Rather than purchase scrapbook supplies, explore your house: you'll discover dozens of items that can be used to enhance albums and scrapbooks. It's a great way to recycle as well. Suzanne McNeill, founder of Design Originals, shares a few ideas for making optimal use of common yet interesting household finds. - Draw around cookie-cutter shapes onto acid-free paper, and cut out the figures. Attach them to memory-book pages with acid-free glue or acid-free double-stick tape (figure A).
- Draw around plastic coffee-can lids or margarine-tub lids to make circles. Cut out the circles using decorative-edged scissors, and mount photos cut into circles inside to make festive holiday-ornament frames for memory-book pages. Suzanne used the lid from a cardboard ice-cream cup that had a little tab at the top, which made a perfect ornament hanger (figure B).
- To make a "cut flower," use three paper muffin-tin liners: cut into each fold from the edge toward the center, and add a round photo to the center with acid-free glue (figure C).
- Make a wavy-edged ruler from a piece of cardboard, a laminated place mat or an aluminum-foil or plastic-wrap box. Laminated place mats with checkered designs work well because the checkered pattern permits even spacing (figure D).
- Make a lettering template from plastic canvas, using rows of plastic as spacers for even lettering. Slight adjustments can be made by moving the plastic-canvas template to allow for larger letters (e.g., "W" ) and smaller ones (e.g., "I") (figure E).
- Use plastic business-card holders that are three-hole punched to hold stickers, die-cut templates, letters, etc. Three-hole-punched pages with larger pockets are also available (figure F).
- Use pencil erasers, vegetables and foam meat trays or restaurant carry-out foam boxes as stamps.
- Make several photocopies of die cuts, enlarging and reducing the copies to produce various sizes. Cut out the shapes.
- Use coloring-book pictures as patterns.
- To make a lettering guide from a plastic lid, use a matte knife or scissors to cut a square in the size of the letter desired. Such a template will enable you to create letters the same size and to line them up evenly across the page.
- Cut snack bags with foil liners for use on pages to back photos or as "frames."
- To make a scallop, trace around a small spool of thread. Line up the spool on the long end of the cardboard strip, and repeatedly trace around half of the spool to create the effect. Cut out the design with a sharp pair of scissors.
- Glue a photo to a foam tray to produce dimension.
- Use gold or silver muffin-tin liners as accents behind round snapshots. Cut the liners in half to make a fan or simulate the sun.
- Use leftover fabric scraps to embellish scrapbook pages. Cut out designs printed on the fabric, and glue them to scrapbook pages.
- Stitch together leftover fabrics to form an over-the-door scrapbook-supply holder.
- Make pop-up scrapbook pages by gluing a ballpoint-pen spring to the back of the photo.
- Make a fold-over paper spring from two strips of paper.
- Make an envelope page or a handy pocket to store report cards or letters. Cut one page in half, glue the sides and bottom to the lower half of the second page, and leave the top portion unglued.
- Save used postage stamps to make colorful and interesting borders for a travel page.
- Make a decorative border with a hole punch.
- Make a lacy border by lining up a spool of thread along the outside edge of the paper. Trace halfway around the outside edge of the spool, and repeat the pattern along the edge of the paper. Use a sharp pair of scissors to cut out scallops, and use a hole punch to create a lacy effect.
- Save scraps of paper and photographs to create small photo accents with punches. Make photo flowers, footprints and handprints, and more.
RESOURCES :
Foam stamps and stamping accessories
Memory Pens and Border Buddies
EK Success Ltd.
Website: www.eksuccess.com
3-in-1 scissors
Market USA
Greensboro, NC 27457
Phone: 336-643-5006
Fax: 336-643-7081
Pens
Sakura of America
Hayward, CA
Toll-free: 800-776-6257
E-mail: pouyang@sakuraofamerica.com
Website: www.sakuraofamerica.com
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