~ Easy Water Distressing Technique ~

I have been doing this technique for quite awhile and I have been asked by a few people how I do it, so I thought I would throw together a quick tutorial that shows how easy it really is. Here is what you need:


1) Distress Ink of Your Choice
2) Q-Tip
3) Paper You Plan to Distress
4) Glass of Water
5) Distressing Tool

This piece of patterned paper I am using is part of a layout I just did which is also featured in the bottom of this post. Use your distressing tool of choice along all sides of your paper. Don't be gentle and if it tears a little that is a good thing in my book.

Ink your edges all over and don't be afraid to get crazy with it. Wipe some of the ink on top of the paper. Perfect isn't a word that fits into distressing.

Now take your Q-tip and saturate it in the water. Run your Q-tip along the edges of your paper and onto the top as well to spread the coloring around. Again no need for perfection, just let the water run here and there and saturate the edges as best you can by dipping the Q-tip in often.

Now start going around the edges of the paper, while it's still wet, and curl up and make small tears. To speed up the process of drying you can take a heat tool to your paper.

Here is my finished piece. The water really helps blend the inked edges in to the paper.
Here is the layout I used that piece of paper on. I call this "Speechless". I used an altered photo of Brooklyn. All of my layers of paper were distressed using my water technique, some more than others. This layout was used with items from the June Swirlydoos kit.

This is a close-up of some of the embellishments. The frame and clock are both Dusty Attic pieces. I inked over the tops of each one. The flowers are my torn apart Primas that I showed in my last post.

Here are my Prima centers and a couple of butterflies I cut out from some of the patterned paper in the kit.

Check out these gorgeous beads!! Also the rub on below came with the kit and I used that to get my title from. I distressed it a bit as well by being a little rough when applying.

Thanks for stopping by and God Bless!!