Scrapbook Embellishments

Wedding Scrapbook Embellishments

2009-05-10T06:00:00.003-04:00

Weddings are such fun to scrapbook - there is an elegance about the photos that you will want to translate onto your page in the way of wedding scrapbook embellishments. There is no need to go to a lot of expense to find wedding scrapbook embellishments. Although, I will start out this post with a few ideas of what is out there in the way of ready-made scrapbook embellishments, I will then give you some ideas on how to make your own wedding scrapbook embellishments.

Jolee's is a company that makes 3D sticker scrapbook embellishments. They have so many cute things out there. One that I thought was really nice was this wedding-themed 3D sticker set for embellishing your scrapbook page. See photo in this post.

Rather than spending money on scrapbooking embellishments for a wedding scrapbook, why not try and make some of your own? Now I'll try to give you some ideas.

Make a paper dress scrapbook embellishment. To do this, check out the photo at left. If you are not good at drawing your own template, by copying the one shown, then try making a simpler one by starting with a tall triangle for the dress. Hint: to make both sides equal, fold it in half and draw one side against a fold - just like you make a snowflake or heart. After you get your template made on a piece of scrap paper, trace it out onto a nice piece of patterned paper. Polka dot paper, or a light pastel colour looks good for making a wedding scrapbook embellishment. Cut out the dress from this paper. Then cut out another piece of the same size in vellum or a clear type of paper. Or, even a piece of lace if you have it. Layer it on top of the dress portion. Then you can use deco scissors along the bottom of the dress to make a nice looking hem on your handmade wedding scrapbook embellishment. Finally fold a small piece of ribbon around the front and attach a little tiny flower in the centre. Glue this down and you have a homemade wedding scrapbook embellishment. Lovely!

Other ideas for making scrapbooking embellishments for wedding layouts would be to use jewels on the pages. Find unused costume jewelry or inexpensive jewels and beads from a dollar store to decorate your page.

What about making a paper wedding cake as a scrapbook embellishment? Now, there's a good idea too. And think how easy this would be. Cut out 3 or more rectangle shapes from white cardstock in varying sizes. Glue them one on top of the other, slightly askewed. Then you are ready to decorate your wedding cake scrapbook embellishment! Add flowers, brads or eyelets and maybe even some ribbon and presto, there it is!

You will be the envy of your scrapbook friends at the next crop you attend if you bring some of these handmade wedding scrapbook embellshments along. Some may even ask you to make some for them and then you are in business!

Scrapbook Embellishments for Mothers Day

2009-05-01T06:00:00.001-04:00

Mother's Day is just around the corner. Don't forget or you will have your mother to answer to! What about making your mother a scrapbook page to celebrate her. You could add lots of scrapbook embellishments to make it really unique and pretty. Here are some ideas to get you going.

Make your mother a scrapbook page all about her children. Embellish a mother's day scrapbook layout with drawings that her children have made - or grandchildren, if she's old enough. To make children's drawing scrapbook embellishments, scan the originals into your computer and then print them out in playing card size. They will be so cute that you will want to make them as collector's cards! Your kids will want their own copies of their drawings and paintings for scrapbooking embellishing or for trading with their friends. Ok, now I'm getting off topic. But, I tell you there are so many possibilities to write about here....

Other things you can use to embellish a Mother's Day scrapbook page or card would be obviously, flowers. What mother doesn't love flowers? For this topic, I will refer you to take a look at our previous post on flower scrapbook embellishments.

A simple scrapbook embellishment for embellishing a mother's day card or layout can be had by

cutting out a rectangle of flowered patterned paper. If the design is large enough, you can outline the flowers using some nice pink glitter glue like the photo shows here of the pink flowered card. Finally cut around the rectangle using deco scissors to finish it off. There you have a quick and easy embellishment to attach to a scrapbook layout tribute to Mom.

A unique scrapbook embellishment that you can make as well would be this card holder embellishment. See photo. To make it, simply cut out some lengths of ribbon and feed them through each other and attach with brads or eyelets at the ends. You can then slip in little notes or photos and there you have a custom scrapbook embellishment for a mother's day layout. She can take out the cards and photos to look at them closer and then put them back in when she is finished looking at them.

