Can You Dye Pantyhose?

My Aunt showed me this post on how to dye your pantyhose (which would be ideal for Halloween, Cosplay, a number of things!) and asked, "Is this idea cute, inexpensive and fun...or the worst idea ever?" If I had to choose from those four options, I'd definitely choose inexpensive. Colored tights can run you up to $15! Because I read the original instructions wrong, I tried this twice: the first time (red) Kool-Aid and the second time with (green) Jello and food coloring.

I wanted to follow the blogger's exact steps so I bought L'eggs Sheer Energy in Nude and only used 3 packets of Kool-Aid (though I bet two would have been enough).

The Kool-Aid Method:
Start by boiling some water in a medium pot.

Once the bubbles start to form, add your Kool-Aid and stir with a plastic, not wooden, spoon.

Next, add your nylons. Now depending on what color you use, it could take 5 seconds or 5 minutes until the nylons are dyed. With red, it was 5 seconds, but I gave it a full 5 minutes, constantly stirring, so the color would completely saturate the nylons and not leave any splotchy patches. Splotchy is a word, right?

After you're sure the color has set, carefully (since they're hot!) run the nylons under cold water until the water runs clear. As you can see here, there was still pink coming out. It should only take a minute or so.

And hang them up to dry! WARNING: If you dry these on a plastic hanger, make sure there are no snags in the plastic. My hose got caught on a snag and now my new pair has a big hole in them!

The Jello/Food Coloring Method:
Again, start by boiling some water in a medium pot and add your Jello mix (I actually used a whole box of lime).

Next, add your nylons...

And here's the trick - add 10 drops of food coloring. The more, the better.

After an hour, nothing will change, so don't expect immediate results like with the Kool-Aid. I had to wait a good 6 hours (the stove was off, don't worry) before the color finally dyed the nylons!

And just like before, rinse and hang.

Now the color from the Kool-Aid nylons was much more vibrant than the Jello/food coloring nylons, which came off as an olive green. If I had to choose a method, I'd recommend going with the Kool-Aid. It's faster, easier, and the final color is much better, in my opinion.

UPDATE: I washed the red nylons in the washer/dryer with a bunch of other red items (sheets, mainly) and the color didn't change one bit! The photo on the left is "before" and on the right is "after." As long as you wash with similar colors, it doesn't look like it'll fade anytime soon!

TOTAL COSTS: Depends on method
Kool-Aid Method: $5.99 for L'eggs nylons, $1 for 3 Kool-Aid packets
Jello/Food Coloring Method: $5.99 for L'eggs mylons, $1 for Jello, $3.49 for food coloring

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: Depends on method
Kool-Aid Method: 5 minutes to boil water, 5 minutes to soak, 1 minute to rinse, 6 hours to dry
Jello/Food Coloring Method: 10 minutes to boil water, 6 hours to soak, 1 minute to rinse, 6 hours to dry

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 1 out of 5
This is the easiest of peasiest of projects! So whether you're going to a costume party, ComicCon, in a school play, dressing up for Halloween, or are working Hollywood Blvd. this time of year, this is an easy and inexpensive way to add to your wardrobe without the added cost!

DIY No-Bake Candy Buttons!

If you were a child of the 90's (heck, if you were a child of the 1930s!) you're familiar with candy buttons, or candy dots. They're drops of colored sugar on a piece of paper. While they're a classic of everyone's childhood (ok, most people), they did have a couple of disadvantages:

1. You always had paper stuck to the bottom of them and you subjected yourself to eating paper.
2. You were stuck with the three flavors made - cherry, lime (the blue ones), and lemon.

But did you know you can make your own? With the help of some Jello and wax paper, you can pick any flavors you want (grape, orange, berry blue - you name it) and not have to deal with eating paper anymore!

Here's what you'll need to make your own candy buttons:

1. White card stock paper
2. Wax paper
3. Jello (I chose cherry, orange, and lemon)
4. Powdered sugar
5. An egg white
6. Scissors
7. Double-sided tape
8. Plastic bags (for however many flavors you're making. 3 flavors = 3 bags)


Start by cutting your paper into 2"x11" strips (1 sheet of paper should get you 4 strips).

