Kool Aid Dyed Playsilks

 My children love playsilks. We have had a few over the years, and it came to my attention that we were down to a single, ratty, faded yellow play silk. The sad looking silk had been a cape, a doll sling, a blanket, a net, a tent, a skirt, and so many other things in its dear little life.  It has been a while since I went playsilk shopping, or dying, so finding the price of $14 (or more) plus shipping per silk was more than I could afford.

In steps Pinterest and every one's favorite childhood beverage: KoolAid. I found this blog post with an amazing color chart for dying silks with KoolAid.  I did all the dying in the microwave, in ziplock bags, thanks to a tip from my friend Regina.  Basically that means no mess.  Basically pour 1 cup of water, 1/2 cup of vinegar, 3-4 packs of KoolAid into a ziplock freezer bag and heat for 3 minutes, let sit for 3 minutes and rinse. Then hang to dry (or throw in the dryer for 5 minutes if your children are begging for them). THATS IT! :)

I think the colors are so beautiful and vibrant.  You can make a forest green, dark blue, maroon red, and clayish orange by adding 1/2 packet of grape koolaid to 3 packs of the solid color. It makes them a little darker. Also, if you do yellow, do like 5 packs and let it sit for as long as you can stand. I love the bright, summery colors and you have to know the kids have been playing non-stop with them.  The rainbow silk I made (above) was done by tieing off sections with rubber bands in ziplock bags. I actually may re-do some of the colors that needed to be more saturated.  You can also do this on the stove which I intend to try with the hope of getting some more saturated yellow, green, blue and orange.  It was really hard with the zip locks to tie it off and make sure the silk was completely in the water... if that makes any sense at all!

I bought the silks from dharma trading post for $5.35 each I think. Even with shipping and KoolAid they were still around $6 total.  Much better than $14. I must have purchased 50 packs of Kool Aid in all the primary colors! I went several places and Wal-Mart had the best selection. They had all the colors I needed and then some! I didn't have enough silk left to make some pink.  Maybe for Christmas?

We have been really into Mermaids lately, and the silks have really added a lot of color to our Mermaid world!  :)

Can you guess who Anastasia is pretending to be?  I really enjoyed this project because it was quick, easy and super rewarding.  All the Kool Aid brought me back to my own sugar-induced childhood.  I think I drank gallons of that stuff.  The scary thing is, my hands are still green and blue from yesterday's dying adventure. All I can think is what all that color does to one's insides?? Yikes! I am so glad I can pass on the beauty of Kool Aid to my children in another way. :) hehe.

Now go buy some silk and add some color and creativity to your life!

Barn Makeover

Anastasia likes her little wooden barn she received for her birthday, but as you can see, it was a little bland. Snowed in day 3, Sunday, produced a little "sprucing up" of the barnyard.
I actually made 2 little play mats, the second one might go in my shop when I finish up! My favorite part is the vegetable garden with removable felt veggies: Onions, carrots and lettuce!! Oh my. I think making them out of sculpey clay would be a little nicer so that is next on the agenda. If I ever get out of the house to the craft store that is. 3 feet of snow now, and 10-20 inches on the way! Oy.

The haybales were quite simple and cute and the animals won't go hungry! And the ducks now have somewhere to swim:Anastasia was so excited about her new "farm" and all of her animals and fairies love swimming in the pond. It took me all day, but I know it will provide many hours and days of pretend play for the little ones.As you can see, I made little hay beds for the interior by cutting up some yellow-orangish felt that has been sitting in my stash for a couple years. REALLY. I am really into this play scene thing and want to learn wet, and needle felting now. Really. Badly. This pumpkin house set just kills me with its cuteness! Ack! I am also smitten for THIS hand-knit farm on Etsy. I just love Etsy. If I can't make it, I will buy it on Etsy. That is my new theme.

Fairy Cute

I finally put the concept of peg fairies into action!! This has been a week in progress between making, selling, and shipping sets of gnomes. I think they are ADORABLE and I love them and I am making a set for Anastasia for her birthday too! The fairies will look so sweet on her cake with some mushrooms... don't you think?

A trip to Michaels gave me what I needed to make some mushroom table and chairs.

And leaf beds!!! This is my FAVORITE part. I had them in my mind and finally made them the other day! They are way cuter in real-life!

I made a cute bag, but I really need to come up with a better way to store them. It is really cute and makes a little home, but the pouch took more time and work than I am willing to put into something that I can't really market for too much money.... back to the drawing board I guess. But everything folds up so nice:

So I am SOOOOO EXCITED about this. Hopefully it will inspire you to make one for all your kids.... or buy one... from my shop :) Happy Friday! Pizza for us tonight! yum.