Scrapbooking For Others? Ideas For Giving Your Pages A Themed Look
Scrapbooking for others usually means creating an album that reflects a particular character or personality. Whether you’re making a baby scrapbook or working on a project about your ancestors, it’s a good idea to unite your pages with some kind of visual theme.
Here are some ideas for giving your scrapbook pages a creative and personal appeal.
Smudging
Using a marker, add color to a paper towel or make up sponge. Then, smudge the color onto the page. With a little practice, smudging can create a hazy or smoky effect. This effect can be used to create a relaxed, outdoor feel to your page.
Drybrushing
Dry brushing is a technique used to highlight or shade objects or areas of a scrap book page. Drybrushing gives the appearance of weathered wood. This can be used to increase focus to a certain photograph or to add a little energy to quiet pages. Drybrushing is a great technique for that old fashioned look.
To create this effect, dip a dry paint brush into acrylic paint. Next, wipe the brush back and forth on a paper towel. Then, lightly brush the item you want drybrushed. Set the item aside to dry.
Faux Painting
Faux painting can be created primarily with various colored sheets of paper. This can be used to add color and a dramatic flare to a dull scrapbook page.
Creating this effect is easy. Basically, tear the edges of three papers (a dark, a light, and a medium shade of the same color). Your middle shade of paper will be the base for your design, while the darker shade will be used as the shadow. Lighter shades act as highlights.
Faux Chalk Designs
To give a chalked accent to your items without the mess of the chalk, print images directly onto vellum. Next, color the back of the vellum with a marker. When you cut the letters out and turn them over, the letters have a very pretty, muted, chalk-like appearance.
This appearance creates a softening effect to loud scrapbook pages or adds an air of freedom and peace to an outdoor themed scrapbook.
Wax Paper Ink Dye
Wax paper ink dye has an effect resembling tie-dye. This creates a great children’s art background or a funky scrapbook for a close friend.
To do the wax paper technique cut a piece of wax paper slightly larger that the area you are working with. Next, crumple the wax paper up and then unfold. Then, lay the wax paper onto the glossy paper and cover the wax paper with a sheet of paper. Iron the papers, using the hottest setting, for no more than 5 seconds. Peel off the wax paper and then apply dye ink. The wax acts as a resistant to the ink forming a textured look.
You can adapt these ideas to create uniquely individualised pages that are great when you’re scrapbooking for others. For more ideas on creating distinctive looks for your scrapbook albums, browse through the menu on the right hand side.
