Nerdy Craft Time - Potions!

Starting at the back left, Armadillo Bile, Spiders, Dragon Blood, an Erumpet Horn. and a Bezoar box

Another thing I've been seeing around lately is this "Make your own potions bottles" for Halloween decorations or whenever. I love Halloween crafts more then your average person and I felt this would be a really fun nerdy craft. The nerdy part is that it reminds me of Harry Potter. As a constant reader of Harry Potter, I feel I'm slightly qualified to make that connection. What I mean by "constant reader" is that I've been in an endless Harry Potter loop for years now. I read them every single night before bed, re reading a familiar story not only gives me lovely dreams but it also makes it easier for me to put the book down before 3am. Yes, I do read other books, Harry Potter is just my bedtime reading staple. I remember, when I read Harry Potter for the first time, sneaking them into class so I could read them instead of you know, learning. Who cares about science when you have magic at your fingertips? Somehow (magically!) I never got caught. I also remember making Harry Potter costumes with my friends to go see the movies, because who wants to see a movie in normal clothes? Quoting Harry Potter in every day life. I've busted out several Albus Dumbledore quotes while comforting friends who had broken up with boyfriends.
So what does every Harry Potter nerd need to feel complete once they are in the tail end of their 20's and raising a mini Harry Potter fan? (Or not, you totally don't need to have children to make these! Just throwing it out there that my almost 5 year old is also a Harry Potter nerd, it's never too early people.)
DIY potion ingredient bottles!  You can find a list of Harry Potter potion ingredients HERE if you are interested!

The basic technique is to use a glue gun to make a label on your bottle and spray paint that bitch. And BAM you have a potion or poison bottle. Obviously if you wanted to make a poison bottle for Halloween you totally could, but being that this is nerdy craft time, it's potion ingredient bottles.  I used the same basic principal, using hot glue (which was way easier then I thought it would be!) but I used acrylic paint and a brush instead of spray paint which gave my bottles a fun texture from the brush strokes. After all of this, a base coat of spray paint probably would have worked a little nicer, but I wasn't about to go out and buy 4 different colors of spray paint when I had perfectly good paint at home. Use what you have.

So I started out with 2 bottles (well they are probably vases) from our local thrift store, I think I paid a total of $1.50 for the two of them. I also have a Kraft Mac and Cheese box. and, not pictured but, the "Spider" jar was an old glass Skippy peanut butter jar found in my grandmother's basement. For this step you'll also need a glue gun and several sticks of glue for it. I used 7 or 8 sticks for all 4 items. But it totally depends on how raised up you want your lettering and if you'll put a design on your bottle as well.
Make sure your bottles/jars/boxes/jugs/vases are clean and free of dust and dirt before you start.

 

What you'll want to do now is let your glue gun warm up, mine is old and takes like 10 minutes but make sure you give it enough time to really get hot, it will just make everything go more smoothly. Once it's hot, you'll want to do the lettering. I free handed it, but if you'd like you can practice on a smooth piece of cardboard first. I suppose you could also make your letters on a piece of parchment or waxed paper, wait til they dry and peel them off, then hot glue them to your bottle. Whatever you prefer. I'm horrible at centering things so of course you can't see Armadillo and Bile at the same time. It works for me though. It doesn't have to be perfect, it's your bottle after all. Remember, nerdy craft time is about having fun. Anyway, you'll want to give it a solid 20 minutes to really dry up and harden on your bottles. You don't have to worry about those little strings of glue, work with them, they add an awesome texture to your bottles. You'll also want to do your design, You could get really crazy here if you wanted to. 

 

Just a close up of it when the glue is dry and before paint.

 

Once your glue is dry you'll want to gather up your painting supplies and spread some newspaper on your work surface. Unless you don't mind if it gets paint covered. These are the only colors I used on my bottles. It's just a mix of acrylic paints that I've acquired over the years. If you would like to know the exact colors let me know in the comments.

 

 

I also used a single medium sized flat brush. The brand name of this has worn off but I'm certain I got it at Michael's. However, Wal-Mart, and numerous hobby stores sell brushes like this as well. I also used a piece of tinfoil to put my paint on. You can use anything, paper plate, piece of cardboard, plastic lid.. whatever you have on hand that your paint can't soak through.

