Here Be July, What???

So I will begin with quilt #4 for GD #2 of the 7 for 7 Grandchildren adventure.

This one is complete!!!!!!!!!   

The next one has a back made, not sure if big enough though, and the other 2 have fabrics picked out for their backs, but not assembled.

Girl Scouts sure have changed since my days.  GD #3 got to design her own  sneakers!  She was the top seller of cookies in her troop? 

When I heard about the Tiny Prick Project, I knew I needed to join in! 

I picked this quote because of my asthma.

click to enlarge, should work for all the pix

People like to show their favorite craft storage ideas. This is mine. 

A dishwasher utensil caddy.  I hoard these things. I put cardboard in the bottom so the pens don't fall out.

So my adventure into journal making has me coffee dying paper, above, and RIT dying, below.

Because I am not sure if the RIT is colorfast on the paper, I am hesitant to use them in any I give to the grandchildren.  BUT look at that yellow!!!!!   I was getting no where with the yellow watercolor paint, so when this idea jumped on board, yeehaw!

The coffee versions above....Roxy Creations  mentioned it in one of her recent You Tube videos....so I went, via her link to  Medieval Mirage and her YT video of how to coffee dye paper in a limited space. 

I couldn't get the water boiling fast enough to try this.  

Jarf's instructions===Use instant coffee in a spray bottle, spray each paper as you add it to your tub. 

Vicky's version==== I have some instant, but I also have used grounds.  

~~~I put the hot water in a bowl with the grounds, stirred the mess around, then poured the coffee through a strainer, all 10 days or so worth that I had on hand.  It was very very dark...more like dirt.

~~~Then I just poured the coffee onto 200 sheets of binder paper, that I sort of spread out in the Costco sheet-cake-plastic-lid that I have been using for dying paper. I didn't bother rinsing out the past color experiment residues, either.

The paper sucked up the first cup of muddy coffee very quickly.

I added more mud....then I had to add just water!

The blue lines of the binder paper started to bleed almost immediately.

The BEST part is....the paper separates as it dries. Even stacks of 50 sheets!

I only tore one piece of paper...ONE!  As the stacks dried, out in the sun, I was able to split them up into smaller stacks. It took almost 24 hours to get them all dry, or mostly at least, so there won't be any mold issues.

Are the papers attractive? Not really.  But they are grungy, they crackle, they are still usable. AND I can always try again with the same paper, and maybe even spray it on as directed!

Though I haven't been posting much, I have been having fun!!