Monster Shelf and Potholders made with RIT Dye!

Monster Shelf and Potholders/Suzys Artsy Craftsy Sitcom #HalloweenRIT #Halloween @ritdye

When the nice folks at RIT Dye sent me a box of their liquid dyes to try out, I’m betting they never expected a shelf full of monsters.  But that’s just kind of the way we roll around here at The Sitcom.

Never having dealt with RIT Dye before, I did a bit of research and found out that there are many different things that you can dye with it.  While fabric is definitely a favorite, there are many other items that will accept the color.  With Halloween right around the corner, well it just seemed that not only did I need to go with something fitting to the season, but I would like to try out a few of the many techniques found on the RIT Dye website.

For this project, I used the techniques of dyeing wood, dyeing eggs, and waxless batik dyeing.  I used:

RIT liquid dye in Purple, Sunshine Orange and Apple Green
2 Potholders
Fabric Resist
1 small wooden shelf with hangers
5 blown eggs
Assorted paper and cardboard
Acrylic Paint
Hot glue and white glue
Clear Acrylic Spray Matte

Technique #1 Egg Dyeing

Monster shelf and potholders #HalloweenRIT #Halloween

I am a Ukrainian egg artist, so I am very familiar with dyeing eggs.  The dyes that I use are caustic and difficult to work with.  When I discovered how many thing RIT dye would color, I thought I would try it out on some of my blown eggs.  After all, I did need some monster bodies.

Monster shelf and potholders #HalloweenRIT #Halloween Monster shelf and potholders #HalloweenRIT #Halloween

I added about two cups of water to a microwave safe bowl and heated it in the microwave for two minutes.  I then added 1/2 cup of vinegar and about 1/2 cup of liquid dye.  I held the eggs down with a spoon, checking the color every few minutes until it was as dark as I wanted it to be.  I then set each egg aside to dry on paper towels, with the hole in the shell facing down so that any dye that made it inside could drain out.

Monster shelf and potholders #HalloweenRIT #Halloween

I have to tell you that the vibrant colors created with RIT Dye totally exceeded anything I expected.  My expensive Ukrainian dyes never create color this nice.  I believe I will be using RIT Dye in the future for my Ukrainian eggs.  Another thing I loved…see how closely the finished color matches the bottles?  That is nice!

Technique #2 – Wood Dyeing

Monster shelf and potholders #HalloweenRIT #Halloween

To dye the wooden shelf, I simply added the full strength purple dye to a small cup and heated it up in the microwave.  Using a soft brush, I then brushed it onto the sanded shelf.  The pine shelf took the color nicely, and in no time at all I had a purple shelf, ready for monsters!  Clean up was so easy, simply wash out the brush with soap and water.  I finished the shelf with a few light coats of clear acrylic spray for protection.

Technique #3- Waxless Batik Dyeing

Monster shelf and potholders #HalloweenRIT #Halloween Monster shelf and potholders #HalloweenRIT #Halloween

I picked up a couple of potholders from the Dollar Store.  Be sure when dyeing fabric that you check the content of the fabric.  Some fabrics do not dye well.  For this project, I chose 100% cotton fabric which does great with RIT Dye.  I drew out a couple silly monsters on paper so that I had an idea of what I wanted to draw.  I then free-handed the monsters onto the potholders using the tip of the bottle of Fabric Resist to draw them directly onto the fabric.  The resist prevents the dye from penetrating the fabric in the areas that you apply it, and can be washed out after the dyeing is complete.

I created two dye baths, one of purple and one of green.  Each contained about two cups of water, 1/2 cup of salt, and 1/2  cup of liquid dye.  As I did with the eggs, I heated the water first in the microwave, added the other ingredients and placed each potholder into the dye bath, holding it down until I achieved the color that I wanted.

Monster Shelf and Potholders/Suzys Artsy Craftsy Sitcom #HalloweenRIT #Halloween @Ritdye

I rinsed each with cold water and set them out to dry.  Once dry, I re-washed again with soapy water to remove the rest of the resist.  Two cool looking monster pot holders!

Assembly

Monster shelf and potholders #HalloweenRIT #Halloween Monster shelf and potholders #HalloweenRIT #Halloween

I found some cardstock that matched my little monsters and cut 1″ wide by 11 1/2″ long strips for the purple monster legs.  Using my quilling tool, I rolled them and glued them with white glue.  I did the same for the green monsters with narrower paper strips.  I used hot glue to glue my eggs in place.

Monster shelf and potholders #HalloweenRIT #Halloween

I created various monster pieces using colored cardstock, acrylic paints and white glue.  And even decided to throw in a baby monster using a small plastic christmas ornament, painting it green with acrylic paint to match the other monsters.

Monster shelf and potholders #HalloweenRIT #Halloween

And it wasn’t anytime at all before I had a whole mess of silly monsters willing to hold up my potholders.

Monster shelf and potholders #HalloweenRIT #Halloween

Using RIT Dye was surprisingly easy and created some fabulous results!  For more information and to see lots of other great ideas using RIT Dye, be sure to check out their social networking sites:

For other great Halloween project ideas, check out the link list below!

I wrote this post as part of a paid campaign with RIT Dye and Blueprint Social. The opinions in this post are my own.