The Keys to Loveliness

One of the things I collect is keys.

Vintage skeleton keys,

Old car keys, house keys, you name it.

To be more honest, I don't collect them.

I hoard them. 

 I buy them and love them and store them in little boxes, jars and tackle boxes.

Notice all those things are plurals.

So I decided I probably have enough keys to use a few in my designs.

I dressed some of them up with some polymer clay.

They will make fun little pandants.

Some will make fun big pendants.

To me, it is intriguing to take a common useful item and transform it in some way.

I love to give it a new life and purpose.

Thanks for stopping by....

                 Linking up with these great blogs.

Over Dyeing a Thrift Store Quilt with Rit Dye

 A couple years ago I found this sweet quilt at the thrift store for a few dollars.

It has been washed and worn so it is soft and just the right weight for summer.

I love the white color but am not a fan of peach.

I apologize to anyone who loves peach.

You may want to stop reading now, before it it too late.

I have been wanting to overdye it....Blue.

So I washed it, dried it and hung it here to take pictures for you.

Then I took this in and threw it in the washer and turned it on rinse to wet it.

I did a cold water dye bath right in the washer.

I chose cold water and the correct water level.  

Once the washer filled to that level, I added a cup of salt since the quilt is cotton.

Then I added one box of Royal Blue RIT powder dye.

I wanted a very pale blue.  

For a darker blue, I could add another box of dye.

I let the machine agitate for a few minutes to insure dye water was swished in everywhere.

Then I lifted the lid to stop the cycle and let it sit about 20 minutes.

I let it agitate again for a minute or two.

  I used an old butter knife to poke all the fabric down into the water when it was done agitating.

Then I let it sit another 30 minutes or so.

Then I closed the lid and let it finish agitating and rinsing.

I ran it through the washer with a little soap 2 times to remove all the extra dye.

I wanted a pale blue.

And I wanted to be sure there was no more dye anywhere in the washing machine.

Then I hung it on the clothesline to dry.

I love how it turned out.

The color is exactly what I hoped for.

It was easy peasy.

I think this would work great on a blanket with stains too.

  You could just over dye it a darker color.

Keep in mind when over dying that it will follow basic color mixing rules. 

This worked out since the quilt was white. 

 I tried it with a yellow blouse too and got a green I did not like.

The hardest part now is deciding where to use it.

Maybe in the back porch on my reading chair.

Maybe on the swing out front....

Thanks for stopping by...

Linking up with these great blogs.

Valentine Coffee Filter Tree

You know I love coffee filters.

They are cheap and versatile.

I made this fun pink grungy tree for Valentine's day.

 For complete instructions to make your own, look here....

This time I used Fuchsia Dye and instant coffee crystals mixed together.

It creates a look I love.

A dusty color with touches of sepia.

It is pink without being too sweet...

I hope you like it as much as I do. 

Thanks for stopping by...

Linking up with these great blogs.

Dyeing Silk Strips....

I love using silk strips in my work.

Silk is crazy expensive...

So I buy silk clothes at the thrift shop and tear them into strips.

I have a large variety of colors and textures.

  But I wanted to play around and see how I could make them more me...

Enter RIT Dye!

I used the Orange Color Perfect kit with the sprayer.

I sprayed the silk on a plastic tray.

Once it dried a bit, I turned it and sprayed it some more.

I just kept doing that until it was mostly sprayed. 

 I did not want all over color.

Now the hard part...

Patience..

Waiting for it to dry...

I wanted to try some of my homemade alcohol ink too.

Same method...

Spray...turn and spray some more...

This looks a little lighter than the Color Perfect.

This where I forgot to take pictures...

Once dry, I rinsed the silk under cold water til it ran clear.

  Then I squeezed it out very well in a big ball and let it dry.

I have been trying for awhile to get that crinkly texture to my silk strips.

This finally did it...

Here are some finished pieces I used them in...

I am planning another post on these necklaces...

I adore the way they turned out...

I get the same joy I did from the other etched bullet casing necklace I showed you.

