Natural Dyes

Natural Dyes

Make your own dyes out of natural materials. It's simpler than you think!

Supplies

  • Dye-able material
  • 4-5 Avocados
  • Spinach
  • Water
  • Vinegar

Instructions

Preparing the fabric

  1. Clean your fabric
  2. Soak in a mordant for spinach dye. Make a vegetable based mordant by combining 1 part vinegar and 4 parts water.
  3. Soak in water for avocado dye.

Avocado Dye

  1. Get the pits and skins of 4-5 avocados. Remove as much flesh as possible
  2. Wash the pits and skins thoroughly and scrub off any flesh remnants
  3. Discard any green skins
  4. Simmer pits and skins with 4 cups of water for an hour or to desired color
  5. Strain and let cool
  6. Steep fabric in dye to desired color and let dry.

Spinach Dye

  1. Cut up a bunch of spinach into little pieces
  2. Simmer 1 part spinach to 2 parts water or adjust ratio for deeper color for an hour
  3. Strain and let cool
  4. Steep fabric in dye to desired color and let dry

 

DIY Board Games

DIY Board Games

Make your own custom board games with everyday materials

Supplies

  • Cardboard (Thicker cardboard is better for the board, thinner is better for game pieces and dice)
  • Markers/Decorating supplies
  • Scissors
  • Tape

Instructions

Game Pieces

  1. Draw some characters (2 of each) onto thin cardboard and color them in
  2. Cut out your pieces, make sure the characters that go together have the same cut out shape
  3. On one piece of the character, cut a slit on the bottom. On the other piece of the character, cut a slit on the top. This was you can slot them together for it to stand up. This may take some trial and error to make them fit together perfectly.

Board

  1. Draw a snaking path on your board.
  2. Decorate with drawings or embellishments of your choice.
  3. Optionally add shortcuts or different paths.

Dice

  1. Look up a template for foldable cubes or even dice of even more sides
  2. Print or trace it out on some thin cardboard/cardstock/paper
  3. Cut it out
  4. Tape or glue it together
  5. Decorate your dice

Hedgehog Stuffed Animal

DIY Stuffed Animal

An easy DIY hedghog stuffed animal. Follow along or adapt it to make it your own!

Supplies

  • Scrap fabric/old T-shirt
  • Scissors
  • Pencil
  • Old pillow/pillow stuffing
  • Sharpie/ fabric marker/ buttons

Instructions

  1. Fold your fabric in half
  2. Sketch a peanut shape which will be the body of your stuffed animal
  3. Sketch a larger peanut shape 2 inches or larger than the smaller peanut shape
  4. Cut the larger shape out on both layers of fabric
  5. Cut slits about 1 inch apart towards the smaller peanut shape all the way around
  6. Then double knot the two pieces of fabric together all the way around, leaving a small hole to stuff the stuffed animal.
  7. After you’ve filled the stuffed animal, close up that hole by double-knotting the sides together.
  8. Add a friendly face with sharpies, fabric marker, or buttons.