Happy Earth Day!

So, I did celebrate Earth Day yesterday with a new DIY necklace. This was made from one of the t-shirts that I dyed a while back - it's the same color material as the puff paint t-shirt . I got the idea from an issue of Body + Soul that I read at my friend's house in the country.



1) Lay a t-shirt out flat and cut strips. The magazine article said to use a rotary cutter, but since I don't own one of those, I tried to cut even strips by hand. It worked out pretty well.

2) Stretch out the loops until they curl.

3) Double the bunch of loops, and tie the back with a scrap of the same t-shirt

Tada!

I think this would be really pretty with charms attached at intervals to the loops.

What else did you do for Earth day? One of my friends at work biked to work. Besides new jewelry out of something that I had at home, all I did was make sure that I turned off the big monitor on my desk when I left (after a reminder from another coworker).

Puff painting

Do you remember puff painting t-shirts as a kid? That was the last time I did it, which was probably in the mid '90s. So, I don't know what came over me to try it again.


This started as one of the dyed t-shirts I made last week. Then, I just grabbed a bottle of white puff paint from Hobby Lobby and started doodling on one shoulder. My original plan was for a motif along one shoulder, but I was having so much fun that I covered the whole shirt. I even wore it to work one day (I don't have to dress fancy). It definitely was fun to look down and see the texture.


I think I'm good for puff paint right now, but I want to try again with larger blocks of paint in more colors.

Dye and tie dye

Gotta love a package of men's white tees. Oh, the possibilities! Throw in a trip to the fabric store where they have an easy-to-use packet of dye and you know I'm gonna make a mess.

These packets were as easy to use as they promise. You just take off the paper package.
Inside, there is a little plastic pouch with the color. Just drop that into the pot of water and stir or add it to the hot water in the washing machine. I even attempted to make a mess starting the purple one on the stove and then transferring it to the washing machine. Why do that? Well, I didn't feel up to standing at the stove stirring the pot.


I ran two different colors - violet and gunmetal. The violet was beautiful and vibrant; I was very impressed. The gunmetal turned out to be a little more blue than the package let on. I would definitely buy this dye again. Nothing against Rit dye - we've had our good times in the past - but I'm a little too messy not to use something this easy. I can't wait to try more of the 38 colors.
I tried to do a tie dye t-shirt in each load using the one rubber band I own. I was successful with the purple but not with the gunmetal. Next time, I'll use more rubber bands!


So, what am I going to do with the rest of the t-shirts (4 left - 1 purple, 2 gunmetal and 1 that I ran in both loads that turned out to be almost navy)
I have a couple of things up my sleeve, but you'll have to
 wait and see!