Celebrate Faux Tie Dye

This morning I opened the Splitcoast newsletter to find a link to a new tutorial for a Tie Dye Background technique by Kim Jolley. It's a great technique that uses coffee filters and baby wipes in combination with regular ink pads to create a truly amazing tie dye look. I wanted to try it right away, but my coffee filters are unbleached and I don't have any baby wipes. Bummer!

Well, necessity being the mother of invention, I decided to try something a little different. I happen to have an overabundance of used dryer sheets (because come on, they have to be good for something other than the sparkly dryer sheet technique, right?) so I used a dryer sheet instead of a coffee filter and a sponge instead of the baby wipe. I liked the color combination challenge colors this week, so I went with those, except I didn't have any watermelon wonder and used strawberry slush instead.

What's the upshot? The results are not as nice as Kim's. The dryer sheet is more transparent than a coffee filter and also does not seem to absorb or bleed inks as well. Consequently, even after I spritzed both the dryer sheet and inked up sponge with water, the tie dye effect was much less pronounced. But I thought of a quick and dirty fix (which is why this is a faux instead of a pure tie dye technique). To make the colors stand out more, I simply sponged the colors in stripes onto the white cardstock in the same place as they would be after the dryer sheet was glued to the card stock. That worked pretty well. Still not as good as Kim's brilliant technique, but it will do in a pinch when you don't have the right supplies and have to improvise.

Because I wasn't completely in love with my faux tie dye results, I didn't use the background on the whole card. Instead, I cut it using one of the die cuts from the Banners assortment. I used a larger die cut to cut an elegant eggplant mat, which I dry embossed with the decorative dots embossing folder.  I also used a smaller die to cut a strawberry slush mat.

For my main image I stamped the cake from the Happy You set in Tuxedo Black Memento ink and colored in the cake using Soft Sky, Strawberry Slush and Elegant Eggplant markers. I used a yet smaller banner die to cut the image out and then hand cut a thin mat in soft sky.

I used a white card base and added a mat of designer paper. Now, I'm not 100% sure of the source of the paper, because I got  a sheet of it from my niece who was using a whole pack of this stuff to make a scrapbook for her friend. I know she got it at Michael's and looking on their website it may be from the Boho line by Recollections, but that's just my best guess. I loved the colors on the paper when I saw it and today I realized it would be the perfect background for this color challenge. I stacked all the banner shapes and attached the stack to the matted card front. Far from a masterpiece, but still cute. I can't wait to show my niece how I used the designer paper!

Recipe (all products Stampin' Up! unless otherwise indicated):

Paper: whisper white, elegant eggplant, strawberry slush, soft skye, Boho DSP by Recollections (best guess)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Elegant Eggplant, Strawberry Slush, Soft Skye
Stamps: Happy You
Accessories: Banners Framelits; Decorative Dots embossing folder, dryer sheet, stampin' sponges.