Tea Stained Paper

Limner sent me the box of hand towels above. The box got a little dinged up, but was still very much usable. Her note to me was that I should attempt to redecorate it. She had redone one herself which you can find here.

Well...I thought and thought...and thought some more before I decided what to do with mine. My original thought was to cover it in stamps. Doing so is one of my favorite things, however, I had already covered a cigar box in them..and wasn't sure I would have a good enough variety of stamps to cover the Kleenex box.

The idea came to me when I was cleaning out one of my craft drawers. I remember putting the tea containers in there..but it has been a while. Regardless, I saved some expired tea to do this very thing with. So I decided to try tea staining paper.

What you need to do (unfortunately no pics) is place hot water (close to boiling) in a basin or dish. I used a pyrex glass dish to prevent any staining on the dish itself. Then you place your paper and tea selections in and let them sit for a while. When you check on them you can see if they need to sit longer..it all depends on how strong of a color you want. Now for mine..I actually tore open the teabags to allow the leaves to sit directly on the papers. This gives a stronger color.

With black or green teas you will get a brownish color depending on the strength of the tea and how long you leave the paper sit. I used fruity teas, which is how I was able to come by that nice blue/green and a pinkish/purple shade.

I always let my paper dry flat overnight before messing with them. You might need to brush off the remaining tea leaves after the paper dries. And you want to be extra careful not to rip your paper (unless you want to do so).

I covered the whole box in the paper (bottom included) and then placed three coats of glue overtop to protect it. I used Elmer's (thinned out) for this project, but you really could use any of your favorite decoupage glues.

I am not sure what I will do once the towels are gone..perhaps make it into a hanging box to store outgoing mail. We shall see.

What items can you think to repurpose?

Notebook Paper vs. Pretty Stationery

I had no clue what I would write about today until I sat down and read the blogs that I enjoy. One of them sparked an interesting thought, and I figured I would share it with you (just in case you do not follow this particular blog).

Limner from the blog Oh, Write me! confessed today that she wrote a letter to someone on paper that was from her favorite notebook. Like many of us, the words flowed from her pen smoothly across the surface and before she knew it, there was a three page letter before her. She folded the letter, tucked it inside an envelope, addressed it, placed a stamp on it and sent it on its way. Nothing out of the ordinary so far right?

Well, it was the simple act of writing the letter on notebook paper, as opposed to stationery, that had her a bit worried. She wrote the entry "To: Whom It May Concern" to apologize for any rudeness the reader took from the letters appearance. She simply acted on impulse.

So this posed an interesting thought...do I care what a letter sent to me is written on. Honestly, it took very little thought to realize that no..I don't put a whole lot of stock in the paper selection of my writer. Though I must admit, if the paper is interesting I may wonder what caused them to use it. Not in a negative way of course, more of a curiosity. What made them pick this paper up..was it the first one they saw? Do they like this one most? Did they think I would enjoy it? So many questions can be asked on this subject. So now I ask you. Do you care what paper a penpal uses? And if you do, what is your reasoning?

As always I am interested in any thoughts on this subject, positive or negative. I like to think when I pose questions it can be an open forum with no judgement what-so-ever.

*Oh..and if you don't follow the Oh, Write Me! blog already...I highly recommend taking a look at it. *