It's just so distressing!!

But please don't worry my friends, not for me for my card. 
There are so many challenges out there at the moment that ask for distressing I thought I would give it a go.  Now yesterday I popped in on my good friend Clare over at Crafty Clare and she too has done a card with distressing on it.  Now she says she's not comfortable with distressing, but boy you'd never know it looking at her card!  Well she inspired me to have a go and I'm actually quite pleased with the result.

Now there is not too much distressing on the paper although I did do all the edges (except round the image).  I layered the image on to the same paper I have used at the bottom. 

Instead of distressing the paper around the image I used Tim Holtz Distressing Inks (Tattered Rose) and sponged all the edges, I also used distressing inks with my waterbrush to colour in the hair and skin (Tea Dye and Tattered Rose)

I used the same Tattered Rose on the sentiment oval and using a brush marker went around the edge in brown to match the Happy Birthday sentiment.  The sentiment is layered over the fibre which is layered onto the darker backing paper.  I used a brown fibre across the bottom instead of ribbon 'cos I thought that looked more shabby chic than ribbon.  The flowers are from my a couple of candy wins.  The papers are all from a prize I won over at the Craft's Meow (thanks Lisa) and the image is from a Challenge win over at Sophisticat - so these are all new.

The card is based on the current sketch at Delightful Sketches - number 14 and the other challenges I will enter are:
Crafty Cardmakers   -  What's new (use new stash)
Cupcake Craft Challenges - Going girly (this is one of the girliest cards I've made!)
Creative Card Crew  -  Distressing
ABC Challenge - L is for layering
Creative Inspirations - Distressing
Simon Says Stamp - Shabby Chic (Distressing)
Charisma Cardz - Anything new (most of what I have used is new)
Crafty Catz - Birthday Card
Allsorts - Pink and Brown
Sew Many Cards - Anything Goes
Bee Crafty - Fave colour combo (Pink and Brown)
Raise the Bar - Debut Day (New Stash - as I've already said)
One Stop Craft Challenge - Fancy edges or corners (I used my Fiskars shape cutter to cut the edge on the DP)
The Pink Elephant - Birthday

Recipe:  New DP - Petite Papers and Pink Paislee Pop Fashion Collection
New image (won in a challenge)
Flowers (won in several candies) and a couple of brads from my stash
Sentiment - from Clarity Stamp
Colouring medium - distress inks, pencils and liquid pearls