Dyed Book Page Flower

Hey all! Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving :). This weekend I worked on dyed "flowers" made out of book pages! You can see the techniques for these flowers by just typing "paper flower" in to google. So I didn't use just one site, I saw tons for inspiration and did my own style that worked best for me. Today I'll be showing you a basic rolled flower made from book pages and then dipping it in to dye to make fun colors!
Supplies:
-Food Coloring in any color (I'm using green)
-Vinegar or water
-Old book that you don't mind ripping apart
-Bowl
-Spoon
-Hot glue gun and glue

Step 1: We'll start by mixing our dye. I used vinegar because I heard that helps set the dye when used on products such as T-Shirts so I thought it would work better for the paper too. However, yesterday I just ran across a project by Martha Stewart where she died paper using just water and food coloring, So I guess either would work. Anyways, pour enough water or vinegar in to the bowl, just enough to cover the bottom. Put drops of food coloring in to reach your desired color and stir. I used 5 drops of green to create a nice dark green, perfect for Christmas.

Now set this aside, we'll get back to the dye in a bit.

Step 2: Lets start our flowers! Rip out some pages from your book. Each Page will make about one flower.

Step 3: Cut a circle out of one page. It doesn't have to be perfect. In fact, mine tend to look like ovals.

Step 4: Now cut a spiral pattern in your circle. You can experiment with a thick or thin spiral, depending on how you want your flower to look. When your spiral pattern is done, it should look something like this:

(Sorry for all the shadows, I did this project at night.)

Step 5: Begin rolling your spiral. Start at the end where you made your first cut. You'll need the other end (that should have a small circle) to secure your flower together. Start rolling tightly, When you get a few rolls in, secure it with hot glue.

Step 6: Continue rolling your flower. Start making loose rolls, this is how you will get a sort of "blooming" effect. Continue rolling until you run out of paper and are left with the small circle at the end of your paper.

Step 7: Add some hot glue to the end of the paper. Place on flat surface and press the center of your flower down, so that the center is glued to the end of the paper. I'm not sure if those two sentences made sense but yay for pictures to explain!

Now you have your finished flower! Time to move on to the dying process...

Step 8: Take your flower and dip it in to your bowl of dye. When dipping, the bottom of the flower should be face up and the front end should be in the dye. Leave in just for a second then remove.

Step 8: Leave your flower to dry. I would recommend drying it upside down, or else the dye will run down the petals of the flower. Here is what my finished flower looked like:

I made several of these in green and red, using this rolling technique and another one that I will show in a later post. I plan on attaching them to a Christmas wreath :). Let me know what you come up with using these dyed flowers. Happy Crafting!