I can't possibly illustrate to you all of the different embellishments you could use on a scrapbook page. There are just too many wonderful products, and they can be used in too many different ways. The market grows and changes every day, and my wish list for new products grows every time I pick up a scrapbooking magazine. So rather than try to show you everything, in this section I will share with you my favorite embellishments that weren't covered in Part I and Part II of the embellishments lessons.
Buttons are everywhere. You can recycle buttons from children's clothes, doll clothes, plush activity books, or other sources. Your grandmother might have a stash of vintage buttons in her crafting or sewing supplies. You can buy new buttons from scrapbook stores, sewing shops, discount stores, or even quilt shops. Buttons vary in size from teeny-tiny to super huge. My own stash includes buttons that are 3/16" in diameter, as well as a couple of buttons that are 3" wide, and hundreds in between. Buttons can be round or shaped, smooth or "bumpy", they can have holes or shanks, be thin or thick. There is an amazing variety, and if you look hard enough you can usually find a button that will suit almost any page.
I have used buttons to embellish a ribbon border, as photo corners, as centers of flowers, or even as buttons on a paper-pieced snowman's jacket. Most of the time, I simply adhere them to the page using Glue Dots. Following are some of my favorite illustrations of how buttons can be used.
I have loved charms since I was a little girl. I remember when I was 8 or 9 years old, I used to collect plastic charms with little hooks on them that I would attach to my plastic chain necklace. I had a whistle, a foot, a purse, a lipstick, and many, many more. That love affair with charms has once again found its way into my life, in the form of scrapbooking.
A wonderful addition to almost any page, charms have exploded in use on scrapbook pages in the last several years. Several manufcturers have jumped on the bandwagon and are now producing charms for scrapbookers in a variety of styles, finishes, colors, sizes, and shapes. You can paint them with acrylic paint to match the colors in your layout. Some have holes you can use to attach with ribbons or fibers. Others can simply be glued onto your page with a strong adhesive like GlueDots.
When I first started scrapbooking in February 2003, there weren't a lot of choices for tiles to use on scrapbook pages. Making Memories had just come out with their line of page pebbles - clear epoxy "blobs" that you could use for, among other things, giving a particular letter in a title more "pop." There were a couple of other companies that had plain square or round tiles, but the pickings were pretty slim.
That is no longer the case. There are all kinds of choices for epoxy shapes and ceramic tiles to complement your scrapbook pages. Some are a single solid color. Others are striped, polka dot, emblazoned with cute pictures, or pre-printed with words or phrases. Tiles are wonderful not only for adding symmetry and order to a layout, but also for filling out excessive white space. They can help echo a pattern in your pictures (the backsplash in your kitchen, for example). Different tiles can lend an air of exotic flair or rustic charm. Ceramic tiles can be sanded or otherwise distressed. You can use letter stickers to make a funky title.
An office staple (bad pun - sorry!), paper clips have become more and more widely used by scrapbookers as well. While I wouldn't rely on them to actually hold page elements together, they can be great for adding a little "kick" to pages about your workspace, school, deadlines, organization, or other similar topics. Plain or colored, paper clips offer a fun, easy way to add a little quirky punch to a layout.
In addition, many companies now produce shaped paper clips for scrapbookers. Circles, spirals, hearts, and squares are popular choice, but as with so many other areas of our business the choices are exploding.
You can adhere paper clips with liquid adhesive, or just clip them onto the edge of a frame, tag, or other page element.
Where to begin with stickers? Clear, white-backed, flat, 3-dimensional, vellum, cardboard - the sky is the limit! Stickers are no longer limited to the cutesy, childish choices scrapbookers were stuck with ten years ago. Now there is a sticker to suit every style. Some of my favorite stickers are poems or quotes, as well as the ubiquitous letter stickers. I am crazy about cardstock stickers - they look and feel nice and, unlike some other more conventional sticker choices, I've never had one split or tear on me when I was peeling it from the backing!
How you use stickers is a matter of personal preference. The first generation of modern scrapbookers was plagued by what are now affectionately known as "Sticker Sneezes" - a few pictures glued to a background page, with stickers randomly placed all over the page, as if they had literally shot out of someone's nose. Those days are long past, and sticker use is now more deliberate. Of course, how you choose to use stickers is entirely up to you, but I've shown you some of my favorite stickered pages to give you a few ideas.
Pressed or dried flowers have graced scrapbook pages since time immemorial. Bouquets and single blooms were saved for sentimental value, to remember a particular occasion or event. Now they are more of a decorative item. There are flower dies and punches, of course, but you can also use silk, paper, or ribbon flowers to add to a layout. In the last two years, flower use has skyrocketed, riding the wave of the retro style movement. I admit to not being a huge fan of flowers myself, though I have seen several layouts in which they really added to (rather than overwhelmed) a scrapbooker's photos. These are a few of my own pages that have incorporated flowers of one type or another.
Create a layout using at least one of the embellishments described above.
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