Tie Dye Coffee Filter Snowflakes

Join me over at PreK + K Sharing blog today and find out how we made these Tie Dye Coffee Filter Snowflakes  here.   PreK + Sharing is a collaborative blog consisting of many talented bloggers believing in: 1. Excellence in early childhood education.  2. Delight and appreciation for all things "ART" related.  and 3. A shared joy in child-centered, child-directed, and genuine play-based adventures.  Hope you check my post out here and all the other great posts by other bloggers! Didn't these Snowflakes turn out wonderful?

Tie Dye Coffee Filter Fall Leaves

I'm so ready for the Fall colors.... so we decided to bring some beauty to our window a little bit earlier!!!  We created Tie Dye Coffee Filter Fall Leaves!!!   We did these leaves very much the same way as our Tie Dye Coffee Filter Easter Eggs.  All you need for this project are some coffee filters, water based markers in Fall colors (the ones that work the best are: Mr. Sketch Markers ), scissors, newspaper, water, and Metallic Markers.

First, create a simple leaf shape on your coffee filter.  To create variety,  I created some different sizes of leaves too.  Cut out the leaf and place it on layers of newspaper so the markers or water won't soak through to your table!

Now color the leaf shape with water based Fall color markers like brown , red, orange,  and yellow.  We made patches of colors rather than just one color.  You can leave a little white showing.

Here is an example of one leaf that C did.  Some were colored with smaller patches of color too.

After coloring,  make sure the leaf is placed on the layers of newspaper and spray with a mist over the leaf to make the colors run.  Don't put too much water or the colors will fade away too much! (C loves this process!)

After done spraying,  let the leaves dry for a few hours.  We let them dry over night.  

After the leaves were dry,  we used metallic markers to add veins to our leaves. Adding the veins gave the leaves  a finishing touch that they needed!

Here are our leaves again.  They make great sun catchers too! 

Happy Fall!

This post is shared with: It's Playtime, The Play Academy, Come Together Fall Fun,             Thanksgiving Link-up

Kool Aid Tie Dye T-shirts

We decided to try one more Kool Aid Project....Tie Dye T-Shirts!  It was definitely a FUN process to learn about the procedure of Tie-Dye, but unfortunately the Kool Aid washes out! (I wonder if using more Kool Aid packets would it work?)  I would recommend to do this purely as a "process project" or maybe just dye something you will not have to wash! (Like our Tie Dye Baby Wipes with Kool Aid!) My Tie Dye Baby Wipes project is featured here,  if you haven't checked that out.  The final product could be a framed work of art rather than a T-Shirt.  I researched further and found out that you can only use Kool Aid as a permanent dye on animal fibers such as: wool, mohair, alpaca, and human hair!!!  Here is C's  Kool Aid Tie Dye Shirt before it was washed!

The recipe we used for the Kool Aid Tie Dye Shirts can be found here. To make the dye for the shirt, first we put a packet of unsweetened Kool Aid in each container.

Then,  put one oz. of vinegar in each container and stir.

Next, fold and twist your t-shirt  and put rubber bands around it!  Patterns for shaping your shirt to create Spirals, V-patterns, and Random circles can be found here.

C used an eye dropper to apply the different colors of Kool Aid to her shirt.  (no worry about the kool aid dye staining her hands with the eye dropper!)  She LOVED this part!

More concentration and more colors! The directions were to set it in the sun to dry.

It said if you iron the shirt on medium high that it will set the colors (we did that!).  Also, to wait 24 hours before washing (we did that!).  The colors faded to a very light color!!!  You don't want to see a picture of that!  Here is C sporting her Kool Aid Tie Dye before the wash!!!!  At least I took a picture!

I'm still tempted to try this again and use more Kool Aid packets to see if it would work better!

   Have any of you had success with Kool Aid and Tie Dye T-Shirts? 

I thought this was interesting: Science behind Chemical Bonds and Kool Aid Tie Dye.

More Kool Aid Fun: Using Kool Aid to dye Wool/Yarn.

                                                       

Tie Dyed Coffee Filter Easter Eggs

This was a short and sweet little project that we did today. It actually turned out quite beautiful! Sometimes these are the best projects and I'm sure that everyone will have these materials on hand. You'll need coffee filters, newspapers, scissors, water based markers, and a spray bottle with water in it.  Here are our finished products:

First you need a coffee filter and make sure you have lots because no one wants to do just one. Make the egg shape as big as you can. You could make a pattern/tracer for children who can trace and cut themselves.

Cut out the egg shape (I cut them),  but older kids could do this step on their own.  Since coffee filters are so thin, be sure to cut out 3 or more at a time.

Make sure you have a few sheets of newspaper to put under the egg because it will soak through.  Now begin decorating with water based markers (no permanent). Try to leave white spaces between lines and shapes so there will be room for the colors to bleed. Use a lot of colors too! You might have to experiment at first.

Here is one of Cassie's simple designs. We mostly did designs that go across and tried some circular designs where you begin in the middle and branch out.

Then after the marker part is complete, it is time to spray with water. Make sure you have newspaper underneath.  When you spray, use the mist part on your sprayer and spray quickly. Don't get too close or too much of your design will wash away. Cassie loved this part.

Let your creations dry for a couple hours or so and then you'll have these Gorgeous Easter eggs that can be sun catchers too. These are similar to our Heart Snowflakes. What a Lovely way to brighten up a window for Spring/Easter.

When you lift up your eggs you'll notice there is a print on the newspaper because of the colors bleeding through. If you let your eggs dry on white paper you could have two creations in one.

This is Beautiful too.

These Mr. Sketch markers make the brightest colors for this project:

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