Tag : coffee dye

2 posts

202407/29

T Tuesday: coffee dye results & more

A couple weeks ago I mentioned that I was doing a bit of coffee dyeing. The heat and humidity were high. The papers took a good while to dry. I had to flip and rearrange the stack multiple times.

The Results

These were my favorites of the batch. I definitely learned some things about how the types of paper reacted. Some really thin paper that I thought would be great, really didn’t hold onto the coffee. I bought a vinyl lace tablecloth at the thrift store this winter for the purpose of coffee dyeing papers…do you think I can find it?!?! UGH! So frustrating. I’m sure I’ll find it in the dead of winter when I’m not able to easily coffee dye.

Vintage finds

I went to a vintage tractor, car, machinery, etc show with my neighbors on Friday. They have been telling me for years that I’d love it. They were right! So many things to look at. I have enough photos to do an entire post about it. But I couldn’t wait to share the items I bought at the flea market that was also on the grounds.

I instantly fell in love with this little drawer. I love using interesting vintage items for storage. The color was what got me. I have a decorative wooden box the same color.

Don’t judge me for the poinsettia tablecloth. It stays on our game table year round simply because it fits perfectly and I like the color in the space.

Look at the adorable price tag. The booth that I purchased this from had all fun handmade price tags made from recycled boxes. Mine was a Raisinets box.

I found some vintage papers that will be great for junk journals.

And this amazing box of postage stamps. Some are sorted into small glassine envelopes but most are piled in the box and other envelopes. It’s a massive amount of stamps really.

Look how fantastic the glassine envelopes fit in the drawer. It was meant to be.

I fixed myself a hardy breakfast this morning. I had cooked way too much broccolini yesterday but it was great warmed up alongside the eggs. I used some Trader Joe’s Crunchy Chili Onion on top for a flavor boost. I love that stuff on eggs and was really good on the broccolini too.

Today has me trying some new recipes for dinner. I love trying new things but I hate having to measure and follow directions. I’m more of an intuitive cook but I try to follow recipes at least the first few times.

What are you doing today?

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coffee dye, T Tuesday, vintage

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halleday

201811/12

T Tuesday: tea and coffee edition

Hello and welcome to another edition of T Stands for Tuesday.

Over the past week or so I’ve been pulling together papers from my stash to begin the process of creating my December Daily journal.

I also dug out a set of book covers I’d been saving for just the right project. I wish that I hadn’t discarded the spine…although it may have been in bad shape. Oh well…I’ll find a way to make it work for me.

Originally I was thinking that I’d use crisp bright colors for my journal, however I discovered that the vast majority of my papers were one sided prints. This is fine in some ways but left A LOT of blank white pages. Yes, I know…journal…but I like having color and pattern to break things up a bit. Besides…plain white pages are intimidating.

I decided while cleaning the coffee pot (because I can’t seem to do just one thing at a time lately) that it would be a good time to do a bit of tea dyeing of some paper. I really wanted to tone down that white and give a more cohesive look to the journal.

After soaking the papers in the tea solution I baked them in the oven. Yep…Mr. G came in from the garage…asked me what I was doing. “I’m baking paper.” He shook his head and told me that he was going to pretend he didn’t hear me. I chuckled to myself thinking about the fact that I’d be ironing them too.

I wasn’t happy with the level of aging from just the tea staining. I added some instant coffee to the mix which definitely did the trick. My papers where a lovely shade of brown…perfectly aged.

Would you like to know the most important thing I learned through this process? Caffeine absorbs through the skin. I spent about an hour with my hands in and out of the tea/coffee water. I didn’t think a thing about it until I realized about 100 pages into the book I was reading in bed that I wasn’t a bit tired.

Not….one….tiny….bit.

Typically I can get through about 10 pages before my eyes start to slam shut and I read the same paragraph over and over. Nope not Saturday night. I read the entire book. Seriously…the whole dang book. Finally I got up and took some Benadryl to make me sleepy…even though I knew I’d have the dreaded brain fog the next morning.

So let this be a public service announcement to all of you…wear water proof gloves of some sort!!

Sticking with my caffeine induced post…Mr. G bought me some coffee beer.