I threw a base coat on all of my potion containers. I repainted the gold one red because you really should use the darkest colors first. (There's an exception to this and I'll tell you about it later) If you use your lightest color first you run the risk of your darker color completely covering it. You won't get a fun peek of another color at all.

Just make sure you don't put your base coat on too thick or you'll ruin your design and lettering. Thin coats. Even if you have to do one or 2 passes. Also, let this dry completely before you move on. Acrylic craft paint doesn't really love to stick to glass and if you go over it again too soon you'll chip it off, which is very hard to fix. You'll notice my finished Dragon Blood bottle has some odd spots on it, those are chips that I couldn't fix. Give it a good hour before you go back in.

 So these are the finished products. All I did was, after the base coat I dipped my brush into a lighter color and brushed a piece of newspaper until I had gotten most of the paint off, then I very roughly painted over the base coat. I concentrated on the lettering just to make sure it stood out. I painted one direction all around the container (up and down motion) with one color and then went over that with my second top color painting the other way (side to side motion). If you just paint one way you'll get blank spots, it just looks nicer if you paint in both directions.
Another way to cover the clear glasses more effectively is to also coat the inside of the jar with paint. However, if you'd like to put something in your jar you probably should skip that all together, because the paint can flake and ruin whatever you put inside. I'll break down what I did differently with each container as well.

The Bezoar box is the exception to my dark colors first. If you paint your container a light color. you can go over it very lightly with a darker color to get the letters to stand out. For this one I really concentrated on the lettering with my darker color. But it all depends on the effect you want. Light colors on light colors aren't going to stand out very much, so it's a nice idea to lightly brush them with a darker color. I used a terra cotta brown on this one with red and black over that. In that order.

This is the effect you get if you paint in one direction.

This started as my least favorite jar but ended up being my favorite. I used a black base with gray, red, terra cotta brown, and a light muddy gray color over that, in that order. To get the top. I made lines of glue on the rim of the jar, when I got to the top, I let go of the trigger on my glue gun and quickly moved the nozzle over to the other side of the jar. Which moves the residue glue string to the other side and creates the spider web pattern. If you don't get a glue string , you can add a little more glue to the top and try again. I continued this all the way around, turning the jar as I went. If you would like to do this, make sure to fill you jar BEFORE you start gluing the top. I didn't paint the glue strands, I felt they looked just fine the color they were. The glue is stronger then it looks over the top but don't expect it to support an obscene amount of weight. It's best to not try to poke through it. I know you want to.

For this one I used my glue gun and made a close together up and down motion to get the top crinkled like that. Then I went over it twice to really get it to stand out. I originally painted this gold to start with but repainted it red. So it's a red base with gold over the top. I ended up using black paint over the lettering and in the creases of the vase to really make them stand out.

  

 

The Armadillo Bile is also one of my favorites, which is funny again because it was also one of my least favorite bottles to begin with. (just like the Spider jar) I used a black base and went over that with a terra cotta brown and a light green. in that order. I just felt like armadillo bile would be green. I guess I'm not totally sure what color bile would be... I was a little heavy handed using the glue gun on the letters so I could get a lot of those really awesome glue strings and give the bottle a nice texture. I also put a ring around the top with glue lines coming down from that.

 

Just throwing it out there. Red over black doesn't show up very well. I tried really hard to get it to look nice and it just wouldn't. Also don't try to water the paint down to do a wash of color, it just peels your base coat off the glass.

 

So to recap quickly:

DIY potion ingredient bottles!

1. Collect bottles, boxes, jars, containers... whatever you want to use
2. Using your glue gun, draw your design and write your label on the bottle. Let it dry for at least 20 minutes.
3. Paint your base coat and let dry for at least an hour
4. Paint additional colors (dark colors first) by dipping your paint brush in color and wiping it on a news paper or paper towel until you get minimal color coming off your brush and paint your bottle and design. Letting it dry completely in between colors.
5. If you'd like to seal the paint on to your bottle, you can spray paint a clear coat over it. They sell matte, semi gloss, and gloss clear coat spray paint so you won't necessarily have to have a glossy finish.
6. Enjoy your new potion ingredient bottles!

