Lots of holiday projects involve twine. My next project was going to be the Twine Christmas Trees I saw at
Lemon Tree Creations (thanks, Erin). Those trees were in a dark brown twine, which I loved. Very organic looking. I set out yesterday to pick up my supplies, and could NOT find anything except a sorta "blondish" color. I may try a project in the original color, but for the purposes of my trees, I wanted darker. I figured paint would work somehow, and it did. I learned a few tips & tricks as I experimented.
Experiment #1: I poured an small amount of craft paint (approx 1 tbl) onto a piece of tin foil. I took a length of twine (6-7 ft) in my left hand, and used my right index finger & thumb as my paint brush. Stick your index finger into the paint, rub it against your thumb (now you have two painted fingers). Starting at one end of the twine, put it between your messy fingers and twist back & forth. As you're twisting, start sliding your fingers down the twine. TIP: Go
with the grain of the twine, or the direction of the wrap. I could get about 10-12" down before stopping to "re-load". When you reach the end, set your painted twine aside to dry.
Experiment #2: I was using my twine with a stiffener, so I added the paint directly to the stiffener and mixed it well. I submerged the twine in the mixture and squished it around (that's a technical term, btw). As I pulled it out I used my fingers to squeegee the excess. This put a more even colortone on the twine. It wasn't what I was looking for in my tree project, but it worked well. It also eliminated a step because I could put it directly on my molding form, rather than wait for the color to dry before adding the stiffener.
That's it, folks! Now you can do a twine project in any color you want!! I found some gold & bronze craft paint in my stash, so will be experimenting with those too in the next few days. Right now I have piles of twine drying in my kitchen, and two trees wrapped and drying. When they're done, I'll post about my experiences with that.
