Day 8 of 12 Days of Distressing - Shredding

Day 8 Shredding - Shredding is another way to destroy your papers surface and create a distressed look. This first layout was done using a solid black piece of cardstock. I first used silver alcohol ink on almost the entire thing. Then I used my Cutterbee exacto knife that I featured in my 1st day of distressing post. I drug it from side to side on this entire page and even sliced some of the sections.
This particular layout I used the same knife and used it on the green textured cardstock. I fluffed it up and gave it some really nice texture. As you can see this technique can be very thrashed looking or very pretty and neat. Either way it's very easy to do and helps give a layout that something extra.

This layout is temporarily out for publication!

Day 7 of 12 Days of Distressing - Trim Distressing

Day 7 Ribbon, Fiber, & Trim Distressing - I wanted to have this the day after staining because they pretty much go hand in hand. However, I didn't want to post them the same day, because this is a step beyond actually staining. Adding texture to your layouts is very common, but I notice that it seems to get left out on distressed layouts because unless you mess it up a bit it looks to clean. On the canvas layout I did below I used a couple of different ribbons and actual chain. I distressed all threse items in some way. The black ribbon I took some scissors and cut off a fine strip off the edge of the whole ribbon and frayed up the sides just a little. On the larger red ribbon I used my blending tool with some dark ink and ran it over the ribbon a couple of times. Then I cut the ribbon and frayed the ends to give it a torn apart look. As for the chain, that was easy, I just broke the link :).
Basically any ribbon, trim, or fiber can be distressed. Twine is really easy to fray up by lightly running it back and forth over some blades. Yarn can be unraveled and ribbon frayed. Lace can be torn and shredded. Just have fun with it.

The last couple of posts have some great examples of distressing trim as well.

Day 6 of 12 Days of Distressing - Staining

Day 6 Staining and Dying - I LOVE working with natural colored lace because you can buy it in bulk and turn it into any color imagineable. So you can use the same style of lace on multiple layouts and nobody is going to know the difference. Notice these two layouts below. The green lace at the top of the photo mat o the 1st layout is exactly the same lace that is to the left of the photo on the 2nd layout. I just used two different colors of alcohol inks. You can use items like tea or coffee to stain your lace or trim, but you are stuck with just a couple of colors. When you use alcohol inks you can have so many more choices. I have also used distress ink from ink reinkers, but the drying time and mess is a lot worse, so I would avoid it when possible.

When I dye my lace I will lay my lace down on my crafting mat and just run my ink down the lace letting drops fall as I go. The color will naturally spread out into your lace. I like to use a little more in some areas and a little less in others, so that it has a non uniformed look. Feel free to ask questions in the comment section and I will respond in the comments as well.

Day 5 of 12 Days of Distressing - Bleaching

Day 5 Bleaching - This could be a bit damaging, so I recommend being extra careful while using bleach not only for what you are bleaching, but for your clothes and things around you. However, with that said, it looks AWESOME!!! I don't like keeping bleach around my desk so I literally take my project with me to my laundry room when I want to bleach something. In this layout below I used some plain dark green cardstock. I tried sticking to the left side for the bleach. Now you can do a splatter look or a rub look. For this layout I wanted a rubbed look and so I used an old rag and put a small amount of bleach on that then wiped a couple of areas and the edge that I wanted bleached. To do a splatter you can use a dropper or something to that effect to drip and splatter onto your paper.
I even used bleach on the picture of this layout, but it a much different way. I will touch on photo distressing in a few days, so check back for the how to's on distressing your photo!!

