Archive for the ‘Scrapbooking’ Category
Few things catch the eye more quickly than the texture and dimension of canvas cuts from your scrapbooking tools. The cuts are very versatile, whether you’re looking for scallops or ovals, tags or rectangle, borders or brackets.
You can use the die cut alone on any project as a quick accent or actually stamp on the canvas.
By stamping on the canvas cuts, you can coordinate scrapbooking paper and other accents like ribbon, buttons, etc. with your cuts. To stamp on the canvas cuts, a well-inked stamp pad works the best. If you’d rather use craft ink, heat set your images for the best results.
Make sure that you’re stamping on the fabric side of your die cut; otherwise, the ink will smear when you’re designing.
The cuts also work with rub-ons you have in your scrapbooking tools. As a example, you might want to adhere a scallop rub-on to a scallop canvas cut. It only takes seconds to create.
The canvas cuts from your scrapbooking tools will add dimension to your projects, so give them a try.
There are a good number of cutting dies out there and once you’ve taken the dive, you’ll never resort to drawing and cutting out again. If you’re not ready to get into the digital revolution, consider an affordable machine with die cut templates that come in wonderful themed designs and can be cut with personal ease. I prefer hands on and use manual machines for my creative processes.
If you are uncertain as to whether to use cutting dies, there are a large number of sites that provide information on each machine and each die that you may want to purchase. Some names that come to mind are Sizzix Big Shot, Provo Craft Cuttlebug, Spellbinders Wizard, and the Quickutz Epic Six. All machines perform cutting and embossing, and are all leading brands of machines with similar universal features.
Lots of scrapbookers and card makers use a combination of machines for specific purposes in their craft making. I personally own a couple of basic machines and live near a craft store that lets me use other machines to achieve the completion of my scrapbooking pages.
So, take the adventure and broaden your horizons with the use of cutting dies in your upcoming scrapbooking projects.
I’ve never been to Disney Land, but I certainly enjoy using the Disney scrapbooking paper. Donald, Minnie, Mickey, and all of the modern Disney characters make great embellishments for my scrapbooking pages. I’ve even used some of the clippings out of Disney books on the wide assortment of paper that can be found with all the various assortment of designs.
My grandchildren love to get involved, and they love incorporating the Disney scrapbooking theme in their work. They will take hours creating and designing. Sometimes I’ll let them select a favorite picture from a Disney coloring book, then scan it to size to fit on the Disney scrapbooking paper.
Of course the ultimate Disney scrapbooking project would be one that is themed around an actual visit to a Walt Disney theme park or other Disney event. But even a trip to the local Disney store could be documented in a scrapbook to add a twist to the topic of your use of Disney scrapbooking paper. Whatever your inspiration, your Disney scrapbooking project is sure to be very colorful and attractive to children or adults and a wonderful way to use your Disney scrapbooking paper.
For a beginning scrapbooker, mini scrapbooking albums are doable and less time consuming. For the seasoned scrapbooker, the mini albums can be adapted to fit a larger page by designing the title and the accents around photos and expanding them to fit a 12″x12″ page. This larger scrapbooking page will achieve a similar look with room for more photos and journaling.
Another item when scrapbooking is finding scrapbooking paper and accessories that coordinate with your theme and color palette. To achieve this, purchase complete scrapbook kits that will contain all of right colored items that you need. Or, you can select the album that you want and use your own scrapbooking supplies to create.
You can make bound albums, paper bag albums, or accordion albums. Design your own book binding techniques to make your mini scrapbooking albums unique and interesting.
Once you’ve designed the album, keep in mind that your scrapbook pages are small and staying relatively simple will focus more attention on your photos. Choose photos that work well in smaller form or can be cropped to fit well in your mini scrapbooking album. Allow space for journaling or opt for a theme for your mini scrapbook and include a page for journaling.
Work on a single theme for your album like a vacation, a school event, a holiday, a birthday or a favorite pet.
You may also wish to give blank mini scrapbooking albums as gifts and then allow the recipients to include their own photos.
The scrapbooking paper process begins with wood pulp, water, dye and extra pre-consumer paper all being blended in a large mixer. When all of the ingredients are blended, they are poured on a moving screen. The screen shakes the water out of the mixture, the fibers pull together, and the scrapbooking paper forms. The paper moves through several drums where it’s dried, wet again, and dried again until the scrapbooking paper comes out in its last form.
The mill makes white paper and then proceeds in producing darker colors over a several week period. Black scrapbooking paper is made at the end of the many weeks cycle. Then the mills clean their machines and begin making white paper all over again. This is a constant running of machines.
The scrapbooking paper can then be used to create all of your favorite memories, used for home decor, and anything else that you use it for in designing projects.
Stamping tools are a vital part of scrapbooking, but without scrapbooking paper our pages and albums would not be high quality. We can use quality, coordinating scrapbooking paper in vellums, and designer paper for all of our scrapbooking projects.
