Diy muslin swaddled prints with a Snorlax

I swear, this is going to be the last one.  I think we've painted and exacto-knifed ourselves out for a while.  I bought a remnant of the muslin that was just too big for a little baby.  So we chopped it in half.  

One for buffalo (post) and one for ..............

Wait for it...........

the Snorlax!!  

For those of you who don't know, a Snorlax is a Pokemon.  Who, is adorable, and if anyone wants to make me one of these, I'd let you, for free even.   (The husband claims that anyone who is younger the 35 probably knows what a Snorlax is.  Interesting stat I think)

The last few months, the husband has been making me watch these classic Anime videos...which some were good, but some were not.  But, how could I forget, that I myself, is/was a slight anime nerd.  I'd forgotten that in high school I would watch Pokemon.  I don't know why, I just liked it, a lot.  The husband has recently informed me that it actually was a game.  I had no idea.  I just liked to watch the cartoons, which, in case you were wondering, have recently been added to Netflix!

Anyways, Hannah and I were brainstorming and we came across said Snorlax.  He could be adorable on a boys blanket right, yes, yes he could and is.  He was a little harder to find an image for.  I actually found a video clip that had him in just the right position and did a Print Screen Shot on the computer.  Then we printed him out and started cutting him out.  Once again, I started the cutting, but Hannah finished it out. 

After testing him out on some cardboard we were ready! We centered him on the blanket and started painting. 

 

 After getting him applied, we started on the "Zzzzz."  I don't know why, but the Snorlax is always sleeping.  ALWAYS. 

I think he turned out pretty dang cute.  Plus, I've never seen another one like it, which is always a bonus in my mind.

Thanks to Hannah for helping all my muslin swaddling cloth dreams come true!  I probably never would have done it (or watched her do it) if she weren't around!

I posted these before, but here are some tips and instructions on stenciling. 


Some tips that I learned from Hannah on Stenciling. 

1.  Make sure your exacto-knife is sharp and your eyes are even sharper.  You may want to print a few of your patterns so if you mess up one by cutting something wrong.  Hannah even colors one ahead of time just to make sure she knows what she does and doesn't want to cut out. 
2.  When printing on the stencil paper there will only be faint lines.  Make sure to print on some scrap after running the stencil paper through to get all the left over ink that didn't print. Otherwise, you'll go to print something and it will be covered with random lines of buffalo. 

3.  Always cut your stencil out on some surface you don't mind cutting up. 
4.  Always test your stencil on something else before diving into your material.
5.  We like to tape our stencils to the cloth.
6.  Always dab off excess paint before applying to cloth. 
7.  Hold the stencil with one hand to keep it steady.  You'll want to dab your paint brush STRAIGHT up and down to avoid bleeding underneath.
8.  Once you'd applied your paint, pull stencil immediately after. 
9.  You'll want to make sure you didn't get any excess paint on the back of the stencil before laying it down again on your surface.  
10. If you are going to use a stencil multiple times, make sure to stop and let it dry after 10 times or so, depending on the details.  It may be more or less times you can use it, but you'll start to notice it sagging and just not coming out quite as sharp.  I've actually found that after the paint dries it's basically been plasticized and works really well after. 
11. Stand back and be amazed.  You did it. Yes, you are awesome and so is that stencil.  

Here are the basic utensils we used for stenciling. 

Hannah prefers the shorter style paint.  She also really likes her fat stubby paintbrush. (green one.) We used the standard sponge brush on the bison and the short sponge brush.  We use the fine paint brushes on really small detailed work, like on the tiny little "z."  Also, this is her beloved paint tray. 

Bye son, Bison, DIY Stenciled Onesies and DIY Baby BisonSwaddlerBlankets.

Let us start out with a joke by the husband.  
Husband: "Why did you decide to use the Bison?"  
Me: "I don't know, it spoke to me."
Husband: "Is it because you wanted to be able to say "Bye son"."
Me: I usually don't respond to his jokes anymore.

To continue on with little brother's blankets, I decided to try something a little beyond my skills.  It had to do with a Bison, excato-knife, potato, and scissors.  Supposedly, you make stamps with potatoes.  I saw them here.  Which, I'm sure you can, just not with the particular design I chose.  My start to finish lasted about 4 minutes and in disaster.  It didn't even go far enough to even show you.  I gave up after my paper started shriveling up from the potato. 

Then, my sister Hannah took over.  As much as she claims that she is not a crafty person, she really is.  It's just the perfectionist in her that stops her  She made Aiko a few onesies, that she stenciled and painted herself.  They turned out awesome here.  Hannah and her OCD self probably couldn't bear to watch me muff it up again. 

