Kill Your Monday Blues with Hils Hints: All Things Distress Part 4

All Things Distress

Part 4 

Distress Inks, and why they are so special

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Last week I showed you how you could make a card pretty quickly using distress inks.  Today I’m going to show you how to make an embellishment for your scrapbook layouts by stamping with your distress inks.  This is quick and easy, and you can adapt it to suit your taste and layouts.

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What Do You Need?

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Cardstock

Distress inks – I have used Tattered Rose, Victorian Velvet and Vintage Photo

Ink blending tool and foam

A stamp.  I have used some from a Tim Holtz set

A heat tool (optional)

A craft mat (optional)

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{Items can be purchased at Scrap-n-Crop.com HERE}

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Instructions:

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Cut your cardstock down to the size you require.  It doesn’t have to be rectangular like mine – you could use dies or a cutting machine to make it whatever shape you like.

Using the simple blending technique from week 1, gradually blend your lighter coloured ink onto the cardstock until you are happy with the colour.

Using the same technique, add a darker colour around the edges.

If you want to spray or sprinkle water to get a more distressed effect, do it now.  If you wait until you have stamped you will blur your stamped image.

Dry your cardstock with a heat gun, or leave it to dry.  It must be dry before moving onto the next step, to avoid any muddying of colours.

Ink up your stamps with distress ink, and stamp!  Don’t expect your image to be as sharp as it might be with other inks – the beauty of distress ink stamping is that you get a softer, slightly out-of-focus effect to your images.  This works particularly well if you are going for a vintage look.

You can use your distressed embellishment as it is, or you might want to embellish it further with Distress Stickles (less glittery than normal Stickles), lace, buttons – whatever takes your fancy.  You could, of course, also use it as a journaling tag, but if you decide to do this it would be best to use a permanent pen rather than a water-based one.

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Next week I’ll show you faux watercolouring with distress ink and stamps.

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Handy tip

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Sometimes the distress inks don’t work so well with clear stamps – the ink can bead up and give an uneven appearance.  Tim Holtz recommends priming your stamp with black Archival Ink.  Just ink up your stamp with the Archival Ink as you usually would, and leave it to dry.  Once it is dry, ink over it with distress ink and stamp – you will be surprised at the difference it can make! 

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