Ideas for Using Various Kinds of Paper For Scrapbooking and Card Making

Lisa Robbins

 

Scrapbooking Paper

There are many types of paper to use in your scrapbooking and craft projects including vellum, cardstock, labels, and transparencies. Here is a quick bit about understanding these types of paper and ideas of how to use them. When you are buying paper, remember to make sure it is acid and lignin free to protect your pictures against deterioration.

Vellum Scrapbooking Paper

Vellum paper is translucent, meaning light can pass through it, although things cannot be seen clearly through vellum paper.

Vellum paper is categorized by weight. The samller ther number, the light the weight of the paper, and subsequently, the more transparent, or see-through, the paper is. For example 17# is more transparent than 29#. There are many weights and colors of vellum to experiment with.

You can print on vellum using any laser printer. When using an inkjet printer change your settings to economy, draft, or speed depending on yout printer so the least amount of ink possible with be used. This will decrease your chances of smearing the ink. Let the ink dry completly before handling the vellum paper.

If you have only a small piece of vellum to print on, print your message on a regular piece of paper first. Then temporarily tape the vellum over the message on your test paper and run it through the printer again.

To mount your vellum paper to your scrapbooking page, lay your piece of vellum paper up-side-down of newspaper, and lightly spray photo mounting spray on the back. The vellum paper will them mount easily to your scrapbook. Other methods include using clear photo corners, and punching holes in the vellum and using a ribbon or eyelet to attach the vellum to your page.

For scrapbooking, vellum is great for printing titles, and adding embellishments. One simple idea is to stamp or paint a design on vellum paper that is trimmed with a thin metal frame. You can attach the vellum embellishment to the page with a ribbon. This is a good idea for pages where an anitque look is desired.

Vellum Invitations - Great for weddings or other formal events

1. Print the information for the event on vellum paper.
2. Select a piece of heavy cardstock to back your vellum paper.
3. Cut the cardstock to be about half an inch bigger than your vellum paper in both directions.
4. Place the vellum on top of the card stock so there is a quarter of an inch of cardstock on each side as a border.
5. Punch two holes in the top of the vellum paper and cardstock that are about an inch or an inch and a half apart. And use a matching ribbon to tie the papers together.
   

Hint: To keep the ribbon from comming untied use a dab of clear-drying glue.

Another option is to decorate the vellum and attach it over the printed invitation. The velum can be embossed or you can add a a dash of glitter to make it sparkle.

Embossing Your Paper - Embossing is a way to really enhance your pages. Vellum looks great embossed, but you can experiment on other types of paper as well. Here is how it is done.

1. Stamp or print onto your paper and sprinkle embossing powder on the design while it is still wet.
2. Shake of the excess powder from the paper.
3. Use you embossing heater or other heating tool to heat the embossing powder.
   

Cardstock

Carstock is usually thicker than normal paper, and therefore is good to use as a base for your scrapbooking pages especially if you like to add heavy embellishments. It is also good for matting pictures onto. I like to buy smaller pieces of cardtock to mat my pictures on. That way I don't have to worry about cutting perfectly straight lines. There are many types of cardstock. Two popular types of cardstock are smooth card stock and linen card stock. Both are excellent choices for scrapbooking. Linen card stock is semi-rough and has the look of linen cloth. It is good for adding more texture to your scrapbook pages if you think they are too dull.

There are many grades of cardstock. Remember that the higher the count, the thicker the paper is.

Labels

Before I started scrapbooking I thought that labels were just for business uses like addressing letter and labeling files. I have come to find that they are actually an inexpensive way to make neat stickers. If you have a good printer, you can find pictures you like on the internet and print them onto your label paper. Then just peel them off or cut them into the desired shape and stick them onto your scrapbooking page. If you want to add dimension to your page, mount your sticker onto thick cardstock and use double-sided tape to attach it to your scrapbook.

Transparencies

A transparency is a clear piece of paper. It is competely see-through like glass. You can buy transparencies at office supply stores, and some craft stores. You have likely only seen transparencies used with overhead projectors. But here are some other ways to use them for scrapbooking. Use your imagination, the possibilities are endless.

Transparency Covers

1. Stamp letters on a piece of paper. Cut them out, and glue them right side up onto a transparency. You can also use shapes of any kind instead of letters.
2. Paint over the transparency on the same side you glued the letters. You can paint using a splattering technique, streaks, or any other way you can think of. Acrylic paint works great.
3. Once the paint is dry, remove the letters for a cool effect. This technique is great for page titles.
4. Optional: Attach the transparency using spray adhesive.
   

Transparency Tile Accents

1. Stamp an image on a transparency with solvent ink.
2. Trim the transparency around the image. You can also cut the image into equal size squares to create a mosaic look.
3. Completely cover the image with clear dimensional adhesive until it can't hold any more. Let the adhesive dry for a few hours.
4. When the image is competely dry, apply clear-drying adhesive to the back and attach it to your page.
   

Transparency Accents

1. Cut the desired shape of your accent out of a piece of transparency paper.
2. Cover the accent with crystl laquer until it can't hold any more.
3. Cover the accent with crystl laquer until it can't hold any more.
   
4. When the crystal lacquer is dry, peel the transparency off of the back of the accent.
   

Lisa Robbins is a businesswoman and an enthusiast for sports, family, and crafts. She is the creator and maintainer of ScrapsAndCrafts.com, a scrapbooking tutorial and wholesale scrapbooking supply website. She is also a contributor to ScrapbookFinds.com, a search tool for scrapbooking products. In addition to these roles, Lisa is also one of the owners of RobbinsSports.com, a team sports and fitness products store. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lisa_Robbins

Digital Scrapbooking - Why You Should Try It

Paul Lindberg

 

1. Saves Time

As in all things digital, there are many ways scrapbooking digitally saves you time.

If you're really lazy or think you can't even combine two elements without messing something up, you can buy pre-made pages with spaces for your photos and journaling and just drag and drop your pictures onto the page.

Printing your pictures before you put them into your scrapbook pages is no longer necessary. Just download your digital camera pictures to your computer.

No need to spend hours going from one store to another looking for the right color paper to go with your daughter's Easter dress. Shopping the Web is faster or you can create your own paper. This also eliminates those unwanted 2-year-old tantrums in the paper aisle of the local store.

Everyone I've spoken with that's made the switch to digital says they love how much faster they can complete pages.

2. Saves Space

For some traditional scrappers, the idea was whoever dies with the most supplies wins. Setting aside a permanent corner, room, basement or annex for your supplies was a way to beat your husband at his game of collecting tools.

The only physical space required in digital scrapbooking is for your computer, scanner and printer. The other "space" requirement is the size of your hard drive in your computer. Digitized images do take a lot of megabytes of drive space, but have you seen the price of hard drives lately? You can get a 500 gigabyte drive (that's 512000 megabytes) for under $100 these days.

Many digital scrappers also like the fact that printed digital scrapbooks are just like any other book. No bulky pages filled with buttons and ribbons.

3. Clean and Tidy

This is the natural result of number 2. With all of your supplies on the computer, there's no need to physically sort through all of the punches, paper, ribbon or other embellishments you might have lying around. No worries about leaving a project partially done and laying out where junior can spill a soda on it or the dog eats it. No need to get supplies out on the dining room table only to put them away later so you can serve dinner. Just be sure to click save and don't leave your computer screen where someone can accidentally delete your work.

Another benefit along with this is you'll find more opportunities to work on your pages without worrying about the time and hassle of setting up before and cleaning up after.

4. Saves Money

Let's assume you already own a computer. Cost of software such as Adobe Photoshop Elements is $75 - $100.

Digital scrapbook kits usually go for around $5.00 to $7.00 and have lots of paper and embellishments included. The equivalent in physical paper and embellishments costs $20 to $35 and are "consumable" meaning once you use them, they are gone. Digital kits can be used over and over to your heart's content.

Once you learn how to use your digital scrapbooking software, it's not hard to create your own supplies if you feel adventurous.

Oh, and saves a lot of gas money too since there's no need to spend hours going from one store to another looking for the right color paper to go with your daughter's Easter dress.

5. Waste Proof

This naturally follows number 4 because you can literally re-use any digital scrapbook element as many times as you like. No more buying extra paper to avoid running out of a certain pattern or color. No more keeping piles of leftover paper scraps. Imaging starting each new project with a complete new scrapbook kit. With digital scrapbooking, you can.

6. Mistake Proof

The most precious items in your scrapbooks are your photos. So why take the chance of butchering them with scissors. With digital scrapbooking, there's no worry of ruining the only photo you have of Great, Great Grandpa. Scan the photo and make as many copies as you need. Resize and crop as many times as you like. Don't like it? Back up a few steps with the Undo function or start over.

Ever place a sticker on a page and didn't quite like it? Oh well, it's stuck on the page now. Digital scrapbooking allows you to experiment with a multitude of possible combinations until you get it just the way you want.

7. Photo Manipulation

Restore vintage photos to make them look just like new. Take current photos and purposely make them looked aged. Remove the red eye in that otherwise perfect candid shot. Get rid of ugly facial blemishes (the proverbial pimple in the Prom portrait) or too much sweat making the face glisten. Crop, enlarge, tint, age -- there are so many options to make your photos even more attractive, you'll be absolutely amazed. Photos you thought were hopeless are given new life.

8. Easier to Share

Ever create a scrapbook page only to duplicate it once again for your mother? Not anymore. In addition to being another time saver, digital scrapbooks can be shared so easily in so many ways. Print multiple copies of your completed books to share with family. Upload pages to your family blog. Email pages to relatives wherever they live. Use the same digital template for multiple photos. Get the idea?

9. Archival Quality

Remember when everything had to be acid free? First it was the paper, then the sheet protectors, the inks, the glue. Then came all the embellishments. Were they acid free too? Wait a sec...with digital scrapbooking, everything is acid free because there is no ink or glue to mix with your photos. Everything is preserved digitally either on your computer hard drive or on CDs or DVDs. Print as many copies as you need as often as you like. Not only is this archival, but keeping extra copies of your photos digitally either in a fire-proof safe or in a second physical location is the best way to ensure against your keepsakes being destroyed by a disaster such as a fire.

10. Unlimited Styles

With traditional scrapbooking, you're limited by whatever paper you can find in your local store or on the Web. Even then, you might find a pattern you like but sometimes the color isn't quite right.

Not a problem with digital scrapbooking. It's so easy to adjust the paper color from one hue to another so you can always match your daughter's Easter dress perfectly.

11. Trendiest

Scrapbook paper manufacturers use designers to create a new line of products. Then they decide which designs go into production. From there, retail buyers decide how much of the line to carry in their stores. By the time you get around to shopping, you're lucky if the product is in stock and in the right color.

Digital paper is not limited by any of the above. There's a multitude of online purveyors of digital scrapbook kits and there's no waiting for the product to hit the store. New designers don't have to have a big company behind them to sell their own designs. You get the trendiest designs and they are guaranteed to always be in stock.

12. Makes Anyone an Expert

So what if your handwriting looks as bad as a doctors prescription. That's what computer fonts are for...to make you look like a professional calligrapher. But the best part is, there's no commitment, so if you misspelled a word in your journaling, you're free to go correct it without damaging your layout. Cropped photos always have perfect edges and text is always straight. Using a computer to scrapbook brings out the real artist inside you when you don't have to worry about making mistakes.

13. Flexibility

Try this exercise: Take a piece of pattern paper and attach a photo. Now add some ribbon and some journaling. Now go back to the pattern paper and change it to another style to see if it will look better. Can't do it? You can when doing it digitally. That's what layers are for. It's like making a big Dagwood sandwich and deciding you want relish instead of pickles after the sandwich is already built. With layers, you can change any element on the page at any time.

14. Professionalism

Sure we like homemade stuff, but if we can make it look professional, it makes us all the more proud we created it. Submit your digital scrapbooks to printers like Viovio to have them professionally printed and bound. Then show everyone how talented you really are.

15. Versatility

Take any design you like and turn it into just about anything you want. Change the opacity to make it look like vellum. Tweak the colors to add a little more blue or red. Increase the color saturation or decrease it. Change it into anything you desire.

16. Endless Supplies

Never, ever run out of the letter "S" when using a sticker set again. And always have it in the right size, color and style. With digital scrapbooking, you will never run out of supplies again.

And who know, maybe you'll start designing your own paper lines.

17. Easy on the Furniture

No more hammering eyelets! No more dents in your oak dining table. Enough said.

Paul Lindberg is a freelance writer and co-owner of http://www.tonoodle.com Discover how you can go from frustrated novice to digital scrapbooking expert with easy-to-follow Photoshop video tutorials Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Paul_Lindberg

Scrapbooking Software

Ken Glauser

 

Okay so you have 2 items to consider. These items both tell the same story. They both have identical story telling items such as photos, clippings, text sections. One item is a notebook, plain and simple. A notebook that involves just telling the story and if the story isn't so good, chances are that the person reading it will miss the point or not finish. The other item is a scrapbook. It too tells a story. But with the story come items that don't affect the story but do offer some glitter and attractiveness. This is achieved with things like stickers, templates, punches, borders etc. The items complement the story grabbing the reader and making it more likely that they continue.

The popularity of scrapbooking is soaring. From early records called hyponemata, used by ancient Greeks to today's art form. Not only is scrapbooking an art form but it is now considered an industry. Go ahead look in the yellow pages in the phone book. There are always entries for scrapbooking and there are more references every year. Both online and brick and mortar locations are proof to the ascension of this activity.

