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Thursday, February 17, 2011

Distress Ink

I am so excited today!!! First, thanks for viewing the post!! I really do appreciate it!!! Another reason for the excitement is because I went to one of my many favorite stores today ---- HOBBY LOBBY!! I "had to get out of the house and get some fresh air" (which translates to --- I wanted to go to Hobby Lobby) and I had seen this you tube video on distress ink.. Now, I am new to the scrapbooking ordeal.. not too new but compared to all the blogs I follow -- which are many -- I am pretty much a novice....

The video is from apieceofcraft.com which distresses the page with water along with the ink pad... I finally decided I was going to try it out... So, I went out and bought a few distress ink pads by Holtz. Enjoy!!! Here is the video I viewed...




Below is a page from acherryontop.com shows you several other ways to achieve the same result but not using any water like the video from above...

Distressing
In the hobby of scrapbooking, distressing can be defined as altering paper or embellishments to give them an aged, vintage or well-worn look.  It is a very inexpensive technique that can add a lot of depth and texture to your pages.  Distressing looks great with heritage photos, sepia photos and black and white photos.
Dry distressing techniques
This is the first LO I created to demonstrate some of the basic techniques:
The first thing I did was cut a strip (3 1/2" x 12") of the Jenni Bowlin Turquoise Wallpaper patterned paper.  I then crumpled it up:
Unfold it:
If you want it to be more wrinkled, crumple it again.  Next, I used the large sanding file from the Basic Grey Precision set to sand the paper.  You will notice that it really makes the creases in the paper from crumpling it stand out.
Next, I inked it using some Ranger Distress Ink.  Hold the ink pad over the paper and lightly brush it with the pad.  The harder you press, the more ink will be added to your paper.
Here are some tips on using ink to distress your paper.  You can hold your ink at a 90 degree angle and it will lightly ink your edges like in this photo.
If you would like more coverage on the edges, tilt the ink pad closer to the paper (making the angle between your paper and ink pad more acute.)
Here's another tip that I learned that I am not sure you knew.  When you purchase your Ranger Distressing Pads, they have a flat surface like this:
You can actually pull the top flat surface.  It is a great idea to wear gloves when you do this.  My fingers were broken china blue for several days.
In the following picture, you can see what it does for your paper.  The right edge was inked before I removed the top layer of the ink pad.  The bottom edge was after.  I love that the bottom looks more natural and not manufactured to make it look aged.  Hope that makes sense when you look at this photo:
 I placed the paper we distressed next to the original piece so you could see the difference:
I then continued to do the same thing to all of the other papers I added to my page.  I kept adding layers of paper to the page.  I think that with distressing, the more layers of paper you add, the better it looks.  This is just my own personal preference.
Another thing I wanted to show you was paper tearing.  I think it looks great with distressed papers and really goes with the worn and vintage look.  You can see from looking at my LO that I tore the edge of the Turquoise Wallpaper patterned paper I used on the left of the LO.  When tearing paper, I like to place the paper with the pattern face up.  I then tear the paper upward.  It is hard to show you the exact way I hold the paper while I tear it with one hand on the camera but I usually use one hand to hold the paper and the other to tear.  By tearing it upward, you can see the white core of the paper.
The white core will also pick up and show more ink when you ink the edges.  If you don't want the white core to show, then place your pattern face down when tearing.
Another distressing technique I used on this LO, was sanding.  Again, I used the large file from the Basic Grey Precision Set and sanded the edges of the paper. I also sanded some of the surface of the background paper.  Both add more texture to your page.
Again, here's my finished page.  With these techniques, keep repeating them and combining them until you get the desired look you want on your page.  If the distressing technique isn't giving you as bold of a result as you like, do it again.  Keep doing it until you get the results you want.
 The problem I was having when scanning these pages was that the true depths of the distressing was getting lost.  Here are some photos of the page that might help you see it better.

Anyways, I am so excited I am about to go try all these methods out!!! I hope you guys enjoy the post.. Sorry So Long!!! I'll shorten it up next time!!!! 

3 comments:

leilani02 said...

Wow, these are some great pics of how to distress. I have been wanting to try it for some time but haven't done it yet. Looks great!

Melanie Rozwood said...

Those are great examples. I am giving you an award. Visit http://afternoonscrapper.blogspot.com/2011/02/award.html to grab your award. Save and place on your blog. List 8 things about you and pick 8 stylish blogs to pass the award on just like I passed to you!
Enjoy!

Unknown said...

Gorgeous LO! distressing is so much fun, great pic tutorial. TFS!