DEFINITIONS OF GRUNGE:

GRUNGE
Grunge is slang for a type of punk/metal/thrash crossover music with it’s encumberment of scruffy fashions.  n. Slang 1. Filth; dirt.  2. A style of rock music that incorporates elements of punk rock  and heavy metal.  3. A deliberately untidy and uncoordinated fashion style [from US slang: dirt, rubbish]

I have to admit that when I was asked to do a feature called ‘How to be a Rockstar Crafter’ I really wasn’t quite sure where to start until I was told it was a ‘Grunge’ feature. I wasn’t really sure about
this particular style of crafting so I thought I’d start with the dictionary!  As you can see there are several definitions of ‘Grunge’, but in my opinion, when it comes to crafting it is the ideal opportunity to take aspects of each of these various definitions and use them to your own advantage.  Along with the dark colours and distressed and worn looks, some of the popular grungy ‘icons’ at the  moment are the skull & crossbones and guitars (for rock stars).  Here I have tried to show several types of grungy styles and techniques. If these styles of cards are not your ‘cup of tea’ then why not give them a try anyway – you may be surprised!

Scrunch it!

Scrunching up papers or even elements on your card then flattening out gives some texture and dimension to your card too.

In order to get the ‘distressed’ and ‘worn’ look of grunge, I thought I would start off with a technique which has been out for a while.  Take a sheet of plain paper and scrunch it up into a ball to add as many creases as you can. When you open up the paper and flatten it out, it will look like this example.

Next I have used different colours of Distress Ink Pads to get this unusual effect.

Ink it!
Inking the edges of the card, scrunched papers and card, or even the elements on the card gives a great distressed look.

Here, I have taken a sheet of 12” x 12” patterned paper which I scrunched up, opened out and rubbed the Denim Blue Distress Ink Pad which coloured the ‘peaks’ of the paper.

This card is a prime example of a grunge card.  Here I have stamped the background paper with the Smoochie Manoochie Paisley Pairs stamps with the skull & crossbones, in brown ink, then  distressed with a sheet of sandpaper.  The coloured squares are from the DCWV Rock Star Paper Blocks.  I cut the large star, small heart and skull & crossbones by hand, which were then distressed.  The sentiment which was printed out with a Dymo machine has also been distressed.

Sand it!
Use a sheet of sandpaper or even an emery board to sand edges and elements.

The Rock Star paper block from DCWV came in handy again here for the background paper.  The star was hand drawn and made to look ‘worn’ with my linen effect background stamp. The Dymo sentiment and buttons were all sanded before being adhered to the card front. The edges of the card were inked in copper to tie in with the similarly coloured buttons.

This card included more inked edges for distressed look rather than the use of sandpaper.  It also has a more ‘traditional’ look to the other cards.

Stamp it!
If you’ve got a background stamp, e.g. linen effect, ink up only parts of the stamp and stamp near the corners to give the look of the card being worn out.

This card is a variation on the typical grungy card in that we have bright colours but the worn and distressed looks can clearly be seen.

Recently it was our 14th Wedding Anniversary and my other half requested a grunge card. So here is the result. The card consists of brown craft paper for the background, then some of the previously scrunched and inked blue star paper. The hearts which were hand drawn, were also scrunched up before being inked and tied together.

This birthday card is another example of grunge but Crackle Accents was also used for the ‘darling husband’ sentiment band across the middle of the card.

This card example with the guitar links in with the Rock Star element of grunge cards.

So I hope this feature has given you a bit of insight as to what the ‘Grunge’ phenomenon is all about!  There is no right way or wrong way to go about it and as the examples show, you can still go traditional or funky with your card making and still incorporate your style of crafting.  Of course, it doesn’t just have to be card making, Grunge lends itself well to scrapbooking as well. You could make your own books if you have a ‘Bind-it-all’ and Grunge them up a bit!

Send us a photograph of your Grunged up creations here at PaperCraftJunkies!
Submissions@papercraftjunkies.com

Tags | Adirondak, Bind-It-All, buttons, Crackle Accents, DCVW, distress ink pads, distressed, Dymo machine, grunge, rock star, sandpaper, scrunching, Smooc, stamp, Tracey Grundy