I have a new obsession this spring – and that is Tim Holtz distress stains. If you’re taking a class from me at a local store you’ll be seeing them in action often. (Above: a spun sugar stained card + stained doily from my “tea party” class coming soon)
Distress stains are the SAME colors as their ink pad counterparts. So WHY did Ranger & Tim Holtz make them? What could possibly be so enticing about them? I think it’s great that they match the ink pads, but also that they can go places (and be applied so smoothly as they are liquid) that previously my distress ink could not go. JUST LIKE THE INK PADS – they can be mixed with paint, water, mist, or anything else you might like and they keep their color. So what am I loving about them?
1. Doilies. I have both been coloring my beloved little paper embellishments AND I have been using doilies as masks and coming up with cool backgrounds too. (you’ll see that in action SOON!)
2. Covering larger surfaces. An entire tag or paper or canvas (or whatever) without any streaks or lines from ink pad, and with a much more liquid/fluid coverage. LOVE!
3. Making dots. LOVE that it can be used as more of a ‘dabber’ and I can dot color wherever I feel the urge.
4. Dab onto slick surface (craft mat or plastic – something that it won’t absorb into) and then mix with water, mist (I LOVE perfect pearls mists for this), or other medium and use paintbrush to apply as shown above.
5. Here I mixed with liquitex iridescent medium (think sparkly thin white paint) and covered a canvas. Then I went back and accented the canvas along the edges with the brown distress stain a bit more.
Stay tuned… I will be sharing installments of this particular project as I work on it…
So that’s 5 reasons I’m obsessing over distress stains. If anything they’re replacing some paint and mist use for me – and they’re quite convenient. I hope Ranger releases ALL the distress colors in time. Right now I have (and LOVE): Spun Sugar, Wild Honey, Vintage Photo, and Antique Linen.
I’m going to be adding to my collection VERY soon. *LOVE* them!!
PS – I’d recommend www.simonsaysstamp.com for on-line shopping for these.