Staining Wood with Distress Ink

Originally posted on September 20, 2009

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Need to stain some wood for a quick project, but don’t have any wood stain on hand? Or maybe you just don’t want to buy all that stain for one little project. No problem! Just use distress ink from your scrapbook stash!

You definitely want to test your inks on a scrap piece of wood before attempting to stain your project. I used a paint stirrer which is free from most hardware stores.

Be sure to label each ink spot so you can refer to it for later projects.

I needed to stain this wooden “dream” sign that I picked up at my local craft store. I wanted it to match the already stained picture frame (the cute photo of my son yawning is courtesy of the uber fabulous Lotus Blossom Photography). It just so happened that *Vintage Photo* distress ink was an exact match! I used my sponge dauber to ink the entire surface and sides and a q-tip to get in the nooks and crannies.

Not completely satisfied with the outcome? You can always add a second coat to make the stained look darker!

I wouldn’t recommend trying to stain anything as large as a piece of furniture. Save those projects for some real wood stain!

You can also use your distress ink to touch up scratches on your furniture. Be sure you have your pre-stained piece of scrap wood handy to match the stain colors.

I hope you enjoyed these tips!