 

You can also make some corks and caps for your bottles, you can take cork board and glue it together to create a custom sized plug, instead of trying to find a cork that fits your bottle. You can glue anything you'd like to the tops, fabric, rocks, crystals, figurines.... whatever.  I prefer mine without lids but it's all up to you.

 

As an extra special bonus, here's an Erumpet Horn!

I probably could have done a better job smoothing out the paper underneath. but I was lazy and in the end it gives it a nice textured look.

Today we'll be using home made paper mache!

 

 

You will need some newspaper, tinfoil or something to make a base with. a bowl you aren't afraid to ruin, plain white school glue, and some water. (you won't necessarily ruin the bowl, mine is totally fine and clean, you just don't want to use a really nice bowl for this)

It can be super rough if you have a simple design, it doesn't have to be perfect

You'll want to cut up some newspaper strips and make a base, I used some tinfoil. If you want to remove your base. wrap it in plastic wrap.Then you'll want to make some paper mache paste. 4 parts regular old white school glue to 1 part water.

 Dip your paper strips into the paste and wrap them around your base. Let it dry in between layers. I only used 3 layers but you can use more or less if you'd like. I'd recommend using a minimum of 2. Smooth it all out and let it dry over night.
If you'd like to remove your base you can use a sissors and cut into your form until you are able to pull it out, then you can smooth a few layers of paper dipped in your paste over the cut to close it up. Let that dry over night as well. I kept my base in, the extra weight wasn't an issue for me because I'm not wearing this horn or trying to attach it to anything.
I used hot glue and made a spiral all the way up my horn, I coated the tip with hot glue, and made little "drips" on the bottom. I painted the entire thing black with terra cotta brown and a muddy gray over the top, in that order. I used the same painting technique as I did with the jars. wiping most of the paint off and very roughly painting over the layers.
Let it dry for a couple hours and you're done!

Let me know if you try these! I'd love to see them!

As always,

Enjoy!

 

Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.
~Albus Dumbledore

Ipsy September Classic Beauty Glam Bag

This month's bag theme is Classic Beauty. The actual bag itself is a bright blue with a black lace-like floral pattern on it. It has a round matching blue zipper pull with Ipsy stamped on one side.

I added a collective swatch below the tinted lip balm review

NYX eyeshadow in Lanikai   $4.50 for single shadows
You can find the NYX website HERE. If you sign up for their email list you can get 25% off your first order.
In the pan this looked light bluish gray with some small silvery glitter pieces in it, once on my lids though, it was more of a shimmery pale lavender gray.  Lanikai has a silky texture that almost feels like a cream. It applied easiest with a brush using a sweeping motion as opposed to packing it on. It blended smoothly, and had zero fall out. The pigment layered nicely so I could easily build up the color. One swipe gave me an even wash of lavender/gray so layering isn't totally necessary. It looks much more shimmery in the swatch then it does on the lid, it is definitely a shimmer finish but it isn't quite as shiny as it looks in the photo. I got about 6 hours, without fading, out of this without a primer underneath. This went on much smoother then I thought it would, it's been quite a while since I've used a drug store brand eye shadow, I think I've been converted! I would love to try out more NYX eyeshadows in the future.

To get the color this dark it took about 5 layers.

StarLooks kohl eye pencil in Obsidian  $12 for a 2.4g pencil
You can find this HERE. If you enter the code IPSY at check out you can get 20% off your total order of $35 or more.
The darkness of this liner left a lot to be desired. Maybe it's just me, but when I think of obsidian, I think dark black so I had high hopes based off the name. One swipe left me with a faded black line, not gray and not solid color, just faded black. I had to go over it several times just to get solid color. I warmed it up a bit and used it on my waterline, I got a fairly even, mostly solid, line. Once built up, obsidian is a decent charcoalish black color which isn't what I was hoping for but it is a nice color. It's not totally matte but not shimmery or sparkly either, it's got a slight sheen to it though. I actually really enjoyed the soft effect this gave me on my waterline. One fantastic thing about this is that it washed off very easily with no left over residue! No raccoon eyes in the morning for this girl. I got about 5 hours of wear out of this. Overall it's a very ok eye pencil, it isn't the best I've seen but it isn't the worst.

Ignore my majorly chipped nail polish...

