rockester

Note: This was written up in response to an email inquiry... we thought we would share it here, since many of you may have the same questions!

Different brands of vellum are different levels of ph /acidity. For scrapbooking, the thinner the vellum the better the ph for archival purposes. Don't use really thick vellum meant for card making or gift packaging. Look for thinner stuff.

I have been a crafter for many years. And one of my favorite crafts is sewing. Through the years, I have made many quilts and admired the quilts of friends and family. My great-grandmother Gramlich was an excellent quilter. And I am privileged to have a few items made by her and a few block pattern pieces from her. I love the look of quilts--they evoke a homey feeling of the country life my parents, grandparents, and great grandparents had.

Add some humor to your pages!

Don't you love a good laugh? Let's have some fun! How about adding some humor to those albums and laughing a little! Laugh out loud as you relive those funny times! Here is a method that will bring smiles to the faces of those you love! If you have a sequence of photos that tell a funny story, use them for this type of page. Or, if you have a series of plain photos and one goofy one, you can also use them here! Perhaps you just want to take photos of Grandpa telling his favorite jokes and the reaction of the grandkids to it (for better or worse! LOL) You can use those photos on comic book pages! Does your toddler have a funny expression on his or her face? Or just a face full of chocolate cake? Can you think of a funny caption that might go with it? Let's use it!

Do you love paper? There are so many specialty papers out now that were not available even two short years ago. We can now dig into all the mulberry, metallic, velvet, velour, crimped, faux fur, embossed, and velum choices as never before. It is great to see so many new products booming and all the creativity that stems from using them!

Fall pictures need a background that will accent the theme of your autumn fun and yet be simple to produce in your choice of colors!

This month's project will show you step by step how to create a wonderful fall leaves pattern with brush markers and flat craft foam!

The best part is that this fabulous looking paper technique will only cost you about 25 cents for endless copies!! (see figure 1)

 
(figure 1)

Need a page embellishment? Want to choose your own image from thousands of images that you probably already have at hand? Want it to all be fast and simple? AND do you want it to be in YOUR choice of colors?

You are in luck! Whether your favorite color palette favors Mary Engelbreit primaries, heritage jewel tones, Martha Stewart pastels, or Native earth tones, you can make any page art to suit your taste. Sound too wonderful to be possible? Yes, you can have terrific full color die cuts of ANY object in the world of clip art for only pennies. And it will only take about 5 to 10 minutes of your time per image. Even if you are not a computer whiz, you can do this!

Have you seen scrapbooking paper dolls simply everywhere lately? Have you heard the buzz about them and want to try some yourself? Basically, paper dolls have been around for centuries but only in the last year or so have they been readily available for scrapbooking in acid free papers. The charm of a paper doll is that you can dress it to look like the subjects on the page, dress it ethnically to accent a geographic place, or dress it to coordinate with a themed event.

Make your paper doll snappy and realistic instead of flat and boring! No two paperdolls need look the same in your books! There are some special tips to making your dolls great! You can change the embellishments to make them any way you like. Join me as I share some websites, ideas, and embellishing tricks with you.