Papers and cardstock will form the heart of your layout.  Begin by thinking about the colour scheme for your layout.  Pick out a colour from the photo or maybe something that reflects the way you feel about the image and what it is that you want to convey when someone looks at this page.  The photo should be the most dominant item on the page and the colours you choose should harmonise and support it, rather than overwhelm it.

You can, however, let your imagination run wild! A piece of scrapbooking paper can coordinate with any photo theme, can be cut in any shape, can be folded, torn, scrunched, corrugated, journaled, so on and so forth. Let your imagination run wild and experiment with your scraps. Scrunched and flattened blue scrapbook paper strewn with torn strips of white paper can give a great impression of surf - swap the strips of white paper for light blue slightly rounded strips and you?ll have a flowing river.

Plain scrapbook paper is easy to co-ordinate with your photos but don't forget that patterned paper has its place too. You can use coordinating plain colour paper along with the patterned scrapbooking paper. Patterned paper looks wonderful as part of a double mount. Experiment with your photos and paper remembering that the eye should be drawn to the photo not the paper behind it.

If you are having problems finding backgrounds or embellishments that you like, try using printable scrapbooking paper. You can customize the pages by scanning in wrapping paper, greeting cards, etc., and print out as backgrounds or embellishments. Print out custom headlines on regular scrapbook paper, vellum or cardstock and apply them to your pages. Just make sure you print your pages on acid free scrapbook paper and you?re good to go!

Different Ways to Use Paper

Crimping - Use a paper-crimping tool on your scrapbook paper, cardstock, wire, foil and/or vellum. When crimped, each material creates a different look. You can use the crimped scrapbook paper as water, waves, flower stems, tree branches, mats, embellishments, borders, tags, letter and more.

Paper piecing is the big brother of die cuts. Scrapbookers started doing their own paper applique then companies started producing scrapbooking paper piecing kits, books and patterns. Pieced designs are easy to make yourself. Look for inspiration in children's books. Flowers, cars, teddies are easy to break down into separate components. Keep the designs simple and clean. If the end result doesn't fit together well try 'stitching' around the edges with a fine black pigment pen. If you mess up put aside the piece of paper and try again. Experimenting is half the fun. Just make sure to use appropriate acid and lignin free scrapbook paper.

Paper Piecing patterns can be quite useful in creating those special, unique page elements. The patterns can be bought, or found online and downloaded and are found in hundreds of designs. You can personalize the patterns by using your own scrapbook paper, or use printable scrapbook paper. Scrapbook paper piecing patterns show you the final product you are building, as well as the smaller pieces that you will print out, color and glue together. Be creative and embellish the paper piecing with glitter or hand coloring. Use textured cardstock or vellum for an added touch.

Tracing Paper - When using a background scrapbook paper that has printed, irregular, shaped mats for pictures to be mounted on, use tracing paper for a perfect photo fit. Simply trace the design onto the tracing paper. Then place it over the portion of picture required. Using a little adhesive on the part of the photo to be discarded, trim along the traced line. You should end up with a perfect fit.

Crumpled Paper - There are lots of different uses for crumpled paper, so if one of your pieces of scrapbook paper gets wrinkled, there is no need to throw it away. You can spray crumpled cardstock lightly with water, crumple again, then flatten the paper out and iron it. Repeat the process again, and you have a soft, wrinkled background page. Create a rustic feel by crumpling the scrapbook paper and rub with chalk. For 3D effects, crumple small wet pieces to make balls that can be used for grapes, ladybugs, etc. You can crumple letters for a page title, crumple brown paper for a tree, or crumple pre-made diecuts for added dimension.

Vellum  - This is a translucent, semi-see through paper that is great for scrapbooking! It can be used as the background page, picture mats or several other page options. You can buy vellum paper in a wide variety of colors, shapes and sizes. Vellum can be printed on via your home printer, rubber stamped or cut out to make picture mats or journaling sections.

Paper Scraps - Don't just throw out leftover scrapbook paper or scraps. You can reuse the paper on other projects. Cut the scrapbook paper out as picture mats, picture frames, journaling sections, or you can cut out embellishment shapes, such as squares, letters, circles, borders, edges, etc. This is a great use for left over textured cardstock, or designer scrapbooking papers.

Tearing - Your scrapbook paper is another way to add texture and dimension to your pages. This technique requires NO tools and is very easy to do. Rules for tearing: Tear toward you for a rough white edge. Tear away from you for a rough edge without the white. You can use water to draw the design to make tearing easier and use your thumb to make more intricate tears. For added dimension of your torn scrapbook paper, chalk the edges. You can roll the torn edges for an even more dimensional look. Uses for torn scrapbooking paper: Journal Blocks, Borders, Flowers, Mosaic with torn cardstock pieces, Water, Sand, Mountains, and Mats for photos.

Mulberry Paper - This is a fibrous paper that adds a lovely soft touch to a mounted photo, journaling or title. There are several scrapbook techniques to keep in mind when working with this paper. Take care to use only paper that is acid-free and lignin free. For best effect Mulberry Paper should be torn. The trick to tearing Mulberry Paper to the desired shape is to moisten it using a paintbrush dipped in water before gently easing apart the fibres. The wider the area moistened, the more ragged the edge. Make sure the paper is dry before mounting.

Distressed Paper - The trend in decorating seems to be the old distressed look. We can add this old worn look to our layouts as well for a very nice textured effect. There are several scrapbooking techniques you can use to achieve an old, distressed look. Lightly rub fine grit sandpaper or steel wool on items or paper. Lightly wet your finger and rub the paper in a circular motion for the 'holes in jeans' looks. You can burn edges of paper for an authentic antique look, which would be great for maps and journaling blocks. There are several uses for distressed paper. You can distress die-cuts, photo edges, mats, background paper and journaling blocks. When using these scrapbook techniques, please make sure to use caution, especially when burning.

Choosing The Colour Of Your Mounting Papers - When laying out a page, the mat colour for your photo can have a large impact. One scrapbooking matting technique is to choose a colour in the photo itself. The backing paper will then draw the eye to the matching colour in the photo. If you want to draw the eye to a face then choose backing paper to match skin tone or eye colour. Another good scrapbook technique is to use a double mount. Double mounting using a skin tone based paper directly behind the photo and then a colour to match your decor or a layout will work well too.

Photos for Backgrounds - New scrapbook techniques to keep your pages unique and fresh can be tough to find. If you have taken a particularly good scenic shot, have it blown up, and use it as a page background. You can have the image enlarged as is, or you can have the image washed out so it fades into the background. Mat other photos or a smaller version of the same photo over the top.

Fabric Computer Paper  - There are now, coming onto the UK market, different types of fabric paper sheets that can be fed through your inkjet printer.  You can design your own A4 sheet and use adhesive backed cotton fabric to create beautiful textured effects as part of your backing sheet or as embellishments on top of your main page.  These can produce stunning results and are great for adding a different dimension to your pages.

copyright Caroline

Bubbly Funk