

 

Or you could use that rope to tie them together and display on a table or shelf. Just as cute!

I found a different style of DIY star shirts by Erin at A Bird and a Bean. I adapted it since I couldn’t find colored shirts that fit the boys, just white ones. Instead of using bleach like she did, I bought some blue tie dye (I would have bought red too, but I could only find fuchsia). Both the tie dye & shirts I bought at Wal-Mart.

I cut out some stars on vinyl with my silhouette machine. Erin used freezer paper, which is a much cheaper choice, I just didn’t have any and forgot to buy some! After I applied the stars, I set up the painting area. I used some old camping chairs & garbage bags as the backdrop for the project, because, let’s face it, little boys & dye make for quite the mess!! Last, mix up the tie dye (super easy, just add water!). I made them wear “gloves”…plastic baggies…because the spray bottles leaked a little.

[spray bottles from Wal-Mart]

I then let them sit in the sun for about 5 hours, just to be sure. I don’t know if that was necessary, but I did it anyway. I rinsed, washed, dried and they wore them the next day. Personally I think it looks like fireworks & stars!! Perfect for the 4th!

This idea came from the book Wemberly’s Ice-Cream Star by Kevin Henkes.

I bought a BOX of ice-cream, which is apparently harder to come by these days. When I was growing up, I swear they were only sold in the quart boxes, but now it’s mostly the tubs. The box works A LOT better because you can peel down the sides and cut an inch or two sections. Which is what I did (no pictures!) and used a star cookie cutter & a popsicle stick. I refroze them for about an hour (should have been more) then pulled them out and topped with some magic shell. The boys LOVED them.

After a little while, they ended up melting and falling off the stick. So we did what Wemberly did in the book, we got a bowl and ate Ice-cream soup!

[We did the shirts & popsicles for a Star Preschool day.]

“DAD” hoodie

This was a very personalized gift, inspired by this little guy, and what he wrote too. In the fall, I took a pictures of how he wrote DAD on the sidewalk. I thought it was so cute and had to remember it for a project later on. Cue Christmas (or Father’s day, but our case was Christmas)!

For little G’s Christmas present to Grant, I had him write another ‘DAD’ and put it into the Silhouette Studio & made the DAD hoodie. Simple, fast & a very personalized memory as a gift!

I could have had little G write it with a sharpie or fabric pen directly on the hoodie, but this way it will stay forever and there wasn’t a chance of an accident or wild imagination of a little boy. I pictured him writing dad, then scribbling it out and trying something else. Then he would draw a face & his name with dots all over and some crazy scribbling. You get the picture. Maybe it would have been cute, having the extremely personalized touch, but I opted for the cleaner approach!

{what I used}
  *Blank hoodie from Wal-Mart ($10)
  *Teal heat press vinyl (about $1)
  *Handwritten DAD (priceless)

DIY Vintage Christmas Shirts

This was a total last minute Christmas idea I had (the morning of Christmas eve!). But with a Silhouette machine, anything is possible ;-) To make these DIY vintage Christmas shirts, I started by googling ‘vintage Christmas sweaters’ to get some ideas -

Then I looked for ‘vintage Christmas silhouette’ images or just plain ol’ ‘Chrismas silhouette’ images. I found a few good ones and saved those in the Silhouette studio, traced them, and started designing my shirts, ie:

Luckily I only had to make four for all of us…they did take a while to design. After that, the silhouette cut them and I peeled (the worst part of all of it!). After the worst, came the best part – putting them on the shirts.

They turned out so stinkin’ fun!

 

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Tribute to Boston

I am running the Salt Lake City marathon this Saturday and because of the bombing at the Boston marathon I have some anxieties, but also more reason to run it. On facebook there is an event going around – Runners United to Remember – which is a virtual race to be completed anytime until May 5th. The SLC marathon will also be my virtual race. And in honor of Boston, I made this shirt for my marathon.

Thinking of Boston and all those affected by the tragic events on 4-15-13.