When picking a piece of scrapbooking paper, be certain it’s thick, has weight, and has stiffness. Paper thickness is measured in thousandths of inches, and usually measures between 12 and 13 thousandths of an inch.
Some scrapbooking paper may be thick but not have weight. It’s weight is determined by how much 500 basic sheets of the paper weigh. A basic sheet of scrapbooking paper measures 20 inches by 26 inches, and the weight of 500 of these sheets is 80 pounds.
But if the paper has the above qualities, it may feel inferior if it doesn’t have the stiffness or snap. Scrapbooking paper with good snap is neither too stiff nor too flimsy.
Heed these three qualities in selecting your next bunch of scrapbooking paper.
It’s springtime and the world around us is buzzing with unique sounds–chirping birds, ice plopping into cooling drinks, steaks sizzling on the grill, and there are so many quotes that we can put into your scrapbooking albums. As you scrapbook your past winter and spring memories, think of the sounds you heard. Here are a few journaling tips and quotes to help you get started.
Crash! Kaboom! List the sounds of sledding and other sounds that your children make while playing in the snow.
Bark, purr, chirp, moo, growl. Write about the sounds that your pet makes, or that you hear on a visit to a nearby farm.
Crackle, crunch, munch, slurp. Describe the sounds that you hear at a spring picnic or barbeque to put in your scrapbooking albums.
Use a quote: “Splish splash, I was taking a bath.” “So munch on, crunch on, breakfast, supper, dinner, luncheon!” “I love Paris in the winter when it drizzles, I love Paris in the summer when it sizzles.” “Drip, drop, little April shower, beating a tune as you fall all around.”
Here are a few title ideas: Splish-splash in the pool, Sizzling days of summer are a’coming, We’re all atwitter about winter, Vroom!
We hope that it’s starting your creative juices flowing for journaling items in your next scrapbooking albums!
Using the items in your scrapbooking tools will help you create new scrapbook pages and cards. You can keep the color scheme the same, but substitute a stamp set to design a number of unique different looks.
Create a completely different look with a simple substitution from your scrapbooking tools. By grouping images, your visual look will be pleasing and will modify your template for a different look.
Three-dimensional elements, including grosgrain ribbon and dimensionals, can add a finishing touch. The key to using ribbon is remembering that less is more–a little ribbon goes a long way. A row of ribbon that coordinates with a page or card emphasizes the focal point.
Using dimensionals is an easy way to highlight a stamped image. A dimensional that overlaps will draw attention to a photo(s). Want a second complementary page or theme scrapbooking album? Use a page as a template and include different dimensional in various positions with coordinating ribbon on additional pages.
You can add interest to a simple card by creating a colorful mat for the focal point. Select colors that coordinate with your image. Two images in opposite corners add weight and balance to the design.
Use items from your scrapbooking tools to design wonderful scrapbooking pages and cards.
Our cameras don’t seem to love the bright sun as much as we do for designing our scrapbooking albums. The sun’s strong light can cast harsh shadows and cause blinding reflections, which can certainly complicate capturing our favorite shining moment… until now. Try out the following photo tricks for taking stellar sun pictures. By using these easy ideas–from incorporating the sun’s light and using a light reflector to taking pictures of popular travel sights from free angles–our images are sure to shine.
Rather than take traditional shots of tourist attractions on your next outing, get new views of the sights. Whether that’s lying down in front of them, standing above them, or seeing them from a different side than they’re usually photographed, this will have those much-photographed locations looking unique on your scrapbooking page layouts.
If you experience a time when drastic shadows across the face seem unavoidable, look for other perspectives that will tell your story for your scrapbooking albums.
When it comes to taking photos in the bright sunlight, a reflector can be your best friend. Just face your subject away from the sun, and set the reflector below his or her face at an angle that will cast a softer light across your subject’s face. If you do a lot of shooting outdoors, you may want to invest in a pre-made reflector, found in most camera stores.
Try these ideas to create the best photos for your scrapbooking albums!
Get the most bang for your scrapbooking tools buck with a few ideas for stretching your supplies. There are things that you can do to stretch your scrapbooking page layouts from a small group of standard materials, and you can also use up the leftovers.
To create a background, mount a large floral piece on a sheet of scrap scrapbooking paper. Journal on a large block of striped scrapbooking paper, leaving room at the top and bottom for the small pieces of floral paper. Then position it on the left side. Add pieces of floral paper above and below the journaling.
Round one corner of a photo and mount it diagonally on the page. Make a photo border with a light shade of twill tape. Continue the border with a darker shade of twill.
Finish the ends of the border strip with circles punched from scrapbooking paper of your choice. Add a chipboard title diagonally beneath the photo and along the scrapbook page bottom. Accent with arrows.
To use up more scraps, if you need to visually widen a piece of scrapbook paper that’s just shy of square, cut a thin strip from the piece, then cover the gap between them with strips cut from another paper. If you’re short of a few letters when forming a title, trim some letters to from the missing ones.
You’ll come up with more ideas for using those scrapbooking tools to where you don’t have any pieces left.