Elizabeth Mott It's So Big volumizing mascara $19.99 for a 10ml tube
You can find this HERE.
I've explained my reluctance to use new mascaras before and my huge expectations from them, but I'll do a quick recap. I have short stumpy lashes on my left eye and normal length lashes on my right, so lengthening is necessary for me. I'm also freaked out by huge mascara brushes, I have problems with giant bristles coming at my eyeball, I can't explain it. So small bristles are required for me as well.
That said, this mascara went above and beyond and I was impressed! It went on solid black from the first swipe which is extremely important to me because my eye lashes are blonde naturally. It's buildable so while your lashes look beautiful with a coat or two, after 5-10 swipes (which sounds kind of ridiculous I know) it looks like I'm wearing false lashes. They are longer, thicker, and curled naturally without using my lash curler. I had no problems at all with clumping.  The wand itself is a little on the short side, I'm not sure if the full size wand is longer, I liked the short wand though. It has medium length bristles, with a small wave in the middle.  Honestly, I've never found a difference with the shape of the wand and performance, but I thought I'd throw it in here. Also, this washed away completely very easily with just a little soap and water, but it also didn't run the second it got wet.

Skyn Iceland Hydro Cool Firming Eye Gels  $30 for 8 pairs
You can find this HERE.
These are neat, they are like little fabric covered gel pads with a slightly sticky side (that has a peel away covering) so it sticks to your eye. Which is actually pretty awesome! Normally I get eye thingers and they are wet, or they slip and slide all over my face, I end up having to lay back for 10 minutes while they do whatever they do, and I wind up with eye stuff all over my face. But with these, I could feel the liquid under the pad but nothing leaked out, and when I removed them, my face was dry underneath. After about a minute the eye pads felt pleasantly cool, not overly cold or tingly. The only down side (not really down side, more of a strangeness) to these is how freakishly large the eye pads are. These covered my entire under eye, starting at my nose, and I still had enough to cover a good inch maybe inch and a half past the outer corner of my eye. I might cut my second pair in half and use it twice. I didn't notice a dramatic difference after I removed these, but I wasn't expecting anything crazy after 10 minutes and one use. If I had an issue with puffy or tired eyes I would definitely consider these. The price isn't out of this world either, if you used them once a week you'd basically be paying $30 for 2 months of eye gels. Now, if you cut them in half and stored the open one in a ziplock bag you could stretch that to 4 months for $30, which isn't a bad price at all.

Yeah, I've been using it!

Cailyn Tinted Limp Balm in Big Apple  $19 for 3g plus attached brush
You can find this HERE.
So when Cailyn makes tinted lip balm they don't mess around, this is much more like a lip stain that is still removable once its rehydrated. I originally used this with the small brush that came in the top, expecting it to be a wash of red with a moisturizing balmy shine and texture. But because my lips are on the medium side and I'm pretty impatient, I ended up using my own lip brush for this once I realized how pigmented it actually was. It is freakishly pigmented, it's not just a wash of color, we're talking solid color here. It goes on like a lipstick like texture and dries down to no texture at all. It isn't matte, it isn't shiny or glossy, it looks like your natural lips as far as sheen goes, but colored. Just like a lip stain, in fact, if I had to classify this I would put it in the lip stain category. It dried in about a minute, which is how long you have to fix any mistakes before it seals itself completely on your lips. If you use a lip pencil first it takes about 10-15 minutes to dry down. There was minimal rub off from this even before it dried, I got about 8 hours of wear out of this with minimal fading and no touch ups, with 2 meals and several glasses of water in between. If you apply a gloss the balm does not dry down and stays wet and is more prone to fading though. I did notice that once it got wet it was more prone to shifting or wear, so be aware of that, otherwise it isn't moving an inch. The color itself is exceptional. It's a lovely dark apple red that I feel would go with a lot of hair colors and skin tones. It is a fantastic color for fall!

Lanikai eyeshadow, Big Apple tinted lip balm, It's So Big mascara

Big Apple tinted lip balm on my lips. Just saying, sorry about the negative amount of happiness in this photo, this was literally my 15th try to get a picture of the color on my lips, my camera was not wanting to focus today.