Some mother's and probably more grandmother's like quilts. How about decorating a scrapbook page with your own custom paper quilt. See photo at right. You can do it very simply by cutting out 4 equal sized squares and either sewing or gluing them down in the pattern. You can also get really fancy and cut some into triangles and then glue them down in a pleasing pattern. You can also sew the edges with a sewing machine or also make fake stitches by using a marker and drawing on little lines all around the edges. You can really go to town with a quilted scrapbook embellishment.

There are lots of ideas, but these are just a few to get started. Maybe I'll write more when I think of it or when I get some more time. Right now my kids are screaming for some attention, LOL.

Scrapbook Embellishment Materials

2009-04-20T06:00:00.000-04:00

Embellishments come made out of lots of different materials. There is metal, plastic, paper, plaster and cloth just to name a few.

Metal scrapbook embellishments can add lots of interesting texture to a scrapbook page. You do have to be careful of the weight though. You don't want the resulting page to be so heavy that things start falling off the page. Also, if you put it in a scrapbook album, make sure it's not so 3D that you can't fit it into a plastic page protector.

Metal embellishments range from those that are tin foil weight and those that are heavier like buttons and other doodads. You can get metal scrapbook embellishments in the form of pho

to corners, mini photo frames, buttons, brads, eyelets and more.

Adding a metal scrapbook embellishment to your page is just a little something unique to either help with the design or help to tell the story. For example, if you use photo corners on a photo it kind of gives it an antique feel. Metal instead of plastic is more historical of course!

Plastic scrapbook embellishments are often used for cheaper mass produced scrapbooking supplies. You will find the embellishments made from this material come in just about everything. Plastic can often imitate a more expensive material like metal as well - it's all in the detail and pain

ted effects that are added.

Plastic scrapbook embellishments are often in the form of "doo dads" or other little objects that are themed for a page. Things like flat little animal figures, cartoons, and other fun gimicky and kitschy designs. Also, most buttons are made of plastic. Buttons, as you may be aware, come in lots of different shapes and designs other than the traditional circular shape. There are leaves, trucks, balloons, bear and pretty much any design you are looking for. The flower buttons shown here are from eBay seller: Trina1173 .

Paper scrapbooking embellishments are used in stickers, 3D or flat flowers, photo corners and paper piecings. Paper scrapbook embellishments are often ones that you can try and reproduce yourself at home with very little or no cost. Make your own paper flower scrapbook embellishments like we talk about in a previous post.

Plaster embellishments for scrapbooks can be found in craft supply or home DIY stores. They are not necessarily made for scrapbooks, but you can use them. Little plaster casted ornamentation for a home or kitchen cupboard can be just the right size for scrapbooking. Take a look around your local home decor shop and see what you can find. If you are looking for something especially suited for a scrapbook page, check out these lovely keyholes from Melissa Frances .

Cloth and fabric can be used in scrapbooking embellishments as well. Of course there are lots of fabric or silk flowers available. Plus you can make lots of interesting things yourself out of cloth for a scrapbook embellishment. Make a tag, a photo frame, flowers, leaves, a quilted page or something else out of fabric to have as your own scrapbook embellishment.

I hope that gives you a rundown of the basic materials used in most scrapbooking embellishments. Maybe some ideas and inspiration to get you going on your next page.

Scrapbook Embellishments Storage

2009-04-10T06:00:00.000-04:00

Now that you have been building up a supply of embellishments to decorate your scrapbook pages with, you will need some creative ideas to store and organize your scrapbook supplies. By the way, if you are making any of your scrapbook embellishments yourself, you should make extra - more than you require for the moment, so that you can have some on hand for the next scrapbook project to come out.

Here are some storage ideas. You can certainly spend some money and purchase scrapbook storage solutions from scrapbook retailers who are selling storage options specifically for scrapbook embellishments. Or, you can use some interesting items you may have around your home already. Also, there are lots of unique storage bins to be had at flea markets or antique stores.

So, let's get started with using items from around your home to store your scrapbook supplies in.

