First, gather up your supplies.

Today, I'm going to share a technique on how to create a distressed frame for your layout. I love, love, love the shabby chic look and this is a great way to create it on your projects! First, gather up your supplies. I chose brown and pink paint and this crackle medium by Plaid, foam brushes and an old lid to hold my paint. (I'll show you this technique on a smaller piece of chipboard but I actually did this to an entire chipboard frame.) Next, put a light coat of brown paint on the chipboard.

After allowing this to completely dry, paint a somewhat thick coat of crackle medium on the chipboard. The medium MUST be completely dry before the next step. (You can speed this step by using a heat gun).

Next, paint a coat of pink paint over the top of the crackle medium. Do NOT go over your brush strokes more than once. As the paint dries, you will notice cracks start to appear.

Finally, you can distress your frame even further by sanding some of the paint off and using distress ink. I also machine stitched around my frame.

Here's the layout I used the frame on using patterned paper from the Lydia, Smoothie Shop and Chic Bebe collections by GCD Studios:

Here's a close-up of my title that I outlined to help pop off the page.

And here's another little tip...I used my Martha Stewart punch to punch circles out of the plastic gift bags in the Homespun Chic collection. The glitter brads are also part of the collection.

Happy distressing! :)

Jill