This month's glam bag came with a tiny extra, a promo card for Michelle Phan's new make up line EM. Mine talked about The Life Palette Career Life and a little sample from Look 3 in that giant palette "out to lunch". It included the cheek color and 3 eye colors. It is one of those little card samples, where it's a single or two time use at best. At first I thought a little number/letter code stamped at the bottom of the card was possibly a coupon code, however, it isn't. I'm not sure what that code is for but a coupon code would have been magical considering they are $75. Which isn't that bad when you look at the amount of make up you get in one palette but it's still $75.

I labeled the colors so it would be easier to tell them apart when I wrote about them.
I haven't worn any of these yet but the blush or "B" is a nice peachy/coraly color that was a breeze to swatch, it went on very smooth and had a lot of pigment with one swipe. It had a slight slight shimmer to it but nothing dramatic.
1 is a nice medium shimmer brown, it went on smoothly with a nice even color.
2 ends up being an interesting greyish brown shimmer, it went on less smoothly then 1 and it was hard to build up the color to get a decent swatch, but I got it in the end!
3 is a dark brown that I could barely swatch because it was so powdery when applied to my skin. I tried to build up the color but it continued to be chalky, the fall out was awful. Which is a shame, the color reminds me of another brown that I consider to be a must have for my every day eye make up.

It's possible the texture would be a little better in the pan and not just sprayed on to a card. I'm not saying anything either way. The colors are all very nice and go well together. I'd love to try this palette, with all of it's colors and mix of blush, lip colors, and eye shadows. The reviews I've seen on these have been glowing so I'd love to see for myself and encourage you to see for yourself as well.

You can find Michelle's EM website HERE.

I added a "B" for blush and "1,2,3" to tell the eyeshadows apart.

As usual, if you would like to receive your very own Ipsy Glam Bag you can sign up HERE! It's $10 a month and each monthly glam bag has a theme of it's very own right down to the mini make up pouch. You also take a beauty quiz when you sign up to help personalize your glam bag.

Enjoy!


*Ipsy Glam Bag is a monthly beauty sample bag that I paid for with my very own money. I do not get paid to give good reviews*

Nerdy Craft Time! T-shirt edition!

** I originally wanted to put this up last week, but I wanted to wash the shirt several times in order to see how it held up to wash and wear. I stretched it out intentionally, swam it in scalding hot water for hours, ran through the sprinkler, sat in the sun, and rubbed the design over itself until my hands hurt. I've really put this one through everything I could think of to ruin the design. The results? It held up perfectly. No change in the colors or design at all.**



Wooo for homemade fan shirts!

Just a beginning disclaimer: Always spray paint outside, on a non windy day, away from the walls of your home. Multi purpose spray paint needs to be used in a super well ventilated area, wear a mask especially if you have any breathing or lung issues.
If you can, use fabric spray paint. However, I used regular multipurpose spray paint, which also works. But it's always best to use products specifically made for clothing. If you use fabric spray paint you won't have to go through my elaborate rinsing process which was designed to keep multi purpose spray paint out of my washing machine. Just follow the washing directions on the can of fabric spray paint, if you end up using that, and disregard step 7-10.

Because I'm constantly doing nerdy crafts, and I love sharing them in the hopes that someone else will be inspired to do nerdy crafts too, I have decided we'll have a twice a month "Nerdy Craft Time"!  This will be the T-shirt edition.

I keep seeing this everywhere, tape a paper stencil down, spray it with a generous amount of bleach, let sit, and viola! Awesome custom t-shirt design.

So this was what I thought would happen... I would print off the Dreadfort's flag  (Game of Thrones House Bolton's flayed man, for those that don't know you can check it out HERE) Genius! Then I would take that paper, blow it up larger with the copier and cut it out on the cover of a magazine. Fantastic! Spray it with bleach and done!  Good plan right?  WRONG. 

My printer is out of ink so I can't make a copy. I spent 15 minutes looking through every storage area in my basement trying to find the box of ink dealies that I bought and I guess never used. Do you think I found it? No. No is the answer. Of course I couldn't find it. I wasn't about to drive 45 minutes one way to go get ink, so instead, I had to trace the flayed man onto a piece of saran wrap (you know, because I can't draw...), it felt like a good idea at the time. But now I am currently looking as a screen that has 7 small dots of permanent marker on it. Apparently saran wrap keeps everything out except marker. I traced that onto some paper and made it a little larger. In the end, I figured it out, positioned it, and sprayed it with bleach. I waited. And waited. And waited. Nothing happened. So I waited until it dried. Nothing happened. I sprayed it again and nothing happened. I thought maybe it had to get wet, so I sprayed it with the hose. Nothing.  Horrible plan.