Day 4 of 12 Days of Distressing - Cardboard

Day 4 Corrugated Cardboard - Corrugated cardboard can be a real pain if it doesn't want to cooperate. I have seen ladies have this full sheet of 12x12 cardboard sheet and have so many issues with it they just throw it out and vow never to use it again. Ok I have a few tips to help simplify using cardboard. This first layout has a full sheet of cardboard for the background. Now the most frustrating part is peeling that top layer off your cardboard. The easiest way that I have found to do this is by spraying water all over the side you want to peel, but don't saturate it, just spray it so it soaks into that top layer. Let it soak in and then peel away. Try to peel it first because once in a while I get this awesome piece that peels really easily, but most of the time I use water. Now you can either leave it raw or use a number of things to decorate it. I used pink acrylic paint on this layout and I didn't apply it evenly, but painted heavier in some areas and kept some of the raw cardboard exposed. This layout I wanted to jazz up my cardboard even more. I used crackle paint and some purple stickles. I would spread it over unevenly and don't worry about getting every spot. Do the crackle first and let it dry, then use some stickles and rub it around all over. Crackle paint is my favorite thing to use on cardboard because you get this really neat vintage look.

This layout is currently out for publication!

The nice thing about corrugated cardboard is you can get it for free on any box that gets delivered to your house or where ever. You can try doing different things to it without throwing away too much money. You can tear it, ink it, paint it, color it and the list goes on. Just have fun with it. I have noticed some ladies using it in their title work and it makes really cute letters. I haven't tried this yet, but I am wanting too. Feel free to ask questions by leaving them in my comment section and I will answer you there as well.

Day 3 of 12 Days of Distressing - Sanding

Day 3 Sanding or Filing - Again I am using layouts I have featured on here in the past, but I want to show you the best examples that I have. Sanding is a great way to get that worn out look in your paper or embellishments. This first one I did for Harlee Quinnz Designs and I decided to make my own flower embellishments using their paper. I cut some flower shapes out with my diecutter in both chipboard and pattern paper. I glued the pattern paper to the chipboard and then took my sanding tool and began going over the hole flower sanding heavier on the edges. It whitened the edges and gave them a really great worn out and distressed look. This particular layout is done using some embossed stickers and a sanding tool. I placed my pattern paper on top of the stickers I wanted to use and sanded on the pattern paper. The sticker images will start to come through the paper. See along the edges and the corners of this layout. That was all done using this particular technique.
One more quick and awesome way to sand is by crinkling up the paper you want to use into a wad. Then flatten it out again and take a sander to it. The wrinkles will turn white in color. You can ink it for added color or leave it plain. I chose to just ink around the edges of the blue circle below. This layout has around 11 techniques of distressing on it, so you will most likely be seeing it again in future how to's :).
I will tend to use a generic brand block sander or sand paper that I steal from my husband's shop :). I have come across this one from Tim Holtz in the scrapbook store as well.

Day 2 of 12 Days of Distressing - Masking

Day 2 Masking - Masking is such a cool way to add to your pages without creating bulky layouts. I love masking and you don't just have to use a product made for masking. You can use just about anything that is flat in shape. I have used chipboard shapes, letters, stencils, you name it!! On this first layout I used a Tim Holtz mask in the upper left corner. Tim Holtz masks have a sticky side to prevent slipping, but I reuse mine over an over weather they are sticky or not! I just applied my mask and sprayed some glitter mist, in this case, some Smooch Spritz over the area of the mask. Here is a layout I did just using some Maya Road acrylic letters. Smaller shapes can be trickier but just use some repositional adhesive on them to help hold them in place and that should work just fine. I have used shapes like butterflies, such as the large masked image in my Day 1 "Discover" lo. Another fun trick is creating your own shapes by using your Cricut or using stencils for a reverse masking look. I used a blending tool and inked over the top of the letters.
I normally will use either a glitter mist or just ink over the mask using a blending tool like the one I have pictured below. Sometimes I use both mist and ink to get a more multicolored sparkly look. I will mist first and then ink over all of it using my blending tool. When you use the blending tool, don't stamp it down, but smoosh it around in a circular fashion to help blend nicely.
When I use inks over masks I will tend to spread my ink over a larger area of my paper. Then I will mist over it a little. It looks neat when you have some over spray of mist that gets over the masked area. Check out my "You" layout in my pre-12 Days of Christmas post, because it has a great example of this.