i'm back, again

i seem to blog in fits and starts. i don't really know why. here i am again. i did something creative last week and i thought it would be fun to jump in on jenny's 'creative me monday' again.

my daughter's best friend is moving. her family moved today actually. about 3 hours south of us. not too far, but far enough. friend's birthday is at the end of august, but her mom wanted her to have her birthday party here with her friends before she left. i wanted to have caelyn give her a special gift they would both love. i've seen so many silhouette projects recently and i love freezer paper stenciling so i thought why not try and combine the two.  i got 2 tshirts from target that were on sale for $4 a piece. one yellow for friend and a pink one for my daughter.  i needed their profiles so on sunday morning, i took them into an empty sunday school classroom to take their pictures. i thought it would be easiest for tracing later if i took their picture on a blank light colored wall.

friend on the left, my daughter on the right

 at first, all i got were a bunch of pictures like this. the two of them just giggling their heads off at each other.  i decided it would be easier if i took them separately.

friend

daughter

and of course they needed a fun shot of the two of them.

together

 when i got home, i put the pictures on the computer and got out my freezer paper.  (jenny has a great tutorial on freezer paper stenciling right here and dana from made also has a great one here.) i actually just taped the freezer paper to my computer screen and traced their heads. i drew some lines and had my daughter write out the 'friends' underneath and then i traced her letters to make them block letters so i could cut them out.

freezer paper tracing

 i layered 2 pieces of freezer paper together and cut them out at the same time. i ironed them onto the tshirts and then painted. we did the word friend in purple because it's friend's other favorite color. i already had the black paint and spent $3 on a bottle of purple.

painted and drying

 i left 2 teeny tiny squares open on the head so i could sew little tiny flowers on them. i didn't know if i'd be able to sew through a layer of paint.

all dry and ready for flowers

 i made little teeny yo-yos out of tulle (i already had on hand) and sewed those on and then glued tiny gems into the centers.

all done!!

 i was so excited about how they turned out. not perfect, i think the paint was still a little wet when i pulled the freezer paper off because a little bit of friend's nose is missing. i think they're so cute!

closeup

friend loved her present and my daughter loves her shirt as well. i'm really glad that a part of her is on the shirt, too in her handwriting. and we made a thoughtful special present for $5! this project just made me really happy!!!