How to Paint Paper With Pokeberry Juice

I'd like to point out first thing, that this project might not be the best if you have small chilluns around.  The juice from this stuff is not to be swallowed!  Trust me, my family has experience.

The stuff we're dealing with here comes from the Phytolacca americana plant, otherwise known as Pokeberry plant.  The berries are small, plump, and very fun to play with.  The juice looks exactly like blueberry juice does, but that's where the similarities stop.  They grow around here, so of course I couldn't help but incorporate them into my crafts!

I should probably note that I made this almost two weeks ago, when they were still here.  Now it's getting colder, and I wouldn't be surprised if they're gone.

A couple years or so ago, I covered a whole piece of cardstock paper with the juice from these.  I was very disappointed that the paper didn't stay bright pink, but instead turned a light brown.  Thankfully, it's kind of a pretty brown.  I still haven't used that paper to this day though...

Nevertheless,  I wanted to write a tutorial on how to make it, even though you could figure it out yourself!  Maybe I can inspire you to make some!

Since I still have a whole unused piece of paper covered in pokeberry juice, I'm only using scraps of white paper for this post, instead a whole new piece.

First you'll want to find a cup that you don't mind getting dirty.  It'll wash right out, but just to be safe, you might want to use an old paint cup or something, if you care about that.  You'll also need to get possession of something to mash everything up!  I used a skewer stick.  Lastly, if you're working on a surface such as your dining room table, or anything you don't want bright pink, sticky juice all over, I would definitely recommend laying down some newspaper.  I didn't do that because there's this nice table out on our porch that doesn't mind getting dirty (it's the one on our porch in the middle picture of my last post).

This is about one fourth of a cup, which was plenty for the amount of paper I was working with.

Mush, mash, mush!  It would work better to use something wider than a skewer, by the way.

Mmmm, look at that yummy goodness!  Haha, yummy goodness that you should not eat!

Once it's gotten mashed up enough to be liquid-y, you can spread it onto your paper of choice with a foam brush.  You also could use a paint brush probably.  It would give it a

The first strip I did was nice and smooooth.  All the others had patterns, or something that made them not one solid color.

These pictures are a bit too bright.  It doesn't actually look that bright pink, but pretty close.

The first one is not actually purple, as it looks in in the peektor.

These pictures were taken the day after.  You can see how much they faded already.

This last picture is even later.  As time goes on, they'll continue to get browner.

What else could you do with pokeberry juice?  (I love comments!)