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Back to Stamping Techniques
Distressing Your Art
 Close to My Heart's
beautiful cardstocks have a very special property that make it the perfect medium for
creating a distressed look on your artwork. Our beautiful cardstock has a white core so
that when you sand it some of that white core shows through and gives a warm distressed
look. Here are just a few tips and ideas about how to distress your next project and
create this warm, endearing look.
Tools
All you need is sandpaper and cardstock! It's that easy. Low grit sandpaper (like 80 or
100 for example) create stronger marks whereas higher grit sandpaper (like 220 or 240
paper) create a more even all over sanded look. I personally use 150 or 220 sand paper.
You can also use an electric sander to achieve the look. This tool is especially nice
to use if you are doing a lot of sanding. If you use an electric sand paper, use a
lightweight hand sander and a high grit sand paper such as 220. If you are nervous about
trying it with an electric sander just practice on left over paper first. It's easy.
 Techniques
Distressing
To create an all over distressed look simple rub the sand paper back and forth across
the cardstock. It's so simple. If I use sandpaper, I like to place my cardstock on
something heavy such as a clip board. You can make the distressing heavy in some areas
more than others as you desire. Once you have played with all over distressing, try going
one direction then again at a 90 degree angle for a plaid or fabric look. You can also try
sanding in stripes, wavy lines etc for other fun looks.
Transferring Color
Here's a fun variation to try. First sand a dark colored cardstock. Now sand white
cardstock using the same part of the sandpaper that you first used. The residue from the
dark cardstock will transfer from the sandpaper to the white cardstock leaving a soft
color. In the card examples here I ripped the cardstock and then sanded it so that the
sanding transferred some color to the ripped edge to soft the look.
Vellum
You can also sand on our vellum papers. Sanding on vellum results in a beautiful
frosted or etched glass effect.
Using Stencils
You can also use our page stencils to create beautifully sanded designs. Place a
stencil such as our heart stencil on a table and tape it to hold it secure. Now place your
cardstock over the stencil. Then apply sandpaper to sand where the shapes are cut out.
This is a fun technique to use with some added color. For example, you can sand the images
from the stencil and then add some color with a sponge to the sanded areas. It's a
beautiful look.
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