Ok, this is the last thing I'll write about Charlie's 2nd birthday party- I promise!: ) We were super excited when we were asked to do a project using the new Tulip Tie Dye Kit. True story: when I first met Monica she wore a lot of tie dye t-shirts. For a Bucks County girl like me, that was really strange, but all that tie dye know-how came in pretty handy for this project!
This kit is really cool. Instead of the old-fashioned method, they provide you with five squeeze bottles so you can place the dye exactly where you want it. Of course, we didn't use it that way. We're rebels like that. We used a dropcloth for the pennant banner and the sign because we thought it would give this project an aged look, plus it's cheap! Lay down the plastic cover over the surface you're going to be working on.
Make sure you wear protective gear…
…and dress the part. You don't want to get this dye everywhere. (Not that we did, or anything Nope, not us. We're clean project-doers.)
Create a template for your pennant and trace it onto the dropcloth. We cut out about 10 triangles.
It was really easy to mix the dye because you just add water to the powder in the squeeze bottles provided. No mess…at least, at first.
We decided on dip-dying our pennants, so we poured the dye into bowls and dipped the tips into the dye. We held it there until it was sufficiently saturated, pulled it out and wrung it out a bit.
Then we laid them out to dry before we dipped the other ends. (Note the towel we destroyed in this process in the right hand corner.)
They got this great blue jean and weathered red color almost immediately and we were so excited! The colors were perfect for my All-American boy themed party.
For the sign, we measured a 2x3 piece of dropcloth and cut it out.
Monica used the traditional method of twisting and tying random sections with rubber bands,
and then dipping them in the dye. After the drop cloth was dyed, we wrapped it in a plastic bag and let it soak in over night (just follow the directions on the box and you can't mess up!)
The next day, we hot-glued rope to the backs of the pennants right along the seam of the dropcloth. That made it easy to glue on a straight line!
We left a lot of rope at either end so we could tie our pennant banner up when we hung it.
You're supposed to wash these after your done, but we didn't think they would get a lot of wear and tear, so we skipped this step. We just ironed it a bit before writing"Happy Birthday Charlie!" on it with sharpie.
We hung them up at the party and were thrilled with the way they look!
I have plans to hang the pennant banner in Charlie's new reading nook, but that will have to wait until after vacation next week.
This was a fun project (albeit, very messy!) For tons more tie dye inspiration and how-to's check out Tulip Tie Dye at these places:
Twitter: http://twitter.com/ilovetocreate (@ilovetocreate) Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ilovetocreate and http://www.facebook.com/ILoveTulipFashionArt Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/ilovetocreate When was the last time, you tie dyed? Did you ever consider trying it out for home decor?
* Tie Dye Kits are available at Walmart, Walmart Canada, Michaels, JoAnn, A.C. Moore, Hobby Lobby, Hancock Fabrics, and Meijer. Tulip Tie Dye Kit contents and colors may vary by store. *Disclosure: I was provided with the Tulip Tie Dye Kit and Surface Cover for this project. I wrote this post as part of a paid campaign with iLoveToCreate.com and Blueprint Social. All opinions and photographs are mine.