How To Tie Dye From Start To Finish

Hi Foxy Friends! I know it's been a while. I always have all these intentions to blog, but then I just don't. Take this post for example...I started writing this over a month ago, and actually made these shirts back in April. Working from home and trying to keep the kids occupied is hard. I mean you all know what I mean. And then I just haven't had the mojo to do anything. Don't worry though, I've been taking lots of videos and pictures of things that I have been doing, so the content is there, just haven't been motivated. I did these Tie Dye shirts in April...so that's how far behind I am...oops.

In any case, it's here now. As I was watching videos and tutorials on how to Tie Dye, I realized that NONE of them ever covered how they were washing them. Do they do them separate, together, 5 million loads of laundry?! I needed to know, so I figure you would want to know the process of tie dying from start to finish. So let's get started. Here is a list of everything I used:

Video if you are more a show me how to do it type of person, like me.

*Some of the links are affiliate links and I will  either receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you click on it or if you make a purchase from one of these links, I may also receive a commission on the sale of the product. Click here for my disclosure page.

What You'll Need:

Tie Dye Kit Womans T-Shirt Womans Long Sleeve Hoodie Womans Cropped Hoodie Kids T-Shirts Kids Sweatshirt
Plastic Drop Cloth
Disposable Foil Tray Color Catcher

Directions:

Step 1 - Get Shirts wet, wring out as much as possible.

Tip: If you have a lot of shirts to do, put in washer in a rinse and spin cycle (mine is10 minutes), saves your hands from having to wring out all those shirts/sweatshirts!

Step 2 - Tie up/rubberband shirts. There is no real wrong way to do this. The classic tie dye shirt is the swirl method. But I really like the scrunch method.

Tip: It's okay to start rubberbanding and then realize it's not working to start over. Don't get frustrated, just keep going.

Step 3 - Fill dye bottles with water. The set that I bought, came with small bottles, so I switched the powder dye into larger bottles and filled with water.

Tip: Careful when shaking bottles, as some bottles are not completely shake proof.

Step 4 - Start dying your shirts/pants/socks, whatever!

Tip: use a foil baking pan, put shirt in it and dye inside of that, makes for way less of a mess. Of course also put protective plastic under that, can never be too careful!

Another Tip: Remember which colors when mixed together will make other colors. Sometimes we forget and we put Blue and and Yellow near each other and you get a lovely shade of green...sometimes we don't want that.

Step 5 - Put in baggie and let sit overnight or 24 hours. The more pigment you want, the longer you should let it sit. If you want the colors to be pastel, let sit for shorter amount of time, 12ish hours.

Step 6 - Take clothes out of baggies and rinse. If you want to keep the white part of your shirt, white, rinse first with the rubbers bands still intact. When it starts to rinse clear, take rubber bands off and continue to rinse until water runs clear.

Tip: If you want to keep the white whiter, then rinse your shirt/sweatshirt before taking off the rubber bands. Rinse as much color out as you can before taking those rubber bands off.

Step 7 - Wash clothes. To save on laundry, wash like colors together. Use a color catcher to catch the inevitable dye that still has the potential to ruin your whole project!

I also put two shirts together that were not in the same color range and it worked out. I wouldn't do that if I actually cared, but I made sure that the water ran clear when I was rinsing and used a color catcher. Watch the video above to see how I washed my shirts exactly.

Step 8 - Put in dryer and enjoy your results! 

So that's it, from start to finish this is how you make and wash your tie dye shirts!
Of course if you are a video person, here is a video for you to watch.

How To Repurpose A Picture With New Quote

Hi Foxy Friends! Another craft for you today. The other day I came home and decided I was tired of looking at quote on my bathroom sign. This is what it was:

I really bought it because I liked the frame and the quote didn't bother me, so 9 years ago I bought it...but last week (I wrote up this post but never put the pictures, that I had already taken, in it, so really it was 3.5 months ago) I decided I wanted a new quote. So here is how I did it, and it was way easier than I thought it would be! This is what it turned into, I really love it.

*Some of the links are affiliate links and I will  either receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you click on it or if you make a purchase from one of these links, I may also receive a commission on the sale of the product. Click here for my disclosure page.

What You'll Need:

Picture Frame with Quote (I would try to thrift one, something like this or this)
Cricut (Vinyl or stencil)
Vinyl
Polycrylic
Chalk Paint
Paint Brushes

Directions:

Step 1 - Remove middle from sign, I used a hammer with a cloth to protect the picture since I didn't have a rubber mallet.

