So I haven’t posted much since summer started. I have a great give away coming up soon so keep checking for info on that to come soon. My big project of the summer is always my daughter’s birthday party. This year she couldn’t decide between an art party, rainbow party, or unicorn party, so we combined the three!
My BIGGEST discovery was that you can print a THREE foot by FOUR foot photo at Staples for $5.00!!! I did it online and they are called engineering prints. Its just printed on bond paper,not photo paper, but its so cool looking. I sent my photo online and it was ready to pick up in 15 minutes!
I am going to Mod Podge these to a large foam board or canvas for decorations in my daughter’s room when I’m done.
June painted the rainbows and then added glitter glue paint
She also painted some Unicorns that we drew together
We tied up 30 shirts for this party in different tie dye styles like the heart and the swirl. Heres the tutorials we watched. It was really easy and so much fun!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoppTRhEJYQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyDFWIFvF3k
All the kids had to do was squeeze the dye on the shirts in the colors they wanted. We used the Tulip brand tie dye kit.
We did not presoak the shirts in soda ash,it is not required with this kit, but you can if you want.
You will indeed get better, more intense colors if you presoak with soda ash. Soda ash, also known as sodium carbonate, produces a higher pH, which activates the cotton in your fabric to make it react well with the dye. You can get very good results with this type of dye; it is vastly superior to the direct dye found in all-purpose dyes such as Rit or Tintex, neither of which work at all well for tie-dyeing with more than one color. We used the Rit dye and it did not work well. You can buy the Tulip brand soda ash if you like, or you can buy the exact same soda ash from the swimming pool supply store or hardware store for a considerably better price, and in a more convenient container.
Unfortunately I didn’t get any pics of the kids doing their shirts. It was chaotic as you can imagine!
Everyone took their shirts home in a zip lock bag to set for 8-12 hours (the longer the better)
then rinse in the sink or hose
wash in hot water , and dry
We had paint brush crispy treats for “starving artists”
The cake was made from six cake pans of white Dunkin Hein’s white cake with food coloring. We made the icing from scratch from a wedding cake magazine. You need clear vanilla for the icing that can only be found at a baking or craft store.
It has four pounds of sugar in the icing alone!!!!
I got the little wooden unicorn on top of the cake from Michaels in the dollar spot. It came with markers but I painted it myself with acrylic paint.
The kids also made Rainbow Necklaces with Fruit Loops!
It turned out to be a fabulous time for everyone and one of the best party’s we have done. I am still getting pictures and texts of the kids in their finished Tie Dye shirts which is really fun, here’s a few below that I just got now! HAppy Tie Dying!!