Tutorial - Tea Dye

Tutorial - Tea Dye

I needed macrame cord in a beige colour.

All I had was this roll of creamy white.

I cut a piece of the creamy white and compared it to the tiny piece of beige that I still had.

How to dye it?

I had some Rit Dye in a dark brown so I wondered how that might work.

This pink-purple colour of the top piece shown here is what the dark brown Rit Dye turned out.

Not what I wanted as I wanted it more like the middle piece.

Then I thought of tea.

So I dyed two test pieces, one in some tea I'd steeped for a while and one pressed up against the wet teabag.

Here are all the pieces: 

1. teabag, 2. steeped tea, 3. colour I was trying to match, 4. original creamy white

And since the second one is what I wanted, I put the macrame cord into the teapot!

And dyed my cord to be the perfect beige I needed.

Hm, not really a step by step tutorial, but still!

And here is where you see how I used the cord!
(click link)

How to Store Your Extra Rotary Cutter Blades

How to Store Your Extra Rotary Cutter Blades

This is a great tip!

I had an old 35mm camera and the filters came in these little cases.

The extra blades for my rotary cutter fit perfectly!

I don't know why I saved these cases but I'm glad I did. 

So check with friends and family and get your hands on a filter case (or 2 or more!) and safely store your extra rotary cutter blades!

Tutorial - Melted Crayon Art

Tutorial - Melted Crayon Art

I saw some melted crayon art over the past months (years?) and I wasn't inspired to make my own or take on the task of sharing this art with my Girl Guides until I saw this one on Pinterest!

I ♥ LOVE ♥ IT!

So we ARE going to do this with our Girl Guide unit!!!

And I very rarely test things before I dive in and learn at the same time as the girls.

But not this time!  

This time I did a trial run.

And here it is!

What you'll need:

♦ crayons

♦ knife, only if you are going to cut your crayons

(we are going to pre-cut them in preparation for doing this with Girl Guides)

♦ artists canvas (mine is 8x10 from the dollar store)

♦ glue gun and glue sticks

♦ newspapers

♦ embossing heat tool or blow dryer
(editted to add that I used the ebossing heat tool because when I tried a blow dryer, I had it on high. After I made mine, I was told that a blow dryer should work if you have it on low, not high)

♦ Sharpies or other permanent markers

I used cheap crayons I picked up for 25 cents a box at back-to-school time.

I marked a piece of cardboard with how long I wanted to cut off the crayon.

Roll the crayon as you cut into it.  (thanks for the tip from this blog!)

Here are my cut crayons.

And I wanted to remove the wrappers. 

Attach the crayons to the canvas with a glue gun.

Now, spread out the newspaper, and heat your crayons.

Lift your canvas so the crayons melt down the canvas.

With the girls, this part will require supervision.

Looks good eh!?!

And then writing with the markers.

Here are a few extra tips:

If you touch the crayons with the glue gun, the crayon will melt onto the tip of the glue gun and make the glue turn colour.

Don't do that.

Blow Dryer vs Heat Embossing tool:
Editted to add that when I tried a blow dryer, I had it on high. After I made mine using the embossing heat tool, I was told that a blow dryer should work if you have it on low, not high

I did try the blow dryer first and the wax just went nowhere.

 Then it went everywhere but it was thin.


Sharpie vs Stabilo markers.

I tested my markers in an inconspicuous spot to see which would write better.

And a few Before / After shots! Just for fun.

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

And a few close ups because they look cool. 

And this is the embossing heat tool I used:

Editted to add that when I tried a blow dryer, I had it on high. After I made mine using the embossing heat tool, I was told that a blow dryer should work if you have it on low, not high

And here is my finished product!!