Tool Box - Maybe your husband has a number of tool boxes that can have the tools reduced o

ut of one box and put into others he has. Thus making one of them empty and usable! Sure, why not. Just go and take a look in his garage and have a look around. I bet you'll find lots of tool boxes. Does he really need all of them? No, of course not. And if you ask him he may even say yet, but I would just go ahead and find another place for the items in the box you want. If he says anything, you can always quote how much it would be for you to go out and buy a brand new scrapbook embellishment organizer! Tool boxes are great to store your scrapbook tools in or larger scrapbook embellishments.

Fishing Tackle Box - How often does your husband go fishing anyway? I bet you scrapbook more often than he fishes! So, why should he have all the cool scrapbook embellishment organizers anyway, LOL! Fishing tackle boxes are really good for storing smaller scrapbook embellishments in. Things like brads, eyelets, buttons, etc. There is a home for everything in the small little compartments you will find in a fishing tackle box.

Tupperware Container - If you are like me, you probably have way too many of these plastic containers lying around. Maybe you've even kept yogurt containers with lids or margarine

containers. These can be reused for storing various scrapbooking embellishments.

Shoe Box - You can store packs of stickers or rub-ons in shoe boxes. It's easy to flip through them in these boxes. First you may want to sort them by theme or colour and put each theme or colour in it's own box. Label the box using your scrapbooking supplies too!

Maybe you are interested in displaying some of your scrapbooking embellishments and organizing them at the same time. If you don't have small children around like me, this would be ideal. Then the scrapbook embellishments are visible and there, right at your fingertips. If they are stored away somewhere and out of sight, you are less likely to delve into them and use them. Here are some ideas for pretty displays of scrapbook embellishment organizing.

Old muffin tins - organize your buttons by colour and put each colour in it's own muffin tin. I like the old fashioned muffin tins that you find at the antique store or flea market - or perhaps in your mother's pantry cupboard! The photo above is by Wychbury .

Decorative bowls - find some pretty decorative bowls and sort your brads and eyelets in them. A pretty display for your scrapbook embellishments plus it is fun to run your hands in the bowl letting the eyelets trickle out between your fingers!

Jars - you can get pretty jars from Ikea with nice metal lids or even use some antique Bell or Mason jars. Organize and sort your ribbon scrapbook embellishments by colour and place each ribbon colour in a jar. Keep all your little scraps too as you may need them and they help fill up the jars! The photo above shows jars used for scrapbook embellishment storage by MaisonsPage .

Spice Racks - spice racks are great for storing smaller scrapbook embellishments. Besides having uniformly sized cute little jars, there is also a nice wooden rack or spin contraption available to store the jars in. Such a pretty arrangement. Also, you can have fun decorating up the lids of these jars. Label them with what's inside, but do it using your scrapbook supplies of course!

Salt & Pepper Shakers - use these to store very fine embossing powder, or glitter. How pretty they look! Make sure they are labeled correctly so noone gets the wrong idea with what's inside.

I'm sure as you take a look around your home, you will find lots of interesting things to use to store and organize your scrapbook supplies.

Easter Scrapbooking Embellishments

2009-04-01T06:00:00.000-04:00

Easter themed scrapbooking embellishments are just one of the holidays that you can find scrapbooking supplies in. There are so many nice things available out there to purchase with which to decorate your scrapbook page.

Jolee's Boutique is known for their 3D scrapbooking embellishment stickers. Their stickers are often themed for different holidays and occasions. One of those holidays is Easter, of course. See photo of one sample in this post. As well, shown here are metal style dimensional

stickers by Best Creation.

Many other scrapbook manufacturers make scrapbook embellishments for Easter.

You can also make embellishments for scrapbooking Easter. Use some die cut felt egg shapes or cut out your own. Sew them around the edges to

attach to a page or layout. See the photos shown.

Butterflies are a great spring and Easter embellishment scrapbooking idea. You can get a template from Martha Stewart and cut out your own from pretty patterned paper. See photo of my version here in this post. Also, she sells a butterfly punch which I have and love!

