Out of my comfort zone with Grunge..

I was a bit worried when I saw the Grunge challenge yesterday at 365 Cards as it's not something I've ever attempted before though I'm a big fan of Tim Holtz and his work.

I purchased one of his sets ages ago and the first time I used it I just couldn't get the ink to 'stick' properly to the stamps and was really disappointed but yesterday I used some Stampin' Up! inks and they worked just fine!  Maybe the stamps were too new the first time, I can't really remember what ink I used back then.

Anyway here is the card I made yesterday, I quite enjoyed making it so think I'll be putting that stamp set to good use from now on, it is great for male cards.  I'd love to do something similar but with a wee bit more red in it for a bit of omph.

I tried googling 'grunge cards' to get ideas but didn't have much luck, I think grunge refers to a lot of distressing, paper tearing, staining, knocking your cup of tea over it, you get the picture!

.....................and the next day..........................

I had another play around with the card above as I really wanted to add a hint more red and here is the result, including a gift tag that I made just because!  [well, I was making some Christmas gift tags and thought:  why not make a grunge one too?!]

The string on the gift tag came off a bag of flour I opened a couple of weeks ago [my mother {and probably my grandmother, my great-grandmother, etc}] always used to save string and I think it rubbed off on me LOL!  It was rather white so I rolled it over a SU Crumb Cake inkpad and it took on a nicely distressed/dirty look - just perfect!