At first I tried to sand down the front, but with hammering out the sign there was some nicks on the front and I didn't like it. So I used the back side of the frame. I figure no one was going to see the words on the other side, so it wasn't going to bother me that there was something there.

Clean slate.

Step 2 - Sand down and repaint your sign. I wanted a vintage look, to match what was already there. So I painted the sign white, then painted it black and added more white on top. I could have sanded down from there to get the look I wanted, but I did an okay job applying the top coat of paint, so no sanding needed. Woo hoo!

Step 3 - Make stencil using Cricut or some other cutting machine, I only know how to use the Cricut. Place stencil on the sign. Make sure you measure 5 million times and cut once, nothing is more annoying than having to re-cut something.

Step 4 - Paint a THIN layer of polycrylic, this prevents the paint from seeping under the stencil. I've done this method with and without the polycrylic and found that it's best to do this step, but if you really have good contact with the stencil, this step is not necessary. I like that the Polycrylic bleeds under the stencil and dries clear, so you don't see it, then you get really crisp lines. See this video, I explain it a bit better.

Step 5 - Paint sign with thin layers of whatever color you are doing, I decided to go with black, remove vinyl pretty much immediately after last layer of paint. This part is tricky when the stencil is still wet and you're trying to remove it. You'll see I have a little black blob, but I'm okay with that.

Step 6 - Once dry, put back in sign. I tried to use the nails that came with the sign, but in the end I ended up taping it back together. No one sees the back side, it's light weight and worked for us.

Tada, new sign ready to go!

Side note: Mini Fox was NOT happy that I re-did this sign and cried for a good 30 minutes over the lose of the other sign. So if you are going to change something in your house, better get to permission by your 6 year old, haha!

Sentence A Day: April Edition

Hi Foxy Friends! Yep, we're continuing on with Sentence a Day! Thank you Rebecca Jo for starting this, it's such a neat way to document life. Also thank you Leslie for always sending out the reminders. This month I am trying to document how I felt, or something that made me feel happy, excited, sad, etc, instead of just recapping the day, since I have been doing weekly updates/documenting our quarantine journey.


1 - Feel happy that Mini Fox wanted to match outfits today.

2 -  Excited that Mr. got my all of my favorite things at Trader Joes for our anniversary.

3 - Is it normal to feel this happy about fixing a vacuum cleaner that was suspect of not working for 6+ months?

The culprit, stuck in the hose.

4 - Love that family movie nights still makes everyone happy, this time it was Onward.

5 - Happy that I have a Michaels in our house because I have all of the supplies to make masks, even the elastic...

6 - Put on make up today just because, I love trying new make up techniques.

7 - Good laughs watching The Hangover

8 - Grateful for our warm house to watch the rain from.

9 - Grateful for online Karate classes for Baby Fox during these rainy days.

10 - Thankful for my tribe where we know at least on Friday night we'll have a zoom meeting.

11 - Happy that we can introduce the kids to Avatar, they loved it.

12 - Grateful for technology, so my parents could still watch the kids hunt for Easter eggs.

Cheating but this girl lost her second tooth.

13 - When you've got nothing else to do, you start playing with all of the make up paelttes you've collected, and he photo bombed most of my photos.

14 - Daily park outing, Samantha (the doll) is practicing social distancing and mask wearing.

15 - Another day another make up look. 

 

16 - First quarantine haircut, Birthday zoom for one of the cousins and a birthday quarantine style for my Dad.

17 - Went for a bike ride and ended up at a friends house to say hi, they were shocked we rode our bikes all that way.

18 -  Another make up look, I really like this one!

19 - Tie Dying some shirt, loving that this trend is coming back.

20 - What I walked into in my bedroom today, haha!

21 - Tie Dye shirts/sweaters are done, loving it!

22 - Excited to go swimming for the first time today.

23 - Lasagna was everything we had hoped it would be.

24 - Sad, she needed to hold a sign for her class collage, and she graduates in 2032, wahhh, hold me?!?

25 - Yay for swimming days.

26 - Grateful for the kids becoming even closer during this quarantine, they've decided to sleep together until this is all over.

27 - Yummy dinner, made Korean Black Bean Sauce and noodles,  Jajangmyeon for Mr. for the first time, he LOVED it.

28 - Happy we can introduce the kids to movies we use to watch, Rookie of the Year, the kids loved it.

29 - Happy I finally got to taste test the two Panko crumbs I had, the Japanese ones were better in our opinion.

30 - Thankful for the new basketball hoop for our pool.