Teabag Art and a Naughty Kitty

Some time ago I came across teabag art on the Internet – do a search and you’ll find the most amazing stuff people do with used teabags!! When I told my hubby and our cleaning lady the other day, they both pulled an identical face – they simply didn’t get it! (Does anybody else experience that awful “she’s mad” attitude from their families? Ha ha!!) Anyway, I’ve decided to start saving my teabags and making use of them, but it will be a while before I get enough, because I only produce two a day.

Originally I was just drying them on the corner of my ARTHaven sink, but then I read that if you lay them on a piece of paper to dry, they stain the paper with a lovely random pattern, so this is what I have now started doing, using a piece of watercolour paper.

Once I’ve got a nice build-up of stains on this sheet, I will be able to use it as a background for art, and will probably scan it to use digitally. I have done this technique with wet leaves, too, but it wasn’t as successful as I’d hoped, but it’s definitely something I am going to try again.

Once the teabags are dry, they need to be emptied so that they can be used. I used a pair of fine, very sharp scissors to make a little slit in the teabag and emptied out the tea.

Here are the teabags I’ve emptied so far. They have a very subtle colour because neither my hubby nor I like strong tea, and we drink either Earl Grey or Lapsang Souchong. If the colour is not bold enough for my projects, I can always enhance them with Distress Inks (tea dye?).

I have seen them grouped together as a grid and stitched. This patchwork effect can be painted, machine-stitched and hand-embroidered, and any kind of embellishment added. If you, like my hubby and cleaning lady, doubt that something beautiful can be made from something so humble and mundane as an old teabag, have a look at this:

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/252131279112882658/

Now, what am I going to do with all the old tea?

(I’ve just noticed the text on the old newspaper i emptied the tea out onto. That was not intentional – honest!)

The other day I saw a guy on Ebay making a broom out of old plastic drink bottles, which just goes to show that you can upcycle anything!!!

Now for my norty kitty. Since we’ve moved, Phoebe has taken it into her head that the furniture is there for her to go all over. She never used to be like this in the old house! Her favourite place is in the bedroom. I have a pine chest of drawers in front of the window, and it gets really warm there when the sun shines (well, it does occasionally!) and also there’s a radiator there, and she does love the warmth. Add to this the fact that I have two Romanian embroidered table runners on there on which I display my little box collection and one or two other bits and pieces, but this stuff is regarded by Phoebe as so much clutter to get in her way, so she pushes it all aside so she can lie on the nice soft warm fabric. This is what it is supposed to look like.

Pretty, isn’t it! (Well, I think so.) Anyway, the other night I found it in the worst state ever after Phoebe had thrown her weight about!

What a mess.