Kill Your Monday Blues with Hils Hints: All Things Distress Part 14

All Things Distress

Part 14

Distress Inks, and why they are so special

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This series on all things distress is coming to an end now – just in time for my summer vacation!  

I’m going to wrap it up by taking a quick look at the last two distress ranges that Ranger and Tim Holtz offer.  

Distress stains

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Many people are unsure about the difference between Distress Stains and the Distress Ink Re-inkers.  But it’s quite simple really.

The re-inkers are just that – they are concentrated colours of ink that you use to re-ink your distress pads with when they start to get a bit dry.  You can also use them, watered down, to spray with.  (use a Mini Mister, fill the Distress Ink Re-inker applicator with Distress Ink Re-inker and put it in the Mini Mister, and top up with water)

However, the inks are VERY concentrated.  You wouldn’t want to use them direct to paper, they all come out far too dark.  

This is where the Distress Stains come into play.  They are much less concentrated than the reinkers, and so can be used to easily add a splash of distress colour to anything absorbent.  

Ranger have made this even easier by providing them in bottles with sponge dabber applicators.  You can colour big areas of card or paper – especially useful if you are using resist products such as those produced by Tim Holtz, Tattered Angels and Pink Paislee.  

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You can also use them to colour in embellishments such as ribbon, lace, paper or fabric flowers – whatever you want!  

Plus – and not many people have realised this yet – you can spray with them too!!! 

 Just gently ease the dabber top off the bottle, pour some distress stain into a Mini Mister, and spray away to your heart’s content!  When you have finished, just pour the stain back into the bottle, pop the top back on and give your mister a quick clean.

Most of the techniques I have shared with you that use the Distress Ink pads can also be done with the Distress Stains – stamping, blending, getting distressed looks by flicking or spraying water over them – just have a good play with them!

Distress stickles

Ahhh, Stickles!  I do love my Stickles – a lovely, thick glitter glue, so easy to work with and fantastically sparkly.  

Distress Stickles are just as they sound – a distress version of the glitter glue.  Instead of being very sparkly, they have a more vintage effect, just like the old-fashioned glitters – almost as if someone has sprinkled a bit of sugar over your project.  

And, of course, they come in the usual Distress colour palette (plus a couple of extras), so they match your projects perfectly.  If you want to start with just one, try the Rock Candy, a lovely clear distress stickle.  I bet you won’t be able to stick with just one for long though!

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Check out Penelope's project below that uses both the Distress Stains (Broken China)

 and Distress Stickles (Rock Candy) in addition to Distress Crackle Paint (Rock Candy)

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Copyrights - Penelope Gan

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