Bubble-printed stationery

I got started on some holiday presents (finally) Wednesday evening. I was in a sour mood, but whipping out these supplies much improved things. This would be a great project for kids or those of us who still act like children! These instructions came from Mark Montano's Big Ass Book of Crafts.

Supplies:
Food coloring (mine was icing gel)
Blank stationery
Small bowls
Straw for each color
1 tsp dish soap
1 tsp sugar
1/2 cup of water

Instructions:
Combine dish soap, sugar, and water in a bowl. Add food coloring. If you're using the normal stuff, the book recommends 10 drops. I just eyeballed it with my gel. Make the color a bit darker than you expect because the color will lighten quite a bit when it dries. Remember: you can mix the colors to make new ones. Oh the joys of primary colors. Anyway, stir until everything is combined and the sugar dissolves. Here comes the fun part: insert your straw into the bottom of the bowl and start blowing bubbles until they rise over the top. Now, take your blank stationery and run it gently over the top of the bubbles, popping them. Try not to saturate too much or the moisture will leak through. Coat to your liking. Let it dry. If you like, repeat the process a second time with another color. Here is my first set:









The colors came out a lot lighter than I expected -- so light, in fact, that they were hard to photograph. They look much better in person, I promise. This was a combination of blue and orange.








My second set had much richer color. Here, I did a layer of red (which turned pink when it dried) followed by a layer of purple. After both sets dried, I pressed them in the pages of a heavy book to get the cards to close right. They are still a little open, but they work.

As far as cost is concerned, the stationery came in a set of 50 white cards with 50 envelopes for $9.95 at Michael's. The icing gel was about $3 also at Michael's. Everything else I had at home (or "borrowed" from work, in the case of the straws and the toothpicks I used to mix the colors). I plan to gift them in sets of 10 cards with envelopes. That's five gifts for about $2.60 each.

This was so much fun! I can't wait to do the other three sets.