mixtapes, nkotb, and puffy paint

Things I like:
a bargain
spending time with friends
music

Things I love:
a great bargain
a short road trip with good friends
80's music

So when a friend mentioned that there's this thing called the MixTape Festival in June not far from us,..... and that Groupon had a great deal......and that the concert stars New Kids On The Block, TLC, Salt n Pepa, Vanilla Ice, Nelly and Sugar Ray........I was totally in.

Let me just say that I am by no means a superfan of any of these people or groups. However, I think this line up is epic.  And the tickets were $29!!!  We tried to get them for $20, but those were sold out.  Still, for $9 more, we might not have the absolute worst seats, right?  Who cares about that anyway?  The cheap seats will probably be more fun.....the serious fans will be up front and I need to be able to not know all the words and not have anyone around me care.

Sugar Ray I could maybe live without and maybe substitute somebody else. Like Jane's Addiction or Coolio or Kriss Kross.

Let's be honest, the only Jane's Addiction song I know is Been Caught Stealing. Somehow, I remember watching that video as a kid even though we didn't have MTV.

And let's also be honest that the only Coolio song I know is 1 2 3 4 and I also remember watching that video and thinking that part where he rides the Big Wheel is hilarious.  Still think it is.

And let's all be honest and say that the only Kriss Kross song any of us know is Jump Jump and how old are they now, anyway?  Take them off the list.  (Disclaimer: I just googled them and one of them is dead, so maybe they could do a TLC thing and hologram that guy in like I am so hoping they do for Left Eye.)

I've been really excited about this concert and decided that since I do not have a vintage NKOTB tshirt I can wear....(nevermind the fact that even if I did have one, I could only fit one boob and half of my muffin top in it since I am twice the size I was back in the day).....anyway, I decided to make my own shirt.

Here's a quick tutorial:

Supplies from Michaels
$3 t-shirt
$11 in puffy paint (black, orange, pink & blue - I got glow in the dark-yay!)
sharpie marker - fine tip
pencil, ruler & notebook paper
piece of cardboard

Step One! we can have lots of fun
I did a rough sketch on a piece of paper first just to see what it looked like.  I used a ruler at first, and then ended up free handing the rest.  Wash your t-shirt and place a piece of cardboard inside so the paint doesn't bleed through. 

This is the graphic from the website I used as my guide

Step Two! there's so much we can doooo
I had hoped when I traced over the letters with my fine-point sharpie, that enough of the lines would bleed through onto the shirt for me to trace over.  That didn't happen, so I just placed a dot on the corners of each letter and pressed down hard until I made a hole in the paper.  I actually pinned the paper to the shirt so I wouldn't accidentally shift the paper. Then I went back and filled in the lines of each letter. You can see the dots on the paper in the pic.  I also tried to just fill in with Sharpie on the L at the bottom, but realized I would run out of ink before it was all over, so I switched to puffy paint.  Basically, I tried not to make it "puffy" - I just used the tip of the bottle to spread out the paint.  Beware of "bubble farts" when you squeeze the bottle because it can splatter.  For other projects, I have squirted the paint out into a cup and painted it on with a brush, but I thought using the tip of the bottle worked just fine for this.

Step 3! it's just you and meeee
Fill in any white spaces you may have missed and let it dry (I let mine dry for like a week because I am a procrastinator & like to have unfinished projects laying around my house.)

Front of shirt

Step 4!  I can give you more
I added the line up on the back using the puffy paint.  I just free handed it and tried to match the original the best I could. It ended up a little higher than I would have liked, because I kind of have a hunchback, but I think it will be ok.    

Back of shirt - glow in the dark puffy paint

Step 5!  Don't you know that the time has arrived
There's really no step 5, but I had to finish out those Step by Step Lyrics........you know you're singing it now!  Sorry about that.  But you could be singing Ice Ice, Baby or Push It.  You're welcome.

It's possible I will be making more of these for my friends so we can all match. Maybe I can add our names to the sleeves and we could be like an official middle aged woman club.  Or a gang.  Like a biker gang with minivans instead of Harleys and glow in the dark puffy paint instead of leather.

So I'll end this blog post with  2 questions:

a.  Who's your favorite NKOTB member?
KWTF:  Donnie, duh.  

b.  Who would you substitute for Sugar Ray?
KWTF: Jane's Addiction only if Duff McKagen came back