First Bleach, Then Dye, Dye, Dye

First bleach three hundred and forty tiny bottle brush trees and then dye, dye, dye.

 



The most time-consuming part of this project is waiting for them dry, dry, dry.

The lighter trees on the screens is how they look after bleaching.

For deep jewel tones, use Distress Ink Spray.

Super messy - worth the trouble.

The rest of the trees were dyed with Rit Dye in a hot water bath with salt added.

 Rose Pink.

Apple Green with a bit of Gold for a vintage look.

 Aqua Blue.

Petal Pink.


About half of the trees have sold, but there are more in Booth W-10, Riverfront Antique Mall, North Augusta, South Carolina.



For more information on bleaching bottle brush trees see these posts:

Bleaching Bottle Brush Trees 
Bottle Brush Trees On Corks 
Bottle Brush Tree Joy 
Bottle Brush Trees On Molds 
Bottle Brush Trees On Blocks 



And PLEASE do not bleach vintage trees!



See y'all!

Come visit the Riverfront Antique Mall dealer page on Facebook:  Dealing On The River and like us!

ETSY SHOP IS CLOSED

 I will accept reserved listings if you see something in the blog posts you want.

A Tiny Shake Of Christmas

Just the tiniest little shake of Christmas this morning.

I cannot seem to let a weekend go by without a bottle brush tree post.

These are rather sweet.

Unless you live near me or someone like me who has bought all the tiny trees at Hobby Lobby, you can go to Hobby Lobby to buy a package or twenty
packages of these tiny trees.

Using a warm tub of bleach and water, I picked up each tree with tweezers and gently swirled them around for about eight swirls.

Tossed them immediately into a tub of warm soapy water.

Put them out to dry.  This takes hours.

Be careful - these super-cheap trees bleach very fast.

Found a vintage postcard image at The Graphics Fairy.

Printed out a page of them.

Cut each out and decorated with a bit of glitter glue.

"To thee and thine
From me and mine -
A Merry Christmas Greeting."

In my work box a collection of thirty small salt shakers and my tiny bottle brush trees.

I dabbed a bit a Tacky Glue to the bottom of each tree and used tweezers to stick them in the bottle.

 
Added some plastic fake snow.

Attached the card with a beading wire stuck through the shaker holes.

Gently curled the tags.

Voila!

Bottle brush trees in bottles!

Just a tiny shake of Christmas.

Back into the work box until I get them marked and ready for the booth.


















I cannot hold onto the secret any longer.  Danni Baird who is on a break from her blog Silo Hill Farm is my guest poster child Tuesday and Wednesday.  She has two Thanksgiving projects that will not take but a wee bit of time if you need a last minute project. I will be off trying to create some order before the big move down the aisle to my new huge booth.

Remember to return tonight for Make It Monday.  Tamara chose the features from last week's party and they will be on her party post.  The party starts at 7PM Eastern on Sunday and runs through Wednesday. 

 
See y'all!


PS - Today is Chucks and my 34th wedding anniversary.  We are not doing anything special because we both FORGOT it!  Oh, well, age does creep up on you!  I suggested a quick trip to Paris.  He suggested a quick trip to the Cracker Barrel.  I guess opposites truly do attract :>)

Use this discount code to receive 10% off your purchase at the Distressed Donna Etsy store:

DISTRESSEDDONNA14

SHOP HERE! 

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Vintage Inspiration Party #165
Share Your Cup Thursday #128
Feathered Nest Friday 
The Cottage Market Presents Junkin Joe Every Friday  
Party Junk at Funky Junk Interiors 

    

Bleached Sweet Gum Balls

I know I am usually bleaching bottle brush trees, but this time I bleached sweet gum balls.

I was inspired by Gail at Purple Hues and Me when last fall she bleached pine cones. Read all about Gail's pine cones here.

I promptly went and collected a bag of sweet gum balls and put them in a jar of bleach.

I did not have any brown ones left to show you, but most of you know what a sweet gum ball looks like.

I had used them in an art piece.

All of them painted, but the smashed one in the corner.

That one is real.

I love the brown ones for fall decor so I knew I would love the bleached ones.

I had planned to make glittery Christmas ornaments with them, but they took forever (more than three days is forever to me!) to bleach.

I rinsed them off and stuck them in a basket on the patio.

Never even thought of them until we were cleaning out the planters, and Chucks said, "Look at these mutant sweet gum balls!"

Oh, that's where they went!

Now they seemed to be delightful and beautiful to me.

A found treasure.

I put them in a glass vase with the Easter lambs and love them.

Bleached sweet gum balls.

Hey, I wonder if they can be dyed?

Now that's an idea!

See y'all!

Use this discount code to receive 10% off your purchase at the Distressed Donna Etsy store:

DISTRESSEDDONNA14

SHOP HERE!