I will fess up straight away. While the eggscelent eggs decoration method was mine...even though I nearly had a heart attack when I thought I had been beaten to the punch (pun intended)...this dyeing project was most definitely inspired by the queen mother of crafts herself! I got this idea in this month's MS Living (the only difference is that they were dyeing raffia...).
So I tried to dye raffia too (I mean seriously folks... it's a killer idea)! I tried and tried but I could not get the raffia to take the dye for nuthin! I am not sure why... maybe I had the fake stuff? Do they make fake raffia??? I mean it was actually repelling the dye...!!!!! No foolin! If there are any gals out there who have tried this and had success, please let me know what I am doing wrong!
I pitched that batch of sogged out (not even slightly blue) raffia and moved on to Plan B (Lolly fails a lot and has to come up with a Plan B far too often). Thus enters... The Craft Closet of DOOM! (say that with a booming voice... no wait... let me help)!
In frustration I went to the newly cleaned craft closet (of doom) and stood there with my hands on my hips (that's my "feeling bossy and gonna take charge of this craft disaster in the making" stance). After admiring my clean craft closet for 15 seconds (true story) I started looking for something else to dye! I mean I had this gigantic bowl of dye that was begging me to dye SOMETHING... not eggs (I am not bleaching the counter again... at least not until next year anyway). Looking. Looking...
What did I spy from way under the piles of neatly stacked craft supplies? I spotted a basket filled with wood shavings (TA DA...). 5 minutes later (after I had neatly moved everything from atop the basket) I hauled my wood shavings to the kitchen and grabbed a handful to toss into the egg dye mixture. I can almost guarantee someone else has done this before... but it was new to me! I had a fork handy and started to turn the wood shavings over and over in the dye (forks are not just for eating you know). Within 5 minutes I had the coolest blue wood shavings I had ever laid my eyeballs on! I immediately dyed about 3 more batches then pitched that batch of dye and started with another color (teal this time)! Once I was done with a few batches of that I moved on to purple and was completely smitten with myself (you guys get smitten with yourselves too right???)!
So that's about it really... here are the steps spelled out...
Supplies you will need: vinegar, egg dyeing kit (I used PAAS), wood shavings, larger bowl...
...and a cute protesty DogChops in the background annoyed with the smell of vinegar...
DogChops is saying "momma... get rid of that smelly vinegar and give me a scratch"
I have no idea why I have the egg holder in this pic...maybe I just thought it was cute?
This is a close-up of the wood shavings in case you are not sure what I am talking about.
Grab a handful and place them into your bowl.
Do this in small batches.
You want to be able to smoosh everything in there and be able to flip them over.
Use your fork to turn your wood shavings over and to extract them from the bowl.
Leave the shavings in as long as you want.
I found that I was getting the color I wanted in less than 5 minutes.
It's easy to match colors from one batch to the next.
Let them drip for a while when you pull them out.
Lay your completely fabulous dyed wood shavings
on a set of tea towels to dry (I stacked up about 3 towels and it did not soak through).
Let it dry for 24 hours (yeah I know that's a long time)!
That's all there is to it!!!! I have always loved using wood shavings to line the bottoms of gift baskets (I buy the stuff by the gross ton I use it so often). I am sure this will make a pretty addition to your Easter baskets as well!! You will be so surprised at how easy this is and you will especially love the colors you get! I was really shocked at how nice this turned out!
You might notice a small bunny applique on one of the baskets there.. shhhh...that's a little sneak peak of a project for BTBW! yip yipp yippee!
I hope you will have an opportunity to dye eggs and grass this season. RonChops and I do not have any kiddos but we still make time to exchange Easter baskets every year (any excuse for chocolate right???).
Oh and one more thing...
See that little pretty there...
The one with the ruffles...
...and green...
...and teal...
...and leaves...
...oh and flowers too!!!
You can enter to win that fabulous apron from Just Because I am Me by following this link HERE!
Head on over to Shaina's place and tell her Lolly sent ya!! Last time I sent you guys over to a giveaway a LollyChopster won...!!! Sew our odds are pretty good here. Force in numbers girls! FORCE in NUMBERS!
That's all I gots for today!
Dyeing for Friday HUGS!
O.M.T. I want to thank you all for your lovely well wishes and hugs and cheers and understanding this past Monday! You are all so wonderful! I am so grateful for each and every single one of you! xoxoxo
Finally....
GIGANTIC P.S. ummmm guys.. I JUST found out (after my post was written and I was headed to lullaby land) that my pear pops gumbo fabric is going to be a fabric of the week in the SpoonFlower contest (!!!!!!!! x 1 million trillion). I am trying to stay calm. My face is red. I am so excited that I might burst and did I mention that my face is red (ears too)!!!!
The other samples are A-MAZING! I think these are some of the best samples I have ever seen (ever). I am going to need you guys to help me here! Once it's official I'll make the announcement with the place to vote! If I win I get 5 WHOLE YARDS OF FREE FABRIC! Which means I will have LOADS to give away (bribery might help me here right???)! Holey fish flakes I am excited!
P.S.S. Check out this little pear pin cushion that Shaina made (the very Shaina who is having a giveaway). She won a spoonflower fabric giveaway contest I had a while back and made this cutie with some of the pear pops gumbo fabric!!! She just sent it to me!!!! Is this crazy timing OR what!!!
yikes!
Ok now I have to figure out how to get to sleep. Ha. xoxoxoxoxo
UPDATE: The SpoonFlower contest is HERE. I'll post more about it tomorrow!!! Breathe Lolly. Breathe!