There is lots of free Easter clipart for scrapbooking embellishing available on the web as w

ell. These chicks and hens can be downloaded and printed

from Martha Stewart. Here is another resource for free clipart for scrapbook embellishing. As well, hereare some vintage images that

can be used for scrapbooking

embellishing. So pretty!

You can see there are a lot of Easter scrapbook embellishment ideas out there. So, have fun with what you make and be sure

and share your creations so you can inspire others!

Metal Scrapbook Embellishments

2009-03-27T06:00:00.000-04:00

Scrapbooking with metal embellishments can add a pleasing look to your page. Not only does it lend unique textures, but it also helps to make for an interesting page overall.

Metal scrapbooking embellishments may come in different types of metal. Brass, gold, silver, antique or even vintage hues. You can even paint or distress plain metal scrapbook embellishments to give a vintage metal scrapbooking look.

The types of metal scrapbook embellishments that are available out there are enormous - this is due to their popularity in the last number of years, of course. There are scrapbook washers with sayings on them, metal word embellishments, small metal scrapbook lettering, and of course charms for any subject like baby, wedding, sports, child, travel, birthday and more. Also considered metal scrapbooking embellishments are metal eyelets and brads. These not only look like an embellishment on a page, but they also act as a method to attach things. See more for this idea below.

When using metal embellishments there are a couple of things you'll you'll be glad to know of.

Firstly, metal embellishments can be heavy, so be careful when carrying the page around. If the page ends up being quite heavy, I would recommend supporting it with a piece of cardboard behind it and then inserting that into your plastic sleeve in the scrapbook album.

The second thing that you'll need to consider when working with metal scrapbook embellishments

is how to attach them. Other than using a really strong metal adhesive glue, you can try using double sided sticky tape, foam tape, or even wire with metal eyelets or brads. ("Making Memories" makes a metal glue which is readily available.) When we talk about using wire, this would be a suitable method if there are holes on the edges of the metal scrapbook embellishment. Often small metal scrapbook letters and words have tiny holes around the edges. This is also true of metal

scrapbooking embellishment charms. You can simply use a metal eyelet or metal brad to poke

through the hole and attach it to your scrapbook

layout. You could also hang several metal

scrapbook embellishments together by stringing

some metal wire through the holes and wrapping it

around. This would make a really neat effect!

Now for the fun! Let's take a look at a few ideas for scrapbooking using metal scrapbook

embellishments!

The cute metal scrapbook embellishments shown at left are actually charms of tiny tools. They would be great for a masculine scrapbook layout. They are made by "Embellish It."

Metal scrapbook embellishment charms come in so many cute shapes. Love the baby themed metal washer charms shown here. They are made by "Making Memories." They are actually metal word embellishments.

You can get metal word scrapbook embellishments also. The ones shown here have the years on them. Also made by "Making Memories."

Scrapbook Flower Embellishments

2009-03-26T06:00:00.000-04:00

Flowers for scrapbooking embellishing can be so expensive. Prima makes some really beautiful ones like you see in the photo at left. BUT, they are so expensive. Also, you only get a few in the package. I've been getting so sick of spending money on flowers for scrapbook embellishing that I thought it time to make some of my own OR go looking for some cheaper ones. Most of the time you are paying for all that packaging.

Guess what? There are cheaper flowers that are just as good for embellishing a scrapbook page than those expensive ones. When I say cheap scrapbook embellishments, that is what I mean. Check out your local dol

lar store. You will be surprised to find cheap scrapbook supplies. (Watch for another post to come on finding scrapbook embellishments at your local dollar store!). Anyway, back to the subject at hand. As I was saying, there are silk flowers by the dozens at my local dollar that are more than suitable for embellishing a scrapbook page.

You may ask, "How do I get a dollar store silk flower to lay flat and be used as a scrapbook embellishment on my page?" Well, get some tough scissors and cut off the shank. Yep, that's right. Cut off the shank. It is as easy as that. Take a brad or eyelet, from your scrapbook embellishment storage, and attach it through the centre of the 'shankless' flower. Then use that to attach your brand new invented scrapbook embellishment flower to your scrapbook layout! No one will ever know.

Now, you may be asking yourself, "But, I thought everything has to be acid free on my page." Well you know what my answer to that is? My answer is, "Who cares about that." Really! Who cares about acid free when you have digital photos? How many people scrap from photos that aren't digital anymore? No one I know, that's for sure. Scrapbook embellishments don't need to be acid free if your photos are digitally backed up. They are on your computer. They

are on cd's. They are on portable hard drives. So who cares about acid free scrapbook embellishments unless you are planning on your scrapbook layout to last forever. That part to me isn't as important as the photos lasting. I'm not that vain that I want my so called "artwork" to last forever. I'm not Picaso or Rembrandt. It's the photos that are important, not the scrapbook page. In this day and time, we are concerned about cheap scrapbooking

embellishments more than acid free. It's all about the fun in creating your own scrapbook embellishments and that they are cost effective.

Looking for more ideas flower embellishments for scrapbooks? Make your own paper flower scrapbook embellishments. There are many ways to do this, all with different outcomes for flowers to use embellishing a scrapbook layout. First start with a template. And, make your own template, no need to buy one. Fold a piece of blank paper in half. From that draw half a flower shape around the fold. Cut it out and open to get your flower shape.

Trace it onto a piece of patterned paper and cut out. Then crinkle it out into a ball and unfold. You will get a distressed scrapbook embellishment flower. You can attach your handmade scrapbook embellishment to your page by punching a hole through the middle and putting a brad or eyelet through it. You can also feed a piece of ribbon through it too like shown in the photo above. I like these flowers because they always turn out different and the effect is one of a 3D scrapbooking embellishment - lovely decoration for your page.

Another method of making a flower scrapbook embellishment is to do the same as above with your template, but now make two more of these. One bigger and one smaller. Then trace these shapes on the back of some pretty patterned paper. I like to use double-sided paper for this as my flower scrapbook embellishment will show the backs once we attach it to the page. Something fun to do is attach a piece of costume jewelry through the centre and attach it to your page.

There, you have some flower scrapbook embellishments - perfect to use on any scrapbook page.

Free Scrapbook Embellishments

2009-03-24T06:00:00.000-04:00

There are really two types of *FREE* when it comes to free scrapbook embellishments. The first would be finding things around your home (or your Mother's home, LOL!) that you can use to embellish your scrapbook for free. The second, which is the focus of this post, is using free digital scrapbooking embellishments on the net.

There are so many places online that you can go to in order to download free scrapbook embellishments. Most of the time you will find that you need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader to see the PDF file that the free scrapbook embellishment downloads are created in. From there, save the file to your computer and you are set to print it off. Or, you can print while viewing it. I would suggest saving the file so you have it for future use. Be sure and save the file with the name of the artist or site where you found it so you can give credit to the designer if and when you decide to post your completed scrapbook layout online or submit it to a publication for publishing. One other note about saving the files. You will find that these files are often large and

take up a lot of space on your hard drive. So, you may want to copy them to a CD or a portable hard drive instead. Free digital scrapbooking embellishments are also given in other formats so that you can use them in PhotoShop and thus manipulate them. I won't go into that too much more. There are other places with more info on this and my purpose is to talk about the embellishments, not how to use Photoshop.

You can get this lovely free scrapbooking embellishment kit from Digi-Designs by Nicole. See photo above.

In addition to digital scrapbook embellishments, there are also lots of free vintage drawings and photos that can be had online for free. As well, many other clipart items can be printed out on your home computer and used in a scrapbook layout as a scrapbook embellishment. Think on the holidays. You can get lots of suitable material online for free.

Here are some beautiful vintage images of children that can be used as scrapbook embellishments in a children's album.

This image above of a mother and child would be perfectas a scrapbook embellishment for a Mother's Day layout. Such a sweet and touching image.

Looking for borders to embellish a scrapbook page? The one shown above came from here. For more, please click here.

Make your own stickers by finding the appropriate clipart and printing it out on sticker paper for another free scrapbook embellishment. Another idea is if you have a Xyron sticker maker then you can print it out on regular paper and run the image through the Xyron machine. Then you have a custom made sticker - perfect to embellish your scrapbook layout.

This website has lots of free clipart available. Many of them would be more than suitable for scrapbookers to embellish their scrapbook pages with. There are scrapbooking tags, scrapbook journaling spots and more.

