[Crafty Monday] Fun with Dyed Doilies

May 3, 2010 · Filed under birthdays & parties, crafts & things to make, pretty things · Tagged doilies, easy crafts, gift wrap, Martha Stewart

Last week, Martha shared a behind the scenes look at the “Good Things” in the May issue of Living on the Crafts Dept. blog. The pretty dyed doilies jumped out at me, so I decided to make some of my own.

Supplies:

• A bowl or baking dish (I used a Pyrex baking dish)
• White doilies
• Food coloring
• Paper towels
• Rubber gloves

You like coloring Easter eggs, right? Dipping the egg in the dye and delighting in the color when you take them out of the cup? Same thing here with the doilies.

1. Fill the baking pan or bowl with only enough water to cover the doilies – this is key, because you need the food coloring to be very concentrated. You will need to use quite a lot of food coloring. My first two or three attempts were failures (I had too much water in my dish and not enough food coloring). After I dumped out most of the water, and really poured in a lot of dye, it worked nicely.
2. Submerge the doily in the dish/bowl for a few seconds (10 or 15 seconds is sufficient). I started to get bolder toward the end of this craft and I left them in for longer, just to see.
3. Gently take them out of the dish and lay them on a paper towel to dry. They are very fragile, so use caution when you take them out of the pan.
4. Blot them dry right away with another paper towel very gently. Set aside to dry. (I laid mine out on a table, underneath a ceiling fan, and they dried very quickly).

If you don’t want your fingers to turn green or blue or purple, like mine did, use rubber gloves to take the doilies out of the dye. Also, this craft is a paper towel hog; you will want to have lots of paper towels handy.

This is definitely a kid friendly activity, except it might take kids (depending on how old they are) a couple of tries to get the doily out of the dye without tearing it. Elena and Rosa had no trouble; their favorite part was telling me which color to make next.

These are (predictably) SO addictive to make, and it’s why I now have a zillion colorful doilies.
Who wants some?

I used some Divine Twine to make this little garland. Also, they look great wrapped around boxes, large envelopes, or as paper cones filled with little treats (see first photo). They would also look nice wrapped around jars, vases and candle holders.

And if you’re wrapping up some Mother’s Day gifts this week, these are perfect for making your packages extra pretty.

I feel like I’ve done Jessica, of Such Pretty Things, proud with these doilies. (And Martha too).

Also: can you believe it’s already May? Me neither.

Update: I wrote a follow up blog post on where to buy the doilies and what food coloring to use.

All images: Charlotte’s Fancy