PRE-MADE EMBELLISHMENTS
Here are just some of the ideas you can use. You should add to this list as you think of things and keep it on hand when you scrapbook.
Travel & Vacation
Stickers and Rub-ons– Flags, suitcases, passport covers, cars, road signs, sun/beach
Memorabilia – admission tickets, brochures, postcards, notes/letters
Wedding
I like to keep wedding embellishments fairly simple so the photos take pride of place, not your embellishments. They are just there to give interest to your page, not take over. In the following layout simple heart shapes have been cut from card and just given a lift with the use of some hand-sewn stitches.
Garden
Stickers & Rub-ons– bees, butterflies, flowers, sun, watering can, snails
Other – flowers (more about in the section Make Embellishments, seed packets
Christmas
Stickers & Rub-ons – Christmas tree decorations, raindeer, Father Christmas
So, as you can see, there are stickers and rub-ons for all sorts of scrapbooks. But there is lots of other embellishments.
Heritage Embellishments
There are some great embellishments for your heritage pages that either look aged when you buy them, or you can give them an aged look, like dying lace with tea and sponging and ripping dictionary pages and the like. Checking out my collection of heritage embellishments I certainly found a lot! Most of the frames, dots, words etc. come in packets so they will go a long way. Here’s my assortment below.
Brads
Group them together as a feature or use large ones to give interest. In my Scrapbook Ideas Guide I tell you how to change the color of these brads to suit your layout. If you are anything like me, you will go to your supply and find every color except the one you are looking for. Well there is a solution! You can also cover them with glue and sprinkle glitter on.
Eyelets
Eyelets can be used like brads. They are a little more difficult to work with as you need eyelet tools or a CropADile tool to add eyelets to your layout. Don’t dismiss them though because they can allow you to do interesting things to your page! For instance, if you did a line of eyelets across your page, you could thread ribbon in and out of the holes for a great result.
Ribbons/Lace
Have you tried using two complimentary, thinner ribbons and twisting them together to use on your layout? Alternatively, ribbon twisted together with string gives an interesting look. Put lace on your heritage layouts. You can also dye the lace using a cup of tea or coffee to change the appearance. Otherwise, just sponge your lace with a sepia stamp pad for an ‘old’ look.
Check out the wedding layout below to see ribbon used twice on the page, quite effectively, I believe.
Beads
Small beads strung across your page for a baby girl’s layout would be especially nice. Do the same thing to frame your photo, using a brad in each corner to string the beads around.
Buttons
Ah, one of my favorite things. Mix and match colors and sizes together in groups, lines, circles, etc. Buttons are something you can use on a man/boy page in darker shades. To make a button lookalike without a real button, I just punch a circle shape from card (as thick as your punch will allow) and prick either two or four holes in the middle. Now you can either sew your button onto your main card or cut a small circle covering the back of the holes and sew your thread through your punched holes. This is now ready to adhere it on your page. Repeat for as many buttons as you like. Making your own like this is cheap and you have lots of color choice using card.
Buttons can also be used together with flowers to make the center of your flower similar to the example below. All the flowers started white but I have sprayed two with Glimmer Mist (Key Lime Pie and Denim Blue). Don’t throw out any old clothes without first removing the buttons to add to your stash!
Stamps
If you have any suitable rubber stamps for your layout, try this as an embellishment. Color in the stamped area, rather than just leave plain. Better still, I like to use a glue pen and color in the area and then sprinkle glitter over it for a girl’s layout. Shake the glitter off and spray a little hairspray on so the glitter stays put.
Bottle Caps
Squash these in your die cut machine (or they can be bought ready to use). Then you can either cover them with glitter, or punch circles of card to decorate the center.
Flowers
This just about needs a whole section to itself! Wow, where would our scrapbook layouts be without flowers. I do pity you if you have nothing but males in your family, even the pets! There are lots of beautiful flowers in your local scrapbook store. Some of the flowers below are handmade and some are bought. There are so many different flowers available. In Off The Page under ‘Canvas’ I tell you how to make tissue flowers which are real easy.
