Distressed & Glazed Brown Bag Technique

Today I have a technique that will help welcome in Autumn!!

It's something I discovered quite some time ago purely by accident. I was trying to come up with a fun new technique using Sepia Accents but grabbed my Glossy Accents by mistake!

Distressed & Glazed

Brown Bag Technique

Of course you can use brown bags for this technique but in our area most stores have all gone to those darn plastic bags. If you have the same trouble, I have a solution....I found this really cool brown bag paper in the paint section of Wal-Mart! It is a bit thinner than grocery sacks but is very similar to lunch bags if that helps. There are yards and yards and yards of paper here and it was so inexpensive...something like $5.00 or so. It is perfect for all sorts of crafty ideas and you could even use it for what it was intended for if you need to paint your walls ~ LOL!

Supplies:

Brown Paper Bag

Distress Ink

Glossy Accents

Paper Punch, Die-Cut or Hand Drawn/Cut Design

Instructions:

1. Tear off a section of brown bag and crumble crumble crumble.

2. Flatten out your brown bag and rub one color of Distress Ink (ex. Wild Honey) over the paper.

I have brown corduroy, wild honey and forest moss on this example...

3. Squeeze a generous amount of Glossy Accents over your inked brown paper bag.

4. (FUN PART!!!) Spread the Glossy Accents over the entire inked area(s). I use my fingers but you could use whatever tool you would like :) Let this dry completely.

As the Glossy Accents dry it blends with and moves some of the Distress Ink around creating an amazing depth and texture. Here is what it looks like after it has dried.... (this ex is Fired Brick & Rusty Hinge)

5. After the GA has dried, cut desired shapes from the paper. Since I wanted to use them for an Autumn project I decided to paper punch some leaf shapes.... You could also die-cut this paper or hand cut desired shapes. I don't think it would be a good idea to run it through something like a Cricut since the GA may interfere with the knife.

And here is what they look like....

Don't worry if some areas of GA are thicker than others... It really adds a cool texture to the cut shapes. You can see where the GA cracked when I paper punched it on these two leaves....

Pretty cool results huh?

I love this vintage, shabby, distressed look!!!

By changing the colors and shapes this technique is great for all sorts of themes!

Tomorrow I will share a finished project incorporating these nifty leaves.