Distressing, or antiquing, is a beautiful way to transform a scrapbook page layout from ordinary to extraordinary. There are distress kits available at most craft/art and scrapbook stores. They are convenient and great to get started. However, if you would like to save money or supplement the premade kits, then I recommend creating the same effects with materials you may already have in your home and with skills you already possess.
1. Unsweetened tea or coffee make great dyes for paper and fabric.
2. Sandpaper and emery boards work well for roughing up edges and surfaces of most materials.
3. Toothpicks can serve multiple functions, like drawing in paint or creating borders.
4. Tearing, folding and/or crinkling paper and then inking the creases will create a very neat "old" look.
5. Stamp inks (which you probably already have in your scrapbooking supplies) work especially well on edges of paper to create a very distressed look.
6. Use small branches for layout borders or album bindings. You can leave the branches natural, sand them, paint them and so on...
7. Make your own spray ink. Mix water and food coloring or powdered drink mix (think of something that has a strong pigment and no sweeteners). Be careful of overspray and getting the spray on clothing, carpeting, furniture etc. You may already have some inks in your scrapbook supplies as inks can also be purchased at craft/art/scrapbooking stores.
8. Painting on most materials can lead to a very artistic, distressed look. Drybrushing also works well for an antique look.
9. Think outside the box. What other hobbies do you have that those supplies may lend themselves to scrapbooking? If you sew, what do you have that would work well for scrapbooking? Fabrics and threads can add so much to a page layout like texture and movement for starters. A quilt-like layout could look very distressed.
10. Use dried flowers for a beautiful embellishment.
11. Combine the above ideas and your own for amazing, artistic antiqued/distressed layouts.
12. Using a stapler instead of an adhesive creates an interesting look.
13. Use newspapers, sheet music, magazine clippings, menus, maps and bottlecaps as backgrounds and embellishments. (Use punches to create smaller embellishments.) These items are great because they are basically being recycled, or repurposed, which is great for the environment as well as your scrapbook. :)
For more ideas, stay tuned. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments. Thank you, and have a fabulous day!
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