There is no need to pay a truckload for stickers, and other scrapbook embellishments at the store. Simply use the internet to it's advantage and print off your own digital scrapbook embellishments.

Holiday Scrapbook Embellishments

2009-03-21T15:32:00.005-04:00

We just celebrated St.Patrick's Day in our household and took lots of photos for scrapbook pages. I've been looking around and thinking about what kinds of things I can use to embellish my scrapbooking pages. Scrapbook embellishment ideas are what I need. All I had to do was put my thinking cap on.

There are so many free scrapbook embellishments that can be had. You can download free scrapbooking embellishments by searching for downloadable printables or digital scrapbooking embellishments. They are often PDFs that you can download to your own computer and voila: FREE DIGITAL SCRAPBOOKING EMBELLISHMENTS!

Other sources for free scrapbook embellishments are found around your home. Have you tried this? Make your own embellishments. It's cheaper and more unique of an option. Let's get thinking. Do you have a heart shaped cookie cutter? You can use it as a pattern to trace out a shamrock onto green cardstock. Simply trace and cut out 3 hearts and glue them down onto your scrapbook page to form a shamrock. You can also cut out a little stem and glue that down too. Another option for a stem is to use a piece of green ribbon or even a green pipe cleaner. To decorate your shamrock scrapbooking embellishment you can add some pretty green glitter glue around the edges or chalk the edges or ink the edges.

Another scrapbooking embellishment that you can use for St. Patrick's Day is a belt buckle. Metal scrapbooking embellishments are always popular. They give added texture and dimension to your scrapbook layout. Find an unused belt and take the buckle off of it. Glue it to your page for a leprechaun's belt. (you can have black cardstock strip underneath for the belt part).

Make a woolly sheep scrapbooking embellishment for your page by gluing mini white pompoms in an oval shape to a piece of cardstock. Glue on a little black snout cut from black cardstock and 4 sticks for legs.

Looking to make more scrapbooking embellishments on your own? Gather together some St. Patrick's Day greeting cards you may have received. Cut out the images and there you have more embellishments for scrapbooking.

Of course, you can also purchase scrapbooking embellishments that are specifically tailored for St. Patrick's Day. Karen Foster Designs makes the cute St. Patrick's Day embellishments for scrapbooks shown above. Also shown are scrapbook embellishments made by Reminisce.

I hope this helps you out a little. I would love to see what ideas you have for making your own St. Patrick's Day scrapbook embellishments.

Scrapbook Embellishments - Welcome

2008-10-19T21:23:00.005-04:00

Welcome to SCRAPBOOK EMBELLISHMENTS.

Here I plan to chat about ... you guessed it - scrapbooking embellishments. What are embellishments? They are those little bits and pieces that finish off a layout. They are the items that you use to fill in the blank spaces and that you use to bring attention to your photo's and journalling. Virtually anything can be used to embellish your layouts - in fact for many of us, it is the scrapbooking embellishments that make scrapbooking fun! I don't just use the standard scrapbooking store embellishments, I try to use as much stuff as I can from around the house. It is amazing how much stuff we throw out that could be used as scrapbooking embellishments on our layouts.

Lets go through some general scrapbooking embellishment ideas.

Slide Mount Embellishments

Slide mounts are the little cardboard frames that are used to mount slides (you know - from before digital cameras!) They can be used in many ways on your scrapbooking layouts. The most common way to use Slide mount embellishments is for framing photos or your journalling. The provide a frame, sort of a window into your layout and give it depth. I often also embellish the slide mounts themselves with may other scrapbooking materials including: ribbon, wires, various coloring including markers and paint, sparkles, fabrics, rub-ons, rubber stamping, cord, other natural materials - basically whatever you want.

Slide mount scrapbook embellishments add depth to your layouts and make them unique. They have a wide range of uses and with some other scrapbook materials and a dash of imagination, you will be able to use slide mounts to really enhance and make your scrapbooking layouts spectacular!

