I buy seam binding, just in white and then colour it myself to suit my project.

This was a 100yds roll and it was not expensive.

I also have Distressing Inks which are a water based ink.

But you can use any water based ink pad that you have.

Dab the ink pad onto your non stick craft mat or aglass cutting mat. and spritz it with clean water.

The ink will form droplets on the mat and the colour will deepen.

Take a good long length of the seam binding and add it to the dyed water on your mat.

Swirl it around and re spritz as needed until all the ribbon is coated in the colour.

Mix more colour if you need to.

Then either set on one side to dry or...

...take your heat gun to it and dry it quickly.

This technique wont work on organza ribbons and they will burn with the heat gun.

This photo shows you some of the distress inks used and the ribbon colours that they produce using this technique.

Once it is dry fold it neatly and you will then have lots of coloured ribbon ready to use.

And because you are using the same ink pads that you stamp and colour your images with you know it will always match whatever it is you want to do.

Take altering ribbons one step further by using a stamp that will fit the width.

With a StazOn ink pad, which is a permanet dye, add the sentiment to it...

..and then add it to your cards for that extra personal touch.

You can of course add the sentiment to other kinds of ribbon, and try colouring them.

But this is such a cheap way to give yourself lots of ribbons and seam binding is definitely the "In" thing at the moment