The Depths of Distress...!!!

Now that may sound like I'm having a severe nervous breakdown, but it is in fact a cue for a great deal of inky fun and discovery! At Simon Says Stamp & Show we are all totally distressed as my post title is the new challenge theme for this week...

Distress Inks, Stains, Crackle, Paint, Markers, Powders, tools... there's plenty to choose from and I'm sure nearly everyone has a pot of Distress something in their stash! I decided to go for Distress Inks and Stains and created a bright and flowery triple tag to liven up my day...

Normally, for some bizarre reason,  I'm someone who likes to be very consequent in my choice of stamps for a piece - all Wendy, all Tim, all PaperArtsy, etc. But today I wanted to order the whole menu and ended up with Tim, Wendy, Claudine H and Dylusions goodies on my desk!

I started by inking up my tags with a variety of colours including Tumbled Glass, Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed and Fired Brick. I added a few water drop flicks to add interest... andI over-stamped Tims Mixed Media Dots in Picket Fence Distress Stain.
Then I went to town with a flurry of stamping using Distress Inks and lots of my Wendy Vecchi stamps. Just mixing and matching, using part and whole sections of the stamps to build up the layers... Also used a few bottle tops dipped in Distress Stain and my fave...

- random stitching in bright yellow thread (it was already on my machine and I was too lazy to change it - but I love it now!)Distress Inks are not as vivid as Archival ink so you get a great faded look which is perfect for this kind of layered effect... and it gives an idea of depth to your piece. I sprayed Claudine's Sticky back canvas with Cut Grass and Bubblegum Pink Dylusions inks and heat set before stamping Wendy's funky flower and leaves in Black Archival ink. Added a few dots for fun!

I stuck them to the tags adding press stud centres and parcel string stems and finished off with a sentiment all thanks to my trusty typewriter! The colours and blooms make me rather happy! So if you are stressed... grab some inky colours right now and de-stress with Distress I say...!

Hope you day is a little brighter now too. Do play along this week - I'm sure you have hundreds of ideas for Distress stuff! Don't forget to check out the Design team blog for more lovelies and see if you might just end upa s the winner of this fabby $50 voucher! Thaks for the peek - that's me over and out...until the next time.
Sarah.