Metal Embellishments

Metal embellishments are one of the most popular accessories for scrapbooking layouts. There are literally hundreds of different types of metal scrapbook embellishments available for purchase from scrapbooking stores. Metal scrapbooking embellishments can also be found in places like hardware stores, sewing stores and just generally around the house. Use your imagination! Following are some of the more popular metal scrapbooking embellishments that are often used in scrapbooking layouts.

Spiral Clips.

These little clips are kind of like little washers and can be used for photo mats or any other image on your scrapbooking layouts. They come in a variety of sizes and colors - get lots of different ones so that you have options. I also use them to hold other things like ribbon or string on my pages. I also use them to hold clipped images (from magazines) as well as other photo's or images.

Safety Pins.

Safety pins are one of my favorite scrapbooking embellishments. The obvious use is for baby layouts, but I also use them for dark 'goth' type layouts. They can also be used to hold ribbons, metals, or any other type of ephemera that needs to be attached to a page. While they come in many different colors, they can also be painted and bent into other shapes - don't just use them as they come out of the package. Make them unique - make them yours.

Brads.

Brads are a wonderful way to make unique scrapbook layouts. I use them in corners, in groups and to hold pages together. They are often used for decoration too. You can use them to hold other embellishments in place, to attach photos and images and they really enhance your scrapbooking layouts.

Metal Lettering

Metal letters are a recent addition to the scrapbooking world and are a wonderful way to modernize your scrapbooking layouts. They can be used in many different ways and are a really unique embellishment that can add tons of character and uniqueness to your scrapbook pages. They come in single letters, complete words and sayings. Combine them with other lettering or words to make your own sayings and most of all don't just use them as they come. Add shadows, offset or overlap them - again, use your imagination.

Eyelets.

Eyelets are probably the most commonly used metal embellishment in scrapbooking layouts. They are used to hold things like photos, ribbons, fabrics - virtually anything in place. I often use ribbons, strings, wires, yarn through the eyelets as further enhancement to my pages. You will need an eyelet punch tool to use them, but the extra cost is well worth it to make your pages stand out.

Metal scrapbook embellishments are really taking off in the scrapbooking industry. They are widely used now and can be found in all scrapbooking stores and on-line scrapbooking stores and craft stores. Again, I remind you to keep an eye out where ever you are for unique metal embellishments - I love some of the brass and bronze stuff that I find at the hardware store.

Fabric for Scrapbook Embellishments

Fabric comes in such a wire array of colors and textures - probably more than paper. I see more and more fabric being used in layouts today. And don't be satisfied with the print that is on the fabric - color it, paint it use markers to make it blend into your layouts. There are many ways to attach fabric to your scrapbooking layouts including glues, rivets, brads and eyelets. And of course - sewing it. You can use your sewing machine - but sewing through paper will wreck your needle so make sure you change it when you go to use it again. Use thread or yarn to show the stitching and really make fabric your own special scrapbook embellishment. Always keep an eye out for unique and vintage fabrics - you really can't have to much of it around.

Metal Charms and Trinkets

Metal charms and hanging trinkets can be used to really personalize your scrapbooking layouts. They are available in a wide variety of sizes, shapes and themes and can be used on many different layouts. Symbols such as peace, religious can also be found as metal charms. As well there are many metal trinkets like teddy bears, little stars or moons - lots of different ideas to fit nearly any layout theme. Add charms to your travel ephemora or to memorabilia from your childhood or special days to make the theme of the page complete.

Metal charms and trinkets can be attached to your pages in a variety of ways including: safety pins, wire, string, sewing with a variety of materials and of course, glue. Your imagination is your only limit with these. Metal charms for scrapbook embellishments can be purchased at most large scrapbooking stores and on-line as well.

Paint, Chalk, Crayons, Pencil Crayons, Markers, etc.

The use of acid free writing or coloring tools is an easy way to add color to your pages. You can use chalk, paint or colored pencils on the edges of torn paper or photos. Die-cut, or stencil, or even paint a design or pattern onto your background paper. Of course, these are usually used for journalling, but any form of color or design make make your scrapbooking pages unique. You are an artist - use your tools!

Scrapbook embellishments are the fun part of scrapbooking and are what makes an ordinary scrapbooking layout special and spectacular.