A birthday and a DIY

A couple weekends ago, we celebrated Matt's 29th birthday. Lucky for us, it was on a Friday! We had dinner together (at his favorite barbeque place, of course) and then came home and enjoyed cake and cards with our housemates. I've finally mastered his favorite cake: gluten-free devil's food cake covered with Grandma's seven minute frosting. (Anyone else get a little intimidated making family recipes? Sheesh. You would've thought I was competing on Chopped or something.)  We had a really fun night and he loved all his gifts! I never get tired of celebrating that man. I am so thankful for his life and I still can't believe I get to be such a big part of it.

 Matt's been mixing drinks at home lately and trying out old fashioned recipes. We don't even have a shot glass, let alone anything else a proper bartender would need, so I decided to get him a few drink necessities. I tracked down a vintage cocktail shaker and thought I'd add a little recipe book alongside it. 

I aged plain white paper by dying it with black tea and I loved the way it turned out. The moisture gives the paper a great aged texture and the tea gives an uneven, streaky look. It was perfect! This would be a great way to distress gift tags, a banner, envelopes or anything else you think needs a touch of antique.

It's really easy. All you need is the paper you'd like to dye and a few bags of black tea. 

 

Dip the tea bags in a couple inches of boiling water until they are just moistened. Rub the teabag across the paper (careful, it's hot!), dipping it back in the water if necessary. Color will fade when you need to get a new tea bag.

Allow paper to air dry. I only did one side of the paper and it turned out great, but doing both sides would provide even more color and texture. 

I wrote down a few old fashioned drink recipes and tucked the booklet inside his cocktail shaker. He loved it! Now all we need is an excuse to host a cocktail party....