Frustrated, I decided to do what I do best, I used spray paint. I've gotten spray paint on my clothes before and after you wash it, the smell is gone and it moves with the shirt. Depending on the thickness of the paint, you'll have a slight texture, but nothing horrible.


Obviously I used a different guy for my shirt. This was my first choice but, as you can see, he didn't look right. I opted for the flayed man on the Dreadfort's flag instead. But you can see the saran wrap underneath which allowed me to copy it right from my computer screen. You know... because I refused to go get ink for my printer..  I have no idea where this little man came from.  

I got my flayed man to the size I wanted, set him on a magazine cover, and cut him out. Why a magazine cover you may ask? Well, magazine covers are often glossy which wouldn't absorb paint and are thicker then regular paper, yet still flexible, and it's easier to cut out then cardboard.  I also subscribe to quite a few magazines and they were readily available.

The X was made out of cardboard, if I could do it over again, I would have made it all from a magazine cover, much easier then cutting out cardboard for sure. It's also uneven, I'm aware of this and don't really care that much.  

I get my poor little guy positioned on my shirt and I used a little bit of double stick tape to stick it all down with. Then I put my shirt over a box, as if the box was wearing my shirt, to make sure the paint wouldn't soak through to the other side.
Now, using spray paint and spraying straight down over it, don't go at an angle you'll get up under your stencil, spray with a side to side movement concentrating most of the color over your stencil. It will naturally fade as it gets away from the area you are spraying. However, if you'd like to do an intentional fade or would like a larger area out from where you are spraying, you can hold your can farther away from the shirt and spray in super short bursts until you get the color you desire.

The end result, if you want a larger fade area put your shirt on a larger box. Anything that goes over the edges won't be painted. You can see where I taped my stencil down, I went over it with an angled brush and more paint, lightly over the brighter spots on the X to blend them in and clean up the edges, I also put in some muscle lines so my flayed man looked a little more flayed.

I decided to paint words on mine (House Bolton and their family motto), making it a little messy, jagged, and pointed on the ends as if it were carved into flesh. I used a small angled brush and sprayed the spray paint close to a paper plate to get some liquid paint out of the can. Do not do this inside or next to your house where it could splatter onto the walls. It will probably get on your hands. Quick tip about using a brush with spray paint. Don't use a brush you can't afford to lose and as soon as you are done, wash it with dish soap in warm water. If you do that immediately, you can almost always salvage your brush, if you let it dry it's done for. Notice I said ALMOST always. Most importantly, don't use a brush you can't afford to lose.

I need to clean up and even out the words a bit, but this was my first go at it. I let it dry overnight before attempting any more painting. Mostly because I was tired of sitting in the sun and it was 500 degrees here the day I attempted this. Also, it is straight on the shirt, but the way it's sitting on the box makes it look lopsided and I can't retake these photos considering the shirt is done now. Just throwing it out there.

Let the shirt dry, overnight, in your garage. Or if you have to bring it inside, let it dry outside for atleast 6 hours and then leave it in a large open area in your house overnight, such as a dining room or living room. It shouldn't smell really strongly at this point, but if you put it in a room and shut the door the spray paint smell will accumulate pretty quickly.

After it's dried for atleast 24 hours, throw it in a bucket with scalding hot water. You can use your faucet water for this, no need to boil. Unless your water only gets luke warm, then you'll need to boil some water.

Swirl this around a bit to make sure everything is soaked, and let it sit for several hours, until your water gets cold. Pour out the water.

Rinse it with hot water several times, squeezing it out several times. If you aren't getting any paint after the first rinse, just rinse it a couple more times, squeeze it out really well, and lay it in your tub. Otherwise keep rinsing and squeezing until your water is clear or almost clear.

