Misc Page Ideas An inexpensive border idea is to take the scrap pieces of your pictures and cut them into one-inch squares and make a border out of them. If you need more pieces to complete your border, cut one-inch squares out of the same colors as you matted your photos or colors in the photos. You can even place coordinating stickers on these colored pieces to go along with your theme. Instead of squares try other shapes or use your punches. Kris Ortale - Coralville, IA | |||||
I find that I sometimes have extra pictures that don't fit into a theme or are just one of a subject. I create a collage page with these pictures by cutting, silhouetting, and overlapping them a little. Then I make a border around the edge of the page and use the caption stickers on some of the pictures. This makes very cute pages and uses pictures you might otherwise throw away. Heather Baker | |||||
I like to use stickers to make 3-D scenes on my pages. Over time, I have learned that using baby powder to make certain parts of the sticker NOT stick is an important trick. I tried keeping a travel sized powder in with my scrapbook supplies but found that having to sprinkle out powder on my albums and papers gets messy and wasteful. What I do now is use a plastic 35mm film container for keeping powder at my fingers tips. All you have to do is pop off the lid, dip your finger in the powder, use what you need and no mess!! It works great! Lori Farrell - Phoenix, AZ | |||||
I like to use lettering stickers to make my page titles. I found that using brush markers in a color that compliments your page layout and going around each letter with the brush tip makes the letters stand out and makes the titles tie in to your page better (instead of just sticking on letters). Try it! It works great, looks good, and it a fast way of adding journaling! Lori Farrell - Phoenix, AZ - | |||||
I bought the Punchin' book and discovered you don't need to use only punches to make some of the creations in the book. You can use your templates and circle cutter to get the same results! They come out bigger than the punched figures but one or two on a page really looks great. Most of the animals, flowers and kids use the circle, heart and star templates. Johnna Moore - Sebring, FL | |||||
When putting the sheet protector over the page, it can become difficult to slide it on without lifting photos, stickers, etc. I take a sheet of wax paper twice the size of the page and fold it in half (if it is 12x12 then I use 24x12 and fold it in half). I then put the waxpaper over the page and slide the sheet protector over. The sheet protector EASILY slips on!! Then just hold the page in your fingers and slip the wax paper out! Wax paper makes added sheet protectors fast and easy! Lori Farrell - Phoenix, AZ | |||||
I have long nails and can't handle the ABC stickers well and still place them neatly, so I use an eyebrow tweezer to hold and neatly place them To get the words placed evenly I measure the length where I am putting the word, divide in half, and put the center letter in the middle and work out from the middle letter. Stacy Dennis | |||||
Save all the cancelled stamps from your envelopes and make a great travel border with them as postage stamps are acid-free. The Christmas ones make a great border on a Christmas page also. Vonnie Kaylor - Elizabethtown, PA | |||||
Titles and lettering for titles can be difficult to come up with. When you have several very similar pictures, try using one for the title in this way: Use a wax pencil to draw the letters of your title onto the picture. You want to have each letter touching or even over-lapping. The idea is not to have to cut individual letters, but cut just the outter edge of the whole word as a unit. (I make rounded puffy letters--like you would make out of play-doh.) When you wipe off the wax pencil marks, you will most likely be able to tell what the word is, and have a hint of the actual background scene of your layout subject. For an example, after a camping trip I had several shots of deer in the distance. I used one of them for my title of SOUTH TEXAS. I made sure that the horizon or ground level of the pictures were in the middle of my words. As you read the title, you also see the deer and the surrounding campground. Another example is the use of the busy backgrounds from pictures I had cropped from our excursion to Astroworld. I did cut individual letters, but just as easily could have used this method. All the people and activity, with balloons and bright colors just sets the mood for the layout. Peggy Wilson - Greensborough, NC | |||||
Don't mount your pages/photos directly to the base page if you use sheet protectors. Instead, use background paper to fill the entire sheet protector, and build your pages on top of the background paper. When I find a developed roll of film that was hiding behind the television, I can actually place it in the exact position it belongs sequentially in my book without worrying about having to re-do any pages. I simply shift around the sheets of background paper into different sheet protectors. Liz Sword - Lebanon, OH | |||||
Here is a neat little idea that adds a more personal touch to scrapbooks! Whenever you go on vacation send yourself a postcard home (most are acid-free, but you could test it with a pH Pen). Then when you get back include it in your scrapbook either writing side up or so you could see the picture. If you're using it writing side up it's better to send it home first so it's postmarked. Missy Mikus - Roseville, CA | |||||
