How I Went from New Mom to Full Time Blogger & a Dreamer Rainbow T-Shirt DIY!

Today I’m sharing my journey to becoming a full time blogger & YouTuber along with a fun rainbow t-shirt DIY!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Cricut. The opinions and text are all mine.

When I married my husband Sean, I was teaching piano and voice lessons. Then, I decided to go to school again for graphic design and started my own graphic & web design company. I loved that until I had my first baby in 2009.

Then everything changed.

I couldn’t meet all of the high demand deadlines and troubleshooting requests that I needed to meet for my clients. I needed a job that was a little more flexible, but that still served as a creative outlet for me.

That’s when I started The DIY Mommy blog.

(My first baby, now 10!)

The blog began as a journal of sorts where I chronicled all of the things I made for my new baby like booties, bibs, and blankets. I hoped that one day I might make a little extra money off of ad revenue, but I never expected it to turn into a full time job and the main source of income for our family.

In 2012 we decided to build a house on our property. That’s when I decided to reach out to some home improvement stores and ask them if they’d like to sponsor our project in exchange for being featured on my blog. I had started to see other bloggers get sponsorships, and I thought: “Why not try?”

My requests were met with excitement. I had not one, but THREE companies interested in sponsoring our build with free products and money for my time, and I had to choose the best one. It was incredible! I couldn’t believe it.

From there, the blog grew. I won an interior stylist contest in Western Canada and started working with an ongoing sponsor. I started my YouTube channel in 2015. I signed on with a YouTube network in 2017 and opened myself up to more sponsorship and advertising opportunities through my blog, YouTube channel and social media channels like Instagram and Pinterest.

I won’t lie: I’ve put many, many hours into my business and shed many a tear over difficult clients and ridiculous deadlines. I’ve spent lots of money on computer and camera equipment, blog conferences, education, and research into best practices for blogging and social media. I LOVE this job and I can’t think of any job that would be better for me, but it’s been a TON of work to get it to where it’s at.

I love being a work-at-home mama (though I do love getting out for meetings and projects, too!), but sometimes the balance of mom & work can be tricky. It’s incredible, it’s stressful, it’s a dream come true, and it’s also all-consuming. I feel very blessed to have this job, and I’m so proud to support our family with it! This is my #fearless #momboss story!

With Mother’s Day around the corner, this is the perfect time to talk about fearless #mombosses and the Rose EasyPress 2! Do you have an inspiring #fearless #momboss story?! Tell me in the comments below!

Now, let me show you how I made this DIY Dreamer tee with the Rose EasyPress 2 and my Cricut Wild Rose Air 2!

It’s a celebration of how dreams CAN become reality! I made one for myself, and some slightly more embellished versions for my 3 girls. I love how they turned out!

For this project, I used the Cricut Rose EasyPress 2. It makes ironing iron-on product to garments a breeze with it’s exact heat settings and built in timer. I love this pretty pink colour, and the EasyPress gives me fast and foolproof results that really stick, even after lots of washes!

I began this project by creating the design on Cricut Design Space. I simply used circle elements and cut them to create the rainbow shape. You can access my Cricut Design Space Project for free right here if you want to make your own rainbow dreamer tee!

Then, I cut all of the rainbow stripes and “dreamer” text onto some iron-on with my Wild Rose Cricut Explore Air 2 (read more about my machine right here).  Don’t forget to “mirror” your images before you send them to your Cricut for this iron-on project! The gold glitter iron-on came with the EasyPress 2, and I also used some Natalie Malan patterns that I loved to make the artwork full of pattern.

Then, I weeded all of the excess iron-on from the cut pieces. I heated a plain white t-shirt with my EasyPress 2 to prep the surface, and folded it in half and pressed it again to mark its center. I laid my first rainbow strip at the center of the t-shirt, and tacked it onto the shirt by holding my EasyPress over it for about 5 seconds. I peeled off the clear backing immediately, and then placed and tacked the rest of the rainbow strips on the shirt.

After all of the stipes were tacked on, I put the largest clear backing on the rainbow and pressed the whole design with my EasyPress for a full 45 seconds.

Then, I placed and pressed the “dreamer” text with the EasyPress. I left a couple inches between the rainbow and the word for optional embellishments, but if you don’t want to embellish the t-shirt, you can place these elements closer together.

Finally, I hand stitched some white tassels onto the bottom of each side of the rainbow. I did this for the girls’ t-shirts, and left the design plain for my own tee.

All done! Isn’t this cute?! I love how it turned out! You can watch a video tutorial for this project right here.

Happy creating… and happy mom-bossing!