Thursday Things I LOVE! #5 {Cleaning & Crafting In One little Tube}

I LOVE anything Multi-Purpose! 

As I'm sure any busy mom does.

Well thanks to a tip from Anna of Ask Anna

(You may remember her from when she guest posted a few weeks back)

I was introduced this little baby!

Yup the Clorox bleach pen.

I am so lovin' this multi purpose pen!

Not only did this nifty little pen help me clean my old nasty stained counter grout lines,
but it also assisted me in a fun little last minute craft!

Both of which I will be sharing with you today. :)

First I would like to get the cleaning part out of the way!

We can always have more fun, once the cleaning is done. 

Here are my old, nasty DISGUSTING, stained (since before we moved in), tile counter tops.
They gross me out. I have hated them since we bought and moved into our home!
I have tried cleaning sprays and bleach sprays.. which did ok.. but didnt really help with the grout lines.

I have scrubbed, with not much success! Not to mention Im constantly keeping the counters wiped clean with clorox wipes.

But nothing seems to get rid of the dirty looking stains you see in this picture below. 

When Anna mentioned using the Clorox bleach PEN for grout lines, I was like DUH!
Why hadnt I ever thought to use that before?

I was so easy, the pen made getting right on the grout lines simple and mess free.
I just traced them out, and let them sit for about 20 minutes!

I must mention the smell isn't as strong as the sprays, which is also a plus.

Then I took an old towel, dipped it into warm water, and wiped away.

And voila! Like magic, my counters were white again! :)

Below are two before & After pics...

If you dare, you can click this first one to see it full view, and really get a look at how nasty the stains were before!

(And I remind you, these pics were taken AFTER I had cleaned the counters!!)

I mean, the difference is wonderful!
Can you believe that these "before" pictures are of a "CLEAN" counter top!?
Well Im so thankful that I dont have the problem of dirty looking counter tops even after they have been cleaned, anymore. :)

I love how white & clean my counters look now.
Next I need to do the tile above the stove.

Now moving onto the more creative side of using the bleach pen!

I would like to share the fun little last minute shirts I made the kids for St. Patrick's day!
I know I said I wasnt going to do these, but like I said, I was just inspired last minute, when I remembered I had an extra Clorox pen handy.
Then I remembered I had some puff paint too, and so it was decided!
So last night while I was making a quick walmart run, I grabbed three green shirts for a few dollars each.
Other supplies:
Cardboard of some sort, I used an old cereal box.
Scissors/xacto knife & cardstock paper.

First I used my Lucky In Love Printable as inspiration,
I didnt bother printing it out, because I knew with the bleach pen the lines wouldn't be perfect anyways.
So I just free hand drew out the design on card stock paper.
I did use a clover cookie cutter though.

Now I don't have an xacto knife, but I'm sure it would have been easier!
I used my mutli tool knife to cut out the design.

Stick the cardboard in between the shirt.
Then lay the design template ontop of the shirt.

And start tracing with the bleach pen.

This is what it looked like when I was done.
It looks nice and neat here, but after a few min, the bleach will "bleed" and will make a cool tye-dye effect.
I set Kiah's shirt aside, to let the bleach work, and started on the boys' shirts!

The inspiration for the boys' shirts came from All the Small Things
She does a great tutorial for a little boys Sham Rock shirt.

Here is what I did.
Rough handed a Shamrock guitar on cardstock.
Cut it with my knife. And used it as a template for my bleach pen.

I did one for both Brucey & Zander.

After that, I added the words.
Now since the boys' shirts are very dark, I knew the bleach would need
several hours to really sink in. So I moved them out of
reach from the kids, and went to check on Kiah's shirt.

This is what it was looking like after about 25 min.

I rinsed it off in the sink to get the extra bleach gel off.

Once both boys' shirts were done, I rinsed theirs as well and washed
all of their shirts, before I started in with the puff paint pens.

After the wash...

Kiah's after the puff paint. 
I like that the pen made a cool kinda tie dye look.

The boys' shirts turned out really grungy looking and I mean that in a good way.
I knew the bleach wouldn't keep perfect lines.
But I do wish I would have had more time, cause then I would have left the bleach on over night!
So that it got rid of more color.
But they still look pretty neat, I think.. in a grungy rock kinda way.
:)

Zander's shirt:

Bruce's shirt:

My little chitlins:

Kiah.
(Clover hair clip tutorial)
Kiah was pretty excited this morning to wear her shirt to school today! :)

Brucey.
He loves when I get him new clothes.
One time when he was shopping with me, he asked for a toy, I said ok.
Then he asked for socks.
I said no, cause he didnt need them and plus he as already getting a toy.
But decided to let him choose, I said he could pick one thing. He chose the socks!
Who IS this kid!? haha  Its cute though.
SO he LOVED his New shirt!
And could hardly wait for the paint to dry so he could wear it!

My little Zander Boo! I just love this kid in stripes! :)

I caught him jammin' on a toy harmonica... haha, I thought it was fitting. :)

The shirts were a fun last minute project that the kids loved too.
They watched and helped me with the puff paint part.
And they LOVE the fact that they got special silly fun made shirts just to wear for today. :)
Im sort of wanting to mess around with different ideas for bleach pen designs,
now that I have a better idea of how they look on clothes. Haha

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

Oh and Happy Cleaning! :) hehe

12/7/11 UPDATE Disclosure: I received information about Clorox’s Bleach It Away campaign and am sharing my messy moment/craft fail/bleach project for the chance to win prizes from Tatertots & Jello and Clorox. You can find out more information about this campaign –  www.BleachItAway.com.  If you share YOUR messy moment story, you can enter to win $25,000 and daily prizes, and you can get a coupon for Clorox® Regular Bleach.