These little vials are capped with shotgun shells....

Really!

How cool is that?

If you want to make your own, pick up the Autumn issue of Belle Armoire magazine for complete instructions...

on newsstands now...

That is just the beginning of what these dyed strips can become.

I highly recommend giving it a try yourself...

I will swap one of these necklaces over at Swap and Tell  at Tarnished Royalty.

Thanks for stopping by...

Linking up with these amazing blogs...

Sweet Halloween Tags

Remember not too long ago, I shared a simple tutorial on stained tags.

You can find it here.

You can do the same thing to create colored tags  by just substituting RIT Dye for the coffee and cinnamon.

An even simpler way to dye small batches of things, is to mix your dye and water in a large Ziploc bag.

Just add you tags/lace, fabric and paper right to the dye in the bag.

Squish it around a bit.

You may want to leave it in the zipped up bag to intensify the color.

Then remove the tags and let them dry like before.

I dyed some tags orange for fall.

I ran them through the Sizzix Big Shot with some embossing folders.

Then I went crazy giving them a sweet Halloween makeover.

You can see the workbench was covered with goodies...buttons, rossettes, stickers, dyed cheesecloth, lace, paper bits, vintage haloween images and halloween stickers...

I usually start by sewing paper scraps or images to the tags first.

I added some lace sewn to some as well.

Then I start gluing goodies to get the look I want...

A lot of the images are printed on muslin from the Graphics Fairy.

These will be perfect tied to pumpkins.

I just love tags...

Not sure why...

I just always have.

Maybe because they are more usable than a card.

I love a homemade card, but a tag I keep out long after I 
got it/made it....

I stamped some spider webs on vellum as well...

And punched out some spiders from black card stock.

I always think of a tag as a mini canvas for artwork.

Hope you feel inspired to try it out as well...

Thanks for stopping by....

Dying in the Yard....

 I love that my daughter is a creative person.

She is very logical and bright but also creative.

So, she decided she wanted to make a rug for the fair.

She needed fabric to tear in strips.

I was hesitant to rip great fabric we just bought into strips when it could be used for something else.

I also did not want to go spend more money on fabric than 3 rugs would cost.

So I suggested we use some old sheets I got at the thrift store and dye them.

Such soft muslin and the price was very right.

She agreed and chose some dye colors that she wanted.

Then we spent the afternoon with her learning to dye fabric.

  She wanted blues, green, and purple.

I love her color choices.

We mixed all her dyes.

I love ice cream buckets for this. 

 They are big enough to accommodate most things I dye.

 They have lids so unused dye can be saved til later.

She tore her sheet into equal size pieces. 

She wanted light and dark of each color.

It is key to wash and wet the fabric first. 

 Washing removes sizing.

  Wetting makes sure they dye takes more evenly.

That purple was so deep and beautiful.

She worked all afternoon.

She waited 30 minutes before removing each piece of cloth.

She rinsed until the water ran clear.

Then she hung them on this drying rack I got this spring at the thrift store.

I also found a striped sheet and she snagged that one.

It was neat to see how the stripes turned out in each color.

Note my husband's help in the picture below.

The rack kept blowing over so he hooked a very large fishing sinker to the bottom of the rack.

See it?

VERY LARGE....

Once she was finished with the dye, I dyed some things I wanted to do.

Coffee filters.

They fit perfectly in those ice cream buckets.

I leave the coffee filters in for 5 minutes or hours depending on how intense I want the color.

These were less than 15 minutes.

I put them over a tin to drip in the grass and then I hang them in my garage on a little rack by my sink.

They can stay there until they dry.

I also did a couple bags that I want to alter.

That purple is still pretty strong.

I like the splotchy look.

Then I did lace.

I recently bought yards and yards from a thrift store.

It is fun to see how the different laces take the dye in the same dye batch.

Green.

Purple.

I did lots in the purple.

You can see the synthetic lace takes the color differently than the natural fiber lace.

I love how these turned out.

Well, when my daughter gets her rug finished I will show it to you.

Thanks for stopping by....