Wednesday Trends - Tammy

Hey everybody! It's Wednesday and that means it's time for a little tutorial on the latest trends out there in the papercrafting world. I don't know about you but one of my most favorite trends of late is using seam binding instead of ribbon in my creations! Whether the seam binding is something I purchased that was already hand-dyed (from an Etsy store) as shown here...

or some seam binding that already comes in a rainbow of colors, as I used here...

or some plain white seam binding that I dyed and crinkled myself, as seen here...

this stuff is HOT, HOT, HOT! Below, I'll show you a quick photo tutorial of how I dye my seam binding.

I use Ranger distress inks for dying, and use one dropperful in a Ranger Mini-Mister bottle...

...then fill the Mini-Mister the rest of the way with water.

I usually dye 3 yards of seam binding at a time. However, I forgot to get some more for this tutorial! So what you're seeing here is a much smaller piece of white! But I can usually dye 3 yards at a time with one full Mini-Mister.
Lay your seam binding on a non-absorbent surface, like a Teflon craft sheet and just start spraying the seam binding with the water/ink mixture.
Keep moving the seam binding around and spraying....
until you have a desired color. The color I'm using here is Spun Sugar, so it will end up fairly pale. Remember, in most cases the seam binding will dry a lighter shade, so don't be afraid to lay on the color. (And if you're doing darker colors be sure to wear a glove! I did 3 yards of Forest Moss once and ended up looking like Shrek!)
I then put my dyed seam binding down into the corner of a plastic baggie, and...
tie it shut with a good knot.
Then I just sit that bag aside for anywhere from 12-24 hours. Afterward, I remove it from the bag to air dry. It will still be pretty wet when you take it out of the bag, but will air dry within a day. I just keep fluffing it up every so often until it's dry. If you have a warm, sunny day you can even set it outside to dry! (But here in Northeast Ohio, we're doomed to never see the sun again!) You can also use your heat gun to quickly dry it, but you will lose some of the wrinkly texture when you do this. Another option is to tightly wrap the seam binding in tin foil and put it in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes. Depending on how tightly you wrap, it could get really crinkly. Because the seam binding dries so much quicker in the oven, the color can tend to be splotchy as well.

So I hope you'll give dying your own seam binding a try! You can buy spools of it on Etsy as well as buy it already dyed! Just search "seam binding" on the Etsy site!

Have fun!