Tea Dying my Book of Shadows Pages + Free Book Of Shadows Downloads!
I have been journaling a whole lot this winter (here’s to the season of inward reflection)! With that I now require another book of shadows signature for my travelers notebook! Thankfully am able to print beautiful book of shadows journal pages and dye them with tea! This gives me beautiful and inspiring pages to record my daily magical lessons and reflections in. In this post I will show you the process of creating these beautiful pages!
Printing the Pages
The Writing Witch kindly gifted me these printables to try out and I want to share that process with you! First I got to pick out the pack and I chose this lovely set of pages with sunshine patterns on them because the sun is returning now and the spring is almost here! These sunshine images are helping me to prepare to turn my energy outwards in the coming season.
I printed the full sized sheets at 50% 2 to a page and on both sides of the page. I used the “short edge” flip setting to ensure all the pages face the right way.
All the pages facing the right way! Such pretty designs! Thanks Afua!
Just in case you magical folks want to experiment with tea dying printed pages before you invest in some amazingly beautiful designs I have a free set of printable book of shadows/grimoire pages here for you to download!
The set of Free Book of Shadows Pages for you to download!
Tea Dying the Pages
I charged my workspace before doing this dying process to add more intention to the making of this magical journal. There are a lot of steps you can meditate while doing in this craft so know what your intentions are going into this before you begin!
My charged alter space complete with the dying pan. I charged this alter space with intention for inner knowledge leading to personal expansion. A purple alter cloth fits well for this intention.
I added boiling water to a 9x13 pyrex dish, a little more than I needed to cover the amount of paper I wanted to dye. I then added the dandy blend tea I wanted to use for this craft. I have a tendency towards anxiety so i know coffee would not be a good choice for this process for me personally, but others do have great success with that! I also know that coffee is acidic, so it can break down whatever you dye with it over time. Thankfully dandy blend is acid free so it is a perfect tea to use in this process.
So I added about 3 serving scoops worth of tea in and stirred it all together. Once fully dissolved I started to add my paper page by page, making sure that I get a good amount of tea in-between each of the pages.
Tea in-between each layer of the pages!
Then when all the pages were fully submerges I let them sit for 4 hours! I have done this for longer though and I have gotten darker results. I still want to write with a black fountain pen on these pages, so I don’t want them to be too dark!
The color after 4 hours of soaking.
Once you are happy with the color you have on the pages it is time to dry them! You can do whis by laying them to dry on towels on flat surfaces around your house, or if your like me and you are living tiny, you can bake the pages to speed up the process and get a super crackly paper feel!
Drying the Pages
I dried the pages by popping them in the oven for 7 minutes at 220 Degrees F. Experiment with your own oven and see what works for you!
Align the pages on the baking racks so you get lines going horizontal along the length of the pages! Its so easy to write on these pages since they now have built in guide lines!
Once all your pages are dried you will find that they are rather warped. Now it is time to iron them!
Ironing the Kinks out
Some of the beautiful color I was able to achieve with this batch of papers
I flattened these pages by ironing them on 4-5 setting with my normal iron (no steam)! A simple process that can be very powerful. This process can be a meditative one that can seal in the intention you have been imbuing into this project. Do this by focusing on the heat sealing the magic into the pages as they flatten. Once all the pages are flattened its time to create the signature!
Putting Together the Signature
Fold the pages down the center (hamburger style haha) nest them and there you have your signature! If you want to finesse the signature there are a couple of things you can do to give the signature a more polished look.
folding the crinkly paper is so satisfying!
One thing you can do is orient the pages so that your favorite pages are facing the front of the book. This means that when you flip through the book you will be presented with your favorite pages at first glance! Do not underestimate the magic of aesthetic. If certain pages make you feel more magical, make sure they are up front and center! That way they can help you connect with your own divine energy in an easier way.
After the pages are oriented the way you would like you can trim the edges of the pages so they are all protruding the same amount from the spine of the signature. This is an important process since the baking process makes the creases more rigid than they would be in normal paper.
The Finished Product
The signature with its name printed on the front with my fountain pen in a semi-uncial font
The signature all trimmed up and ready to go into my travelers notebook!
I love how this signature turned out. Maybe I can share what I fill my signatures with sometime! Ill have to work up the courage or partially censor them in some way… Ill have a think about that!
Anyway, I hope this process helps you to imbue your book of shadows with more magic and more intention so you can create the magic you want in your life!
And so it is!
With much love,
