Distress Stains - do ya need 'em?

The answer is no, but the better question is: are you going to want 'em?  The answer is a resounding YES (at least for me :-). )  For this tutorial on Distress Stains, I experimented on vellum, plain cardstock and semi-glossy pre-printed cardstock.  (I'll have another post where I used the Distress Stains on other things, including chipboard and rubber stamps.)  The Stains have worked wonderfully on everything I've tried.

They are so fun and easy to use.  First up is a digital image from AiFactory, a butterfly from the Flourishes and Butterfly collection,  printed and embossed on vellum paper.  As you can see below, I used a small paint brush and began painting.  There are several ways to get the Stain out of the bottle, but the two methods I tried were to dab some onto my nonstick craft sheet (works great) and pick up the color with my paint brush.  The other (easier) way is to take the stain directly from the sponge applicator on top (be sure to get it primed first).  With this method, there are no worries about dabbing out too much on the craft mat (although you can wipe up any excess with paper and get really cool effects that way too.)

 After competing my butterfly, I wanted to make a coordinating background paper.  I used plain Georgia Pacific cardstock and just dabbed and rubbed (OK, smeared) my three color choices around.  I was going for a sky effect, so I combined Broken China, Faded Jeans, and Weathered Wood.  If you let one layer dry a bit and add a second layer, it will deepen the color.  Next, I spritzed it with a little bit of water, which softens the colors, and Smooch Spritz (Vanilla Shimmer).  I used the Wonky Rectangles (#6) from Spellbinders to cut out the portion I wanted.  

I had some pre-printed card bases in my stash that were a perfect size for my card, except it wasn't the right color of blue.  So I used my same three colors to see how it would affect it.  Again, they worked like a charm.  I was a bit worried that it would hid the white polka dots, but as you can see, it enhanced them.  On the right is where I've applied the stains and the left is the original color.

To complete the card, I fussy cut out the vellum butterfly and adhered it to the Distress Stained background piece I created.  I loved the way the wings curled when I was cutting out the image and wanted to have that same effect of the final card.  In order to accomplish this, I applied a strip of Scor-Tape by Scor-Pal only to the center (the body) of the butterfly.  The Scor-Tape doesn't show through the vellum.  This stuff is strong enough to hold most anything, but you can tear it with your fingers (very cool stuff!).  I adhered this panel to a piece of patterned paper from my stash and applied to my newly created card base.   Enamel Accents were added in the corners for the finishing touches.  Here's a close up of the butterfly and you can see how the Smooch Spritz added just a touch of shimmer to the background paper:

Currently there are 12 of the Distress ink colors available in Distress Stains.  Personally, I'm looking forward to the day they release all the other colors too.  As I mentioned earlier, these Stains are so much fun to use and so easy.  Another trick I tried was to heavily spritz the cardstock with water and let the inks run and blend together even more.  I'm definitely going to be using these a lot!  Hope this information helps you decide whether or not you want to try Distress Stains.

Edited:  I just found out that Ranger is releasing the remaining 24 colors plus Picket Fence at CHA next week.  How exciting!

Ingredients:
Distress Stains ( Broken China, Faded Jeans, Weathered Wood, Dusty Concord, Wild Honey, Fired Brick, Spun Sugar); Smooch Spritz (Vanilla Shimmer); Spellbinders (Wonky Rectangles #6); Enamel Accents; papers: Creative Memories (patterned paper), TPC Studio (card base), Georgia Pacific