Messin Around...

No, Not that way.....LOL  I meant I was messing around with spanish moss. I have been looking for the right fillers for in my prim bowls I have been working on. Locating prairie grass in my area isnt an easy task.. I know you can buy it online but I wanted it NOW! Hhhhhmmmm.... Im starting to sound like Veruca on Willie Wonka and the Chocolate factory. So I sat in my craft room looking around to see what I could come up with. Then all of a sudden I saw it. A huge bag of spanish moss. but I wanted something that looked green.. Then I decided one way or another I was going to get it. Went to the laundry room closet and saw that I had some kelly green dye.

That right! I used Rit liquid dye to tint my moss. I soaked it in a tub of dye and hot water mixture.

The longer you let it sit. The darker it will come. After soaking my first batch for about 2 hours. I forgot I had it soaking....lol  I took it out and rinsed it with cold water until the water ran semi clear. I found using a colander was a lot easier than rinsing it by hand. Spread it out on some paper towels to absorb as much water as you can. After making sure you have most of the moisture out. Spread it out evenly on a cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil.

I forgot to mention that your should preheat your oven to 250°. I checked on it every 5 to 10 minutes. I just kept moving mine around on the cookie sheet to make sure it dried more evenly and it didn't burn.
After I took it out of the oven. I spread it out on a piece of newspaper to cool. Actually I used a Christmas Tree Shop ad.

Here are a  couple of pictures of the 2 shades of green I made. The first one I left soak for 2 hours and the 2nd one I left soaking for about 45 minutes. I really likd how they turned out. Now just use your imagination and think of all the colors you could do. I cant wait to do orange for Halloween. Orange grass in a black bowl is going to look sweet. Hopefully this will open a whole new outlet for creating.

                         Prim Blessings,
                              Patti