Achieving that Distressed Look, There are several ways to achieve a distressed look on your existing patterned paper, cardstock, photos, embellishments, and more.

First, you can wrinkle and crinkle dry papers and cardstocks, ink them lightly or heavily, making sure your ink pad just grazes the raised surfaces of the paper, and then spray them with a fine mist of water to spread the ink and help it to blend into the texture of the paper. Allow to dry completely before using. Iron flat on backside of paper on low heat, if needed.

use sandpaper to distress edges or whole pieces of cardstock, patterned paper, photos, embellishments, etc. Just choose the grain you want (the higher the grain, the finer the sandpaper finish you'll get) and gently sand the areas of your choice until you have achieved the desired look.

Try steel wool works very well for distressing photos and embellishments. You can rub the steel wool across the desired areas in straight forward or backward movements, circular movements, diagonal movements, and horizontal and vertical movements to achieve a criss-cross / checkered pattern.

also distress items with colored chalks, colored pencils, ink pens, and household items, such as coffee grounds, strawberry juice, and much more.

When wetting and crumpling cardstock, use some foresight and do it the day before. Put the cardstock underneath a phone book to flatten it until you are ready. Better yet use a hairdryer on a low setting if you need it quickly.

Fabric Paint used to color up printed lettering won't leak through...it also adds a nice 3 D effect.

also distress the edges of your CS by running a scissor blade along it.

Apply ink directly to paper by running the pad lightly over the parts you want distressed. This looks good with any color of ink, but browns in particular.

Tearing also gives that aged look. For extra shabby chic, ink the edges with a similar-colored ink.

Paper crimping. Instead of mounting that photo on a flat piece of paper, try crimping it. Crimping tools are generally affordable, and come in many different patterns. This will allow your photo to literally stand out on the page, as crimped paper adds a three dimensional effect to your page and increases the weight minimally.