Thrifty Thursday: making it shabby with acrylic paint!

This is our first Thrifty Thursday. The idea is to share with you a technique that does NOT require new scrapbook supplies or tools, but can be done using what most of us already have at home.

Today I want to share with you how to make something look old, vintage, shabby or distressed looking. A while back I finished a custom order for 2 vintage scrapbook albums for 2 brothers. Here is a sneak peak of the first album. I wanted to achieve a fun, distressed, old look without making the albums feminine at all. So I decided to use paint - white acrylic paint. I found it is the best way to make something look shabby.

Now you don't need any special tools to apply your paint and any acrylic paint will do. But because acrylic paint is rather thick it can be very tricky to use it on rubber or acrylic stamps. They tend to get all sticky and you can't see much of the detail of the stamps, unless it is a big one or a foam stamp but that's another post.

I used two simple tools for my technique. I used water bottle caps and medicine measuring cups to make the white circles on my latest album. I also used my finger to dab the white paint around the edges of my album. I tried using a make up sponge but I liked the result of using my fingers better. I was going for a messy, smeared look.



First squeeze some paint on a paper plate and spread it flat like you would icing on a cake, then use the cap and cup to start stamping. Don't worry about perfect prints, you are going for shabby, not perfect prints. You will have some circles thicker, with missing pieces to the circle, others lighter. the paint dries really quickly too.

 

The first photo on this post is an example of the result of this technique. You can see the complete result on Carson's album HERE and Camden's album HERE.

You can use other tools with this same technique. Try using bubble wraps, the end of pencils, a sponge, a paper crinkled into a ball or anything else you can think of and already have at home.

On the card below I smeared the edges with white paint.



Here is an example using green paint and bubble wrap.



How do you use acrylic paint? Would love to hear about your results and your discoveries.

I wish you a Happy New Year!!! Until next Thursday, stay thrifty and crafty. :)

Be blessed,

Tereza