Tea Staining Tutorial

Jess is kinda like king Midas, except instead of gold, everything she touches turns to tea stain.

T E A S T A I N

We're going to walk you through tea staining! You can tea stain just about everything: -Fabric -Wood -Paper -Dried Flowers

-Unglazed Clay

-Teeth

I used mostly pictures because I don't feel like you need a million paragraphs on how to tea stain. I use very generic tea, like lipton, or red rose. I've found black tea is best. In the past I've used black cardamom tea and the paper comes out more peach colored. But the following is using just a black english breakfast.

S T E P O N E

Gather all you supplies while water boils.

S T E P T W O

Add boiling water.

S T E P T H R E E

Let tea steep.

S T E P F O U R

Remove tea bags from water.

S T E P F I V E ( O P T I O N A L)

We like to distress our paper by crumpling it up into a ball a few times. Make sure to unroll it before you stain.

S T E P S I X

Submerge your paper/flowers/teeth into tea for desired amount of time. We only do the tops of our box for 30 seconds or so, or else it looks dirty instead of distressed.

S T E P S E V E N

Remove from tea and let dry. Dry flat unless you're trying to shape it.

S T E P E I G H T

To show you the difference, this is a side by side comparison of a wet, tea stained paper, and a dry piece of paper.

F A B R I C

Also here is an example of the white burlap we left in the tea the whole time we shot this. You can see it is much darker where it was left in the tea, (obviously).

Leo zzZodiac Box

Here's an example of our zzZodiac boxes with the tea-stained top. They turn out beautiful and the stain adds an extra something to the aesthetic. If you care to splurge on one, use code WELCOMEBACK until October 10th and receive 20% off!

Happy staining! -Jess