Easy Coffee Can Dye Shirt

Easy Coffee Can Dye Shirt

Here is a fun and easy patriotic crafting project just in time for the 4th of July! With a few supplies and a few bits of time, you can create unique and fun designs to put some sparkle into your summer.

Here’s what you’ll need:

White cotton or cotton-blend tank
Red and Blue liquid dye
A coffee can
Rubber band
White acrylic paint
Fabric medium
Crystal or crystal look embellishments.



Here’s how you do it:

1.Wet the shirt and wring it out. Lay it flat and begin folding the shirt into a long rectangle, keeping in mind that the parts of the shirt that will take the most color on are the parts closest to the dye. Roll the rectangle into a log that narrow enough to fit into the coffee can with about an inch of room all the way around. Secure with a rubber band in the center of the log.

2.Mix the lighter (red) dye according to the package directions and fill the can about half way- keeping in mind the height of your rolled shirt. (The dye should reach up to about half of the height of the log when it is in the dye.)

3.Stand the log on end in the coffee can. The dye should reach about halfway up the shirt. Let it sit for about an hour. Go grab a cup of coffee, run an errand, catch up on your great summer read.

4.Carefully remove the shirt from the dye. Leaving the shirt rolled, run the log under hot water, letting the water run from the top of the un-dyed end through the bottom of the dyed end. Continue until the water runs pretty clear. Squeeze any excess water out and repeat steps 2-4 with the  darker (blue) dye.

5.Unrole the shirt and rinse in hot soapy water until water runs clear. Let it dry.  

6. Mix 2 parts white acrylic pain with 1 part fabric medium.

7. Lie shirt flat with a barrier layer between the front and back of the shirt. Stencil on stars in desired pattern.

8. Embellish tips of stars with crystals if desired. Enjoy!!

Tips: 

 
ALWAYS handwash this project separately. It may bleed to other fabrics if washed together.

The tighter the shirt is rolled, the lighter the interior of the roll will be. Looser it is rolled, the more colorful the interior. 

You may want to wear plastic gloves while doing this project. Dye may stain your hands.

Stop Super Stuffing Stockings!

Oh how I loved digging through my holiday stocking that hung on our stone fireplace!

My sisters and I each had a particular stone that our stocking hung from. We'd all jump up on the hearth, scramble to our sock, and pull it down, hoping it didn't spill out on top of us. We would scramble off to our own place in the living room with our light green gingham checked and red brick-a-bract adorned, homemade stockings.  We'd sit on the floor and pull out each item from them - admiring each one! Our stockings had oranges, nuts, sugarless gum, socks, lip glosses, hair brushes and accessories, and just a few other miscellaneous toys. Every year, we knew what would be in them, but EVERY year we were so excited to find the treasures that were left for us.

Holiday stockings really add to the fun, but also to the stress and expense of the holidays.  Electronic gadgets, headphones, large gift cards, watches, endless trinkets and toys, sugary treats in the latest animated or superhero theme - all those things that are advertised as stocking essentials, increase the strain on our busyness and a pocketbooks. We feel compelled to super stuff the stockings. For some reason moms think that by buying all of the latest stocking fads and out doing last year's stocking, we are being a better mom. Adding to the stress is that moms know that many of the trinkets in the stocking, no matter how well our intentions were, will be lost, tossed and forgotten.

The Christmas stockings are no measure of how much you love your kids, nor are they a snapshot of your parenting ability. It doesn't have to be an angst filled experience to fill a stocking - but it will be if you fill them with the heart of out-doing last year, instead of the heart of creating lasting memories.

In the rush and bustle of the season, it's already an overwhelming environment. Stockings can be great help in bringing back some calm, tradition and simplicity.  Don't hesitate from stepping back from stocking extravagance. Go back to basic stuffers - oranges, bubble gum, fun socks, a fun new electric toothbrush, New PJs, activity books, a sprinkle in a few of the fun trinkets and candy. (Check the Quick Tip page for more back to basics stocking stuffers). If you think back to your childhood stockings, you probably will remember those things that you received every year - and used.  Your children will remember the same. Those simple treasures hidden in the stocking will bring just as much joy, and create memories and traditions that your children may pass to their families

It's time to take it back to simplicity. Bringing it back to simple can be a wonderful change and stress reducer at this time of year.

Do you have any stocking traditions?
What Do you remember from your own childhood Christmas stocking?

Just Breath!

Sitting down to write this post, I am totally exhausted - almost to the point of not continuing on with these words.

My day started early at 5:30 a.m., to get up for an early run. I literally hit the ground running - Ha!

From that point on I have been going non-stop, running errands, fulfilling commitments, making holiday preparations, addressing Christmas cards, housework, run-of-the-mill mom stuff. No wonder I am tired.

But, I know that this will be my state for the next several weeks as the holidays approach.

At this time of year, more than any other, it seems like I am continually on the go. Somehow I over-do almost every aspect of my life. I over-shop, over-bake, over-commit, over-estimate, over-prepare, over-schedule, over-stress, and have over-the-top expectations of how the holiday season should be. I am moving so fast and furiously that sometimes I forget to breath.

I forget to take a step away from the busyness, take a deep breath and enjoy being in the moment of this magical time of year. I get lost in doing stuff to get ready, and before I know it, everything that I have been preparing for so feverishly is over - and I have missed it all.

This year, I am going to make a conscious effort to take a break, take a rest and relish in the moments of Christmas. I am going to just breath!