Shirt Details:

• Heat Transfer Vinyl (Spectra Eco-film - Cyan)
• Jerzees cotton/poly t-shirt (at Joanns on sale – Safety Green)
• Image – from Runners United to Remember
• Silhouette (reverse image, speed 9, thickness 4)

DIY graphic t-shirts

After I made the boys these ‘hello’ shirts, I decided it was too fun (and easy) so I made some more t-shirts for them. I’ve said it before and I will keep saying it, the Silhouette machine is amazing and so worth the money. You can do pretty much anything with it. I definitely used it to make these shirts, here’s how:

First I found some free images off the internet that I liked, saved them to my computer and imported them into the Silhouette Studio.

Then, after the image I wanted to use was saved in the design library, I inserted it on my page and traced it so that the Silhouette could cut the outline of it. To trace, I clicked on the “trace window” icon (top right) and then adjusted the settings until the helicopter was mostly/all yellow then hit “trace outer edge”. (You only really need to make the picture all yellow if you are using the “trace” method. When you are using the “trace outer edge” method, like I did, you only really need the yellow to be seen all the way around the picture so it can trace the outline…if that makes sense). 

Then I adjusted the picture to the size I wanted and then cut. I cut my pictures/icons/words/whatever out of vinyl so I could just stick in on the shirt and not worry about it moving when I painted. I’ve never tried it, but you could cut freezer paper and have the same effect (vinyl is just easier, so I went with that). After I cut them, I peeled away the areas I wanted to be painted on the shirts and stuck them on (using transfer paper of course).

Then I painted. I used fabric paint from Joann. I had to do a couple coats, especially with the helicopter shirt because it isn’t a contrasting or bold color, just a different shade of the shirt color.

And the finished products -

These dudes look great. Little G man’s shirts are still a little big (got them on a good sale that I couldn’t pass up, of course), but he still loves wearing them. And little B man is wearing his nickname shirt that I think is hilarious…inside joke I guess.

**This would be a really great idea for themed birthday parties. Next year, if little G man actually decides on a party theme (he went from fish to trucks to horses to pirates and everything in between for his party this year) I could easily make him and his little friends party favor shirts. Michaels and Joanns usually have their Jerzeys t-shirts on a pretty good sale and in youth sizes. I’m totally going to do it!

Project tools/details:

• Silhouette machine (gotta have a Silhouette!!)
• free clipart graphics (or hand drawn) from the internet
• GreenStar intermediate vinyl from USCutter.com (and transfer tape)
• fabric paint (and brushes) – I used Tulip brand from Joann’s
• blank shirts (go for the clearance shirts!)

knock-off ‘hello’ shirts

I’m sure we’ve all seen the super cute ‘hello’ and ‘hi’ sweatshirts around. This shop definitely makes a very adorable sweatshirt. But I’m just not a fan of spending $35 for a piece of clothing that my kid will grow out of in a year or less, not to mention stain or somehow destroy before it can be handed down to the next kiddo.

So, to save some money I made a knock-off of my own. Instead of sweatshirts, I used some clearance short sleeve and long sleeve t-shirts for my boys.

[That’s a much better price than $35!]

And rather than copy their font, I used my own handwriting! I had to do a bunch of practice ones until I got the ‘hello’ and ‘hi’ that I liked best. I thought I’d try a ‘yo’ but I changed my mind in the end.

I use this feature a lot on my Silhouette. First I scan the things that I have handwritten, then I ‘import to my library’ in Silhouette. From then on it’s in my library and I can use it when ever I want. All you have to do is trace it so you can get the outline and the Silhouette will do the rest! Anyway, I used ‘hello’ and ‘hi’ for there shirts.

I used vinyl (from US Cutter) and peeled away the words. I transferred the vinyl to the shirts and used it as my stencil. Then, with some fabric paint from Joann’s, I painted in the ‘hello’ and ‘hi’ on the shirts. [don’t forget to put cardboard inside the shirt, so the paint doesn’t leak through to the back]. Let it sit for a few hours to dry, then peel away the vinyl and tada!

Overall it was a quick and easy project. Personally I think they turned out just as adorable as the real deal, only I saved about $90 for these three shirts. Since these were so easy, I decided to make a few other shirts. I’ll post about them when I have them done!

*Disclaimer: I was inspired by but did not replicate the exact design. The shirts are different, application is different, the font is my own.

 

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