We pulled out our stencil paper, resized and printed our buffalo (by we I mean she.) and started cutting.  Make sure to have some kind of surface under the stencil paper so you don't cut up your table. 




She's pretty good right?  We did have to delete some of the buffalo, there were just too many little lines.  After we tested out the stencil, she applied it to the onesie!

Print purchased from Etsy Shop PrintitFrameit. 

I know, I know, it's pretty rad.  If only I could have a crafting-slave-perfectionist who I just bossed around and said "good job" to after they finish.  But don't worry, eventually I did join the bison-exacto-cutting-fun.  See, I had some other big plans for this bison.  We did one successfully, WHY NOT MILLIONS?!

Well, how about five. We printed up four more bison and I myself, even cut out two of them.  It's kind of a long process, but once you have the stencil you can use it quite a few times. 

By quite a few times, I mean a lot.  (I'll put some tips at the end of this post.) We decided to apply it to another Swaddler Blanket.

Boy, am I glad we did.  I was a little worried that all the detail would get lost on the texture of the muslin, but it worked out great!  We did mainly yellow buffalo with a few random blue ones.   

After finishing with the buffalo we realized we needed a little something more.  So I took a chapstick and placed dots.

I was too lazy to pull out my good camera, plus I don't really know how to use it beyond Auto anyway...so you have some different colored photos going on here.

What do you think?  Pretty cool right?  And really, it's not that hard, I promise.  It take some time, but once you have your stencil you can use it over and over again.  

Some tips that I learned from Hannah on Stenciling. 

1.  Make sure your exacto-knife is sharp and your eyes are even sharper.  You may want to print a few of your patterns so if you mess up one by cutting something wrong.  Hannah even colors one ahead of time just to make sure she knows what she does and doesn't want to cut out. 
2.  When printing on the stencil paper there will only be faint lines.  Make sure to print on some scrap after running the stencil paper through to get all the left over ink that didn't print. Otherwise, you'll go to print something and it will be covered with random lines of buffalo. 

3.  Always cut your stencil out on some surface you don't mind cutting up. 
4.  Always test your stencil on something else before diving into your material.
5.  We like to tape our stencils to the cloth.
6.  Always dab off excess paint before appliying to cloth. 
7.  Hold the stencil with one hand to keep it steady.  You'll want to dab your paint brush STRAIGHT up and down to avoid bleeding underneath.
8.  Once you'd applied your paint, pull stencil immediately after. 
9.  You'll want to make sure you didn't get any excess paint on the back of the stencil before laying it down again on your surface.  
10. Stand back and be amazed.  You did it. Yes, you are awesome and so is that stencil.  

Here are the basic utensils we used for stenciling. 

Hannah prefers the shorter style paint.  She also really likes her fat stubby paintbrush. (green one.) We used the standard sponge brush on the bison and the short sponge brush.  We use the fine paint brushes on really small detailed work, like on the tiny little "z."  Also, this is her beloved paint tray.

Bison Print purchased from Etsy Shop PrintitFrameit.

Sometimes, I write funny things, but it's been a while.

But mostly, it's my sister Hannah who is funny.  We were laughing so much we couldn't breath.  (As much as semi and full asian women can while wheezing quietly. That's how we laugh hard.)  You will want to read and watch all of this.  Hannah and her co-workers purchased Siamese Fish, which also included the contest of which department will live the longest.  (They even wrote up rules about sabotage others fish.  No foul play was allowed.)  Her department's fish died.  

LOGAN, UT - It is with great sorrow, that we announce the death of the Textbook fish Perseus, who entered his watery grave somewhere between the hours of 5pm Monday and 8am Tuesday morning. It was not our wish that he go alone, but it was on his terms and we find comfort in that. Perseus was a fun loving fish, who had a special relationship with his plant, Plant. He loved to swim and frolic among the leaves that Plant so willingly offered.

Some months ago, Perseus developed a condition called swim bladder, which essentially means that he could not poop and was constantly constipated. This resulted in bloatedness which caused him to float unwillingly to the top of his tank. Try as he might, he could not propel his enlarged body to the bottom of the tank to visit Plant.

Perseus endured, however, once we found that he thrived on a diet of thawed frozen, mashed peas. The peas expedited the digestion and allowed him to swim gleefully among Plant’s leaves once more. It was never enough, though, the peas sustained him only temporarily. Still, he survived…perhaps to teach us some lesson or pass on some valuable knowledge. Either way, he was well loved and shall be missed.

