Creating lovely papers for wrapping spa gifts, using tea-staining technique

For wrapping my hand-crafted spa gifts, I had thought to buy some pretty scrapbook papers. Being the cheapskate tightwad thrifty frugal careful-with-money person that I am, I chose to "make" lovely papers using print-outs from my computer and tea.

For the overwrap, itself, I chose to use a favorite poem by Keats, Ode to a Nightingale, as the motif for my paper. In an elegant script, this makes beautiful paper. (I typed the poem on my laptop, using Zapfino font, and played around with spacing and type size until I was satisfied for use as wrap paper.)

My printer is ancient, from around 1996 (and it was a hand-me-down at that). But it works well enough to print out black and white text and images.

To transform the appearance of the printed poem to something more decorative, I tea-stained the print-outs.

To tea-stain paper:

• soak the paper in a strong black tea, 1 sheet at a time, for about 20 minutes. (I do this in a jelly roll pan, with raised edges.) I used 2 Dollar Tree bags of tea per 12 ounces of water.
• Once the paper is completely soaked, gently lift the paper out of the tea, and allow to drip bake into the pan for a minute. Carefully transfer the paper to a large baking sheet. Bake at 200 F degrees, for about 6 minutes. Peel the paper up and turn over to finish the drying, another 2 minutes in the oven at 200 F degrees.
• remove paper from baking sheet, and cool for a few minutes.

• the paper will be slightly crinkly, I prefer to use an iron on a low setting to smooth this out part way. You can also place the dried, tea-stained sheets in a book for a few days to flatten (Take care with the iron, this is paper, after all, and flammable.)
• if you have a couple of large baking sheets, you can speed up the drying process, by baking 2 or 3 papers at a time

For the labels, I wanted some contrast between the wrap papers and label papers. I selected a design from thegraphicsfairy.com ( a resource for crafters with free images available to print out). I played around  with the size and shape of that image on my laptop, until I had the proper size and proportions for my project, making a larger and smaller size.

The tea-stain on the label papers is darker than the wrap papers. There are 4 ways to get a darker stain on paper. 1) stain and dry the paper, twice, or, 2) use a tea of greater strength, so that the tea is as dark as coffee, or, 3) leave the paper in the tea for a longer period of time, or 4) use hot tea (it's reported that hot tea will result in more orange tones). I used a stronger tea, 4 Dollar Tree bags to 10 oz of water, instead of 1 or 2, stirring the tea, and pressing the bags against the pot, as it steeped, to release as much color as possible, and I allowed my sheets to soak in the tea for about an hour. The darkest sheet was made with fresh, hot tea. The other two sheets were stained with cold tea.

After pressing my papers, I set out to use them. Here is how it all comes together.

I used my sewing machine to sew envelopes from the paper, for the bath tea sachets. (I can give more detailed instructions on making envelopes in this manner tomorrow or the next day. These envelopes could be useful for packaging a variety of gifts, envelopes for tea, seeds, gift cards, for example.)

I cut wide strips of the paper to wrap around the bars of soap,  as a sleeve, and used a glue stick to seal the edges closed on the back.

To use the labels, I cut out around the design, hand-lettered my label, and affixed with glue stick.

Cost -- my sheets of decorative papers cost about 6-7 cents each, to make, all inclusive of paper, printer ink, tea and oven use. In comparison, buying scrapbook paper would cost about 25 cents (if on sale, plus tax and gas to get to a store) for equivalent sheets. My labels are even more of a bargain, at under a half-cent per decorative label, or 7-8 cents per sheet. In comparison, I could buy decorative, self-stick labels for about $3 to $6 per sheet.

A lot of time goes into creating gifts like these. To reduce the time per unit, I do all of these items in batches, assembly-line fashion. But I do enjoy the process of creating something to give to someone else.

more later this week . . .

Gift-making: lavender soap plus where to get free cellophane to wrap bars of soap

There is something about this new batch of soap that I am particularly drawn to. Do you find you have things in life like that for yourself? Maybe it's the color, or texture, or fragrance. I'm not sure. But I do love how this turned out, and how it looks with the lavender spa cloth that I knit.

