Tutorial Tuesday–Distressing & Sanding by Tricia Ulberg

Two techniques I use most often when I am scrapbooking or paper crafting are sanding and distressing. They are easy to do and are quick ways to achieve either a softer or a more weathered look.

To create these effects you need two tools, a Making Memories Sanding Block and a Tim Holtz Edge Distresser. The sanding block is rough on three sides and smooth on one side for finer sanding.  The edge distresser is an easy-to-hold wheel with blades inside each of the grooves.  This particular edge distresser easy to get it around the edges of your paper.

Both of these tools work great.  Here are some examples of how you can use these tools with your paper crafting projects!

This is a Halloween project I was working on this past weekend. I covered paper mache letters with scrapbooking paper to make a fun Halloween decoration. After I had glued my paper to my letters, I sanded the edges of each letter.  This created a soft weathered edge. Easy enough! Another thing that was great about using the sander on this particular project is it “sanded away” extra paper that was hanging off the edge of each letter.

Here is my finished project with all the letters sanded on the edges… I love how it looks! The white sanded edges help frame the letters.

I also love to sand the edges of my photos for scrapbooking pages. It gives it a soft, natural edge. This is a recent scrapbook page I did that shows sanded edges. You can see the edge of the photo is almost white and then the “colored” area also has been scratched up a bit. I just gently ran the top of the sander over the top of the photo and scrubbed harder on the edges.

The Tim Holtz Edge Distresser will give you even more of a distressed edge. Rather than a soft look, it shaves more paper off. You can really change the way the edges of your paper look with this tool. I use distressing a lot on cards when I am working with smaller pieces of cardstock. Below is a square of paper that I used the distressing tool on… you can see how rough the edge is.

To really show off your distressed edges, frame your distressed piece with a darker color behind it. You can see how the purple distressed edges really pop against the black background in the photo below.

This is my finished card. I used the distressing tool on the edges of my black sentiment rectangle also to help that piece pop off my card.

These sanding and distressing tools are MUST HAVES for your paper crafting tool box!