Declutter and Make Money!

I thought I'd throw in something a little different than the path I've been going down this week in this blog. As you can see on my profile I'm a student, so I am always up for a way to make a little extra cash. So I have discovered a great way to not only make some cash but get my house cleared of unused, unneeded STUFF!

A few years ago, before I went back to college, I had been laid off and decided to take the time to clear out the house. So I ventured into the ebay world and put everything I didn't want on there. I ended making around $900 dollars that summer! I think the thing that surprised me the most was that some of the stuff I considered piddly or junk sold! I sold a Dunkin Donuts coffee scoop for $7! Now I don't know that this amount that I accumulated is normal. So don't go into selling the things you want to get rid of thinking your going to get rich! But it is a fantastic way to get a little extra cash, along with, decluttering your house! Score!!

Here's a great blog tutorial on selling on ebay: http://www.selljunkinyourtrunk.com/category/ebay-selling-blog

I recently started selling various things around the house again and discovered amazon. The thing that drew me to this particular site over ebay was that I was trying to sell mostly school books, that I was done with. Amazon is a great place to shop online, so I figured it would be a great platform for selling books! In the end, I feel that ebay is great for selling small, easily shipped things; while amazon is great for books and media. Yet again, a great find for me and my quickly piling school books!

Here's a few pointers on selling through amazon: http://whicken.blogspot.com/2009/01/my-tips-for-selling-on-amazon.html

My mom has fallen in love with Craigslist! In fact, she sits and peruses it in her downtime to unwind. (hee hee) This site is fantastic for selling and buying things that you cannot ship easily. For instance, my mom most recently sold a 70 piece set of  china! That would have cost a ton to ship but driving to a local town to deliver it was no big deal. Craigslist is really good for selling furniture or buying it, for that matter! You can find some solid furniture on there and diy it to perfection. Paint is your friend!

Here is some need to know for selling on craigslist: http://www.liveoncash.com/blog/safety-first-when-using-craigslist

Etsy.com is my most recent find. Now I love to peruse this site in my downtime! Etsy is great for selling vintage (aka antique) items or handmade items. It's also a fantastic place to find decorations for parties! I've used it for that reason before. It's just plain old fun to look through too. I am always amazed at the things you can find on there and the talent that abounds in the seller's.

Etsy provides great tips and strategies for selling on their site here's just one: http://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2011/the-quick-start-guide-to-selling-on-etsy/

Ok, so I'm sure you have heard of all of the sites I've mentioned at one time or another. But, I thought I would bring them up, along with my adventures using them. To remind you that they are great tools for clearing out clutter, and making some extra money. I want to mention though that most of these, if not all, take a percentage of your profit for using their site. I didn't feel it was too steep though and have enjoyed using their already set up selling platform.

So there you are, a rundown on the internet selling I have done, and have yet to do. I hope you enjoyed reading this and that it was helpful!

Reuse/Iron-On Fun!

Ok so as I mentioned in my last post I do love vintage things. So this led me to trying to figure out a way to reuse items to make a t-shirt, but how? Iron-ons! I have noticed really cute iron-ons at Jo-Ann Fabrics, among other places and liked that idea for something different. It wasn’t until I ran across another tutorial from whimsy-girl.blogspot.com that I realized you can make your own! She used screen printing and felt to make unique iron-ons in her tutorial @ http://whimsy-girl.blogspot.com/2011/04/iron-on-patch-tutorial.html

. This tutorial is a super cute idea and I will probably use it but for my “Reuse” purposes I searched on for other tutorials.

I discovered a blog that gives great steps to creating your own iron-on patch with material http://thecraftingchicks.com/2011/03/how-to-make-your-own-iron-onsrae-gun-guest-post.html. No, this isn’t a vintage material but the method would work for any kind of fabric you want to reuse or if you just want to make something like this!

The second tutorial @ http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/iron_on_patches I found was super cute! It’s a little different than the others so I decided to add it on here.

Ok the last tutorial I found @ http://www.amyistheparty.com/2011/07/make-your-own-iron-on-patches-and.html was a must to add to this post because of the stitching she added. As you may remember from my first ever post, I do not sew! But, I figure even I could figure out this stitching! This would be a great look if you used an old or unused material around your house. Maybe there is a pillow or quilt that has seen better days but has a few spots still in good shape. Using those patches of material for your iron-on would be a great way to reuse them. You could also modernize that old pillow material by ironing it to a more contemporary material for a pillow. Oh the possibilities!

After all my internet browsing I think this is a really fun way to reuse material you already have; or maybe create something that looks vintage. I have seen the heat-bond at Wal-Mart and it’s not very expensive. I also suggest (as I am doing) looking on the internet at different types and designs of iron-ons for ideas. There are really cute iron-ons @ Etsy.com and, of course numerous pictures of designs all over cyberspace!

On final thought that came to me while I was looking at these tutorials was that you could use old cards or pictures to make iron-ons for pillows and bags. I don’t think they would wash all that well if used on clothes unless you copied them somehow. Many, many fun projects can be had with this new find!

Stencils!

