Just Cre8 GCT Challenge - Get Distressed!

I'm thrilled to be the Guest Creative Designer at Just Cre8 this month. Here are two more layouts I've created with this month's kit, and I used them as examples of my GCD Challenge for this month - Get Distressed! See this post in the forum here!

We all have our favourite techniques and ways of changing things up when it comes to scrapbooking. One of my favourite things to do to my pages is roughen up the paper a bit by distressing it. There are many ways to do this – crumpling, tearing, rubbing, sanding, inking, chalking, etc. What each of these methods has in common is that each adds texture and dimension to the page, creating a feeling of messiness or grunge, or a vintage-y flair, depending on the mood or theme of the layout.
My personal favourite thing to do is to distress my pages by sanding using sandpaper of varying degrees of coarseness, or a file or emery board. A common misconception is that distressing can only be used on shabby or heritage layouts. This simply isn’t true. Here are two youthful, modern layouts created with this month’s kit which use distressing to add depth to the paper’s edge. The Outtakes layout above celebrates the craziness that goes on in our house when I try to get the kids together for a photo.

In the Family Forever layout, I somehow managed to capture them all in quite observation. I love the teddies in this enlarged photo. Some day all too soon, they won't be interested in them anymore (sniff!)

So my Just Cre8 GCT Challenge for February 2009 is to get distressed. I hope you particip8 by posting a layout here. If you haven't been in the Just Cre8 gallery, you're missing out on so much inspiration Check it out here!