My tea-dyed journal for 2025
Last year we started a plan to create a new tea-dyed journal every summer. Last year’s journal was the beginning, of course, and so this year is my second journal. I decided to pick a smaller project because I found awesome book covers that I wanted to use. I forgot to take a picture of the before covers.
My tea-steeped journal didn’t come out exactly as I planned, but I was able to adjust my plans as I continued creating, and I am very happy with the results.
Once I knew the size of my covers, I cut down base papers to the size that I thought my pages should be. I made about 10 of these base papers, just with blank copy paper.
On each of those pages I created a simple 3-piece collage. I left them somewhat neutral so that after they go through the tea dye process, I could add in some interesting focal points once the papers dried.
For the tea soak I did everything as planned. I brewed double-strength tea, soaked my bundle for 20 minutes, and then let it drip dry for 3 hours before opening it.
The first thing that didn’t go as planned was that my red covers bled red onto several of the pages rather heavily. I had to throw out a couple of pages because they were simply too red. The majority of the papers did fine, though.
My rusty key stayed put nicely without moving, so it did leave a nice impression behind on the page.
After everything dried, my idea was to lay two pages side by side, and connect them with a piece of fabric tape. I would then punch holes down the middle of the fabric tape and attach them to the spine of my covers with a pamphlet stitch.
I created 4 sets of 2 pages. Once I folded them in half I realized that there was too much bulk for the pages to sew into the covers. There was not enough spine width to accommodate the fabric tape.
I had to cut the sets of pages, back to single pages. They still had fabric tape on them, so I decided to punch holes and use eyelets.
I cut the spine of the cover so that my front and back were now separated, and I used fabric tape at the edges. I punched holes into the covers, too, and then I was ready for embroidery floss to tie the pages together.
Once my pages were in, I could go through and collage my pages to my heart’s content. I enjoyed that part the best, of course. I absolutely love the texture that the tea dye has added to the papers. There’s just so much character on those pages!
