Theme Thursday, Stamping With Stain, and a Tiny Pillow

Today's Theme Thursday challenge is borders - this chunky tag's border might be tiny, but it adds a subtle little touch that I love. Another thing I love?  Both the London Underground and Loverly London stamp plates from Artistic Outpost (as if you couldn't tell). My favorite stamp of them all is the grungy Union Jack. I have been dreaming of this stamp for ages and am so thrilled to finally have one! Below is a quick tutorial showing how I created the border on my tag using the Union Jack stamp and Tim Holtz Distress Stains - another thing I am crazy for right now!

Supplies: Fired Brick and Faded Jeans Distress Stains, Inkssentials Mini Mister, plain white typing/computer paper, Union Jack rubber stamp from Artistic Outpost.

Begin by inking the red stripes with the Fired Brick Distress Stain. Don't worry if you get a bit on the area that will be blue; it gives it a nice blurred look. If it bothers you, carefully wipe it off with your finger.

Next, do the same thing with the Faded Denim Distress Stain.

To reactivate the ink (in case it dried a bit) spritz lightly with a water-filled Mini Mister -  three squirts is about right, depending on how 'watercolor-y' you want it to look. Side note: while I was doing this I wondered what it would look like if you spritzed it with some homemade glimmer mist. Hmmmm....need to try that!

Align your stamp with the bottom edge of your paper and press down. Oooooh! Very cool!! This is the best stamp in the world, is it not?

Now, you're going to repeat the process until you have a nice border. Don't worry about cleaning the stamp in between impressions. 

At this point you can cut your strips in half and you have a cute border to use in your projects. I also used a strip to cut a rosette using Tim Holtz's Paper Rosette Die. VERY cool! (Not shown 'cause I used it in the collage I posted a couple days ago!)

If you like a more vintage feel, ink it up with a little Brushed Corduroy or Vintage Photo Distress ink.

Guess what? You can do the same technique on fabric! Is this the most adorable pillow you've ever seen? I love it so much! It is tiny...like a baby kitten would use it for a pillow, tiny. Too, too cute. I told you, I'm obsessed!

Have I convinced you that you need these stamps? If so, you can use this coupon code: stamptramp and get 10% off your order at Artistic Outpost. Sweet!

If you're looking for the rest of the supplies, be sure and check out Inspiration Emporium!

Supplies for tag:

Artistic Outpost London Underground and Loverly London Rubber Stamps

Idea-ology Film Ribbon

Idea-ology Sprocket Gears

Idea-ology Plaquettes

Inkssentials Manila Craft Tags

Idea-ology Tiny Attacher

One more thing - the red ribbon is from the batch I dyed awhile back and wrote about here. I love that I can easily make coordinating ribbon for my projects. I forgot to mention it in my earlier post, but the ribbon I used is actually seam binding that can be purchased very inexpensively here. Be careful, you might end up like my friend Bonnie! Now, that is a party I would love to go to. :-)