the DIY: WORDS ON A T-SHIRT WITH INK EFFECTS

So the friendly folks over at Ink Effects sent us a bunch of colors of their product and we love it! We've already made three different things with this stuff- it's ballin'. We are still perfecting our technique but this is the project we decided to share with you. It's Casey themed.

You will need a bottle of Ink Effects in the color of your choosing, a shirt (that contains less than 30% cotton and preferably light colored), a paint brush, and a print out of words on a sheet of computer paper. You could say anything, you could put one giant letter, a silhouette, a scene, whatever. you. want.


Turn your print out over and fill in the letters with the Ink Effects and a paint brush. This part requires patience. If you don't have it, free hand something on a blank sheet of computer paper.


Let the paper dry for 45 minutes.


Lay your shirt out on a flat surface for ironing.


Put the paper on the shirt, ink side down. Center it as best you can and hope for the best.


Iron on the highest heat setting for at least 30 seconds. Make sure you keep the iron moving. Lift a corner up of the paper to see if the ink has transferred to the shirt. If it hasn't, keep ironing. Be sure to not move the paper in this step.


When it has reached an acceptable color, pull the paper off and you are done.


And there you have it. A Casey themed t-shirt. AKA nursing school makes her feel this way. 45 days until she's done- be excited!!

Does Ink Effects blow your mind? It does ours. I constantly want to be making things with this stuff like, fa' real. What would you make with Ink Effects?

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back TO BASICS: FRENCH BRAID

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There are so many great hairstyles out there these days- so many people getting their "creative" on. But in order to follow all those tutorials you find on Pinterest (or sometimes even our blog) you absolutely need to know the basics! That is why we've started a series on our YouTube channel called "Back to Basics". Today we are sharing with you our French Braid tutorial. If you don't know how to do a french braid, we hope this helps! And hopefully by the end of the video you will be able to create one of those fancy hairstyles in the pictures up top!

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the DIY: NO SEW TURBAN HEADBAND FROM A T-SHIRT

The title of this post is upsetting to me but, I wanted to describe this tutorial very well. Sometimes I'm super generic- today... I'm very specific. Anyways I'm going to show you how to make yourself a turban headband out of a t-shirt A.K.A. how to make a super cheap turban headband. Go get yourself a t-shirt for $.99 at Goodwill and you're good to go! I used a size XL.

Here's what you do...

You are going to cut two strips out of the t-shirt. I cut mine 3 inches wide. Make sure you cut straight across, from one side to another.

You should have two continuous strips.

Cross one strip over top the other one.

Take the right side of the bottom strip and cross it over to the left side.

Take the bottom part of the other piece and cross it upwards to the top.

Pull the two ends apart from each other and there should be 2 layers on each side.

Put your hand through the bottom piece and grab the top piece.

Pull the top piece inside of the bottom piece. Repeat on the other side as well.

Fold the left side over to the right side.

Repeat the same process as before- pull the top piece inside the bottom piece.

Straighten the pieces up. There will be a knotted-ness in the middle of the headband.

Open up the headband and you are finished!

There will be four layers going around your head and they should all be on top of each other. Are you confused yet?

Put it on your head and adjust it accordingly. When you get it situated you may want to tack it into place but it is totally not necessary. If you are careful when you put the turban headband on and take it off, you will be AOK. If it comes undone, you can always redo the tutorial.

If you feel this is too complicated, you could always head over to our Etsy shop and grab a "fancier" one. :)

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the DIY: CIRCLE SKIRT

Circle Skirt Tutorial as I promised! You just need about 1.5 yards of fabric, elastic (we used 5/8") and a sewing machine and thread and pins and all that stuff. To do exactly what we did, you should use a fabric that has some stretch. It will be much much easier.


Keep your fabric folded in half as it comes. Then fold the fabric over in the other direction. There should be two folds together on one side (the side on the bottom of the picture) and one fold on the left side.


Lay a tape measure or yard stick across the bottom of the fabric, on the folds. For this part you will need two measurements- the RADIUS and LENGTH. Measure your waist and add 2 inches to that measurement, then divide by 6.28. This is the RADIUS measurement. Then the LENGTH measurement will be how long you want the skirt+the RADIUS.


You will make a dot at the RADIUS and LENGTH measurements. So we made a dot at 5.25" and 23".


You will move the tape measure from side to side of the fabric keeping zero in the corner, then place marks by the two measurements.


You will connect the dots of the inner circle and the outer circle.


Then cut along the lines.


When you open the fabric up it should be a giant circle like this!


Turn the fabric inside out and roll the waist line down twice and pin in place. The width should be a little bigger than the width of your elastic. Sew along the bottom edge and leave a space open for elastic.


Put a safety pin on the end of your elastic.


Feed the elastic through the waist.


Sew the elastic ends together.


And sew up the hole! The end. If you had a fabric that needed to be hemmed you would do that at the end. We like to use fabric that doesn't need to be hemmed! It's much much easier.

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