paper: Scrapbooking Embellishments on a Budget by Wendy Mckee | pretty paper. true stories. {and scrapbooking classes with cupcakes.}

Today, please welcome scrapbooker Wendy McKee to the blog. I’ve always admired Wendy’s ability to build many layers and details into such clean designs. Today she shares her tips for creating that look on a budget. Enjoy!

I am a pattern paper addict. When a line comes out, I head there first. And I tend to buy the whole line. Unfortunately that never leaves much money for the matching embellishments! So after a while of paying for more than I should, I gave up buying all the matching embellishments, the matching stickers, chipboard, and rub-ons. I started to make things myself.
On this page to show you today, I used two of my favourite things that I now buy that fit two simple guidelines:
1. The items are not expensive
2. I can use the embellishments on so many different pages, over and over again.

For this project, I used some really cheap glassine bags that I bought from Ebay for £2.00. There were about fifty in the pack and they are perfect for adding product to to dress it up. You can use it to store extra photos, journaling or add something inside to dress it up.

First off, start with the bag as your guide to sizing up some paper.

Cut out a rectangle of pattern paper and cut the tops off to resemble a tag. Some companies are now doing tags on a sheet of paper, that is another really cheap embellishment if you make it your own.

Once I did that, I slotted the paper into the glassine bag. I then added some really cheap gold stars which I bought from a local craft store for 50p.

To jazz up the outside, I added some matching washi tape to decorate the bottom.
This is really easy to do and as I said before you can add lots of different things into them or dress them up with pattern paper.

The next supply that I buy is washi tape. If you look around, you can find some amazing colours and patterns. Washi tape is used on my page in lots of places. One of the ways I used it was to make the banner on the top of the page.

I then picked out which tapes I wanted to use.

Cut off strips about 9 to 10 cm in length. I placed the strips of Washi tape underneath the thread so the thread was in the middle and pressed down the tape.

To make it stronger, double over some white thread and tie it together at the ends.

After I had added as many sections as I wanted, I started to cut it down to look like a banner. Be careful doing this as the first time I did it I cut the thread. Start your cut at the top near the thread, then you can line up your scissors away from the thread. I then cut it all into triangles.

These are quick and easy to do and are so versatile, that you can make your own pattern or colour palette!

Here are a few ideas of cheaper embellishments that you can buy that can be dressed up:

• Vellum: You can buy multi packs of different colors from Ebay.
• Wooden Pegs: These can be painted, add glitter, pattern paper or rub-ons to add detail.
• Brown envelopes: These are really cheap and the little ones are perfect for your pages. Add detail with stamps, pattern paper or rub-ons.
• Buttons: Go to the local haberdashery shop! you can find some amazing original, ‘one off’ buttons you wouldn’t normally find!

What are your favourite supplies to dress things up without breaking the bank?

Wendy McKee is a UK scrapbooker and crafter. She has designed for Papermaze scrapbooking shop and several manufacturers. You can find Wendy on her blog or via Facebook.

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11 February 2013

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