Product Review - Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Spray Stain

I am relatively new into the world of paper crafting and am slowly building up my stash of goodies. As such, these are the first spray stains that I have worked with and so this offered me the opportunity to give a completely non-biased opinion of the product.

The first thing I did was see how the sprays work on their own simply as a spray, and depending on the pressure you apply to the nozzle you can achieve either a mottled look or a more full spray effect. This works best using water colour card spritzed with some water first. It makes the card very porous which the ink definitely seems to like.

I also wanted to see if you could create some form of tie-dye effect using the sprays. Although this proved unsuccessful, it did lead me to creating some string pull art by using pipettes to draw lines of ink in a circular pattern, then dragging string around the outside. Using this method you can achieve a different effect each time, although I did find that the worn lipstick colour is a lot stronger than the speckled egg and therefore dominates the design.

My favourite technique though was creating flowers; not something I thought I was going to be able to do with sprays - it was a lovely surprise when I saw the results. I started by spraying heavy card stock (300 gsm) with water, then using pipettes I started drawing lines with the ink. The ink spreads out in a vein-like pattern through the natural fibers in the card, and as long as you stick to basic floral shapes when drawing the lines, you can create some really pretty posy's.

I really wanted to show you a finished project using these sprays, not just a few techniques so I've made a card using my flowers and a stamped sentiment on a sprayed background. I also used a small amount of the ink to colour some stamped butterflies. For this I used versafine black ink (so I wouldn't get any ink bleeding into the outer lines) and just a drop of ink for each butterfly. I'm super impressed at how easy these inks are to paint with, and that I could create a different shade compared to the flowers.

Here's my finished card (please excuse my fussy cutting - I'm still practicing)

A few hints and tips when using the spray inks:

Always clean the nozzle after every use, including the lids.

Be careful how much you get on your hands as the inks do stain and is hard to remove.

The more porous the material, the better they will work. They don't for example work on acetate.

The ink can pool quite easily so use as sparingly as you can. Also, pools of ink can take days to dry.

Finally, protect your work surface. I'm so pleased I did otherwise my nice white desk would now be pink and blue!

Overall, I'll be completely honest with you - at first I struggled to come up with interesting and exciting ways to use the sprays, other than the really obvious, spraying them to create mottled backgrounds. I was feeling a bit deflated until I randomly tried using my pipettes. This completely changed my opinion and after creating the flowers I love the sprays. Although to be fair, what I love mostly about them is not spraying them at all, but instead drizzling the ink or painting with it.

Would I buy them again? Yes, but I would need to have a specific project in mind for which I know I would use them. I would for example like to purchase another couple of colours to create more flowers.

I hope you've found this review useful and if you have any questions or would like me to try using the Distress Spray Stains in a specific way please do send me a message. I'd be more than happy to try any other techniques that are suggested and let you know the outcomes.

Much love, Chelle x