Scrapbooking with Overlays

From 12”x12” and 8”x8” page overlays to vellum and acetate embellishments, clear materials have made a big impact on the paper crafting world. Clear materials add a touch of unique dimension to your scrapbook pages and cards, and there are tons of ways you can alter them to coordinate with your project and add your own personality.

One of the hottest ways to add clear materials to your scrapbooking projects is with overlay embellishments. Overlay embellishments are popular because they’re so easy to use–just cut them out with scissors, an X-acto® knife or a paper trimmer, then add them to your projects with brads, eyelets, clips or staples. Here’s a tip: If you use a glue stick to adhere overlays to your projects, take care to apply only a small amount of glue under the darkest portions of the printed overlay so the adhesive does not show through the overlay. Read on to see how LeNae created this sweet layout, accenting it with overlay borders, alphabet tiles, word fragments and artwork!

Dad & Lauren
By LeNae Gerig

For this “Dad & Lauren” layout, LeNae selected versatile black and ivory papers from the new Classic sarapapers™ collection, then made the page pop with the perfect shade of pink. She used an overlay to create a cool border along the top of the layout, coloring areas of the overlay with a Permapaque® opaque pen to coordinate the overlay with the page’s color scheme. She also used the same paper that the photo is matted on to layer behind three alphabet tile overlays, balancing the layout with repetition and creating cool dimension. Overlays attached with light pink mini brads top off the page by adding sweet, colorful accents to the journaling block.

Supplies:

• Paper Pizazz® Classic sarapapers™: Ivory linen, black/ivory stripe, black/ivory polka dot and black glimmer papers
• Paper Pizazz® Clear & Frosted Overlays for Scrapbooking
• Citrus Embellish-abilities™: Pink brads, pink mini brads, pink big brad and pink silk flower
• pink cardstock
• white cardstock
• fine tip pink Permapaque® pen
• black ink pad
• 3/4” circle punch
• 1/16” hole punch
• foam tape
• glue stick

Instructions:

1. Use the ivory linen paper as the background. Cut a 12”x3/4” strip of black/ivory stripe paper and glue it even with the top edge of the background paper.
2. Cut out the “smile” border overlay. Turn over the overlay and use a pink Permapaque® pen to accent some of the printed words, as shown. (Tip: Apply the pen to the back of the overlay only so you don’t cover up any of the printing with the opaque ink). Lay the border across the top of the page, just under the black/ivory stripe paper strip. Cut a 12”x3/8” strip of black glimmer paper. Lay the glimmer paper over the seam between the black/ivory stripe paper and the overlay border, then add one pink mini brad to each end of the glimmer paper strip to secure the paper strip and the overlay border to the page.
3. Mat a 5”x7” vertical photo on pink cardstock, trimming the mat to 1/16”. Computer journal the year onto white cardstock, then crop into a small rectangle and ink the edges with black. Glue the journaling behind the top left side of the matted photo. Mat the photo again on black/ivory polka dot paper, trimming the mat to 1/2”. Glue the mat photo 7/8” in from the left edge and 1/4” up from the bottom edge of the page.
4. Cut a 6 1/2”x1/2” strip of black/ivory stripe paper, then glue it across the photo, 3/8” up from the bottom edge, and add one pink brad to each end. Punch a 3/4” circle of black/ivory stripe paper and glue it to the top of a pink big brad. Add the brad to the center of one small pink silk flower, then use foam tape to secure the flower over the left end of the paper strip. Cut out the “sweet” word fragment overlay and glue it over the right side of the paper strip.
5. Computer journal onto white cardstock, leaving space in the journaling to add overlay artwork. Crop the journaling to a vertical rectangle, leaving extra space along the top and bottom edges, and ink the edges.
6. Cut out the “love” overlay and lay it over the bottom of the journaling block, then add one pink mini brad to the center of the flower to secure the overlay in place. Cut out the flower overlay and lay it over a space in the journaling, then add one pink mini brad to the center to secure the overlay in place. Cut a 1/2” wide strip of black/ivory stripe paper that is about 1/2” longer than the width of the journaling block. Lay the strip over the space above the journaling and add one pink mini brad to each end to secure the strip in place.
7. Cut out alphabet tile overlays and place each of the tiles on black/ivory polka dots paper. Trim the paper even with the edges of the alphabet tiles, then punch holes and add pink mini brads to secure the layers together. Mat each tile on pink cardstock, trimming the mats to 1/16”. Arrange the tiles across the black/ivory paper strip above the journaling and use a glue stick and foam tape to secure the tiles in place.

Love working with clear materials? Head to the Ask the Experts column for tons of cool techniques for altering overlays, and don’t forget to participate in this month’s Giveaways survey for your chance to win your own copy of the brand-new Cardmaker’s™ Birthday Clear & Frosted Overlays!