Wednesday, June 12, 2013

How I Color My Seam Binding Tutorial!

Good morning!
 I use seam binding frequently on my projects. It adds a finishing touch that I love. When I buy it off of Amazon it comes in two colors, cream and white. I've bought both kinds and love them equally. But many times I don't want cream or white, I want a color. So today I am going to show you how I color my seam binding like you see in the card below.
First you will need to gather your supplies.
1. Glimmer Mist 
2. Seam Binding
3. old coffee grounds. (This is the secret ingredient right here!)
4. An old container for each color you desire. 
Cut the length of seam binding that you like, and place each section in its own container.

Now just spray the heck out of the seam binding.  I usually use my hands to get the color to coat it fairly evenly.  But I warn you, your hands will turn colors if you do this!  I looked like a Smurf for an entire day after this! ;)

Since I create mostly shabby vintage projects, I wanted to tone down the colors a bit and "age" them.  I use old wet coffee grounds to dump on top. 

For quicker drying I took them out of the containers and placed them on an Elmo paper plate.  Any paper plate will do, it doesn't have to be an Elmo one! LOL!
Here's what it looks like when it's finished.  You can see that there are areas of light and dark, and areas that are more brown then others.  When I am ready to use them on my projects I do iron them flat.  I know some people like them crinkled, it's all in what your preference is. 

I hope you will try to create your own seam binding in an array of colors!  You can try mixing colors to get an interesting effect too!
Have a great day my friends!

9 comments:

Riet said...

What a beautiful card Michele.

Hugs Riet.xx

snappy scrappy said...

Beautiful!!

Marcy said...

Thank you so much for sharing this tip, Michele! I bought a lot of colored seam tape binding on Etsy years ago, and I'm finally getting down to the last of it. Looks like a fun rainy day project for my dd & me!

L.B. said...

Very very cool look with the coffee and thanks for the tips may try this soon

A Country Twinkle said...

Gorgeous card! Thanks for sharing your secret ingredient.

Dorlene Durham said...

Great tutorial and I do believe they are even better with the Elmo paper plate LOL

Thanks for the tips with the coffee grounds - I love that crafters are always willing to share their secrets!!

Sara Andrews said...

Love the tips!!

I often wonder if people iron their seam binding, because I know there have been many times I've wanted too.

Sharon Wheet said...

michelle,
thanks for letting us know how you 'color' your seam binding, to get it to 'match' your projects.
Now, I'll have to try this. I haven't used the 'secret' ingredient. :)

hugs, sharon w

Laura said...

huh....coffee grounds to tone down the colors ehh...interesting. And those seam bindings look like tim holtz ribbons that he colors up...I wonder if that's cheaper. I'm gonna look in to it! Thanks for the chuckle (elmo) and the tips. Laura