Creative Cropping Getting tired of the same look to all your pages? One way to avoid the same ho-hum layout page after page is to put your pages together in a way where the pictures "interact" with each other. By cutting your pictures to fit together like a puzzle, your pages automatically are different because each photograph is different. Here are some things to try: 1. Lay out all the photographs for one of your pages. Overlap the pictures on the corners and where there is dead space on each picture. 2. Carefully trace the overlapping picture onto the underneath picture where it overlaps. 3. Cut the underlapping piece away. You can either cut the underlying picture tightly so the two photos butt up against each other, or leave a little space in between for an artistic touch. The space in between can be blank or you can even be more detailed by introducing some sort of drawn patterned line within the space. Alternatively, you can describe the surrounding photographs in this blank space. 4. As you get better at fitting your pictures together, you can get more creative by designing deliberate shapes with your photos to go with the theme of the page (ex. a sailboat collage of pictures from the lake or a mountain collage of pictures from your ski trip, etc.). Instead of just cropping the part of the pictures that overlap, crop other parts of the picture that would help form the shape you are making. Use micro-tip scissors for the detail cuts. 5. Now that your photos are taking on more character, don't forget to label them! If you didn't label the pictures in the blank space, you can document around the pictures or even around the page border. Some other ideas for pages would be: a. A Christmas tree from photos of Christmas events and cards b. A birthday cake from party pictures c. A bell from wedding photos d. A teddy bear from baby shower pictures e. A ball from sports theme event The ideas are really endless. It's important to think of a THEME for each page before you start. This helps you be more creative with the design. You can also incorporate die-cuts and stickers into your creations. John and Carrie - Cut'N'Fun | |||||
When you are doing a page about a silly accident (ex. first skinned knee, etc.), use photo corners to attach the photos to the page, and then use real band-aids over the corners, diagonally. I called Johnson & Johnson, and they said that there plain, regular band-aids (i.e. not the medicated, waterproof, fancy-schmancy kind!!!) are acid-free and should not harm photos. This makes an adorable accent to the page!! Jamie Smith - Mt. Pleasant, MI | |||||
When doing 2-page spreads, connect the pages by cutting die cuts in half and putting the halves on the inside of each page. John and Carrie - Cut'N'Fun | |||||
Cut on the long part of desired paper a 2-3 inch wide strip about 12 inches long. Cut along one side of this strip using fancy Fiskars scissors and then tape the flat part of the strip on one of the edges of your page. A fancy and quick border. Jennifer Denny - Orlando, FL | |||||
Remember the cutting technique you used when you were a kid to make snowflakes and hearts etc.? Use this same technique to create elegant lace-like frames for your cropped photographs. Carolyn Lawrence - Friendswood, TX | |||||
Always include a saying, quote, scripture, or poem related to the pictures on a page. Angela Smetana - Tulsa, OK | |||||
Take pictures of flowers, the beach sand, beach water and use your paper punch to make colorful stickers. i.e. - pictures of the beach sand and use a barefoot punch. Evelyn Ball - Montgomery, AL | |||||
Make a border around your pictures for a different effect. Too many people only put paper around their pictures. You can put heart, names (of the people in the picture), dashes, dots, or even creative sticker arrangements (ex: take a fishing pole sticker put it next to your "fishing picture", draw a line around the picture, and put a sticker fish.). Borders are fun! Lisa-Beth Satzke - Columbia, MD | |||||
Make duplicates of your pics. One thing that I love to do is crop one of the pictures in a shape to match my theme of the page. Then I use the same cropped picture with just the subject to position somewhere else on the same page. The contrast is great. I have done this with a baby picture and then cut the baby out to look like she was traveling in the cutest clip art stroller. I also have one of my niece at the zoo looking at the bears and then took the same picture and cut only my niece out and then she was standing on the rocks next to the bears. By gluing the cut-out of her onto the picture of the bears sleeping on the rocks she thinks she was right up there in the attraction area. Karen Kasper - Avenel, NJ | |||||
I took a heart punch and punched several hearts in a long strip of cardstock/heavy acid-free paper alternating their direction (upside down/right-side up) [using a heart template could accomplish the same thing...however, my method actually would save time from having to turn the template around so much and/or, having to manipulate a large piece of plastic] I placed the heart close together, almost touching. Then I took a pen and dotted in the "outline" of the hearts...this created a "lace" or doily effect. It was very pretty in a wedding album. Janet Oravetz - Atlanta, GA | |||||
For really fun & funky paper try photocopying fabric. It could be children’s' fabric or whatever pattern your heart desires. Jennifer Coccetti - Colchester, VT | |||||
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