Monday, April 23, 2012

All About Mistakes

Yea, I know. Yesterday was Sunday, and there was no new recipe try-out. Joshua and I were supposed to go on a super special date, but good ole Mother Nature got in the way, and we canceled, so I got super upset, and didn't feel like doing much of anything. So he and I stayed in and watched movie and ate popcorn. There were some tears, because the weather even decided to screw with that, too (the internet went out, and we were trying to use Netflix on my laptop and his Wii. And then the TVs went out because at his house they have Direct TV. So no bueno overall). Luck was just NOT on our side yesterday, so I was not in the mood for cooking or baking or anything. And since today is all about mistakes, I have decided to try a nifty craft I found on Pinterest (here). It is the...
T-shirt. I probably should've put that in the title picture... oh well!
This is an AWESOME craft to try out for very little moolah! All you need are:

  1. A t-shirt (lightly colored, or white). Mine was a plain cotton shirt from Wal-Mart. Nothing special. Make sure to wash it first!
  2. Sharpie markers. Any colors your prefer to play around with. I stuck with the color wheel (minus Indigo. Sorry Indigo.)
  3. Rubbing Alcohol. I used 70%, other people have using ones with high percentages. I'm not really sure if this matters, so we'll see.
  4. A cup (mine was a knock off Solo cup). Size doesn't really matter. The circles can sorta be controlled. I'll explain later.
  5. A rubber band.
  6. An liquid dropper (I used and eye dropper).
  7. And something to put in between the layers of the shirt so the colors don't seep through (I used cardboard).
The only reason I say this is super cheap, is because I had all of these items already. The only thing I needed to buy was the purple Sharpie (because that's the only color I can't seem to find).

So now, what you wanna do is lay out your shirt and stick the cardboard in between the layers. Then put the cup under the shirt wherever you want to start, and place a rubber band over the shirt, over the cup, like so...
That stain up there is where I started. Once the cup is in place, take your sharpies and make a design. Keeping in mind if you put the complimentary colors together, they may turn brown when they seep together. I had a color wheel open on my laptop to help me remember which colors those were, because I am not an art student, and the last art class I took was most likely over 10 years ago (Whoa! I'm gonna go curl up into a corner now. Where's Neverland?!). Also, make sure the material is tightly banded to the cup. The more taught the material is, the faster the rubbing alcohol will spread.

Once you make your design of choice, take your liquid dropper, fill it with the rubbing alcohol, and drip it into the middle of your design, like so...
Since my dropper was so small, I dripped a lot of drops on one design at once. For bigger droppers, use less drops. 

Here is where you can also kinda, sorta control the size of the design. Less drops means smaller design. More drops mean bigger designs. That along with out taught the material is will slightly add to the size. If you like the size, take the rubber band off. This will slow down the spread of the rubbing alcohol, and eventually stop it at your desired size. It will most likely continue to spread, but not as much as it was when the shirt was being pulled tightly.

Here's what it looked like after it finished spreading...


And here is my finished product (err, almost finished)...

Almost done!!
Once you are done, you will need to heat set it. I'm gonna go throw mine in the dryer for 1 hour on high heat, BY ITSELF! You don't want the colors to stain anything else. Also, I would let it air dry for a bit before tossing it in the dryer, because you want the colors to set where they are. If it is still wet, the colors might seep through to the other side, or combine when bunched up. 

For now, I left the back alone. Tomorrow I might go back and do the back, but I wanted to set the front first before placing it on my dining room table. My father might kill me if I stain the table.

The reason this is called All About Mistakes (besides my schedule oopsie) is because this craft is all about just that, making mistakes. This is your own personal, one-of-a-kind design.  There are no rules, so mistakes are 100% welcome while experimenting with this. 

So in the words of The Magic School Bus's wonderfully, crazy Ms. Frizzle, "take chances, make mistakes, get messy!"

A picture of me in my completely finished Sharpie tie-dye t-shirt will follow shortly. Maybe tomorrow when the back is done, too!




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