30 is the new 20 right?

I hear that saying all the time. I wonder who came up with it and why... Maybe because at 30 you feel like more of an adult? Maybe because we are more stable financially at 30? Maybe because you mature more at 30? I don't know... But what I do know is that, I made it.... all the way to 30 that is, ok well officially tomorrow on June 15th, but what's one day right?!

Fortunately for me, the hubby's company opened up a new office and decided to bring the whole family up to NYC area for the weekend... It just happens to coincide with my 30th birthday weekend. :) No complaints here! This will be a much more fun way to spend the weekend than at cheer class for the munchkin and hanging out at home. Hoping to have a very memorable weekend!

So of course I had to make a shirt to wear, because if it were up to some folks I know it would have been one of those shirts that said something like "Over the Hill" of "Dirty 30" or something else that just isn't quite my personality.

Although I didn't want one of those shirts I thought this one was pretty awesome:

I have no idea what it says, but I am telling myself that it says something along the lines of "Yes I am 30" "Yes I am awesome", "Yes I still look good at 30", "Yes you wish you looked this good at 30"... I don't know things like that. :) 

So I wanted something that was ME. I am going to go with Nailed It!!!

Here is what I came up with using the same bleach method from the other day:

Here it is up close after I added some bling... It is hard to see because I didn't add a ton, but it had to have bling... I mean... I am a self professed bling gal!


So if you are in NYC Saturday and happen to see me out of the million or so people I imagine walk around there on a daily basis... wish me a Happy Birthday and tell me where we should go visit and what we should be seeing...

On the agenda is a possible show, Carriage Ride, Central Park, the Eloise Store in the Plaza, a Harbor Tour around Liberty Island, and of course Time Square Stores... :) Just going to wing it and live in the moment! We should have a blast and I can't wait!!! I will share when I get back sometime next week!

Feel free to leave me some bloggy comment love! I <3 it="" p="">
Hugs~
Julie

Decorating Brushes

So I absolutely love to use vinyl... take your pick, regular, heat transfer vinyl, glitter vinyl, you name it... I will use it! Have some you don't want or want to have tested? I'll take the challenge... just sayin'!

So for the previous team Laci was on two years ago, I made brushes for all the girls for one of the team gifts. Well now that we are at a different gym, the colors didn't quite go with her stuff, so I made Laci a new brush. But aside from just showing you the finished product... I figured I would show you a little about the process.

So I created the design on the Silhouette program here:


The top left stuff is purple, the stars on the right are white, and the L and the star will be cut out in red. I didn't end up using the L... it just didn't look right on the brush. I love to be efficient and cut stuff out all at once. So, that's what I did. Here is how... just put the vinyl in the same spots on the mat to cut as where they are shown on the screen... see the mat below (also my notes on the BD that I use for vinyl... hehehe)


Then weed your design and put transfer tape on it:


Then apply it to the brush and finish off with different colored ribbons if there is a spot to on the ends:



I think it turned out pretty rockin'! So... don't you want to go out and get a brush to decorate now?!?

What do you think?

TTFN~
Julie

Playing with Bleach...

Yes, you did read playing with bleach and that is exactly what I did this afternoon. I am finally "feeling it" again. I have been quite crafty lately and I am very excited about getting back in my grove! So Laci switched to a new cheer gym called Pride in Addison, TX. Not only is she re-energized and loves going... I mean LOVES going! We love going too!

Aside from the awesome staff and environment, my most favorite thing is that they let me use the logo to make stuff. I see it as free advertisement for them. Luckily... that is how they see it too, are last gym didn't feel the same way. I have done, shirts, bows, car decals, cups, brushes... you name it and I have put something on it. I haven't approached them about selling anything, but until I decide to do anything with that, they are great about me doing stuff for personal use. That makes this crafty girl REALLY happy!

So I have wanted to try the spray bleach method for a long time, but finally I had the perfect two projects to do this on... I will share the other one later this week. So I took a picture of my daughter's other shirt that I wanted the logo of and got it onto my computer. Then in silhouette I traced the image and through some other finagling I got the word parent to overlap how I wanted... so this was what I was going for:



I used my silhouette to cut out vinyl. Then put the vinyl on the shirts with transfer tape. Took transfer tape off slowly and carefully as the vinyl wanted to peel up if I didn't work with it. Then put parchment paper/wax/something inside the shirt and spray away (70% bleach and 30% water <- a="" and="" away...="" bleach="" but="" change="" color.="" didn="" dryer.="" exactly="" eyeballed="" further="" get="" have="" i="" in="" it="" look="" lots="" measure="" more="" of="" out="" random="" shirt="" span="" spray="" stay="" t="" the="" then="" to="" wash="" washer="" water="" will="" you="">

This is how it turned out (sorry about my hair in the picture... missed that until just now. It is kind of windy outside)...



Me with the shirt on, no make up, so... eh, I'll take it, pretty sure I have looked worse than this.


I took a couple pictures while doing it, and even tried to take a video, but as luck would have it... the record button didn't go on. BOOOO! It's ok, you would have heard two six year olds in the background asking random questions and saying... oooh it's turning! So really you didn't miss much. If you want more detailed tutorials I found these two sites helpful, Uncommon Designs Online and Six Sisters Stuff.

But it turned out great, I didn't even feel like I needed to bling it when I was done, the design turned out awesome all on it's own. So of course Laci had to have a version of it too... here is hers and included is the team name/year. I pretty much love them both!



So what do you think?!? (Hint: Leave an awesome comment and I'll be super happy). Playing with bleach is pretty awesome right!

TTFN~
Julie