Mielke Family Fun: Mad Mom Crafts

Once Scooter arrived and was done working, we tackled our "Mad Mom Craft" for the week. Elyse had begged for a tie dye kit for her birthday, so Carolyn got her one and before we left PHX, we stocked up on white t-shirts. I didn't realize this would be a 2-3 day project! This was my first time ever tie dying...and I have to say, it could get addicting! It was fun being able to use so many different colors.

We soaked the shirts in a "staying solution" (soda ash?). and waited 24 hours.

Elyse's kit came with a tube that you put the shirt in, then you line up the holes on the tubes and squirted the ink in them. We decided the tubes worked well with a smaller shirt, but not so much with an adult sized shirt. Since we had no rubber bands, we just twisted the shirts up and squirted the dye on them. This is where it became mad mom because the bugs were flying around and the girls just weren't reading my mind. And I had no clue what I was reallly doing....and it would have been so much easier to just do it myself. Or just get out of their way and let the girls do it their way.

Mixing things up....
Elyse has done a lot of youtube research on tie dying.
I really should learn to listen to her.
As noted by my facial expression, I am not nearly as excited about this adventure as is Elyse.

Elyse and a squeeze bottle of permanent dye....
And me saying, "Hey! Pay attention to where you're squirting that stuff!"
Hence the name, 'Mad Mom Crafts'.

Carolyn was having very little fun at this point.
I tried my dad's technique of getting a kid to smile by singing,
"I'll never smile again..."
Has the same affect on my kids as it did on me: irritated me so much I had to smile!
Is it 'mad mom' crafts or 'sulky kid' crafts?!