How to Clean Your White Converse {or Canvas} Shoes

I recently picked up a pair of white converse shoes at a garage sale for $2. They were filthy dirty but my 14 year old daughter insisted that I buy them so that we could match since she has a pair of her own. Who can say no to being a "twinsie" with their teen daughter? Not me, that's who. So I picked the shoes up in the hopes that I could revive them from their dingy dirty state that they were in to a clean looking white pair the way God intended. Or at least, the way Converse intended them to look.

It's hard to get a really good look at the before and after, but I think they cleaned up really nicely. In fact, I'm pretty darn impressed with myself and wanted to share my tricks with you.  It's nearly impossible to keep white shoes looking white for long, so if you own a pair of white canvas shoes, this cleaning technique may be your new go to.

I started by removing the laces in my shoes. I could buy a new pair of white laces for a few bucks but I'm cheap and I like to salvage what I have, so I decided to take my laces out and see if I could make them look new again. I ended up putting them in a small plastic bowl filled with a mixture of the same cleaning concoction that I will be telling you about. It worked great and the laces looked new again too!

I have a sink in my laundry room, but if you don't you could use a bucket. I put a quarter scoop of Oxiclean, a quarter cup of laundry detergent and a cap full of bleach into my sink filled with about a gallon of cold water. You want to use cold water so that you don't set any of your stains. I used my toothbrush to swish and mix around my cleaning mixture.

Use your toothbrush to start scrubbing. I started with the rubber around the edges

and then worked my way up to the canvas.

I scrubbed the shoe on the left and hadn't gotten to the shoe on the right yet. You could soak your shoes upside down in your cleaning bath for a bit if the stains are really set in. I actually didn't have the time to do that and think that the end result still turned out great.

I took my toothbrush and dipped it into another scoop full of my Oxiclean. I used that to scrub around the canvas on my shoes before I threw them into my washing machine. I washed the shoes on cold with a small amount of liquid bleach and a little bit of laundry detergent.

Once the shoes are washed, you don't want to dry them in your dryer, you want to let the sun do the final step of whitening them. I read that some people find that their canvas shoes turn yellow as they dry in the sun. I didn't want that, so I took paper towels, wet them down until they were moist and laid them on top of the canvas.

After a few hours, your shoes will be dry and they will look almost as good as new!

I was really impressed with the process and have no idea why I almost didn't buy this pretty sweet looking pair of Converse. I'm so glad my daughter talked me into it. Now we can be twinning!

dislaimer: this post may have affiliate links. By clicking on them and purchasing through them, I may receive a small commission. These small purchases help me to continue to keep writing content and creating at Holy Craft. Thank you!

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University Themed DIY Cornhole Game

This is a sponsored post by Homeright. All opinions are 100% my own.

This past year has been filled with a lot of excitement for our family. Our oldest son spent the year looking for and applying to universities and after a few visits and lots of prayers, he decided that Baylor University in Waco, Texas felt like home to him. After our visit to the Baylor campus, we did what any Fixer Upper fan would do and we hit the Magnolia Market and Silos {in case you want to go, here are 5 things you need to know before your Magnolia Market visit} and while the store was filled with eye candy, we ended up having the most fun, just hanging out playing cornhole on the lawn. 

I happened to mention to Aidan that if he decided to go to Baylor, I would make him a cornhole game for his graduation party, since cornhole seems to have not hit it's popularity out in our parts of the world just yet.

So a few weeks before his party, my husband and I got started on making a DIY cornhole game board for his graduation party complete with university logo and handmade university colored bean bags. I've got a few tips for you if you want to make your own cornhole game as well.

There are a lot of building plans for a cornhole game. My husband used these plans to create ours and I think they turned out great. He's a pretty handy guy, and it took him around three hours, start to finish to create the boards.

After the boards were complete, he removed the legs and I set up my Homeright Spray Shelter. In typical Pacific Northwest form, we had rain for days and while I could have painted them outside, I find that having this spray shelter is beyond helpful for all of my DIY needs because lets be honest, I can't rely on the weather when I have a project to complete. I have been caught in the rain and struggling to get a project that's drying out of the elements before it's ruined all of my hard work more times than I would like to count, so this spray shelter is almost always a lifesaver.

It sets up in minutes and all you have to do is throw a tarp on the floor to protect your work surface.

I started by spraying a light coat of green spray paint on the board. I needed two coats, so I let them dry between coats.

While they were drying, I went inside and worked on creating the logo on my Silhouette machine. I used gold foil vinyl and cut out the image.