Do the same for the wax paper - cut four strips of 2"x11" wax paper.

Use double sided tape to attach the wax paper to the card stock.

Mix together 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar with 1 egg white in a mixer for 3-4 minutes.

Divide the mixture into as many bowls as you have flavors. Add 1/4 tsp. of Jello powder to each bowl.

Put each mixture into it's own plastic bag, cut off a bit of the corner, and squeeze the filling through the bag onto the wax paper. I did four rows of each color but however you want to divide it up is totally up to you.

Let them harden overnight and that's it! Your homemade candy buttons are ready to be eaten! The great thing about choosing the flavors you want is that you can color-coordinate with whatever holiday is nearby (red/white/blue for 4th of July, green/red for Christmas, and the ones I made look ideal for Valentine's Day).

Be warned: you'll have enough to make quite a lot! I made 8 paper strips and probably could have made 9!

TOTAL COSTS: About $12 to make 288 buttons, or 8 strips of 36 buttons

$.99/box of Jello
$2.49 for powdered sugar
$2.49 for a dozen eggs (but you only need 1 egg white)
$4.09 for double-sided tape
$2.09 for box of sandwich bags
Wax paper, card stock, and scissors already on hand

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: About 40 minutes + overnight to harden

15 minutes to cut out the paper and wax paper strips (though I used a ruler and was very exact, which took time)

15 minutes to whip up the powdered sugar and egg white and to add the Jello powder

10 minutes to pipe on four sheets

Overnight to harden

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 2 out of 5

The only "difficult" part might be getting even-sized dots, if you're not used to piping. However, the more you do it, the easier it'll be and this project certainly gives you enough to practice with!

Strawberry Margarita Jello Shots

A friend of mine alerted me to this video about how to make strawberry margarita jello shots and I figured they probably taste awful or they're too much work for not much in return. Since it's the holiday weekend, I figured it was a good excuse to give them a shot... see what I did there? Shot? Ahem...

Here what you'll need:
1. Strawberries (the more, the better!)
2. Strawberry jello
3. Tequila
4. Triple sec
5. An ice tray and a sharp knife
6. Kosher salt and lime (optional)

Start by boiling a cup of water and adding your strawberry jello.

Once the Jello powder has dissolved, take it off the heat and add 3/4 cup of tequila and 1/4 cup of triple sec (I used orange triple sec but you could use any flavor you want).

Now it's time to prepare your strawberries. Wash them and cut off the very bottom so they can stand straight up.

Cut out the stem and try to make the inside of the strawberry as hollow as possible. You have to be really careful or else you might accidentally cut a little hole in the bottom!

 Once your strawberry is ready, place it in an empty ice cube tray. Do this for all of your strawberries.

Pour the mixture from the pot into something with a spigit (like a measuring cup) and pour into each strawberry. I screwed up two strawberries but ended up with 24, which was perfect for my ice tray! Still, I recommend you have at least 3x the amount of strawberries or you're going to have a lot of leftover jello/tequila/triple sec mix!

Set in the fridge for 4 hours (or overnight, like I did). If you like, you can coat the rim of the strawberry with kosher salt but trust me, coming from someone who likes salt on their margaritas, you do NOT want to do it. The strawberries just aren't big enough and the salt overpowers the taste.

Speaking of taste, you think you can taste the tequila? Nope. Not at all. However, it's really less than half of a shot so that's probably why. So if you plan on getting drunk off of these, you'd have to eat a lot of strawberries and even then, you'd probably get sick of strawberries before you ever felt a buzz. Still, they're quite delicious and an excellent source of Vitamin C!

TOTAL COSTS: About $22 (if you don't have any of the ingredients - prices from Vons)
$3.99/lb. for strawberries
$.99 for jello
$11.10 for tequila
$6.29 for triple sec
Ice cube tray and knife already on hand

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: 20 minutes + overnight (but you could have them chill for 4 hours instead)
20 minutes to boil water and prep all the strawberries
Overnight to harden

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 2 out of 5
The only "difficult" things about this might be cutting the strawberries so you don't have holes in the bottoms or sides and pouring the mixture inside the strawberries -- it'll get all over the ice cube tray, but that's what it's there for!