Girly Grunge + a Distress Stain Ribbon Sampler

This week over at the Grungy Monday challenge - where we pay homage to a different technique or product of the great Tim Holtz - we were asked to use Distress ink. My card shows how you can use Distress ink in a very subtle way, to make a pretty, feminine card. This is also my 'better late than never' submission for Theme Thursday's Pink and Brown challenge. Oh, and after seeing Evelyn's fantastic Center Step Card, I had to try one!

 

After coveting this birthday girl stamp from Red Lead for ages, I finally got it last week. She is so sweet! Her dress is colored using Spun Sugar Distress ink and a piece of Cut-n-Dry foam. The background was sponged with Antique Linen Distress ink and the edges were frayed with a Tim Holtz Paper Distresser, then inked with Vintage Photo Distress ink. See - lots of 'Distress'ing, but it's still very feminine! I mounted it on a panel of the new TH Distress Core'dinations paper that I embossed using the TH Sizzix Collage Texture Fade. If you look very closely, you can see that the stamped image is covered with a thin layer of Rock Candy Distress Stickles. I also added just a bit of vintage sparkle with some Antique Linen Distress Stickles.

The sentiment was created using the Faux Enamel tag technique found here. LOVE the look of it with the Wish stamp from Tim Holtz's Stuff to Say stamp set. It's attached using Idea-ology Long Fasteners, Idea-ology Charm Clips and a length of ribbon that I dyed using Distress Stain. So pretty and it coordinates perfectly!

Speaking of coordinating, the flowers on the top of the card were also dyed with Distress Stain. To see how it's done, check out this post on the Inspiration Emporium blog. I guarantee you will become addicted to making these in every color!

While I'm on the subject of Distress Stain (my choice for most awesome new product of the decade!) - a few days ago, I decided to cut a bunch of ribbon and dye it in every color of Distress Stain I had. I also wanted to see what it would look like if I diluted the stain just a bit. As you can see from the picture above - it's gorgeous!! What was so surprising was how pretty the colors were when diluted. Here are the colors, from left to right, front to back (click for the larger version, it looks much better!):
Fired Brick, diluted Fired Brick, Peeled Paint, diluted Peeled Paint
Wild Honey, diluted Wild Honey (love this color!), Spun Sugar, diluted Spun Sugar
Vintage Photo, diluted Vintage Photo, Faded Jeans, diluted Faded Jeans
Walnut Stain, diluted Walnut Stain, Broken China, diluted Broken China
Antique Linen, diluted Antique Linen

YUM! 

I thought about doing a little tutorial, but wasn't sure if that was really necessary. If anyone is interested, let me know and I'll do a quick one!