Shabby Chic style antique brad tutorial!!

It's here! It's here! Finally after waiting three long days, my shabby chic brad tutorial is here! So here's the finished card using these brads. They really do lend themselves well to the distressed style in paper crafting. Make sure you click on the image if you want to get a close up view of the brads, they look so neat with the worn edges and slight staining from the ink!


So let's get to it then, shall we? First gather your supplies, you'll need white brads, a brown ink pad, and a nail file. If you are worried about your nails then grab yourself a pair of tweezers to hold the brad while you are distressing it. For the sake of the photos I am using a pair of black cutterbee tweezers because they pinch shut when you release your grip rather than you having to squeeze them during use. very convenient! I also use these for heat embossing to hold my paper with!


Step one, grab your mini brad, here's a close up of my brad before I've started. If you're using tweezers, pinch it as close to the head of the brad as you can for stability.

Next rub it very very gently with your nail file. You only want to scuff the brad you dont want to completely remove all of the white paint. For this photo it took maybe four or five swipes with the file, just make sure you check it frequently until you get the level of distressing that you want.

After getting the desired level of scuffage on your brad, lightly tap it onto a brown ink pad, I've used an inexpensive pigment ink pad here. By the way, I personally always buy the cheapie ink pads for things like inking edges and distressing. I am really hard on my ink pads and they get pretty chewed up from paper corners...

so yeah, after inking the brad wipe off any excess ink with a tissue or your finger. You really only need a hint of ink on your brad for this.

And voila! Instant shabby brad!

If you love this tutorial and want to share your creations with me, I am also going to be publishing this tutorial in the card challenges forum over at the All Moments Remembered Message Board where I host a weekly card challenge. It's super fun over there by the way. I know I talk about it a lot, but that's only because it's like home to me.