The third crafty way I've found to design my own t-shirts is stenciling. This is, of course, not a new concept. In fact I stenciled a verse around the top of my room when I was in high school. But, I have never thought about stenciling designs onto t-shirts and other fabrics until recently. Using this method was brought to my attention by Betters Homes and Gardens magazine DIY. I’ve become mildly addicted to this magazine and they are always showing new ways to use paint. Now I just need the time to try it all!

So off I went to paruse the web again for ideas and tutorials. The first tutorial I found at http://www.curbly.com/users/chrisjob/posts/1355-print-your-own-t-shirts-using-homemade-stencils will give you a great vintage look to your stenciled t-shirt. I really like this look especially since I love old movies and vintage things!

The second tutorial I found uses freezer paper (awesome) and gives you a crisper looking graphic. There are also other links at the bottom that show more ways to do this with different designs. I also just really liked the blog celticmommy.blogspot.com !

The great thing about stenciling is that you can use more than one color while using one stencil. Which makes this a faster project and not quite as complex as screen printing. However, I have noticed that there is a different look between the two so it’s really all about what look you’re going for.

This technique would be a great idea for mass t-shirt making. Say you have a ball team or a fundraiser. You get together a group and stencil away. A LOT cheaper than ordering custom made shirts!

Transfers!

In my quest for making my own t-shirts I happened upon printable transfers at Wal-mart! I was so excited! I'm used to the good old iron-ons from when I was a kid. I didn't realize you could create your own designs, print them off at home and then apply them to your t-shirt or anything else you have in mind. Awesome!! I bought the transfer for the light fabric to begin with. There are transfers for light fabric, dark fabric and I discovered through my internet searching there are transfers specifically for stretchy fabric. Wal-mart carries the transfers for the light and dark fabric. Wal-mart is also the cheapest place I've found them. 


Despite buying the transfer, and it having easy directions on the back, I decided to do some internet prowling to  get more tips. 

To begin with I found a lot of great tips on About.com. This:  http://desktoppub.about.com/od/transfers/a/IronOnTransfers.htm
article gave really good advice that will make sure your project turns out well. It suggests trial print outs to make sure the design is the way you want it and having your iron on the highest setting. Good to know! I also liked that it had quite a few link that would guide you to specific categories for designs. A quick but very informative read!

Next I found the cutest blog http://likethecar.blogspot.com/2012/02/tutotrial-diy-iron-on-transfer-t-shirt.html! It has a great tutorial on transferring pictures, with your own designs added, to t-shirts. It's a great step by step for taking any kind of photo and putting it on a shirt or anything else for that matter! How cute are those two little girls! Using pictures would be a great way to make unique and personalized gifts also.

The last tutorial the really caught my eyes was from: http://www.sweetshoppedesigns.com/tutorials/index.php/2012/02/hybrid-iron-on-transfer/ 
 I really liked this one because it walks you through designing your own graphic for a transfer. This post had great details, pictures and was just an all around cute site!


I think the pluses for these iron-on transfers are (among many) it's cheaper and you can put just about anything on your t-shirt. In fact you could put numerous designs or pictures on your t-shirt. It's also less time consuming I think than the other ways of diy t-shirt designing I've found. I am very excited to try it!!

Paint, Transfer, Stencil, Reuse!

I have been coming across so many great ideas for different ways of doing things. Because there's so much I've decided the best way to get it all blogged is to have a kind of topic each week.

This week I wanted to post all the amazing ideas I've found for creating things with paint or ink. I got started on this track because I wanted to find out ways to make my own t-shirts. I do not sew! So I wanted to buy a plain t-shirt and be able to put whatever I wanted on it, without it looking like a 1st grader did it! In my search I came up with alot of fun and (mostly) easy ways to not only design t-shirts but all kinds of other things!

The first thing I checked into was screenprinting. You can get alot of cute designs with this process and this is the method used to make most professional t-shirts you see. However, after watching a tutorial on youtube I was a little afraid. The tutorial was using a professional screenprinting company to show how to screenprint. I should have looked further but instead ran away from that idea for about a week.

Then while wondering through Hobby Lobby I came across this silk screenprinting kit! It runs about $40.00 and looks really easy. There was also tons and tons of colored ink to use besides what was in the kit. So after finding this I am very interested in getting one and trying it out for myself.

I was really excited to find two different tutorials on two different blogs. One (you see a picture from above) was Whimsy love - http://whimsy-girl.blogspot.com/2009/04/diy-screen-printing.html and the second was ThreadBanger - http://www.threadbanger.com/post/490/diy-screen-printing-how-to . Both of these are great tutorials that you can do at home and would (possibly) be cheaper than buying a kit. While Whimsy love's design is cute and simple you can make multi-colored, multi-designed screen print designs. You just have more than one design, lay out the various stencils the way you want then and then do one at a time allowing them to dry before applying the next one.

Here's just a few ideas for things you can embellish with screenprinting:

Bags

Cards

Curtains

Journals

Onesies (Aww)

Pillows

Skirts!

There are tons more ways this technique can be used! It take a little time but the results are so cute! So definitely something to try (if your feeling adventurous). Fun, fun possibilities!