Cool Blonde

Seeing as how it's a new year, I decided it's time for a new me. 2012 was a rough year, so my roommate and I decided 2013 is going to be our year. It's going to be a good one. No more shedding tears over guys, friends, or life. 

All we want is smiles and laughter all around!

As a result I have decided to say goodbye to being a brunette and hello to being a blonde. It's not quite as blonde as I was going for but I like it regardless. I feel so rejuvenated!

Much love, 

Katie

Christmas Gifts: Studs and Dip-Dye

Last Halloween, I borrowed my roommate's sweatshirt and (with her permission) took scissors to it for my costume. A couple years later, I decided to make up for that. 

I bought a regular Hanes sweatshirt at Walmart and dip-dyed it with bleach.

Since it's the winter I did this in my bathroom but I should probably have done this in a better ventilated spot.

The bleaching processes took way longer than I had thought it would. I started with a bleach-water mixture but ended with just pure bleach to try to REALLY get the ends. Still wasn't the result I wanted exactly but it worked well enough.

Just bleach. Trying to get the ends more of a "white"

After the sweat shirt had been rinsed through the washer and air dried I started adding the studs. I purchased the studs at Hobby Lobby. It was about $2 for a pack of 30. For those of you who don't know where to find them (like me) they were in the LEATHER section.

The studs were simple to attach. Decide where you want it, poke it through the fabric, and push in the ends underneath (I used a flat head screwdriver and it worked great)

FRONT

BACK

Now I just need to make me one!

Much love, 

Katie

Christmas Gifts: Coffee Mugs

Seriously, so simple! I was originally going to try the whole Sharpie baking thing, but decided to use ceramic paint instead. I have heard mixed reviews on whether the Sharpie thing works so I thought paint might last longer. Which I'm not completely sold on either--I'll have to ask my friends who received these mugs from me..

I bought some coffee mugs at Target for maybe $2.00 a piece. Then I got a Painters pen at Hobby Lobby for maybe $8.00. The package said it worked on basically anything and was "permanent". That was good enough for me!

The hardest part was coming up with a quote or something to draw/write on the mugs. And then all I needed was a steady hand (which I don't always have). It took no time at all. I was done in 15 minutes (at the most).  I loved them so much I thought about keeping them! But in the end the mugs did live out their fate in becoming Christmas gifts.

Quote on red mug: Think! You can think any think that you wish..-Dr Suess

Much love, 

Katie

Teacher Appreciation: Pencil Letter

Although I thought the canvas bags were great gifts, I wanted to make something different for my cooperating teacher. I had seen so many of the crayon letters on Pinterest, and had even helped my roommate make one a while back. I thought these were great but crayons didn't seem to be the right thing for a middle school math teacher. Ergo, pencils.

If you know anything about middle school students and/or math, then I am sure you are well aware of the battle with pencils. The students almost never bring a pencil (or in most cases lose it by their second class). And it is my personal opinion (as I'm sure most math teachers would agree) math needs to be done in PENCIL! No exceptions. 

And back to my project...

Pencils were a better fit than crayons.

Materials Needed:
Shadow Box
Pencils
Pencil Sharpener
Hot Glue Gun

I found a font I liked and printed out the letter N as a reference. I then cut the pencils to the size I wanted. This was easiest with a steak knife and then I broke them apart once I had cut a little around the whole pencil.

The worst part was sharpening the pencils. There were a lot of pencils in the end, and a lot of TINY ones. I decided to use a little hand sharpener instead of an automatic one. I ended up having to buy another sharpener because the first one got too dull from all the sharpening. And my fingers were killing me! So I'd probably think about choosing a that you don't mind sharpening--too little, and you may hate it by the end.

Once all the pencils were cut and sharpened, I covered the back of the shadow box with contsrcution paper. Then hot glued the pencils down. 

 

 **My biggest suggestion when doing this (besides the size of the pencils) is not mixing up the penicls once they are cut. All my pencils accidently got mixed up before I could glue them. So then I had to spend a day trying to figure out where the pencils went. I'm still not sure I got it completely. 

All in all it was a big mess. So be warned!

Much love, 

Katie

Teacher Appreciation: Canvas Bags

Finished my student teaching in early December. It was such a great experience! As a thank you to the teachers I worked with throughout the semester, I decided to make them all something.

For the two paras and the co-teacher I worked with, I made them all canvas bags. Saw this idea on Pinterest and I have to admit looking at the finished product, it's absolutely amazing how simple this was to do.

Materials Needed:

Canvas Bags--I bought a package of 3 which was cheaper than buying 3 indiviually

Large 12" Doilies--Package came with 6 which was more than enough (I only used 2)

Fabric Paint

Paint Brushes

I got everything at Hobby Lobby for 15-20 bucks. Talk about a deal! Three gifts for $20? Yes, please!

I definitely recommend ironing the bags before doing anything!

After figuring out where I wanted everything to be, I cut the doily in half and taped it in place. Then using a paint brush, dabbed paint into the design of the doily.

Once I had painted the whole design, I removed the doily. The paint was still wet.

I went ahead and did this to all three bags before moving on. 

By the time I was done with the last bag, the first was basically dry. 

I then printed off their initials to use for stencils.

 I cut out the printed part and traced the letter with a pencil. Then painted it in.

This was so easy and fun to do! Every one was just amazed and the end result, thinking I had somehow painted it myself. I almost didn't want to tell them how I really did it ;)

Much love, 

Katie