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Distressed. This is the look I want to achieve when I have a vintage or antique-looking image, or a keepsake as a focal point for my art project, whether it's a card or a 3-D piece of altered art. I think the distressing compliments and enhances the look of such an item.
So what is distressed? Think: worn, torn, sponged, rough, wrinkled, scratched, dented, faded, inked, stained, splattered, layered, uneven, unfinished, aged, antique, pieced. Or all of the above! It's usually much more fun to create in this style because you don't have to be precise, you can be sloppy (to a point), and you can layer to your heart's content!
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The E-Team challenge: tell what your idea of distressed is (I just did that!) and show how you achieve it.
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Prepare yourself! There are lots of pictures!
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I started with my image, which is a miniature postcard cut from a piece of Cool Romance designer paper, designed and sent to me by my multi-talented friend Kristin. It's already a little worn looking. I printed it on heavy-weight copy paper, glued it to a piece of cream cardstock and cut out the postcard I wanted to use.
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I ran the blade of my scissors along all the edges to give it a torn look, then sponged the edges using some blending foam and Ranger Distress Brushed Corduroy ink. This is my current favorite color with which to distress edges.
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I wanted my postcard to be highlighted on a card, and decided to make the card a little larger than usual - 5" by 5.5". I used kraft cardstock as the card base, and a slightly smaller piece of cream cardstock as the base mat. I unevenly tore pieces of 3 coordinating patterned papers from the Basic Grey Capella 6x6 paper pad to go on top of that.
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I used my fingernail to rough up the edges (scissors may tear lightweight paper), then sponged them as well. I decided to sew them to the cream layer, using 2 zig zag rows of stitching. Notice how I left the ends uncut (unfinished). Then I sponged the edges of the cream layer and also rubbed some of the ink over the stitching.
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I wanted to frame the postcard to highlight it and chose a chipboard frame which I sponged with the Ranger Distress brushed corduroy ink as well. I love that it made the chipboard almost exactly the same color as the kraft cardstock!
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Next is the most fun, I think. I went through all my goodies, and believe me, they're in every drawer and nook and cranny of my craft room/office, just to find the right embellishments for my card.
I finally narrowed it down to these few items.
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I sponged some ink over the flowers and the kraft die cut to make them look aged and more consistent with the overall look of the card. The cardboard was a leftover piece from another project and it was already torn.
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The other items were manufactured to have a vintage look with an aged patina (the pin and brads), or were actually antique (lace made by my grandmother).
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Then all I had to do was layer it all together. Making the composition into a random, collage-type arrangement also lends itself to the worn, aged and faded look that you might find on an old scrapbook page.
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And there you have my idea and method of BASIC DISTRESSING.
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I hope you've enjoyed your little tour of my distressful thinking process of putting together a project with a distressed look. When my card was done, there were tiny torn pieces of paper, thread, and plastic (from the trimmed flower stems) everywhere. And my fingers stayed inked and stained for quite a while. But that's ok. It's part of the fun of the process of creating!
I bet now you're ready to move on to see the fabulous projects of the rest of the creative team. So here are the links for you:
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Latrice Murphy
Linda Duke
Linda Ledbetter
Micki Harper
Sherry Cheever
Starla Nelson
Daisy Sparks (eP blog)
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And Daisy also has some great specials going on right now at eclectic Paperie! How about stocking up on some of the Ranger Distress inks and reinkers so you can be ready to distress your next project? Check it out!
And you definitely NEED to go to the eP blog and get the low-down on how you can win a prize just by commenting on all of our blogs this weekend.
Thanks for stopping by! Have a great weekend...it's gonna be (and has been) in the 70's here. I'm in heaven, y'all!!!


- Stamps: None
- Paper: kraft, vintage cream (PTI), Cool Romance designer paper (MTME), Capella 6x6 paper pad (Basic Grey)
- Ink: Ranger Distress - Brushed Corduroy
- Tools used on every card: Fiskars 9" trimmer, Scor-Buddy, Tim Holtz scissors, Ranger non-stick craft sheet, Rock-a-blocks
- Other: ink blending foam, sewing machine, piece of cardboard, antique lace, silk rose, tiny paper roses (Prima), chipboard frame (Maya Road), kraft mini tickets (Maya Road), Damask die (QuicKutz), trinket pin (Tim Holtz), brads, Scor-Tape, foam tape