Coloured Toothpicks
Thursday, March 18, 2010 at 7:25PM 
food colour painted toothpicks
Last time I was making cupcake picks I was thinking they would look so much better if the toothpick holding it up was in a matching or contrasting colour rather than the raw wood.
Today I made batches of coloured toothpicks to store for future use.
Method one bright colours; paint undiluted food colour paste or gel straight onto the toothpick. Works well with yellow, red, orange and pink. Does not work with blues, purples, greens... they all look come out looking "black". Set aside on a baking rack to dry out completely.
You can also get a distressed or shabby chic look by wiping off undiluted colour with a cloth. Set aside to dry.
obtain soft shades with method two
Method two is my favourite; dilute a drop or two of food colour in warm water, soak batches of toothpicks until desired colour is reached. With this method you can get all the pastels and shades you desire. Set aside to dry.
You can also use natural colour solutions to soak the toothpicks in; coffee, black tea, matcha, beetroot (beet) juice and the like.
Wooden skewers can be coloured in the same way as the toothpicks.
Do allow the toothpicks to dry throughly, preferably overnight. If they aren't dry enough they look like the yellow toothpick in the top photo, slightly glossy.