DYING PAPER WITH WATERCOLOR PAINTS

Have you ever tried dying paper with watercolor paints?

I am making little junk journals and wanted to add some colorful pages similar to tea-dyed pages, but I want them to be colored. 

I decided to use up some watercolor paints I had laying around to do it. 

If you’d like to see how these sheets of paper turn out, continue reading.

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HAND DYING PAPER WITH WATERCOLOR PAINTS

SUPPLIES

• Watercolor Paint
• Containers to dye your paper – I used glass bakeware.
• Water
• Stir Stick – I used a small craft paintbrush.
• Copy Printer Paper
• Paper Cutter

I’m using a couple of different brands of watercolor paints, and I’m using the watercolor that comes in tubes. 

The brands I have on hand Artist Loft and Mondo Llama. 

I’ll just say right away that I preferred the Artist Loft brand, and the Metallic Blue made my favorite-colored piece of died paper.

DYING PAPER WITH WATERCOLOR PAINTS

First, because I’m using this paper for my little junk journals, I cut a bunch of copy printer paper with my paper cutter to size. 

I have a heavy-duty paper cutter that allows me to cut a lot of sheets of paper at one time. 

After I cut my paper, I picked a few colors from my watercolor collection and got started with coloring the paper.

I used glass bakeware dishes and filled them a quarter of the way with tap water. 

Then I squeezed in a tube of watercolor paint and gave a good stir to mix the paint and water.

After all my colors were ready, I started to add my paper pieces. I placed them in the colored water crisscross so that it would be easier to pull them apart when it was time to remove them from the colored water.

I let the paper sit in the water for about 1.5 hours to soak in the color.

Next, I had to remove the paper from the water to dry. 

Normally, I would place these paper pieces on a craft table, but we’re working on a basement remodel, and my crafting space is limited. 

So, I used my dining room table. 

Now, for the warning, this will stain your table if you don’t cover the surface.

I decided to first lay down a towel and then cover the towel with plastic.

My sheets of paper were pretty saturated, and I let them sit for about two days to dry before taking them apart and stacking them.

I’m happy with the result. I think each piece has its own unique coloring and pattern. The pages look aged because of the wet-to-dry texture, but instead of that aged tea-dyed look, you get color instead.

I think dying paper is such a fun project. 

You never really know how the colors will turn out until the paper is dry, and they’re perfect for junk journals.

Happy mess-making!

XOXO

Emily

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