How to make avocado dye for paper – learn how to naturally dye paper with avocado and get an amazing blush pink color! The dyed paper can be used for many of your DIY creative projects!
Ever since I conducted my former experiment on fabric, I had this burning idea of trying the natural dyes on paper too! I was really curious how and if the fibers in the paper would absorb the natural dyes, how would the paper react when stained and if the colors would hold or not afterwards. I was curious if I would be able to get the same colors I got on fabric or if the natural dyes, when used on paper, would produce totally different results. If you haven’t seen my former experiment, take a look here – How to make natural dyes for fabric.
To be able to somehow compare the results, I decided to use one of the dyes first (the others will come in another post), so today I’m starting the experiments on paper with the avocado! I’m actually using the same avocado natural dye I made last time for fabric, because guess what? I’ve been saving the dye in a jar with a lid in my fridge ever since! It has been about a month between these two experiments, so in case you are wondering if you can keep your dyes in the fridge – yes, you can totally do that! 
The avocado dye was definitely the one that intrigued me the most right from the beginning. I called it my revelation on my last experiment because I wouldn’t have expected to get this amazing blush pink color from the green skin and the brown seed of an avocado! Nature is really something, don’t you think? It just waits there patiently for us to explore and discover all its hidden treasures! And this avocado paper dye is really a gem!
How to make Avocado Dye for Paper
Just like I mentioned on my natural dyes for fabric, you will need avocado skin and pit to make the dye. You can experiment to create your own shades simply by:
– boiling the avocado skin separately
– boiling the avocado pit separately
– boiling the avocado skin and pit together
To get this beautiful blush pink that you can see here, I boiled the avocado skin and pit together. To conduct your own experiments, try to play with the the boiling time too. It’s really up to you how much you decide to boil and if you want to boil them together or separately. Just remember that the more you boil, the more intense the color will be. It would actually be a good idea to have a more intense dye because you’ll be able to dilute it with water any time you want afterwards.
You could prepare some small pieces of paper ahead of time to gradually dip into the avocado dye for paper while it is boiling, to test and observe the results. Different types of paper will yield different results, if you have a specific type of paper in mind for a specific project, use a scrap of that specific paper for testing too. It would also be helpful to take notes if you think you would want to replicate your experiments sometime (I usually use the Google Keep app on my phone for that).
I started with 2 avocado skins and pits (well scraped, with all the flesh removed) and 1 liter of water (4 cups) for my fabric experiments and I simmered them for about 1 hour (making tests in between to check the color). If you are planning on trying my fabric experiments too, that could be a great place to start!
But if you are only planning on trying the avocado dye for paper, I would half that recipe and only use 1 avocado skin and pit with 0.5 liter (2 cups) of water, simmered on low heat for 1 hour. You can start your experiments (and even stop) right after the first minutes, when the water will start to boil, if you know right from beginning you want to get a more faded, pastel color. The water will reduce in volume, the more you simmer it, but it should still give you plenty of dye to experiment with, even if you boil it for 1 hour, like I did!
How to actually dye paper
So now I’m assuming you already have your avocado dye for paper ready and you are eager to use it on different projects. You can use regular printer paper, cardstock paper, watercolor paper, handmade paper, envelopes, sheet music,book pages, newspapers, journal pages, cardboard, anything that you can think of! I already had some cut cardstock leaves and petals from a project I did almost 5 years ago (wow, time flies really fast these days!!!) -my DIY Delicate Paper Hydrangeas and decided to use them again. I thought the leaves would make some lovely mini cards and I was right, because I ended up including them as gifts on our customers’ orders this month. Everyone loved them! :)
You can:
– pour your dye into a bowl and just dip the paper there for a few seconds, then remove it and let it dry – this method will dye your paper on both sides;
– pour your dye into a jar (my preferred method) and use a brush to apply it, just like you would with any stain or highly diluted paint – this method will only dye one side of your paper, if you want you can dye the other side too.
Just make sure you use a plastic bag or something to protect your working space on either of these methods, this stuff is powerful and it might stain other surfaces too!
1. Start by protecting the working space with a silicone mat or a plastic bag (the new recyclable type) and arrange your paper on top.
2. Use your brush to apply the avocado dye for paper. Try making regular brush strokes to evenly apply the dye.
3. The paper will start to bend when applying the dye, but it will come back to its initial state almost completely after drying (if not, use your iron to perfectly flatten it). Apply the avocado paper dye on the whole surface and let the paper soak it up for a few minutes.
4. You can now let the paper dry completely if you want to get a more cohesive, uniform final color. Or you could add a few more brush strokes here and there, even some more water if you are looking for a more vintage, stained or watercolor looking final result. The avocado paper dye will have more of a blush brown shade when applied but it will change a little bit after drying and it will turn more into a pink blush shade.
On the image below you can see both the naturally dyed fabric (on the top left corner) and the naturally dyed paper. As you can see there are a few almost unnoticeable differences in terms of shades. They are both incredibly beautiful, if you ask me, and definitely leave room for more experimenting with different dilutions.
I’m really loving this beautiful blush pink color! And when you think it was actually made from a natural and super tasty fruit! By the why, did you know avocado is actually a fruit? I didn’t, until recently! :)
Experiment with avocado dye for paper and find new creative ways of using it on your DIY paper projects. Feel free to leave any questions in the comment section below, I’m sure you will love playing with this amazing all natural dye! And don’t forget to have fun, there are really no rules, just enjoying the process and using something natural … to create something beautiful!
Don’t forget to smile,
Diana
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