Alyice on January 26th, 2008

Embellishments For Scrapping and Wall Art

After a year of dedicated scrapbooking in the fastest, easiest cut and paste methods available, I am venturing out into something a little more creative—which means I get to read lots of scrapbooking magazines and books.

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A few months back, I received a copy of Easy Scrapbook Embellishment by Heidi Schueller, to review. I had planned on reviewing it ASAP but it got packed away with many other things due to a projected “move” and I forgot about it. Long story short, the house we wanted to buy fell through—major plumbing and electrical issues and a bad chimney—and I just wasn’t ready to admit defeat so boxes of things stayed packed.

Imagine my delight when I opened up a box to re-discover Easy Scrapbook Embellishments. I have to tell you that I really love this book, and if you love scrapbooking, you will too! It’s so easy to read and so easy to implement the tips.

There are several projects within the book, but each project only focuses on one embellishment technique. There’s a large photo of a scrapbook page, followed by a “what you need section” that gives a complete list of what was used to make that particular scrapbook page. Then there are step-by-step instructions for making a specific embellishment on the following page. And since I am pursuing a side business in mixed media art, I find that several of these techniques will transfer over quite nicely!

You learn to knot hemp cord, bead spirals, design letters out of French knots and beads, make a stitching template, add photos to small charms, use rolled patterned paper to frame photos, use positive and negative chipboard letters, use microbeads to accent pages in small but powerful ways, and so much more! There’s 65 scrapbook layouts in all, with 15 bonus tips to take the technique from scrapbook to art project.

As far as scrapbooking goes, I love that the embellishments won’t weigh down the paper too much, or interfere with putting the pages into plastic sleeves for added protection. As for the mixed media aspect, these quick and easy tips sure did give me a few great ideas for a few wall art projects I am working on for relatives!