Finally a DIY, right? It is so nice to get back into the swing of things after things slowing down at my day job:) So today I wanted to show you all how to do some easy and all natural paper staining. Most of this stuff might even be laying around your house right now!
I used beet juice, which I got from just boiling beets in water for dinner and using the water after I was done. I also used coffee, this I got from soaking the already used coffee grinds from our morning coffee in a simmering pot of water. After it has sat for a while you can strain the grinds out and use the juice left behind.
So all you will want to do is simply submerge some paper into both types of dye. I used drawing paper because it is textured but not so textured as watercolor paper, but any kinda of textured paper will work great! Don't be scared to sort of crinkle up the paper because this adds some interesting patterns to the way the dye dries. If you want more of a uniform look try and keep your paper flat.
Once you are done with this just lay them out to dry. I used my oven racks, which seemed to work great, although the racks did leave some line marks on the paper. I have seen some people even bake their paper on a low heat. You can play around with this part and see what works best.
This stained paper works great for letter writing or even as a gift when paired with pretty paper like shown above. I hope you'll give it a try!
How is everyone's week going? I cleaned my whole house yesterday and it feels so good to have everything all tidy! I am excited to get home today after work and crochet my little hands off:)
I love this! I remember, as a kid, using tea bags to stain a piece of paper to make it look old for history class. I hadn't thought of revisiting it and doing it this way. Thanks for the diy!
~Aubrey
Posted by: Aubrey | 03 November 2012 at 08:26 AM
I've never even seen beets in person! This is so cool!!! Loved reading abut it and seeing how the result looks!
Posted by: Victoria / Justice Pirate | 31 August 2012 at 02:04 PM
Love this! xoxo!!
Posted by: Oana Befort | 29 August 2012 at 01:07 PM
Wow! I echo Dus that it is fabulous you recycled house hold items! I love the idea of using wine too. Tho it's sacred to drink it would have to be two buck chuck ;-)This is really beautiful paper!
Posted by: Amelia | 29 August 2012 at 09:31 AM
Great idea! I think I'll need to do this over the weekend!
Posted by: Stephanie | 28 August 2012 at 08:19 PM
I absolutely love that you used things you'd already used (leftover beat water/coffee grinds) to add this pretty touch to paper- great idea!
Posted by: Dus | 28 August 2012 at 07:25 PM
This is so cool, I would love doing this!
Remember when I said I would make a blog post about my tattoos? Well I finally did it, if you are still interested you can see it here :) http://mandatorycreations.blogspot.com/2012/08/tidbit-tuesday-tattoos.html
Posted by: Mandy | 28 August 2012 at 03:01 PM
Love this! I used to use walnut ink to dye paper for scrapbooking a *ton*, but I never thought of beet juice! :) Genius!
Posted by: Michelle Clement | 28 August 2012 at 01:39 PM
Wine and black tea also work great for this!
Posted by: Jessie D. | 28 August 2012 at 11:03 AM