P52: Week 4 {Self-Portrait}

This picture was actually difficult for me to take.  I couldn't really get anything to go right.  It's not what I wanted, but it reflects the way I was feeling at the time it was taken.

Next week's theme is Shadows.

Linking up...

I am also going to attempt to get in the picture more often, so I'm linking up to Urban Muser, as well.  I'll only be joining once a month.

52 Faces: Week 4

I had just finished making my bed.  Micah decided that he would "fix" the pillows.  This face says guilty.

Linking up...

P52: Week 3 {I Dreamed A Dream}

I had grand plans for this weeks photo.  Things did not work out as planned.  So I'll carry on, and try to do better next week.  {Which, in case you hadn't noticed, starts in two days.}  Funny fact: I rarely remember that I dream, let alone what I dream, but this morning I had a doozy of a dream.

Linking up... 

52 Faces: Week 3

My sweet boy turned fourteen months this week.  I took a few pictures of him.  This is one of my favorites.

Linking up...

P52: Week 2 {Made With Love}

SOOC; Nikon D5000; f/ 5.0; 1/30; focal length 34mm

This is my son, Micah, with his quilt.  It is the very first quilt I made.  I made it especially for him.  The quilt is full of imperfections and mistakes.  There are no straight lines and the binding is horrible, to say the least.  But him... That little boy is my greatest work, to date.  Both he and the quilt were made with love.

Linking up...

Next week's theme is I Dreamed A Dream.

52 Faces: Week 2

This week, we had rain that brought with it warmer weather.  On Monday afternoon, the rain clouds stayed away long enough for Micah and I to get these shots.  He has always been fascinated by shoes.  A while ago, he started trying to put his own shoes on.  Recently, he realized that he can put his feet in mommy and daddy's shoes.  

Linking up...

Look At What I Did

Back when I first gave birth to Micah, I attempted to make the monthly onesies that are so popular in the blog world.  It did not go well.  In fact it was a big fat FAIL.  {Second paragraph}  In short, I couldn't get the images to transfer using iron-on transfers. If only I knew then what I know now.

I stumbled upon a blog post tutorial of freezer paper stenciling. Blame Pinterest.  If you google freezer paper tutorial, you can find all sorts of tutorials, such as HERE, HERE, and HERE.  Those were the first three that came up when I googled.  The following is not a tutorial.  I'll leave that to the people who know what they're doing.  But look what I did!

I used a tee shirt that I had already.  

Cut out stencil.  I ended up using a razor blade knife, because apparently my Wal-Mart doesn't carry Exacto knives.

Iron on the stencil.

Add the fabric paint*.  Not too much at one time.  You don't want it to start drying before you get to it with the brush.

Paint it into the cutouts.  Again, a little at a time.

Allow it to dry a little, and peel the stencil off.

Finished product.

The last step is to wait for it to completely dry, then run the iron across it to seal the design.  But I was too excited to show this tonight.  I'll try to remember to let you know how it holds up.

So I had a few mistakes, of course.  I didn't allow the paint to dry enough before I removed the stencil.  That led to some of the fabric paint* smearing onto my fingers then onto the shirt.  I made sure to iron down all the little nooks and crannies, so that the paint wouldn't bleed under the stencil though.  It was also not that simple to remove the stencil that I had ironed down so well, especially the lettering, because there were so many small pieces where the stencil tore. Be sure to iron without steam.  That worked well for me.  I wasn't sure if the steam would interfere with the freezer paper sticking to the shirt.

All in all, I love this little craft project.  It was a little time consuming and tedious, because I had to very carefully cut out the stencil, but not too bad.  Seriously, I went to Wal-Mart at about 8:30pm to get the supplies, and finished at about 11:00pm.  Two and a half hours for one shirt.  However, I look forward to doing many more of these types of projects.  I have 150 square feet of freezer paper to go through after all.  Micah will definitely be rocking some custom shirts.

* I used Tulip fabric paint.