Top Trends: Designer Shortcuts for the Scrapper on the Go

“I love scrapbooking—but I’m busy!” Sound familiar? Here’s help: You can create layouts quickly and easily, without sacrificing style. We asked four top scrapbook designers—women who make scrapbook pages for a living—to share their tips and ideas for making designer layouts while meeting the deadline!

Shauna Berglund-Immel: Start With a Patterned Paper Background
Spencer double-page spread, Boys to Men. Click on page to view book

“I start my layouts with patterned paper,” says Shauna. “This gives instant color and dimension to my page—and it sets the theme of my page immediately and gives me ideas for placing the photos and embellishing the page. If you’ve ever faced a blank piece of white or solid background paper, you know it can be pretty intimidating! A patterned sheet takes away some of the “scrappers block”.

Once Shauna picks her primary patterned paper for a background sheet, she reaches for one or two additional patterns to complete her double-page spread. To avoid having the paper pattern complete with the photos, Shauna always mats her photos and other page elements on a coordinating solid paper before placing them on the patterned background.

For combining patterns, Shauna selects paper patterned with the same colors. She’s careful to include both light and dark papers, as well as large and small patterns for variety. Shauna’s secret weapon: coordinating collections of patterned papers where all the mixing and matching is done for her. “This way, I can spend my time scrapbooking instead of driving all over town to find those perfectly coordinating colors and patterns!”

LeNae Gerig: Superfast Journaling Together page, Wedding & Romance.
Click on page to view book

When it comes to journaling, designer LeNae Gerig cheerfully admits, “I cheat! I have two journaling shortcuts: computer journaling and alphabet tiles.”

“Computer journaling gives me access to a variety of fonts so I can print in a large type for headlines and small for text. It also gives me the ability to spell-check and use a thesaurus.” LeNae says she’s even found she writes more detail with computer journaling. “I can make sure it’s exactly what I want before I print it out,” she says.

LeNae often prints her journaling on vellum for easy elegance. She advises scrappers first print their journaling on scratch paper to make sure it fits (and to catch any errors!). She adds “You can cut down a 12”x12” sheet of vellum paper to an 8 1/2”x12” piece and run it through a laser printer.”

LeNae’s other secret to fast, fashionable journaling is alphabet tile cut-outs. “Simply cut them out, then add them to your layout for a touch of color and design. Use repositionable glue and you won’t have to worry about getting them perfectly spaced on the page the first time!”

Susan Cobb: Quick and Easy Collage
Melia & David page, Vacation. Click on page to view book

My no-fail scrapbooking technique is a collage layout,” says Susan Cobb. “For quick pages that look great, I just mat my photos on a solid paper or vellum, then layer it on top of two or three other papers. I often include a patterned paper that coordinates with the vellums, keeping everything in the same color scheme.”

Susan’s secret shortcut is to start with a subtly patterned background paper, then place a strip of patterned paper on top horizontally. She then layeres a few torn pieces of paper on top vertically, places the photo offset adds dimension to the page.

Paris Dukes: Lovely Lumpy Layouts
Garden Girls double-page spread, Girls to Women. Click on page to view book

Paris is the queen of scrapbooking embellishments, so it’s no wonder she lists 3-D treasures as her favorite way to add a touch of instant pizazz to a page.

Paris’ secret shortcut to great lumpy layouts is foam mounting tape. “This is one of the easiest ways to add dimension to your page,” she says. “I just cut out tags, alphabet tiles, journaling or cut-outs and attach them to my page with foam tape. The look is simple and effective—and acid-free!”

Fibers and brads are two other favorites. “Brads are faster and easier to use than eyelets. No hammer or setter needed!” she comments. “They’re also perfect for attaching vellum without worrying about glue showing through.” Fibers are a top pick because their softness makes them a non-abrasive accent to pages, and the range of colors and textures gives lots of design options.

There you are: Great layouts, great tips and great ideas for creating stylish layouts quickly and easily! Each of our designers used papers from the Busy Scrapper’s Solution series—four collections of papers, tags, alphabet tiles and ideas, totally coordinated and perfect for the scrapper on the go! Click here to see more: