Things You'll Need:
- Scrapbook paper or completed pages
- Decorative scissors
- Shaped punches
- Your choice of: Stickers, rub-on decals, rubber or acrylic stamps, ink pads or washable markers, brads, eyelets and setting tool.
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Step 1
Mount your photo to a background mat of card stock or paper. Trim the edges with specialty scissors, leaving your mat with a zig-zag, curved or deckled edge. Layering multiple mats with decorative edges around a photo can bring depth and visual interest as well.
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Step 2
Use paper punches, which come in a nearly unlimited variety of shapes, along the edge of your paper or an area of your page. For example, punching out a row of trees can add interest to the edge of a Christmas or outdoor-themed page. You can also glue the punched pieces as decorations to the page, which gives you double the mileage out of your paper.
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Step 3
Apply stickers as a basic embellishment. They are an easy way to add to a page. Don't limit yourself to individual shapes--layering different stickers, or using only parts of stickers, can add interest and color, as well.
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Step 4
Rub on a decal alphabet, quotation or image to your page. They are available in a wide range of styles at any scrapbooking or craft store. To use the rub-ons, simply trim the image you want to add to your page. Place it carefully in the desired location, and use a flat edge to rub over the design completely, using gentle, even pressure. (Popsicle sticks make very inexpensive flat edges for this purpose.) Lift up the transfer paper slowly, making sure the image is completely adhered to your page. Rub-on transfers take a little bit more precision than ordinary stickers, but their sheer or invisible backgrounds can make the image look like it is directly on the page.
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Step 5
With either a rubber or acrylic stamp, use either an ink pad or washable markers to apply color to the stamp, then press firmly onto the surface you wish to stamp. Be sure not to rock the stamp, as this can cause the ink to blur. Rubber or acrylic stamps are another way to add color and detail to a completed scrapbook page, and both come in a variety of themes. Acrylic stamps are clear and have better visibility when aligning a series of stamped images, but must be "stuck" to a clear acrylic block in order to be used. Rubber stamps are usually pre-mounted on a wooden block, but can be a little trickier for precise alignment.
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Step 6
To give your page a three-dimensional element, simply punch a hole with either a small punch or a needle, insert the prongs of a brad through the hole, and separate and flatten the prongs on the back of the page. Brads come in a variety of sizes, styles and finishes and can be used as either a stand-alone element or as a way to attach layers of paper or other materials to the page.
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Step 7
To use an eyelet, you will need to punch a small hole in the same way that you do for a brad. Insert the shank of the eyelet into the hole with the finished edge on the top of your page. Use an eyelet-setting tool to hammer the edges of the eyelet open to complete the process. Eyelets can be used for binding layers of paper together, or as a stand-alone embellishment.
