It's my birthday, I can craft if I want to.

Yup, it really is my birthday.  Since everyone I love is either sleeping, working, or 200+ miles away, I've pretty much had the day to myself.  Boring, you say?  Not at all.  You see, I'm what you call an introvert.  While enjoying the company of others, my favorite way to spend my down time is either by myself (or Aaron) with a good book or DIY project.

So, what have I chosen to do with all this time to myself (besides eat half a bag of my favorite chips - salt and vinegar.  Don't judge me, it's my birthday)?  Well, there have been a couple of projects that I've wanted to try, so I did both of them.  I'll save the other one for a later date, but here's today's:

Bleach Pattern T-shirts

I've had this old t-shirt that actually already has a couple small bleach spots - not too bad, but enough to keep me from wearing it.  So I figured, hey, why not bleach it some more?  There are a couple of ways you can do this.  I chose to use a stencil I already had to form the pattern on the shirt, and just dabbed on the bleach with a sponge brush.  You can also use (and I really want to try this) a bleach pen, so you can literally draw your own designs on to your shirt...I KNOW you just got excited about that.

Materials:

1. Bleach.  Any old brand will do.
2. T-shirt.  Any old t-shirt will do.  Please excuse the cat hair on mine - she really is a menace sometimes.
3. Stencil.  Any old stencil will do.
4. Cardboard, newspaper, or cutting board. Any old...eh, whatever. I opted for the less conventional cutting board to slip underneath the shirt to keep the bleach from bleeding through to the back.

• Place your stencil where you'd like the design to be on your t-shirt.  My stencil was moving around a bit, so I taped it down.  
• Mix your water and bleach solution.  I used about 4 tablespoons of bleach and 1.5 cups of water.

• Using the sponge brush, conservatively dab the bleach solution on to your t-shirt.  I say CONSERVATIVELY because the bleach will bleed, and you want a DESIGN, not a giant bleach blob...unless, of course, you ARE going for a giant bleach blob.  Then, by all means, blob away.

• See? You can see the color change right away!  Spiffy.

• Dangerously nearing "blob" status...but, not too bad!

• I got the bleaching fever...probably also known as bleach fumes...so I decided to do one more design...

• I was even MORE conservative with the bleach this time around, and, thus, you can see more of the pattern.

 At this point, I decided to call it quits.  The shirt didn't turn out too badly - I still the think the bleach pen idea is a waaaaay better option, but this wasn't bad for improvisation.

In other news, my magnificent hubby, who finally awoke from his deep, day-time slumber, went to go get me dinner (so I could sit on our patio reading while a thunderstorm rolled in - fave!), flowers, THE BEST ROOT BEER EVER (don't judge me, it's my birthday), and Peanut M&Ms (don't judge me, it's my birthday).  Overall, a successful birthDAY.  Looking forward to my birthday WEEK....!