Burnt Edges Tutorial

Here I am with the burnt edges tutorial as seen in my layout 'Outlaw'. As already mentioned...this technique has most likely been used before--I'm simply showing how I went about getting this burnt look.

Prepare to get messy with this one. It's all about using your fingers with ink, glimmer mist & water.

Here are your basic supplies. Paper, dark brown glimmer mist. I used Suede Glimmer Mist. Dark brown ink. I'm using chalk ink in a Dark Brown color. I use chalk ink because this ink smears a little with water. You can also use a Walnut Stain Distress ink for this since Distress inks also react well to water. A mini mister or any kind of spray bottle & a Tim Holtz distresser. If you do not have this little gadget, running the edge of a sharp pair of scissors along the border of the paper works good too. Heat gun (not pictured).

First step is to distress the edges of the paper with your distressing tool or scissors. Here I've already done that. As you can see in certain areas I went in a little deeper with the distressing. Do not be afraid to slightly tear the edges while distressing...this adds to the effect!

Here's a closeup of an area where I went in a little deeper with my distress tool.

Next you ink the edges. Just loosely go all around the edges inking as you would any other edge. This is just to give the edges a darker look.

Take your mini mister or spray bottle & lightly spray some water along the edges of your inked distressed edges. How much water you use depends on your paper. Thinner paper will need just one spritz of water while thicker paper may need more. The idea here is to soften the paper so that you can roll, wrinkle & tear it.

Once the edges are moist use your fingers to roll, tear & wrinkle the edges. The paper will be soft so that you can shape the edges any way you want.

Here's a closeup of a corner after I finished shaping it. As you can see in some places I tore into the paper, in others I just wrinkled it & in other areas I just rolled it. Do not be consistent in your technique...use all three techniques & spread them around all edges of your paper.

This is where we get messy! Take your glimmer mist & spray it on your work area. I use a Craft Sheet by Ranger for working. This way I can just wipe the sheet clean when done. Make sure you have a place to do this kind of inking so you don't ruin any table tops or desks! Glimmer mist does stain...

Take your paper & ink the edges into the glimmer mist. Ink it by swirling the edges of the paper around the mist, dabbing the edges into it & by even using your fingers to take some glimmer mist & spreading it on the edges. Just have fun with this part! Get messy & ink those edges! If you run out of glimmer mist...just spray some more! Now, if you're working with thin paper, make sure to ink the edges gently...you don't want your paper to start completely falling apart. As you ink your paper, keep using your fingers to wrinkle, tear & roll the edges even more!

Here's what your paper should look like after playing around in that glimmer mist. Notice how in some areas I inked more than in others. This is fine. Remember you're trying to create a burnt piece of paper. Fire tends to burn in all directions & hardly ever in an even way. So the more uneven you are the better!

Next step is to dry your paper. Take your heat gun & start drying the edges. You'll notice that as you dry, your edges will start to curl. This is good...this is what we want! The closer you are with the heat gun to the paper the more the paper will curl. But be careful! Don't burn yourself or literally burn the paper! We're going for fake fire here...not real! So take caution. If you want to wrinkle a certain edge more. Just turn off your heat gun, wrinkle it with your fingers & keep drying...you'll see how the edges dry wrinkled.

Here you go! One really burnt piece of paper that you can now use on your project.

A closeup of a burnt corner.

Hope you all enjoyed this tutorial & that it'll be useful to some of you.

Till my next post...