Thursday, June 3, 2010

Tutorial: Coffee Filter Tie-Dye (Sorta)

I've mentioned before that my Papa's house contains all kinds of bulk goodies that my house doesn't--white flour, cake mixes, paper towels, paper plates, paper cups, etc. The girls would add to this list pudding cups, Pringles, Cheez Its, American cheese, cream soda, Reese's Cups, Wonder bread, etc., etc., until I tear my hair out, but let's stick to my list so that my shoulders don't get all tense, shall we? Mmmkay.

So even though we try to be pretty eco-friendly in our crafting at home, when we're at Papa's house we can experiment with perhaps some crafting projects that I've been tempted by in my various readings but that call for ingredients that I'm not comfortable buying. Papa's house was where I first made play dough, which calls for white flour, and now I actually own a stock of cheap white flour that I use just for crafting. I also made my first rainbow cake experiments there, and you all know that I am now the rainbow cake queen of the universe.

Guess what? Papa also owns coffee filters, and I have been wanting to try this wet marker tie dye project for FOREVER. And it turns out that it IS awesome, so you do it, too. Here's what you need:

  • coffee filter

  • markers, but probably not the washable kind

  • water

  • eye dropper or spritzer or, as we did, a fingertip to dip and then shake
1. Flatten out the coffee filter with your hand, then color a big, bold picture in it with your markers. Don't bother for anything too elaborate, but feel free to be super-colorful:
2. Drip or spritz water lightly over the entire surface of the filter, taking your time so that you can enjoy the sight of the ink running and spreading and mixing. This is the same concept that we'll use when we revisit coffee filter chromatography in a couple of weeks (on account of I put some of Papa's coffee filters in my suitcase--thanks, Papa!). Put a paper towel (shout-out!) underneath the filter to catch any ink that washes completely out of the filter, and keep in mind that if you pour on too much water, the ink WILL wash out completely. You'll have a pretty and colorful paper towel then, I suppose

3. Lay your coffee filter flat to dry, then enjoy!
Did I mention that Papa's house also has all the popsicles that you can eat?

3 comments:

Heather said...

Nice crafting! My kids are also enjoying a few days at grandma and grandpa's house... filled with junk-food and love. Especially ice cream.

cake said...

oh, that first paragraph? i hear ya. loud and clear! mmkay???

julie said...

Yep, if it's chock-full of preservatives and/or bleached flour and/or high fructose corn syrup, my girls get it at Grandma Beck and Papa's house. Yum.