I...AM...A...ROBOT! (and customer #1 Yay!)

Look at that super happy robot! Sam's party was great and he did smile. I got a little nervous at the 20 minute mark when none of the kids wanted to play all the cool (I thought) games I had organized. I started to imagine another hour and 40 minutes, kids in my closet, kids in the trees, kids shoving cupcakes into each others hair. They all made their shirts in 5 minutes or less, which I had thought 15 minutes at the minimum, the bean bag toss lasted 2.6 minutes and the sponge race became, 'see how wet you can get by wringing the sponge out over your head'. And no way was I giving them snacks or candy or cupcakes until 20 minutes prior to departure. So, 'Tom' pitched in. All the kids called him Tom, not sure why they are so casual about that, but Tom let them chase him while throwing the bean bags at him, the kids jumped on him and hid from him. I would venture to say that Tom had just as much fun as the kids did. Thanks, Tom!

The day before the party, Wash My Cloth received their first sale! It was a bath tower and it went to a fellow Etsian (is that right? Etsy-an?) and it was relieving. I was just starting to doubt myself (again). Although there has been nothing since, I feel a bit better and am starting to figure out how to keep my items at the top of all the search lists. That package went out that very same night.

Here is a picture of a stencil I made for the kids at the party.

After my fourth robot, I got bored and made some rocket ships, flowers, fish, an elephant, and a dragonfly. I used freezer paper, following instructions from here. I guess freezer paper isn't only for freezing meat these days. In fact, on the list of uses of freezer paper by Reynolds, wrapping meat is third from the bottom of at least 12 uses, this stencil idea being the first. In short, you trace a picture or draw directly onto the paper and cut it out, iron on to a pre-washed (no fabric softener) t-shirt. I also ironed on a piece to the inside front of the shirt to prevent bleeding of the paint through the shirt and onto the work surface (this worked GREAT). Then, let the kids use fabric paint and fill in the cut out. There are plenty of fabric paints out there, or pick up a bottle of Fabric Medium which makes a fabric paint out of any standard acrylic craft paint you may have on hand. I found some neat spray fabric paint in shimmery silver (not recommended for the kids to use) that looked fantastic on the dark t-shirts.