A very subtle color
Distress Stains are a terrific product. I can't say enough about them now that I have played around enough to discover some of their potential. I am addicted to making backgrounds using some of Tim Holtz's favorite techniques (you can find them on his blog, Ranger's website, YouTube, in his online class Creative Chemistry 101, or in his new book "A Compendium of Curiosities Vol 2).
Antique Linen is very light color. However, I found that when making backgrounds I was drawn to my favorite colors- the deep, rich colors like Chipped Saphire and Tumbled Glass. While they make gorgeous backgrounds they can easily over-power the entire design making it difficult to even see the images intended to be the focus of the piece. So, I am playing around with using lighter colors, in order to keep my images at the forefront of the design and colors like Antique Linen are perfect for this.
When I got the first 12 Stains I was terrified of them. There is a lot of liquid involved in using them, especially if you use more than one color. However, how that followed Tim's advice and played around- and use a heat gun every time- I will say I am a Super Fan. I have spent many hours simply playing with color combinations (now that I have all 37 colors) making tags for use later. Distress Stains are so simple to use- now that I know how- and are gorgeous colors.