Tea Dye and Rusty Hinge

Hello all... a process post today.  

If you saw my recycled Stampotique tag, you'll remember all the rusty loveliness involved, and I promised to show you some pictures of it all being created... and with the more recent Coffee Guys, as well as the Words, Words, Words tag, some of you are champing at the bit to know how it's done - well here you go!

I have to admit, it's no great technique on my part... just a really, really good product.

My real plan for the day was to do some tea-dyeing (with some coffee thrown in for good measure), the rusting was an afterthought.  But they add up to a pretty good post title, no?  (Tim Holtz Distress Colours if there's anyone out there that doesn't recognise them...)




It was on a day a few weeks ago when I was feeling a little low on mojo.  I knew I wanted some more tea/coffee stained tags for an upcoming project, so it seemed like a good day to do that.

And I thought I'd experiment with the Crafty Notions Rusting Powder while I was at it.

I'm happy to say that all the messing around gave me a good shot in the arm mojo-wise too...

I added a couple of tea bags as well as a spoonful of instant coffee to a bowl of boiling water and put in the tags to soak for a few hours.  

Once that was done, I added some seam binding, a bit of lace (in a slightly strange peach colour that I couldn't see me ever using) as well as some white satin ribbon that I got ages ago, and is just too shiny and boring for my liking, so I thought I'd see if I could shabby it up a bit.






Very happy with the tags - you've already seen them used for my reluctant Christmas tags - and with some of the ribbons.  

The satiny stuff barely took any colour - they do now have a very delicately off-white appearance in places.  




Lying in a big bundle, they look quite good, but as soon as you cut a bit off and use it, it pretty much just looks white again... ah well, back to the drawing board with that.

For the rusting, I used Crafty Notions Rust Powder and, having lost the instructions that came with it, I consulted this very useful post from the brilliant Kim Dellow.

(The banana is not a necessary ingredient.)














I didn't remember to do very comprehensive "before" pictures on the first batch, but I did get one of the peachy plastic roses which, I think, are one of the biggest successes.

And I love the rusted material - you've seen that too already, on Rough Around The Edges, and as the tag topping for the Words, Words, Words tag.  

Watch this space for it playing a major role on a project coming later this week...









But I've got before, during and after for the second go...

Here it all is, awaiting the powder.  

Annoyingly, I forgot to soak the muslin before starting this time, so the material itself didn't work quite as well this time around.

Then, after applying glue stick or multi-medium to the surfaces, I sprinkled the grey powder over everything, or dipped the things into a small bowl of it.  

Bit mucky, but isn't everything that's fun?












I put cheap white vinegar into a little spray bottle and used that to spritz everything.  

Interesting smell... probably a good idea to do this somewhere well-ventilated!

I love how quickly it starts working... though I actually left it to dry overnight.

And I'm really happy with most of the results.  

I probably didn't get quite enough glue onto the the washers, so some of them are only partially rusted, but I quite like that too.

And the Idea-ology flowers and bookplates look completely yummy...

And those peachy plastic roses - how cool are they now?!

As you can see, I've rusted quite a lot of stuff, so you can expect to see it popping up every now and then!





Thanks so much for stopping by this week, and all your lovely comments - as always, every single one is so much appreciated.  Happy Crafting!




Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week.
Joseph Addison

A sword, a spade and a thought should never be allowed to rust.
James Stephens

Oh, and for anyone who missed my Pink and Girly blip a couple of weeks ago... you can catch up with it today over at Artistic Outpost!