When the boards were dry, I simply peeled the vinyl off the paper backing and added it to the cornhole game. If you want to learn how to use adhesive vinyl like a pro, you can check out this tutorial. The next time I make one of these games, I would actually paint a sealer underneath the area where my logo will go before I place the vinyl and then on top of it as well.  Vinyl likes to have a surface to stick to and it doesn't always stick well to wood.

I also used fabric in the school colors to create 6x6 bean bags filled with 1 pound of seed corn {I had the corn left over from this project}. The first few bean bags I made actually broke after throwing them only a few times. I went back and created new bean bags, this time I used a heavier fabric and I not only sewed the seams closed, I also used a zig zag stitch AND I used my serger. Probably over kill, but I wanted to make sure these would hold up for his party.

We actually didn't really know the official cornhole rules. Like I said, this game hasn't really made it's way out to our coast just yet, though I see it played at lots of tailgating parties and friends backyard BBQ's in the Midwest.  We had to google the rules to find out how to play cornhole.

Your boxes should be 27 feet from each other and each team gets 4 bean bags. You can play with 2 or 4 people.

Instead of trying to explain the rules, I thought I would copy and paste the official rules from CornHole How To.

SCORING AND WINNING:

Scoring is simple. After all bags have been thrown, a bag remaining on the board is worth 1 point. A bag that went in the hole is worth 3 points. Add up how many points you earned and compare them to your opponents. Equal points cancel each other out so that only one team can score per round. For example, if you scored 5 points and your opponent scored 3, you will add 2 points to your overall score and your team will throw first in the next round. If you scored 6 points and your opponent scored 6 as well, there will be no points awarded and whoever threw first in the last round will throw first again. A game is won when a team reaches 21 points with a lead of 2 or more points. The first team to win 2 games wins the match.

Of course, you can play with your own rules. For example, some play with the rule that you must reach 21 exactly. If you go over in points, your score is automatically reduced to 11 and play continues. Another variation is to count every point (no negation of equal points) and see who has the most points at the end of 13 rounds.

Of course, don't feel like you have to follow the rules either. We set our own house rules and still had a great time!

This game is a ton of fun. It's great for all ability levels and all ages and really doesn't have a lot of restrictions for play. It's easy to make and perfect for your next outdoor party! Give it a try if you haven't already.

I know you are going to want to make your own. One of the most helpful parts of creating this game was being able to use the Homeright Spray Shelter. The good people at Homeright are letting me give one away to one of my readers.  

a Rafflecopter giveaway

dislaimer: this post may have affiliate links. By clicking on them and purchasing through them, I may receive a small commission. These small purchases help me to continue to keep writing content and creating at Holy Craft. Thank you!

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Easy to Make Painted Rock Cactus Centerpieces

Last month, we celebrated my son's high school graduation with a little Tex Mex taco party. He's leaving the Seattle area and heading to the great nation of Texas to attend college, and while we were visiting colleges on our college tour, he fell in love with Tex Mex. What's not to like really? I couldn't think of a better theme for his graduation party, so I created these painted rock cactuses {cacti?} as centerpieces that we used around the party. They cost me next to nothing to make and look great. It's an easy craft you can do and I promise, even the blackest thumb can't kill these plants! 

Last month, I created some stone garden markers. While I was picking up rocks at the beach, I had my eyes peeled for cactus shaped rocks as well. I used paint that I had on hand already to create a few different greens and painted the rocks. This was the most time consuming part. If I was to do it over again, I might look into green spray paint. I do however, like the depth that you get from using several different paint colors. That's not something you can do with spray paint.

You will also need a white Sharpie oil based paint marker to draw the detail on the cactus.

I sat down with my paint marker and drew various designs on the rocks. Nothing fancy, just do what you like.

I found my Terra cotta pots at a garage sale. I bought a stack of 12 for a few dollars. You can find them at your local craft store or on amazon too.  I bought a few bags of decorative rocks from our local dollar store and used old newspaper crumbled up in the bottom of the pot so I didn't have to use as many rocks. 

I put two handfuls of decorative rocks into the pot and then stood my cactus rocks upright. I used three cactus rocks in each pot and then sprinkled some more decorative rocks on top to help them stand in place.

I think they turned out really cool!

These painted rock cactus centerpieces cost me around $5 to create twelve. I couldn't even buy a real cactus for that price!

I think these are lots of fun and the possibilities are endless!dislaimer: this post may have affiliate links. By clicking on them and purchasing through them, I may receive a small commission. These small purchases help me to continue to keep writing content and creating at Holy Craft. Thank you!

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The Best Baby Laundry Tips

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by the maker of OxiClean™ through their partnership with POPSUGAR Select. While I was compensated to write a post about their Versatile Stain Remover, all opinions are my own.