Here's how it all went:

I used the same spaghetti noodle box, that I used in the batch of Honey-Almond-Oatmeal soap last week, for the lavender soap mold. The box held up fine for a couple of uses.

I taped up the end that I had opened to get that last long bar out. And I relined the box with new plastic wrap, this time not gluing it into place. The soap edges had a slightly neater appearance with the first batch, having glued the plastic to the cardboard. But, overall, this batch looks good, too.

The soap looks beautiful.

I un-molded it the next morning, and cut it into 4 bars.

With the lavender soap, I tinted the soap base a pale shade of lavender, to coordinate with the lavender spa cloths that I knit earlier this fall. I added dried lavender buds that I cut from my garden and air-dried this summer, then ground partially in my coffee grinder just before melting the soap base. And I added some lavender essential oil. The kitchen smelled amazing while I was making this batch.

Immediately after pouring the soap into the mold, I sprinkled the surface with more dried lavender buds. By gently blowing on the surface, I could see where I needed to ever-so-gently press the buds into place. This soap formed a skin very quickly.

I am now onto wrapping my soap, both to preserve it's freshness and to add to the presentation of this hand-crafted gift.

Where to find free cellophane?
I have the one cellophane bag that I mentioned previously. I've decided to save that for packaging for my hand-crafted bubble bath (more on that another day). Where else would I find cellophane?

I bought a box of tea earlier this week, and as I was opening the package, I had a lightbulb moment. Tea boxes often come wrapped in lightweight cellophane to preserve the tea's flavor.

By carefully cutting the cellophane open, I can get enough for 2 bars of soap, from one box of tea bags. I used glue stick to seal my wrapping closed. I'll be digging into my pantry to find more cellophane-wrapped packages to scavenge from. (update on the cellophane hunt -- I found a large sheet of cellophane in my gift wrap stuff! It was the packaging/outer wrap for a set of shirt boxes, bought long ago. Woo hoo! Wiped off the dust and got all 8 bars wrapped.)

Next, to find presentation for these bars of soap. I'm feeling inspired by some favorite sonnets and poetry. Hmmmm. . . wrapping soap, to be continued.

A breakdown on costs and timing for making soap as a gift.

Now is the time to be looking for high-value coupons for Michael's and Hobby Lobby, for the soap base, and maybe the essential oils. I buy essential oils, online, through Amazon and Bulk Apothecary. As I use lavender essential oil in many bath and beauty products, I buy it in 4 ounce bottles through Amazon. I buy this brand and size -- Calily &8482; 100% Premium Pure Lavender Essential Oil - Large 4 Ounce - Therapeutic Grade Oil, (4 Oz. / 118 ml). The fragrance is good, for my use, and the price is awesome for pure lavender essential oil. A bottle this size lasts me 2-3 years.

For the soap base, I think you can get the best price per pound with a 50% off coupon to a craft store, like Michael's. The regular price is about $10 for 2 pounds, with coupon the price was $5. I used a little over 2 pounds to make 8 bars (I had soap base leftover from another gift). So, for the mold I used, a 2-lb block of soap base would make 7 bars, making 2 batches. Each of my bars was about 5 ounces, and cost about 72 cents per bar for the soap base. Adding in the cost of the oil, my lavender soap came close to 85 cents per bar.

Finding the right mold took a few days of contemplating. When I settled on the pasta box, I still needed to figure out how to line the box, and calculate how much soap to melt for the size box I chose. Purchased molds are simpler, but they add to the cost of making soap. (Info on calculating volume for a box is in the post on making Honey-Almond-Oatmeal soap which I linked to above.)

I like to pack the soap into airtight containers, using waxed paper between bars, and leave for a week to harden a bit more. So, to make soap as a gift, one would want to do so about 2 weeks in advance of needing those bars for gifting.

Just a teaser for tomorrow --

What do you suppose is in this envelope? Hint, it's another spa gift. I'll post about making those, and the envelopes, this week.

One more thing. It's looking like I'll have some extra spa items. I'm still going through everything, and seeing what will fit into a small PO package. But I feel a giveaway coming on! Stay tuned!