Pour a little liquid laundry detergent over your design. It doesn't have to be enough to cover the entire thing, just get it in that area, maybe a tablespoon's worth. Wet your hands and spread the detergent over the entire design. Then fold the shirt in half, so your picture is folded over itself, and rub it gently to build up some lather. Squeeze it out, as if it's full of water, If you aren't getting any color from your paint then you can go ahead and rinse it in your bucket. If you are getting color, unfold it and rub gently with your finger tips until you stop getting color. (A very small amount of color is ok. VERY SMALL AMOUNT is ok. A large amount of color is not ok, keep washing.)

Once everything is said and done, rinse it twice with the faucet and squeeze it out. Quickly rinse out your tub just to make sure there isn't any residue. If you get a large amount of color coming out of your shirt while you are washing, make sure to rinse your tub often, I'm not sure if it would stick, but you don't want spray paint residue in your tub. Don't risk it. Just work quickly and don't let colored water sit in your tub. I hardly had any color wash out, but I used a relatively light pink, I'm not sure if you would get more from darker colors like black or navy. I didn't have a problem with this staining my tub but like I said, don't risk it, don't let the colored water sit in your tub. That is why you need a bucket for the initial soak.

At this point, if you've gotten all the soap out of your shirt, you can turn it inside out and throw it in your dryer and wear it.
If you'd like to go the extra mile, you can turn it inside out and throw it in your washing machine, and wash and dry it.

You should be done and enjoying your brand new nerdy t-shirt at this point!



Again, it's centered and even, it's just how the shirt is laying that makes it look lopsided. If I did it again, I would have made the paint fade in a larger area. Maybe extend it almost to the sleeves and slightly more downward. But it was a pretty good first attempt.   

 

So just a recap

You will need

• spray paint, multi purpose or fabric, in the color(s) of your choice
• stencil, home made (thick paper or cardboard) or store bought
• double stick tape
• plain shirt
• box or large piece of cardboard to fit inside your shirt

Optional

• angled brush
• large bucket (if using multi purpose spray paint)
• liquid laundry detergent (if using multi purpose spray paint)

1. Get a t-shirt
2. Cut out your design on a magazine cover or cardboard
3. Position and tape your design over the shirt and put shirt over a box as it it's wearing it
4. Spray your design and let sit until dry, an hour or 2, before you remove your stencil
5. Let dry several hours, paint on lettering if you choose or if you use a stencil use it in step 4
6. Let the entire shirt dry for 24 hours, at the very least.
7. Let it soak in a bucket of super hot water for several hours until cold
8. Rinse a couple of times, squeezing out several times
9. Hand wash, concentrating on the design, rinse in hot water until water runs clear.
10. Let it dry, or turn inside out and pop it in the dryer. Or turn it inside out and throw it in the washer and dryer.
11. Enjoy nerdy shirt!

Your new shirt can go in the washing machine, cold wash, but turn it inside out before washing. The design can go in the dryer but dry how your shirt says on it's tag, lay flat, line dry, dryer, dragon, whatever. You don't want to go shrinking your awesome new nerd shirt.

My lovely model and her trusty sidekick being a creeper behind her

The fun part about spray painting a shirt is that you can use any stencil you'd like, you can overlap stencils, or layer the stencils with different colors. (just let the paint dry at least an hour in between coats)
 

I would assume your design will naturally fade slightly over time, depending on how much you wash it. Although I have spray paint spots on shirts that have been there for over a year and haven't faded at all so I'm not entirely sure about fading. This larger, intentionally sprayed area is new to me. Only time will tell.

 

I know with the instructions, it sounds like a lot, it's really not that much work, but it is time consuming. I think if everything had gone right and I had set out to spray paint it in the first place, it would have taken maybe a couple hours not including waiting between drying time. That also depends on how complicated your design is, positioning is much harder then I thought it would be and took quite a bit of time for me.

I hope this inspires you to make your very own nerdy shirt! I'd love to see what you come up with! Remember, it doesn't have to be perfect, it only matters that you love it in the end. That's what Nerdy Craft Time is all about, making something fun with a subject that you're passionate about, something that you love. Just have fun. It doesn't matter if everyone "gets it",  as long as you get it and like it. Go on. Nerd it up!

As always,
Enjoy! 

Playskool Show Cam 2 in 1 digital camera and projector review!

 

Here's what the Hasbro website has to say about the Playskool Show Cam
Which you an also find HERE.