It's been a few years since I had a little one at home, but my sister-in-law is preparing to welcome her third baby girl in the next few weeks. Those sweet little ones are adorable but they bring with them a whole lot of laundry! Heck, even as they get bigger the laundry never slows down, but there is something sweet and special about washing little onesies and miniature size pants that your hand couldn't fit in that makes laundry sort of fun. 

In the middle of a full on kitchen remodel {and general home upheaval}, I offered to help my sister-in-law wash up some of those hand me down baby clothes for her new baby girl.  I thought that I would put together the best baby laundry tips to help you in case this is the stage of life that you are in.

1. Pick a versatile stain remover

Little ones make big stain. I like to use OxiClean™ because not only is it a tough stain fighter, it's also gentle enough for even the littlest of little clothes. I used OxiClean™ Versatile stain remover on my sister-in-laws hand-me-down load to help remove any of those tough baby stains and to refresh the clothes to make them look new again, not like they had been handed down from cousin to sister to sister to sister!

You should also pre-wash any brand new baby clothes because you don't know where they have been or what's been on them.

2. Pre-soak any stained items

Between spitting up and diaper blow outs, those baby clothes can take a beating! Sometimes you don't notice stains on clothing when you pack them away but over time in storage, those stains start to pop up and become noticeable.

I start off the laundry cycle by sorting out those items that need a little pre-soaking. I add a scoop of OxiClean™  Versatile Stain Remover to the hottest water my sink will make. And then I let the clothes soak for a few hours. 

These are the same shirts side by side. What a difference the OxiClean™ made on those stains. It totally removed them!

3. Pre-Treat stains

Pre-treat any stains that you can ahead of time. Mix OxiClean™ powder with water according to package directions and spray on to your stain until the stain is completely saturated. Rub the area together and wait up to 10 minutes. Then launder as normal.

4. Velcro any tabs

Baby clothes, swaddle blankets and bibs have Velcro that can tangle up and make quite a mess in the wash. Velcro up any of those tabs before you wash so that you can avoid any snags or tangles.

5. Don't lose baby socks

Baby feet are so cute and little and sweet and those socks that go on them are so very tiny. They can get caught up in sleeves or stuck to a blanket or towel and then never seen again. Consider putting those baby socks in a mesh bag and washing them together so that you never lose a baby sock again.

6. Hang those clothes to dry

Sun is a natural bleach, and while it's not plentiful most months in our greater Seattle area, even those cloudy overcast days will still allow you to hang up those baby clothes to dry outside. Hanging clothes to dry also helps prevent shrinkage which is important when all your baby is doing right now is growing!

There are over 101 ways to use OxiClean™ to get tough stains out, delivering value through versatility and incredible benefits vs. detergent alone. It's my go to stain fighter. I would love to hear your best baby laundry tips or maybe your best stain fighting story.  You can share them on the Dear OxiClean™ site.

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DIY Cotton Stems from Pistachio Shells

I love bringing natural elements into my home. It's even better when I can give them a handmade touch. The farmhouse style has taken us all by storm and when I was visiting Magnolia Market a few months ago, I saw these gorgeous cotton stems that I regretted not buying. Then, while eating some of my lemon pucker pistachios I saw all those shells that I was just going to toss and thought that they just might make some pretty great DIY cotton stems. And might I say, they did! I simply love how these turned out and they are a fraction of the price if you were to buy a cotton stem from the Market. I'm excited to show you how to make them.

I started by gathering some sticks that I found on the ground while walking home from school. The best sticks to use are ones with several branches.

Then, I gathered my pistachio shells and some cotton balls and was ready to set to work.

Step 1: use hot glue to glue two cotton balls together and then glue those two balls together creating a cluster of four cotton balls.

Step 2: using hot glue, glue one pistachio shell on each of the four cotton balls

Step 3: place your finger in the center of the cotton ball cluster and open it up

Step 4: add a drop of hot glue in the hole that you created and insert your stick. Squeeze the cluster together adding more glue as needed to gather the shells into the center close to the stick.

You now have a completed cotton stem.

Create as many cotton stems as you want and use them all around the house.

I think these look pretty authentic. Who would have thought that they were made from dollar store cotton balls, sticks from the ground and pistachio shells?

Now go and create your own! If you need a reason to collect some pistachio shells don't forget to try one of my favorite recipes. dislaimer: this post may have affiliate links. By clicking on them and purchasing through them, I may receive a small commission. These small purchases help me to continue to keep writing content and creating at Holy Craft. Thank you!

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