Painted T-Shirts

I'm kind of at that pregnancy stage where my bump is showing but no one will ask me because I might just be a little pudgy in the middle. I'm five and a half months pregnant and just got back into the gym after breaking my toe. I take spin classes about 5-6 times a week and I felt a little funny going up to the instructors to let them know I'm pregnant (they tell you to do this on all these pregnancy websites), so I've been looking for some t-shirts with cute pregnancy designs aaaand...no. I'm not going to pay that much money for a t-shirt I'm gonna go get sweaty in. I don't even think I've paid that much more than a handful of times for a nice blouse, so no. That's bananas!

I was lucky enough to run across some CLEARANCE wohooo! Who doesn't love clearance? I found non maternity 1X sized t-shirts at Target for $3 a pop. I figure they're roomy enough to be comfy and long enough to cover the bump when it gets bigger. $3 a t-shirt? That's the kind of money I'll spend on a shirt I'm gonna get all sweaty in at the gym. I already had craft paint at home, so alls I needed was some fabric medium to mix it with.

Also, little tip... I get really lazy when it comes to clean up. So, if i'm using a non disposable bowl for painting, I like to cover it in plastic wrap and when I leave the paint in the bowl for a week cause I forgot about it I just remove the plastic wrap and toss it!

So I mixed my paint and textile medium and then I got my Silhouette out, chose my font and typed my word in. I like to use contact paper to do any kind of stencil. This is only because I have TONS of contact paper, however I have heard that freezer paper works very well for stencils as well.

Once I had my stencil cut out I placed a plain brown paper bag in the t-shirt to keep any paint from bleeding through.

I added my contact paper stencil. I didn't do a very good job of it, but it was late and I was tired and hey, I'm gonna be using this shirt at the gym anyways, right?

After the first layer of paint, I let it dry for about 30 minutes then added a second coat and allowed that to dry overnight. 

The placement of the word could have been better but I was too lazy to move the stencil and it's going to be my gym shirt anyways. I'm really happy with the results and after a few washings the lettering still looks great!

My DIY Gender Announcement

This is my first pregnancy and like most mommies out there, I am trying to document every part of it as best I can. However...I am also a cheapo! I hate paying full price for anything and wait for sales at any chance I get. This usually is true for services as well. I am absolutely in love with all of these gender announcements I see all over the place, but I just CANNOT afford to pay a photographer for every single milestone I want to capture. I'd rather save a little money so that I can get that photographer once my little one has arrived. So when my honey and I found out what we were having I was extremely anxious to announce it in a unique way and without breaking the bank.

I searched Pinterest for ideas and was inspired by this photograph. How stinking cute are they?

Just my luck, I found out I was having a girl on February 19th. So  a few days later I hit the Target Valentines Day clearance isle looking for some pink candy. It didn't even have to be cotton candy, but just my luck...a bucket on pink cotton candy for $.99! I scored some pink tissue paper and after work I rushed home, opened up all the blinds in my living room to get in as much light as possible, pulled the comforter off my bed and laid it in front of a bare wall, made a quick cone out of copy paper for my cotton candy and a tissue paper pouff. I was in my casual Friday work outfit, so the T-Shirt worked out perfectly.

And here's my finished product.

I could have probably cleaned up the edges a bit and done a little editing, BUT I'm pregnant and lazy and they look pretty gosh darn good. My baby daddy is wasting his time on his Electrical Engineering degree. I think he's found his true calling in photography. I love the way they came out and I only spent $2. OBVIOUSLY, photographers are AMAZING and I am not attempting to put down their craft at all, but for when you just can't afford it and still want to capture precious memories at home, no one is stopping you from getting a little creative!