Tie Dye with Acrylic Paint-- WIN

After the Kool aid tie dye did NOT work, I looked again to the internet to find a way to make tie dye shirts without a kit.  (because I still could not find any kits or fabric dyes here in Japan)

I came across a few blogs and youtube videos about using acrylic paints.  Below is what I did.

 

First you collect your materials...

 

Then Mix 1 part acrylic paint to 1 part rubbing alcohol.

 

 

Start mixing.  I just used a plastic spoon with plastic containers.

 
 
 

 At first it will be gloppy.  This is the alcohol starting to separate the color and oils and such...  You can add more alcohol as the colors get smoother.

 

Once you have a nice smooth consistency, you are ready to strain.

 

 

Once you strain it, you will see the "plastic" stuff in the strainer.  That is the part of the paint that gives the paint the hard stiff feeling when dried.

 

 

Once you have strained your paint mixture, you can add a little more alcohol.  About an ounce of paint gave me a full 5-6 oz bottle of squeeze tie dye color!

 

 

Have fun preparing your shirts and coloring them!   

 

Once I colored them I let them dry overnight.  I would have hung them outside, except it was raining out!  I still think my kool aid ones looked better, they were more vibrant... Oh well!  These turned out great looking too!

 



 

After drying overnight, I took a deep breath and followed the directions on the other tutorials that say to put them in the cold salt water bath to set the colors...  The colors did NOT bleed out!  I was so happy at this!  I ran them through a normal wash and they are just ever so slightly faded but I suppose that is just the color setting in.  They are not really stiff either...  I think diluting them with the alcohol helped get the stiffness out of the paints for dyeing.  They turned out GREAT and I will definitely do this again if I cannot find any dye's or kits. 

 

This would be a great activity to do with a bunch of kids!  You could do all sorts of patterns too!  I loved doing this project and am very happy with the way they turned out!  We will be wearing these matching tie-dye shirts at the airports for our travels home.  Each of us have at least 2 of them (this way if we need to change for any reason... we have kids... that we have another and can still match)

 

Kool Aid Tie Dye-- FAIL

I thought for our trip home through the airports, it would be good to dress us alike so I can see the kids and they can find us easily if something should happen we are separated in the busy airport...  So my thinking cap thought tie dye!  I looked on the internet for tie dye ideas without a tie dye kit or using RIT fabric dye...  (Here in Japan they don't really have that or do that... and the Arts & Craft Center on base only has dark yucky fabric dye colors) I found some blogs about using kool aid for dye.  I decided to try it out... 

The recipe asks for 1 packet of kool aid and 1 oz of vinegar.  After completing your tie dye pattern on your clothes, let air dry for 24 hours.  Then set with heat of an iron.  After this you do a salt cold water bath then wash as normal after washing by itself  the first 2 times... 

 

I started with white t-shirts and did the spiral method...

 

It took a few tries to get them spiraled good!

Here is the start!

Of course, all the neighborhood girls came to check out what was going on!

After they were complete, I took the rubber bands out and then hung them to dry.

 

They came out awesome!  I LOVED how vibrant and colorful they were and the spirals were GREAT too!!



Unfortunately after letting them dry, then setting with the heat of an iron, I didn't want to wash them and risk losing that beautiful art!  This though was a must because they smelled like vinegar...  But since I had ironed them, I thought they were safe to salt water treat then wash to get the smell out.  As soon as they hit the cold salt water, the color started bleeding out... after 5 minutes in the bath, they were PINK!  I was so mad! 

Kool Aid dye does NOT work!  :(

Atreyu's Mega Birthday

Atreyu really wanted a Power Ranger Birthday Party!  And since this year marks the 20 years of Power Rangers, Megaforce is big!  Not to mention we are also in the land of Power Rangers er Super Sentai...  I used a little bit of everything that I could find from Mighty Morphin all the way up to Megaforce as well as Super Sentai.  The items I ordered online, well we didn't get some of them till after the party, even though I ordered them over 2 months in advance!  oh well!   

We rented out the Grid for his party because unfortunately Davy Jones Locker was booked already, even though I tried to reserve over 2 months in advance!  oh well again!  But the Grid worked out great because it was like "Angel Grove Youth Center"!  It had an inflatable boxing ring that the kids could jump on, as well as a big movie screen that we played Power Ranger Movies on.  We also had the ability to just chill and relax at the tables, or climb a rock wall!  It really was like a youth center you would find in the 90's! 

Atreyu had a blast! I enjoyed my time too, I didn't run around mad trying to entertain kids because there was so much for them to do already!

The pictures are below!