Perseus is survived by his Campus Store fish family, Juan Pablo of Operations, Pita of General Merchandise, Larry of the Regionals, and Pepper of Marketing and Admin. He is preceded in death by Plant.

Services for Perseus will be held Wednesday morning at 8:25 in the Financial Aid Women’s Restroom. In leiu of flowers, the textbook family asks that delicious treats be donated in Perseus’ name. Please enjoy this video tribute to Persues, the Textbooky Fish.

 A Later Memo that she sent out for work. 

Textbooks had a moving service for Perseus this morning. And since most of you were unable to make it, here is a photo…and for your viewing pleasure, a video is attached, as well.

yes

sometimes...this baby

i am not really a super competitive person

sure, i like to win but i also really don't mind losing

i have a sister who is very competitive.

the hannah

for instance. 

we were playing a game on the wii years ago and i so happened to have my name as ONE of the top ten scores

well...i come in the next day and not only is my name no longer on the list, but if you scrolled down Hannah's name was listed on ALL the top 25 spots!

she not only has to win...but she likes to annihilate you to make sure there was never any record EVER

maybe competive isn't the word.

she is slightly OCD... so maybe "perfectionist" is a good word

or 

"slayer-of-all-hopes-and-dreams-in-your-heart-to-win"

but anyways, tonight we were playing nerts/pounce and i was totally winning.hannah was totally convinced that I was in THE prime spot on the table.  so naturally we had to start moving around the table to make it "fair"

i don't like to gloat, but i totally DID.

i found myself doing little fist pumps all the time just to annoy her.

yes, yes, it's very mature.

but i won (by a lot) and now i feel complete.

someone had to teach the "slayer-of-all-hopes-and-dreams-in-your-heart-to-win" a lesson.

crafty auntie hannah

so we've seen them on pinterest

those super cute onesies

well, auntie hannah made a bunch for aiko

(so weird to put her name there instead of baby! we're making progress)

below we have a line up for you

obviously, she doesn't feel that she "nailed it."

she was probably quite hungry.

if you'll recall, we called her "fetus" for the whole pregnancy.

but no more.

this one was an ode to the kona.

someday, when she can at least hold her own head up,

we'll try riding the kona.

this one is a favorite.

auntie hannah spent quite the time on these.

hand cutting each saying with an exacto knife

then painstakingly painting each letter.

well done auntie

well done.

Life according to his iPhone

New Year. 

Same us!

Hannah, Derek and i went for dinner in Salt Lake to see Dad, and we found ourselves with a little time. Derek is not in these photos because *sigh* he was activated that iPhone for me. 

We went to the Gateway in Salt lake.  Anthropologie is probably one of my favorite stores, though, I've never purchased anything there.   I was trying to create a sophisticated look here. Probably failed. Yup. but i really liked this chair...if i were a welder, so help me.

Ummm, is this not the coolest thing in the world?  After closer inspection to this $89 beauty, I saw that someone had basically super glued the crystals on. Just something to think about later.  Because I have crystals...that I could super glue on a bracelet. I just need to find a cheaper bracelet.

Urban Outfitters.

One of my next shops to look and never purchase. Their clearance section is awesome and very messy.

Anthropologie sells the same owl I do on ETSY!

I'm going to have to try this out.

Gearing up for a great year with hopefully lots of changes!

Good Company, food, music, disneyland can do no wrong.

Note to all...these are not in order. 

It's much too hard.

Thunder Mountain, might just be one of the best little thrillers out there.

The swings...which kind of make me a little sick.

Look at my husband's face! 

Hali was laughing like a manic.

Boy, do I have a video for you.

We ate many smashed PB&J.

more smashed than anything.

toy story ride. always a super long wait.

always worth the long wait, even if someone did puke in the line somewhere.

Disneyland for Christmas, what more could you ask for?

Stuck on the line.

So excited for Cars to open in the California side. 

It will be amazing! They are building the entire Radiator Springs. 

Giant turkey leg.

It was delicious.

All my hard healthy work out the door.

Here I am trying to be healthy, eating the avocado. 

which was so smashed and brown it would have made me cry, except for I was at Disneyland.

The world of colors was amazing.

Absolutely stunning, even if it was raining, and we were on the front row getting even wetter.

I bought this print for our house..that will hopefully close soon!

The Matterhorn.

This is what my mom thinks of when we say Disneyland. 

As a young girl, her family always came to Disneyland, so you see, our love goes deep and for many years back. So sad Mitsie, jan and my dad couldn't join us.

Grams at Disneyland.

She is where my mom gets her trooperness.