"Give your kids a way to add fun animations, stories, and sounds to the pictures they take with the Showcam Digital Camera and Projector! With more then 50 silly effects to choose from, this 2-in-1 camera and projector lets them snap pics and customize them! With the flip of a switch they can project their pictures too. The buttons, controls, and grips are all kid-sized for easy use, and the editing functions are built in so they don't need software. It's easy to save, print, and email pictures if you have a USB cable! Get your little ones creating digitally with the Showcam Digital Camera and Projector!"

This is for ages 3-7, takes 4 AA batteries, and does NOT include a USB cable. The box says it holds 1,000 pictures which is a crazy amount for a child's camera!
It retails on the Playskool website for $84.99 but at Walmart it's priced at $54.99. So it really just depends on where you buy it. Shop around on the internet if you're thinking of purchasing this.

This is pretty chunky and easy for the nugget's small kid hands to hold. The buttons are large and easy to push and super straight forward, she easily figured it out within 10 minutes of playing with it.

The actual lens of this is not the big normal camera lens in the front, it's towards the top where the flash would be. My nugget is still having a hard time getting used to pointing the top of the camera at her objects and not the obvious camera lens. But I suppose I can see that it's a little more protected up there, the lens has a smaller chance of cracking as a small target set away from the front as opposed to a large exposed area sticking out to the world. Also, the projector is in the giant camera lens, I guess that had to go somewhere as well. It makes sense once you actual think about it and it is set up nicely.

As far as the USB cable goes, I can't find where you would purchase one online for this particular item. Maybe you can find it in stores? I tried the USB cable for the nugget's old Scout and Violet dogs and it fit. I'm certain Hasbro doesn't recommend that you combine random USB cables from other toys, I'm not saying they do, I'm not sure if LeapFrog is associated with Hasbro and nothing in the instructions told me to use a cable from another toy for this camera. But I have no clue as to where to purchase a USB cable specifically for this camera, the box/instructions gave me absolutely no hints, and it fits without me having to spend any extra money! So I'm using it.

It comes in Blue, which is really black with a blue accent on top, and Pink, which is white with purple accents and a pink accent around the "lens".

There is a very slight delay on the camera which is fine but can be frustrating with moving targets depending on your child's age.

Our regular Energizer AA batteries lasted about 8 -10 hours, it would be totally worth it to invest in some rechargeable batteries for this. You'll spend  little extra in the beginning but you'll save a lot in the end.  It only takes 4 and a lot of rechargeables come in packs of 2 or 4. You can find them on the Walmart website for about $19.98 for a pack of 4 energizer batteries plus the charger.  You'll spend that in disposable batteries in a couple weeks.

My nugget is 4 almost 5, she was soooo excited when I opened the box and showed it to her. She loves my camera but there is absolutely no way I would allow my 4 year old to roam the yard holding it. This is perfect for kids. It's pretty sturdy too, my nugget immediately dropped it down the stairs while attempting to take a picture. It bounced and hit the tile, I thought for sure it would be busted, but there wasn't even a scuff. 

She loves the animation and little stories, it's a wonderful touch that all the "stickers" you can apply to the pictures have sound effects as well. The projector is a fantastic feature as well. My nugget loves being able to watch her pictures as a "movie" and all the sound effects carry over. You do lose sound and animation when you put your pictures on a computer, but the stickers are still there.  The quality of the pictures and projector is slightly grainy but still really nice for a child's camera. Once they are put on the computer they clear up a little bit, so it must be the screen on the actual camera and not all the picture quality itself.

Overall this is a really awesome kid's camera! It does exactly what it says, it's easy for small hands to maneuver, it is super straight forward and easy for children to navigate on their own, it has a cool projector built into the camera, and it is very durable. 
If I hadn't gotten this from BzzAgent, I would have probably purchased this for my child as a Christmas gift.

Playskool has knocked it out of the park with this product!

I hope you consider this for your child's next birthday or holiday gift.

As always,
Enjoy

 

 

 

**I received this product free for testing purposes from BzzAgent. These are my true and honest opinions, I do not get paid to give good reviews.**

 

Playskool and all related characters are trademarks of Hasbro.

 

If you are interested in becoming a BzzAgent yourself you can find their website HERE.