May 05 2010
Tea Dying Ribbon
Today’s tea dying project was provoked by a customer question – I was asked if the 1/2″ Wrinkled Ribbon is dyable. Well, gee – I had never tried, but knew this was just the push I needed to try the tea dying that’s been on my to-do list just forever. I have tea died muslins years ago for sewing projects, but thus far I haven’t tea dyed any of my ribbons, so today was the day!
It’s really simple — no more difficult than brewing a cup of tea for yourself. I’m no expert on tea dying, but I don’t think it’s rocket science, either! I poured boiling water over 4 bags of tea in a small bowl, waited for it to cool a bit, wadded up my ribbon strips I planned to die, ran them under warm water, then immersed them in my bowl of tea.
I left the tea bags in the bowl, hoping for a more splotchy look, thinking if the bags touched the ribbon, I might get that look. I let them soak for maybe 10 minutes, giving them a stir every few minutes. Here’s the results:
This is my wad of ribbon after it dried. I just spread it out on the counter and it dried quickly. Hanging it out would help, but it was night when I was doing this, so the counter worked fine! LOVE that vintage tea-stained look! You can vary the intensity of color by using more or less tea bags and/or leaving the ribbon in the bath for shorter or longer lengths of time. Just experiment — it’s FUN!!!
Here’s a visual for you of the ribbon both before and after my tea dying. The *before* ribbon is on the left. First is the 1.25″ Crochet Lace in Ivory, then the 5/8″ Crochet Lace in Ivory, then the White 1/2″ Wrinkled Ribbon, then the Ivory 1/2″ Wrinkled Ribbon. Scroll down one post, or click here, to see the 5/8″ Tea Dyed Crochet Lace used on a card.
And here we have the White and Ivory 1.25″ Silk. I love the scrunched up way the silk came out of the tea bath, but I also wanted to show you how it looks ironed out, if that’s your preference, so both are shown above.
And here’s a quick card I made with my newly tea dyed White 1.25″ Silk ribbon. The card is large, 7 1/2 x 5 1/4″. LOVED this paper from Thrift Shop and wanted as much of it to show as possible. I used the Velvet Zig Zag to visually separate my 2 prints and a little flower I get in bags from Michaels to top off my bow knot. The bow is a single bow made on the largest legs of the Bow Easy.
I LOVE this stamp! The last time I used it I got a lot of emails asking for it, all saying it was hard to find. Well, no MORE — I have a nice supply on order and they’ll be here next week. If you are interested, just let me know. It’s a wood mount stamp by Wordsworth, measuring 2.75 x 3.5″, selling for $11.50. Email me if you’d like one from the batch arriving this coming week - [email protected].
Editing: Shipping for this one stamp is $3 to US or Canada.
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Other items used on this card that I have available in The Stamp Simply Ribbon Store:
Click here to see the Silk Ribbon and Velvet Zig Zag, as well as many other ribbons.
Click here to see the Thrift Shop paper by October Afternoon and VersaFine Onyx Black Ink.
Click here to see the Bow Easy and Score Boards.
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I’d like to thank you for popping in today — and I’d like to apologize as well for being away for so many days. It was surely not intentional — life just gets busy and happens — family, store, committments and obligations – and on and on — and I KNOW you all KNOW what I mean — LOL!!! We’re all in the same boat there! I’ll be back on Thursday evening as usual with our Stamp Simply Challenge for the week. We had so many GREAT entries last week for the 3D flower challenge — scroll down, click the links on Mr. Linky and check them out! Fun stuff!!! See you soon and have a GREAT day tomorrow!!!
29 responses so far
The tea dying project turned out great-love that dyed lace! Beautiful card.
Great post, Sharon! Thanks for experimenting for us! All the ribbons look fab, and I LOVE your card!
How fun! Great idea and great outcome 😀
Tea Dying is absolutely perfect. So subtle. Nothing exactly like it.
GORGUS! GORGUS! GORGUS! GORGUS!
Love the tea dyed ribbon Sharon. Gorgeous card and I’ve emailed you.
Tea is one of my favorite drinks so have plenty on hand for trying my hand at ribbon tea dying. Your ribbons and card turned out beautifully. TFS
I love the look of the tea dyed ribbon and lace and your card is beautiful, as always.
Love tea dyed ribbon…thanks, Sharon!
Sharon, this card is so beautiful! I was nervous about how the silk would die and I myself would have been scared to do that to my precious silk, lol! But, it looks amazing on this card! Thanks for the lesson!
Nice post showing the variances between different ribbons! Thanks so much!
Sharon, this is absolutely gorgeous! I love the tea-dyed crochet, gives everything a warm antique feeling, perfect for this card, and a gorgeous card it is too! Can’t wait to try this with some of my ribbons!
Wonderful post, Sharon! Thanks so much for sharing this!! And your card is just gorgeous!!
Sharon, Thanks for sharing the tea dying I be trying that tonight. If you want your ribbon more wrinkled , wet the ribbon, scrunch up ribbon , put it in a piece of tin foil and wrap real tight, put in oven on 400 for about 10 minutes it comes out really wrinkled. You can also wet your ribbon wrap around and pencil put it on a tray in the oven again for same time and it will come curly and stay that way! Enjoy! Have a great day.
The ribbons turned out very pretty. This makes me remember tea-dying my undies way back when.
It was quite the rage for a while and of course very inexpensive to do. Oops, hope that didn’t give my age away. Love seeing your beautiful cards and projects. Hope all is well with you and yours.
You can also wet your ribbon wrap around and pencil put it on a tray in the oven again for same time and it will come curly and stay that way! Enjoy! Have a great day.
This card is just so beautiful…. love the ribbon!
Thank you for the tutorial on tea dying. I’ve never done it before and it sounds like fun! Your card is gorgeous too.
[…] with the Thrift Shop Pad. You can see samples of cards made with the contents of this kit here, here and […]
[…] in the center has a piece of the 1/2″ Wrinked Ribbon run through it. This was a piece I had tea dyed. I stuck in a straight pin just for fun! I used my pinking shears to pink the edges of my black […]
[…] samples here and […]
You make such beautiful cards, but I was wondering do you make envelopes for these cards? With the wonderful bows applied it seem that they would not fit into a regular envelope. Please share on your presentation of the your cards.
Thank you
[…] element in the sketch, I used two different ribbons. My Ivory 1.25″ Silk which has been tea dyed (bow made on the Bow Easy) and the pretty brown vintage looking lace is something new! I just […]
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[…] the top and I made my bow on the Bow Easy used tea-dyed Ivory 1/2″ Wrinkled Ribbon. Here’s a little how-to and comparisons on tea-dying various ribbons I did a few months back. I glued the bow to my twig. When the tag was done, I adhered it to my card with […]
[…] Blessings by Wordsworth. What I also liked about this card is that I tea died the May Arts Silk. See more here, including a mini tutorial on tea dying […]
Sharon, I tea-dyed laces, silk ribbon, doilies, etc. several years ago for crazy quilt projects. I found that the color depended on the type of tea used. The items came out pinkish with one type I used. What kind did you use?