Stamp-a-Faire: Staining Techniques

For the tea staining challenge, there were several staining techniques demonstrated.  (found here)  Emily immediately chose the Kool-Aid technique, of course!  This project took most of the afternoon since the Kool-Aid butterflies and various laces needed to dry.  I also tea-stained some muslin to use later.

We mixed up three Kool-Aid dye baths for our projects - Cherry, Grape, and Peach Mango.   Then we gathered up some various laces from my sewing stash and also diecut some butterflies from watercolor paper.  (which I had to run out and buy - note to self, do not go shopping on the Saturday before school starts - the traffic and crowds were not fun)  We clear-embossed images on the watercolor paper before putting them in the dye.  It made a cool resist effect!

Here's the results of our experimenting.  They look so pretty!

Unfortunately, the wide flat lace didn't take the color very well.  We dyed it in the Peach Mango bath, but the pretty yellow-orange color faded as it dried.  It does have touches of color, but it's difficult to see in the photo.  I love the scallop lace the best.  Such a pretty pink color!

I used three of the pinkish-yellow butterflies on my card, along with some swirly flight trails from the Happy Trails stamp set.  I also added some polka dots by stamping off first so they would be a bit more muted.  In hindsight, I wish I had used black for the sentiment, but either way, I still really like the card.  The colors are so cheerful!

Emily layered some of the lavender and yellow butterflies for her card.  She stamped the grid background using Smokey Shadow ink, as well as her sentiment.  Then she added a piece of dyed lace to finish it off.  Cute!

We definitely had a lot of fun doing the Kool-Aid staining.  We also got our cards made for the scented embossing powder challenge, but won't be able to take pictures of them until tomorrow.  Too dark outside now.  Look for that post in the morning!   :)

Stamps:  Butterfly Kisses, Butterfly Dreams, Happy Trails, Polka Dot Basics (Papertrey Ink)
Paper:  White, Berry Sorbet (Papertrey Ink); watercolor
Ink:  Berry Sorbet, Smokey Shadow (Papertrey Ink); VersaMark
Misc:  Butterfly Kisses die (Papertrey Ink); clear embossing powder, Kool-Aid

Stamps:  Butterfly Dreams, Polka Dot Basics (Papertrey Ink)
Paper:  Lavender Moon, White (Papertrey Ink); watercolor
Ink:  Smokey Shadow (Papertrey Ink); VersaMark
Misc:  Heart-2-Heart #10 dies (Papertrey Ink); clear embossing powder, lace