On the timeline of scrapbooking, you will see several blips or examples when the penetration of the market increased markedly. The ready availability of paper and supplies let common people take part in the art. The latest event to boost scrapbooking is the proliferation of computers and the internet. In days of old, supplies consisted of papers, stencils, pens and pencils. The stamps, templates, glue and scissors are now joined by printers, scanners, photocopiers because of the technology boom.

Along with the digital scrapbook comes scrapbooking software. Online companies that specialize in scrapbooking supplies found that without scrapbooking software, the supplies were slow to sell. They found that if they gave away or charged minimally for it; lots of people would try it out. Give the people the tools and they will come and buy. Once confined to paper products, quotes and decorating material, the art of scrapbooking has a lot more options with digital format. You can combine digital with paper product at any point in the process. You can produce the whole scrapbook digitally or produce it digitally and then print out a hard copy. You can just pick up digital items for a hard copy scrapbook.

Instead of the old paper, glue, scissor method of scrapbooking now people are using scrapbooking software to produce a page virtually. No paper, no glue and no running with scissors. Instead of paper, there were displays, (save the trees), glue and scissors were taken over by copy, cut and paste. Online scrapbooks were the result of scrapbooking software. Photos, clippings and text can be entered on pages with standard pre-prepared layouts. Don't worry, you can still add touches or mix and match. You can make digital collages, picture clipboards or whatever you fancy for a medium to store your memorabilia online. The scrapbooking software will lead you through the process question by question. The process ends with a beautiful accounting of the story.

One of the benefits of scrapbooking software is that the producer can decide who sees the final project. It can be private, it can be whomever he decides should see it or just post it online, even to groups of scrapbookers checking out each other's methods. When you come to think of it the present social networking boom has its roots in scrapbooking. It is a logical progression of the technique. A page on Myspace is very similar to a page in your scrapbook, either online or offline. The thing about social networking and some scrapbooking online entities is that now you can attach sound and video: the total package.

Some people would think that the computer is taking over the art form with the resulting loss of creativity, but actually the opposite is true. The computer offers a lot more options to scrapbookers and makes it easy to be creative, just click and place. Scrapbooking software can be used for a number of purposes with social networking. One can communicate what they want to various groups. Groups like friends, dates, marriage and even employers. Using the software effectively will portray the producers as talented and someone who should be checked out. If you are designing a social networking page, you could help yourself by checking out software for scrapbooks. It is a perfect medium for connecting with other people and telling stories.

Been there, done that, scrapped a page about it. Ken Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ken_Glauser

5 Interesting Ways To Create Your Mini Book Scrapbooking

Jasmine N

 

I love miniature. I was fascinated by my friend's mini book scrapbooking. I love her design so much; I wish I could do as hers! I started to source around all the different resources and finally I found some interesting ways to create mini book scrapbooking.

Tips #1 A5 size note book.

You can purchase any design of A5 size note book, either plain or trendy design. Then convert it into your scrapbook by adding some stickers as your embellishment, write some comments and the final step is adding your candid photo on it.

Tips #2 Scribbling or sketching on drawing paper as your layout design.

If you love scribbling or sketching, you can convert your scribblers or sketches into mini scrapbooking. This is done by cutting all the scribbling into smaller pieces, either in A5 or smaller, add some embellishment on each piece, then finally add your own photos. Last step is combine all the pieces together, punch two holes at the left border and tie with colorful ribbon to make a compilation of small scrapbook.

Tips #3 4R photo empty albums.

If you have a lot of empty 4R photo albums, reuse them by converting them into small scrapbook. Repeat the same steps of pasting stickers, embellishment and slot in your photo into the albums. This is the most economical and environmental friendly method to create your scrapbooking!

Tips #4 Greeting cards.

Greeting cards can be your source too! You can create a simple scrapbook by simply adding your candid photo onto the trendy design greeting cards. Perhaps you may need to add one or two words about the photo. Then you are done! Although some greeting cards in odd shapes, just take it as a credit to your scrapbook design, because it makes your scrapbooking more fun!

Tips #5 Trendy designed envelop.

You can convert a trendy designed envelop into scrapbooking. This can be done by adding some embellishment on every sides of the envelop, write some theme words and punch one or two holes at one side of the envelop, tie with ribbon or colorful felt. Finally paste your candid photo, or if you like you can draw your own illustration instead of putting your photos.

Hope any one of above tips give you an idea to create your mini book scrapbooking!

And now I would like to offer you free access to 3 of my Instant Scrapbooking Guide Templates when you subscribe to my free Instant Scrapbooking Guide, you will get my scrapbooking guide report plus free printable design on Scrapbooking that you can use as embelishment or layout. You can get your instant access at http://www.InstantScrapbookingGuide.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jasmine_N