Tie Dyeing 101

Tie Dying is an easy craft very suitable as a beginners craft, such as the beginners crafts ideas you can get for silk painting on the page Silk Painting Is Fun. Most of us associate tie dyed clothing and décor with the late 60s and early 70s. But did you know that there are samples of tie dyed fabric that date back as early as 800 A.D.? The techniques used to produce these ancient garments produced results somewhat different from what most of us see today, but they are certainly recognizable as tie dye.

Tie dyeing is simple enough that a child can do it with a little assistance.

Here's a step-by-step tutorial.

1. Choose a fabric that will hold dye well. 100% cotton is one of the best choices, and it's very easy to work with. But other natural fabrics such as silk and rayon can also be successfully tie dyed. For best results, wash and dry the garment before you dye it.

2. Get your materials together. You can buy pre-packaged tie dye kits if you don't want to purchase everything separately. If you buy your materials individually, you'll need dye, rubber bands, rubber gloves, squeeze bottles, urea and soda ash. You should be able to find all of these items in your favorite craft supply store.

3. Mix soda ash with warm water according to the directions on the label. Soak the garment for about 10 minutes. Then put on some rubber gloves and wring it out thoroughly, or put it in the washer on spin cycle to get all excess water out.

4. Lay the garment flat on a table or other flat surface. Place a dowel, a wooden clothespin, or even your finger in the center, and start turning it clockwise. Continue until the entire garment is twisted into a circle, pushing the fabric down off of the dowel as you go so that it remains as flat as possible. Remove the dowel carefully to avoid pulling the fabric up.

5. Slip rubber bands onto the twisted garment, taking care to retain its shape. You'll need to use several of them and go in all different directions. Keep the garment as flat as possible throughout the process.

6. Mix one or more colors of dye in squirt bottles per the instructions on the container.

7. Protect your work area by covering it with plastic and a layer of paper towels. Place the garment on top of the paper towels, and start squirting the dye on. For a rainbow-colored garment, use yellow, fuchsia and turquoise. Squirt each color thoroughly on a third of the garment, overlapping them a bit. Don't leave any white areas, because there will be plenty of those in the wrinkles of the garment.

8. Turn the garment over onto a pile of clean paper towels, and repeat the process on the back, putting each color behind where the same color was on the front if you're using more than one.

9. Place the garment into a ziplock bag, seal, and leave in a warm place for 24 to 36 hours.

10. Remove the garment from the bag, and rinse in cold water until the water runs clear. Wash it by itself on normal cycle in the washing machine, and it's ready to wear!

This technique may be used to create a variety of projects. The most common is the t-shirt, but you can also use it on pants, accessories, and even curtains. And once you get the hang of this technique, you can do the twisting and tying in different ways to produce different effects. Have fun!

ave Money with Unique Handmade Birthday Invitations

Save Money with Unique Handmade Birthday Invitations

There's so much to do when throwing a birthday party. There are party favors to choose, cakes to buy or bake and decorate, gifts to purchase, and decorations to hang. But one of the most important things to do when planning a party is to invite the guests. A party is not much fun if there's no one there to celebrate with you!

You could go to the store and pick up a pack of invitations. Or you could make your own unique ones. It's not as hard as you might think, and it can actually save you money. Here are some tips to help you make beautiful invitations without breaking the budget.

1. Start with the right kind of paper. Card stock is the best choice, as it is very sturdy but easy to work with. It comes in a variety of colors and patterns.

2. Fire up the computer. There are plenty of card-making programs on the market, and while some of them are expensive, the simpler ones are usually reasonably priced. They include ready-made card designs as well as clipart and fonts you can use to make your own cards. You can do everything on the computer, or you can customize the invitations with a variety of embellishments.

3. Make use of stickers that match your party's theme. You can find themed packs of stickers at your local scrapbooking, discount or dollar store. Those featuring licensed characters can be a bit pricey, but you can find lots of fun options that are less expensive.

4. Use pressed flowers for an elegant look. You can buy these in craft stores and online, but it's much cheaper to make your own. Just pick some small flowers, place them between two plain pieces of paper, and insert them in the middle of a heavy book. They'll dry on their own in about two weeks. You can also buy flower presses that you can use in the oven or microwave to dry them faster, but if you only press flowers on occasion, a book will suffice.

5. Make your invitations pop with glitter. Loose glitter provides lots of shine, but it can be very messy. Glitter glue is easier to use, and you don't have to worry about getting little shiny flakes all over the place.

6. Do you love the look of filigreed cards? Use craft punches to recreate this look in your invitations. You can find them in scrapbooking stores in a variety of shapes and sizes. As a bonus, you can use the punched-out shapes on your invitations or other projects.

7. Give embossing a try. It's easy to do, and can be accomplished with embossing tools or embossing powder. There are even embossing pens that you can simply write with like you normally do.

8. Add more texture with embellishments such as ribbon and lace. Put scraps from sewing and other projects to use if you have them.

9. Use decorative scissors to create elegant or fun edges. You can find these in craft stores, and many have interchangeable blades.

10. Consider adding a photo. You can print it directly on the card with most card-making programs, or you can crop and paste a photo as you would on a scrapbook page.

Making unique handmade invitations is lots of fun, and your invited guests are sure to love them. So instead of buying plain old birthday invitations at the store, get creative and make your own!