Starburst Stains

Some of you may wonder what on earth these are that I refer to in practically every post lol! They've becomme a kind of trademark as I use them on nearly every card, its coz I luuuuuurve them so much!


Starburst Stains are part of the Moonglow range of products by Lindy's Stamp Gang. They are sold in the UK via The Stampman.

If you go to a show and The Stampman is there then you're guaranteed to see some kind of demo of them. Watch in awe along with the crowd that gathers and see how mesmerised people are then they rush to go and buy some! Yes they really are THAT good!

So what are they?

Well they are shiny, sparkly dyes in beautiful colours such as Maidenhair fern green (my favourite) and Tibetian poppy teal. You can buy them in sets that compliment each other or as individuals. Try as you might you cannot replicate them, trust me I tried! The are one of the Moonglow lines, have a looksie at them here


Moonglow also do other products, 2 of my other favourites are Moonshadow inks and the embossing powders. Moonshadow, if you love to use brown on your cards have a look at these, they are walnut inks with a twist of beautiful colours. They look stunning mixed together.

Of the embossing powders the "Midnight" range are my favs. They are black embossing powders with a sheen of a colour so Midnight Teal is black with a green tint, absolutely gorgeous! (Reminds me I need to top up at port sunny on them!)

I also have some glitz spritz and pigment powders!

So maybe you're not lucky enough to see a live stampman demo but might like to try them so what do you do? There are a number of techniques listed on the stampman site here or pop over to their blog as they also list upcomming shows and TV appearances.

I'll give you a brief demo of the scrunch technique. I use these sheets as backing for notebooks, handmade flowers, backing papers etc etc.

This is my personal collection lol!

STARBURST STAINS SCRUNCH TECHNIQUE

Lay a sheet of plain copier paper down. Make sure surfaces are well protected. These are called STAINS for a reason! I use them on the oven hob as its wipe clean. With a large brush slap on your base colour so your sheet is nice and wet.

With a second colour drop some onto your base colour. Splodge it, splash it just play and have fun (its kinda relaxing too!)

You can choose however many or few colours you like, I've done 3 in this example.

OK when you're happy, fold your paper over (like making butterflies at school!) in half then pick it up and scrunch it into a ball. Some of the the excess dye will run out so catch it on a separate piece of paper or kitchen roll as they can all be used too!

Open it back out again and ooooh pretty patterns!

Now then set the oven to about 200 degrees. No I'm not joking here lol lol! If you're just doing one sheet use the heatgun to dry it, be careful as it can scorch easily! You can also set them aside to dry, hang them on the washing line etc. I'm too impatient so when I'm doing a batch I use the oven.

Place your sheet(s) in the oven and they will be dry in about a minute. If putting more than one sheet in at a time then just keep taking the top one off until you get to the bottom.

My mate actually came round whilst I was doing this and said Mmm what you cooking? Errr paper love! Ooooooh kayyyyy!

Your sheets should now be dry and all sparkly and nice! You get different results every time, mixing different colours also produces a nice 3rd colour such as ramblin rose pink and yellow rose of texas - a nice orangy colour :)

Remember I said about catching the excess dyes? Well also when you've finished with your paintbrushes, run these over a sheet too before washing them as it might just be what you're looking for one day! This card below, the image was stamped on a sheet I'd dryed the brushes off on after a session :)


Just a little warning - they are ADDICTIVE! Plus the fact its quite theraputic watching all the patterns emerge that you kind of get lost in thought for 10 minutes so please be aware of where your children are and what they are doing! I turn my back for a few minutes and what do I get?

Pair of monkeys! Thats a WHOLE box of cheerios!