Tips and Techniques
Here you will find plenty tips and techniques to help you with your scrapbooking projects. If you have anything you would like to add please send me an email.
For instructions on many scrapbooking projects click here
For lots of quick tips click here
Organise Your Scrapbook Magazines
Is your closet is full of scrapbooking magazines? There are a few things to do about this dilemma.
- You can go through your magazines, find the articles you wish to keep and organise them into file folders by category. In other words, keep the article, toss the magazine.
- Or you can keep the magazines in cardboard magazine boxes. If you do this, you should always keep a list of the title/issue of the magazine, the pages that interest you, and a few words describing why they interest you. This way, you can just scan your list, instead of going through the entire magazine to find what you're looking for. You can even use your computer and create the list in a word processing file. Then using the find feature, you can simply search for keywords in your document.
Printing on Ribbon
- Open up your word processing or photo program and type the text you would like on your ribbon
- Print this on plain paper.
- Adhere double-sided tape on top of the words you just printed and then place your ribbon on top of the tape, pressing down firmly.
- Insert your paper with the ribbon on it into your printer and print
- That’s all you need to do to create your very own worded ribbon. Experiment with various types of ribbon but I have found that gross grain ribbon works best.
Homemade Ribbon Buckles
Take a silver tab from a soda can and clean it. Using a small craft hammer, tap down any sharp spots. Use sandpaper to lightly rough up the surface. Using tweezers, coat the tab with embossing ink, then dip into embossing powder. Heat with a heat gun, repeating three times. Let them cool and thread a ribbon through holes. This technique came from CK site.
Make Your Own Rub-ons
- Open your favourite word processing or photo program and create a text/image you want to use as your rub-on
- Get some transparency paper and insert it into your inkjet printer. Set printer options to print on plain paper at the best quality. Also set "mirror image" to reverse the text/image.
- Print your "rub-on" and let it dry for about 3-5 minutes.
- Place the transparency image side down onto your project, hold firmly in place and rub with ice-cream stick just like you would any other rub-on.
- Carefully remove the transparency and let ink completely dry before touching. Now you have your finished rub-on. Wipe transparency paper clean to reuse.
How to Tear Mulberry Paper
The best way to tear Mulberry Paper to give it a fluffy edge is to use water. All you have to do is wet a paint brush with water and run a line down the mulberry paper, the wetter the better! Now hold the mulberry paper on each side of the wet line and pull it apart. The mulberry paper will pull apart very easily leaving you with nice fluffy edges. Use mulberry paper to mount your photos or accents for a very interesting effect. This works great with white or blue mulberry paper when creating a winter page
Organising Your Photos
If you have boxes of photos that span from the beginning of the 1900's to now, it's time to start getting organised.
Schedule a day and time to begin sorting through them and stick with your appointment when the day rolls around. Get your kids or friends to help out.
Begin by making piles, categorised by event or year. If you don't know the exact year, at least sort them by decade. This may take a little while, but once everything is separated, scrapbooking your photos will be much easier and more pleasant.
Envelope Accent
Using an envelope template, make two or three little envelopes from coordinating papers. Arrange them in a bundle and hold them together with circle clips that are tied in place with a ribbon. This cute little bundle of envelopes can also be secured with a bullnose clip. Add words and stickers and mini-definitions or quotes for embellishments.
Old Style Matchbooks
Old style matchbooks make great embellishments. They can hold a small photo or a mini quote or definition. Cut a strip of cardstock 13cm x 5cm (5 1/8" x 2"). Score across the strip at 1.5cm (5/8"), 6cm (2 3/8") and 6.5cm (2 9/16"), then fold at these intervals. Place one or two staples to hold the section of the first fold in place. Add a photo or quote to in inside of the matchbook and a small sticker to cover if you wish.
Paper Flowers
Cut several flowers in graduating sizes from coordinating paper. Layer petals in top of each other, adding a cardstock circle as the flowers centre. Sew around the flower centre with a sewing machine zigzag stitch. Gently lift each "petal" to give it your paper flower extra dimension.
Interesting Titles
This is a great way to use your left over scraps of paper. Look through your supply and find colours within the same hue. Roughly tear them into small pieces and glue tem randomly on a sheet of cardstock. Turn the patterned cardstock that you have just created over to the back and trace a title in reverse from a lettering template. Cut out each of the letters with a sharp knife. Adhere cut out title to your project.
Customising Brads
Customise plain silver, gold or copper brads. Use a hole punch to punch out a circle of your favourite coloured or patterned paper, place adhesive on the brad, then affix the circle to the top of it and seal it with a dab of diamond Glaze. Another alternative to customise brads is to emboss them with embossing powder.
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