Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Dyeing Paper






I felt the need to dye some paper for my paper quilt. I think they turned out pretty well. My hands will never be clean again though. I love the ones with the handwriting. They came out really well.
You will need the following: embossing pad, clear fine embossing powder, gold fine embossing powder (do not use UTEE here), heat resist pad, wax paper, or release paper, water mister, Color Wash or other spray dye (Color Mists should work here, too), heat gun, white card stock (not glossy), stamps, and paper towels.
The first thing you need to do is the clear or gold embossing. Take the embossing pad and stamp away on the white card stock. The embossing will act as a resist to the color wash. Immediately put the embossing powder on top of the stamped images. You can heat all the sheets at once, if you like. When you are done, use the heat gun on the embossing powder. Let cool completely.
The second thing is the actually dyeing. You will need to put something underneath your resist pad or wax paper. You want a slippery surface for the color wash to sit so that it will not be absorbed into the surface. What I do is have all my color wash colors ready next to me with a water mister. I mist the surface of the heat resist pad so that my wet surface area is larger than my paper size. I then spray some color wash on top of the water in different patterns. Lay your paper down on top of the color wash (embossed side down facing the color wash). Press down gently so that the color wash will be picked up by the paper. Make sure you get your edges. I can tell that the coverage is pretty good once I see some color coming through the back of the paper. Lift off. You might want to dab with paper towel so you don't get a lot of dark drippy edges. This is the point where you might want to dab areas that you missed. Some white area can also be good, if you like the look. Lay on plastic or newspaper and let dry completely.
I repeat the process again. I just mist a little more water and spray some more color wash on the heat resist pad. You can get two tries before you need to use a paper towel and wipe off the heat resist pad. If you do it with the same color wash left on there for only 2-3 times before the colors begin to muddy. Your tie dye will not look as good if you don't start fresh after a couple of uses.

3 comments:

Karen Campbell said...

These are beautiful, Belinda -- thanks for sharing your process!

eclectic works said...

Your dyed papers are beautiful!! You put a lot of work into them, and it shows...love em'. They are all simply gorgeous!

Pat said...

These are gorgeous, as sre the fabric ones blow. Thank you for sharing the technique.