Time for Tea

My first post is probably something all of us have thought about, or had a go at, and it's something that I was inspired to do again as we are using tea leaves at the moment, and I hate just throwing them away. Tea of course has it's distinctive colouring - which is great for dying your papers and cardstock.

Take wet tea leaves and leave them on your card to dry. The longer left, or the wetter the leaves, then the darker the shade you can obtain. Alternatively you can pop your left over tea (without the milk), into a spritzer bottle. Mix with some pearlescent powder if you want a shimmer, and spritz. The more layers of tea you spritz, the darker tone can be achieved.

If you want an even finish, allow the spritzed tea to dry natural, if you want something more startling try drying with a heat tool:

Step one, spritz the tea so you have puddles on your card:



Using your heat gun, force the puddles into the card, and hold that position so the drip doesn't fly off around the cardstock:



The place the tea is forced to dry in will result in a darker result - keep spritzing and drying until you are happy with the result. You can of course "chase the drip", all over your card and you will get veins of colour - looks ace.

The samples below show the various depths of colour that can be achieved - just with a good ole cuppa!



The resulting card can then be used for the perfect backing material for all your cardmaking and stamping projects - just the job for that distressed look (on the cheap!)