Clearly iStamp: Tuesday Tutorial - Tie Dying with Mulberrry Paper without the Ties

Hi everyone! Its Katie here and I hope you are having a Terrific Tuesday. I used to love alliteration way back when in high school. There's something soothing about matching up those first letters (lol).

Anyway, I've been thinking of ways of using different supplies that I have and this one popped into my head, but originally, I had considered reinkers, but when I first tried my hand at it, it didn't work very well. There were several components as to why this occurred, which was partly due to not having all the right supplies, but in the end, I ended up with a fun project and a cool result using some different methods and supplies.

So here is a list of supplies that I used for today's project:

Luminarte Twinkling H2O's

Water brush aka aqua painter

Mulberry Paper - any color works

Spritz Bottle

Baby Wipe (for cleanup)

See, there isn't a whole lot of tools or supplies that you have to have, but make sure that you are willing to get your fingers a little inky :)

If you aren't familiar with Luminarte Twinkling H2O's, they are a lot of fun. As you can see, they come in small plastic containers and are in a solid form. Just drip, squirt, or spray a little bit of water and watch the color come alive. Depending on how much water is added to the jar, it will affect the intensity of the color you will have. These have a wonderful shimmer to them as well and come in a huge variety of colors. The water will just absorb into the jar and when you are done, just place the lid back on and you're done.

The wonderful part about mulberrry paper is that its so pliable, strong yet soft. In a previous post, I used mulberry paper as a soft background by tearing the edges. Since I am adding water to the mulberry paper, it does require some gentle handling but it holds up incredibly well.

At this point, you will want to cut a piece that is sufficiently large enough for you to twist up and then you will cut it down to card size later.

Pinch the paper in the center and just twist into a rough strip:

Now here is the fun part. Grab your waterbrush and just start painting your twisted mulberry paper. You can use as much water as you want to spread out the color and feel free to dab into the creases and crevises. Make sure you don't twist too tight as it will be much harder for the liquid and color to seep through the entire piece. Be free here :)

All done:

Now its time to unwrap and this step does require some gentleness.

Here it is all unwrapped:

At this time, you can fill in with more colors if you want to. The twisting of the mulberry paper and painting in circles gives you this great foundation to work with. Keep it or add more!

I wanted to show you a close up of my "doctoring". See the nice shimmer of orange and pink and then a bit of a blank spot?

Here it is all filled in. Remember that for a nice blended look, you will want to use more water.

Here is my piece filled in the way I wanted and ready to iron. Yup, you heard it folks, take out your dusty iron and get ready to dry and set your mulberry paper. I've placed a paper towel under the mulberry paper and will place one over the top to protect all my surfaces. I had my iron set on hot and with steam since I always have steam on anyway.

Here are a couple of other examples using this same technique. This uses 2 shades of blue on light blue mulberry paper.

This one uses one color of purple on lavendar colored mulberry paper.

Now for the application of the mulberry paper to my card. I found that for this technique since the mulberrry paper was being handled so much, it worked best to apply it to a sheet of cardstock and then trim to my needed size.

I used a glue stick, but I'm sure other types of liquid glue would work. Apply over the entire surface of your choice of cardstock - colored or white work great!

So after application, just trim up to desired size.

Here is my finished card:

I also used the Twinkling H2O's to paint the baby blanket. I stamped it out separately, painted it, cut it out and then attached with dimensionals.

Recipe: Cardstock: Indian Corn blue, Crystal Blue, white (Close to my Heart), blue Mulberry paper (CDstamps), Ink: Black (Close to my Heart), Memento Tuxedo Black, Stamps: Charlie Baby, Other: Twinkling H2O's (Luminarte), Copics, Kaisercraft Pearls, SU! Ticket Punch, waterbrush, Ribbon (CDstamps)

One more card, something super fun and really vibrant!

See the shimmer and the neat texture?

Tuexedo Black, Clover Green (Close to my Heart), Stamps: Recipe: Cardstock: Neenah white, White Mulberry (CDstamps), Kiwi (Close to my Heart), Ink: memento tuxedo black, clover green (Close to my Heart) Stamp: Pond Pals, Kid Encouragement (CDstamps), Other: Craft ribbon, copics, Twinkliing H2O's (Luminarte)

And my final and a bit more subdued card.

Recipe: Cardstock: Hydrangea, Amethyst (Close to my Heart), Mulberry Paper (CDstamps), Ink: Hydrangea, Amethyst (Close to my Heart), Stamps: Poinsettia Petals, Formal Sentiments, Other: Rectangle Nestabilities, ribbon, Twinkling H2O's, Kaisercraft pearls

Well, that's it folks. It was really a lot of fun and pretty darn easy. I think this technique would work great for any sort of water color medium. I just loved the shimmer aspect to my Twinkling H2O's. If you get a chance to try it out and have your own spin, make sure to send us a link!

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the day!

Signing off for Clearly iStamp,

~Katie

Comments

Nice post, its great to see the process of dyeing colors on cotton and it also look cool...

Posted by: Tie Dye T-Shirts | August 25, 2010 at 05:33 AM

To your blog at these shoes are very excited! Pleasure in your blog to see! I can be for reference? Thank you for sharing!

Posted by: Jordans 2 | May 11, 2010 at 08:22 PM

Wow, I have all the supplies and it looks like fun! I will have to play tomorrow :) BTW, twinks are going out of business, Luminarte?? Is that the right company?

Posted by: Connie | February 25, 2009 at 01:49 AM