DIY Natural Stain

I had a little DIY project a couple of weeks ago that involved a small $2.00 wooden treasure chest from the dollar store. One of those paint it or decorate it yourself mini projects. I needed it for a pirate themed gift box. However, the freshness and newness of the box is not pirate-y what so ever. It needed to be distressed, charred, aged looking. Wood stain isn't cheap. A small little thing of wood stain costs more than $5.00 and I was only going to use a tiny bit and I knew the remaining bit will forever sit in the garage forgotten.

How did people back in the day do it?! TEA!!!! I remember I had a box of tea bags in the back of my kitchen cupboard since I don't know when. I was pretty sure the tea does not taste the way its supposed to anymore and I was not about to digest it. Tea stain is not going to get you cherry wood dark that's for sure but tinted enough to look a little aged.

So I grabbed all the left over tea bags, placed them into a pot and put just enough boiling water to diffuse the tea bags. If you dilute them too much then there is no staining power.

Words of advice if you can **** WEAR PLASTIC GLOVES**** my hands got stained orangey color and smelled like orange pekoe for a day.

I used the tea bags like a sponge and dabbed the wood. It can get a little messy with tea dripping every where so perhaps do it over a sink or a large bowl. I waited for the tea to dry up a little before I repeated the sponging until I got the desired tint I wanted.

Along with the pirate theme I also made a scroll ... pirate map-ish!!!!

Instead of buying a piece of fancy scrap book paper for $0.50 cents or a stack of decorative printer paper that I was only going to use once, I made my own!

I recall seeing kids making pirate maps back in elementary school and I missed out because my parents would not allow me to play with open flames or candles. Now that I am 27 I can finally do it!

I centered what I needed printed on a plain white 8x11 piece of printer paper. Trimmed off the edges ragedy curvy style and dabbed the tea bags on the front and back. I was afraid it might smudge the print but it didn't. The paper will get a little soggy so lay it flat to dry. The picture below shows the color difference the tea bag made and the edging.

I held the edges of the paper about 4 inches above a candle and once the color on the piece of paper started to change I pulled it away. Paper burns fast! Even after pulling the piece of paper away it still continued to darken for a second or two.