colored doilies

i recently got a japanese scrapbooking book (that sounds odd) that showed how to tint paper doilies using dyes. i can't read the description because i can't read japanese so i went to blick and had a little brainstorming discussion with one of their associates. here's what i came up with!

supplies: old ink pads that you no longer use, shallow containers (these round take out containers work great!), water, white paper doilies and paper towels (lots of them).

pour a bit of water into the container. about half an inch of water should be enough.

take your ink pad and swirl the surface of it in the water. this is a great way to squeeze one last use out of old ink pads that are drying out.

once you get to a color that you like, place the doily into the water.

make sure it's fully submerged.

let's try it with blue too.

swirl swirl swirl

hm... this doily was a little too big for the container which made it hard to get it all under water. next time i'll use a bigger container since it's best if they lay flat.

after a few minutes, take out your doily to see how it's coming along. this looks about right to me.

place it on a paper towel to dry.

they're ready!

the pink one turned out pretty well and even colored. the blue had darker spots that looked like wrinkles but that might have been because i squished the doily into the container. be sure to lay down lots of paper towels since the dye water will (surprise) stain everything! my bookshelf now has pretty pink marks on it. i think next time i'll try experimenting with watercolor paints.

have fun playing with your new colorful doilies :) happy weekend!