Donna Salazar Designs: She is Beauty Unrefined Layout ~ By Tracey Sabella with Girlie Grunge Corrugated Board Tutorial

It's Tracey here to share a layout I created using the January Challenge Sketch. Mistra's sketch is just gorgeous. Details about the challenge can be found here.

I had so much fun creating this layout. This photo of our daughter, Elizabeth, was a perfect fit for Mistra's color palette of Honey, Sage, and Truffle. I love adding grungy elements to girlie pages and have included a step by step tutorial on how I grunged up my corrugated board photo mat.

"She Is Beauty Unrefined"

January Challenge Sketch and Color Palette

Tips and Techniques

Handcrafted flowers and grungy gear using Donna's Spellbinders dies with GCD Natural Beauty and Mix'd Media Stax 2 papers and vintage pattern tissue paper from my stash. I've also torn bits of dictionary paper from the Mix'd Media Stax 2 and inked with Clearsnap Mix'd Media Inx in Honey to layer around the edge of my layout.

Donna's 12 x 12 paper pads each include an image sheet I've cut the title, flourish and some of the flowers from that sheet. I've also done additional fussy cutting like this lace border strip.

I've used my all-time favorite scrappy tool, the Zutter Distrezz-it-All to achieve the gorgeous grungy paper edges.

Don't forget you have a chance to win your own Distrezz-it-All V3.0
by liking the Distrezz-it-All Facebook page.
For other ways to enter go here.
Donna's Youtube video demonstrating the Distrezz-it-All can be viewed here.

Flowers and leaves handcrafted using Donna's Bitty Blossom Dies by Spellbinders. More fussy cutting and the grungy flourish is Donna's Want2Scrap Card Sized Hand Drawn Swirls ~ inked with MMI Truffle. Donna's products coordinate so beautifully as you can see here how her Want2Scrap Build Your Own Bling pieces fit the Bitty Blossoms leaves perfectly.

The scalloped circle was inked and then stamped with Donna's Art Gone Wild Branch stamp using Sage MMI CHOX. I've shared the details on how I created the girlie grunge texture on the corrugated board in my tutorial below.

Girlie Grunge Corrugated Board Tutorial

Supply List
Corrugated Board by Zutter or Want2Scrap
Clearsnap ~ Mix'd Media Inx - Truffle
Clearsnap ~ Mix'd Media Inx CHOX - Sage
Clearsnap ~ Mix'd Media Inx Embossing Powder - Truffle
Heat Tool

Step 1. I've used some of Donna's Zutter Corrugated board. Cut out a piece a little larger than the mat you want to create.

You might ask the question, "Why should I buy corrugated board when I have cardboard from other packaging?" First of all, Donna's corrugated board is archival, so you don't have to worry about a damaged layout down the road. Second her Want2Scrap Corrugate Board already has the corrugation showing - no work or mess and her Zutter corrugated board is much easier to peel off the top layer. You will notice that the corrugated ridges are more noticeable on one side - that's the layer you want to peel off.

**Note ~ if you have Donna's Want2Scrap Corrugated board, you can start at step 3.

Step 2. Peel the top layer off of the corrugated board to reveal the ridges. I like to leave some bits and pieces on my board for an extra touch of grunginess.

Step 3. Roughly tear the edges to size for your photo mat.

Here you can see the size compared to my photo.

Step 4. Ink the edges with Truffle Mixed Media Inx.

Step 5. Add additional inking with Sage MMI CHOX. Then go back and brush more Truffle MMI onto the edges, getting down into the valleys of the corrugated board.

**Note ~ you want to go back with the truffle on the edges after inking with sage so it will be good and wet to hold the embossing powder we will be adding for the next step.

Step 6. Dip the edges of the corrugated board into Truffle Mix'd Media Inx.

Step 7. A lot of embossing powder will stick to the edges, so to get a more textured and grungy edge, brush off some of the embossing powder. You can see in this photo on the right side and bottom where I have removed some of the powder. The top and left side show what it looks like before the extra embossing powder has been brushed away. As you are brushing it, some if the powder will move around and go towards the center of the corrugated board - that's just the effect I was looking for.