Dying fabric with Distress Inks

 Evening all....we have just had the most awful storm!  It lashed it down for about 15 mins, complete with lightning.  The roads flooded almost instantly as the ground was already so wet!  Add to that the fact that Dr Who is filming their Christmas (oops...sorry the C word again!) episode in the centre of Bristol over the past couple of days and the fact that there was a security incident in the centre of the city today meant that it was GRIDLOCK!!!!

What fun.....so I have retreated to my craft haven (I can say haven as its still tidy!!) to chill (you have to admit crafting is SO very therapeutic....apart from when Mr Mojo decides to take a wander!).

I decided I didn't have a enough tags (gulp....please don't look behind me at the basket full of them!!) and made a tag out of pearlescent card, distressed it with DI and stamped the background with the same DI and inked through some sequin waste.

I added a leaf and some flowers with a tag and some vintage book pages (also stained with DI).

I then tried dying some satin ribbon with DI and water, and guess what...it worked!  I got lots of this ribbon, which was a neutral colour from the scrap store for next to nothing (I had a carrier bag full for a couple of quid, including leather scraps, boxes etc....so it really was a few pennies for several meters of this ribbon). 

When I dried it with the heat gun, I loved the fact that the satin shine was still there.  I think it complements the pearlescent card rather well (even if I do say so myself!!).  I attached it with some coloured mini staples I picked up in a discount shop (you know the ones, where things are 99p or £1) and mounted it on some TH Crowded Attic papers.

I love the fact that this uses almost free items (I need to go back to the scrap store to see if they have any more of this ribbon!!) to make something so dimensional with many layers-I had to buy nothing for this, it was all scraps I found hidden on my desk when I cleaned up last week! 

 I am entering this into the Simon Says Stamp and show challenge which this week is 'No Rules'.  I have not tried using just one colour before or dying with the DI, it was a 'what the hell' moment and I gave it a go.....and I think i will give it a go again!

You can find all the details for the challenge here, there are some lovely design team pieces which are totally inspiring.

Happy Crafting

Li'l Pidge x