Scrapbooking Paper That Is Colored, Textured & Patterned Works Best As A Background Page

31. Leather Look

A leather look can add elegance to your scrapbooking page.

To create a unique leather look, simply distress cardstock. To do this, grip the cardstock in your hands. Then, with a gentle circular motion, rub the cardstock together as if you were pre-treating a laundry stain. Gradually, work your way around the cardstock until you get the desired effect.

32. Accents

Simple accents can be added to your pictures, borders, and backgrounds to create an air of softness and elegance. Simply rub chalk (or eye shadow) along the edges of the paper. The color of chalk chosen can be either a similar color to the background, a contrasting color, or an outlining color such as black or grey depending on the result you want.

33. Punching

Basically punching is the cutting out of an image or piece of text using a cookie cutter like tool. Most punches are made of die cast steel. They come in various shapes and sizes. Photographs and text blocks can be punched into virtually any shapes or sizes. These shapes can add to the impact of the themes.

For instance, pictures of your sweetheart can be punched into heart shapes to add to the romantic type of love. Alternately, small doves can be punched and placed along the borders to add a romantic touch to a wedding scrap booking. Titles and text can also be punched to create professional looking scrapbooking pages.

When punching out and gluing small pieces of paper, place a strip of double-sided tape on the paper before punching out the shape. Next, just punch the tape into shape. Then, the piece is immediately ready to place.

34. Colored Paper

Additional color can be easily added to your scrap booking page through different colored backgrounds, borders, and embellishments. A light colored background creates a soft, farther away feeling; while a darker background sharpens the focus. Complimentary colors can be slightly lighter or darker than the background to direct the focus towards or away from portions of the page. Contrasting colors can also be used to create a more dramatic or focusing effect away from or towards various photographs or mementos.

Simply add, fold, or paste additional sheets of paper into your design for the desired effect.

35. Vellum

Vellum is a transparent, translucent material. Vellum can be used to create a slight shadow or shade change to background or embellishment colors. This can be used as a softening agent for baby scrap booking, as a touch of elegance to gift scrapbooking, or to create dimension in a boring flat page.

To reduce the cloudiness effect caused by gluing, apply only a thin line of glue along the edges of the vellum. In this way, you will see a slight shadow only along the very edge. This will look like a border to the vellum. Vellum is available in both acidic and non acidic forms.

36. Shadow Boxes

A great way to add depth to your scrapbooking page is to add shadow boxes. Basically shadow boxes add a shadow to your images. Shadow boxes are also a great way to make your most important photographs or text boxes stand out form the rest of the page. Shadow boxes can also be to emphasis dedications.

To make a shadow box, simply cut a box shape out of paper. Next, put your embellishment on a larger square of cardstock. Then, add glue to all four sides of the cardstock square and attach it to the back of your paper. The embellishment will show through, adding greater dimension to your page.

37. Patterned Paper

Patterned paper can be used for backgrounds, borders, and embellishments. Often plain white backgrounds look rather boring and dull. Patterned backgrounds add a touch of excitement to your page. The right pattern tailored to your theme and purpose can also increase that professional look.

Colors and patterns can be used to coordinate with your photographs or to add dramatic effects. Paper with various themes and patterns is widely available. For instance, a birthday scrapbooking could have a background made of your favorite gift wrap. This could add a touch of elegance or a touch of humor depending upon the patterned paper you choose.

38. Textured Paper

Textured paper can add extra dimension to your scrap booking page. Textured paper can be used to highlight focus items on your scrapbooking page. Textured paper can also be used as a backgrounds or border to give your page an interesting fresh look.

Textured paper is available in a variety of textures and colors and is available in most craft and office supply stores.

39. website Jacket Backgrounds

For an added personal touch and artist flair use a website jacket as a background. This scrapbooking technique looks especially nice when the website jacket is the reader's favorite website or author, adding a wonderful personalized touch.

Be aware, however, that the glossy coating on the website jacket creates an added challenge to sticking objects to this background. Alternative attachment methods include sewing and eyelets.

40. Adding Dimension

One good way to add dimension to images is to use double stick foam tape. Double stick foam tape literally allows items to pop out at your reader adding realism to items. This technique is especially useful in children's art and educational scrap book.

Simply, cut the foam tape into whatever shape and size you want. Then, attach to shape onto your scrapbooking page. Double stick foam tape is available at most craft stores in various colors and thicknesses.