Another Altered Book Cover

Can you tell one of my favorite things to do is create mixed media altered book covers - this one is blank inside so far....

TIE DYE PAPER TOWEL INSTRUCTIONS

 

1.       Take one square of paper towel and fold it diagonally in half to form a triangle.  Fold it in half again to make another triangle.  Mist the paper towel with a mini-mister filled with plain water so that all folded areas are moist (not dripping wet).

2.       Continue to fold the moistened triangle into another triangle.  Repeat one or two more times until you are left with a smaller triangle.

3.      Using a mini-mister that is filled with about 2/3 water and 2 eye droppers full of a Distress Ink re-inker (or use Distress Stains that have been poured into a mini-mister), mist approximately 1/3 of the top area of your folded triangle, making sure the color spreads all the way through from the front of your triangle to the back of your triangle.

4.      Repeat this step with a different re-inker two more times on the remaining 1/3’s of the triangle.  The three colors will run a bit into each other, but this is what’s supposed to happen. 

5.      Start to unfold your triangle, making sure there are no un-inked areas on the moist paper towel.  If there are white areas, just spritz a bit with one of your three colors.

6.      Lay your tags on a Teflon craft sheet and lay the unfolded, moist paper towel over your tags.  Use either a brayer or a mini-mister to roll over the moist paper towel on top of your tags to transfer your dyes to the tags.  You may need to spritz more water on top of your paper towel if your tag is missing color in any area.

7.       You will get at least three colored tags out of your inked paper towel.  Set the tags aside to dry or dry with your heat gun.  I lay the unfolded used paper towel over my dish drainer to let it air dry.  The paper towel will be beautifully dyed which I save to use later.  Ironing the paper towel after it dries will set the dyes.  You can use water color paints instead of the Distress Re-inkers in your mini-mister.  And if you want a little metallic look to your tags, scoop a bit of Perfect Pearls into your mini-misters along with your ink.

You can also use with watered down water color paints that come in tubes in your mini-misters or even watered down food coloring for more pastel designs.  I used tags on manila card stock as well as white matte card stock for fliers and brochures.