Scrapbooking Tools

Scrapbooking tools and your imagination are all you need to learn how to make a great scrapbook page. Oh yeah, some favorite pictures too.

The types of scrapbooking tools covered here as basic scrapbooking necessities are adhesives, colorants, scrapbooking die cutters, embossing tools and various embellishments. Today pages can be produced through many techniques and a tool usually exists to make it easier if not more interesting.

Adhesives are popular with scrapbooking and many other crafts. Double-stick tape is strong for everything, including heavy embellishments and materials with texture. Foam tape is a double-stick tape with dimension for elevating photos and accents. This scrapbooking tool comes in various sizes and shapes.

Glue dots are pressure-sensitive and hold a lot from thin ribbons to metal accents. Glue sticks are a paste that can be dabbed on the backs of photos and paper goods. I used this scrapbooking tool many times for other projects.

Liquid glue is an adhesive packaged in a bottle, tube or pen format for better targeted gluing. Photo corners and tabs help secure photos to the page. Corners are triangular with small pockets that allow the photo to be easily removed without damage. Tabs are double-sided and adhesive squares usually come in roll-on dispensers and boxes. These too are scrapbooking tools.

If you have excessive adhesive, a scrapbooking tool to use is the pick-up square, a hard rubber square that can "erase" dried adhesive. Adhesives also come in the form of aerosol spray which gives a quick, even coverage. It is best used with large projects or sheer materials such as fabrics where you would not want a visible adhesive. Different brands are on the market, including but not limited to 3M Super 77 Spray Adhesive and Krylon Spray Adhesive.

scrapbook adhesive supplies 1

Today there are many scrapbooking tools as the art of scrapping has evolved. Colorants are another type used in scrapbooking. Acrylic paint is a water-based, synthetic that dries quickly. Application can be by water, added texture, dry brushed and used to paint accents. Spray paints are found in matte or a glossy aerosol in many solid and metallic shades, as well as several textures.

Have you ever played with watercolors? Outlined a hopscotch on the sidewalk with a bit of chalk? Do a tye-dye? These scrapbooking tools and variations of them and others are ways of adding color to your scrapbook project. Water colors are water-soluble pigments used for painting and shading images. These scrapbooking tools are also available in pencil format. Scribbler paints are another colorant useful for all kinds of material including fabrics in the world of scrapbooking.

scribbler paints

Chalk, a more modern addition as a scrapbooking tool, is a powdery, light medium used to shade or color images. These can be applied with an applicator, sponge, cotton ball or the fingertip. To add a metallic touch to your art, use metallic rub-ons which add sheen or shading to paper elements.

Another scrapbooking tool is pigment powder, taken from minerals and combined with other elements such as gum Arabic, paint, ink and other media for producing a shimmery or textured finish.

Dye, the same stuff used for a good tye-dye is a liquid or powder colorant that can also be used to color wash cardstock and other materials.

An ink, called Walnut is used to dye, stain, or color wash paper, fabric, and other materials. Walnut is available in liquid, ink and crystal forms in several colors.

Gel pens are a ball-point with smooth-flowing opaque or metallic ink. In several pages of my own scrap-art I have used gel pens. These are a handy yet simple scrapbooking tool. Markers are pens used for coloring, shading and writing. A fine tipped black marker is what is often advised to use for journaling.

allie posing with hat and duster-gel pen art example

Another scrapbooking tool is a pencil or marker called a colorless blender to soften, blend or seal chalked, water-colored or stamped images.

Various other scrapbooking tool applicators are paint brushes, in different widths, textures and tip shapes, used to paint solid swatches, color washes and textures. Sponges, as a scrapbooking tool, are a fibrous material used in application of several colorants. Commonly used sponges are the sea-sponge, make-up applicators as well as kitchen sponges often found in the supermarket.

Another fancy applicator scrapbooking tool is the spritzer, a manually-operated "air gun" that forces air across the tip of a marker, blowing the ink the paper in a concentrated spray. Finally, a chalk eraser is a white rubber eraser designed to correct chalking mistakes.

Another set of scrapbooking tools are called scrapbooking cutters. Three are called scrapbooking trimmers--the guillotine, personal paper and rotary. When you think of the guillotine, think back to an office where several copies of documents would have been made with this method. The blade is sharp. You lift up and then press down to make a straight cut. It is interesting that some office machines can in fact be used as a scrapbooking tool.

The personal paper trimmer can be used to trim both paper and photos. The rotary trimmer has an interchangeable rotary blade. Some blades are connected while others are hinged. Paper is slipped in under for cutting. Rotary blades also come as hand-helds and in several blade patterns.

What is a circle cutter? It is a scrapbooking tool to help make a circle. It should be used on a grid, cutting mat or used on an old glass dinnerplate.

A craft knife is a neat little gadget for making straight cuts, usually with the help of a ruler or another device called a T-square. Another interesting scrapbooking tool, a T-square is a draft tool with a long ruler and a cross-bar used to draw straight and parallel lines.

A die cut machine uses a press or rollers to push a sharp steel rule into materials to cut a precision shape. The Cricut is one brand that does such a job. Die-cuts, while a scrapbooking tool, at one time done by hand, is one of those craft activities asked for in some school office positions.

Other scrapbooking tools include a paper punch that can be a singular hole-punching device or what is often thought of in terms of a three-hole punch for putting together reports. Sets of scrapbooking punches come in many shapes and is a creative addition to other scrapbooking tools.

Similar to creating a scrapbook die-cut is a shape template, having a number of tracks used with a swivel knife for making many basic shapes.

Scissors can be straight-edged like a regular pair of Fiskars or fancy-edged for neat decorative edges. A scoring blade does not cut, but is made to leave an indention in the paper, helping to make a crisp, clean fold. One scrapbook tool is called a self-healing cutting mat because it will not show wear and tear with extensive use.

I remember when I was a child my mother using stenciling around the house for decorating. I have also seen it on the walls at work in the past. Similarly, among scrapbooking tools is embossing tools. Some dry embossing tools are the light box, embossing stylus and the use of templates.

The Light Box can be electric or battery-operated. It is a power source used to show the outlines of a template so as to be seen through cardstock. Imagine seeing the outline of the sun during a solar eclipse when inversed. An embossing stylus, used with a shape template, as a scrapbook tool, is a blunt, round tipped scrapbooking tool for pressing into cardstock or other materials, producing a dimensional image.

Called rollabind scrapbooking, what these are actually, are scrapbooking tools that unlike the rings in an ordinary three-ring binder, they are sturdy, durable plastic discs you press your paper around. A small one is ¼ inner diameter, a medium is ½ inner diameter, large is ¾ inner diameter, and jumbo is one full inch inner diameter.

Finally, templates are the negative portion of a cut-out shape, made from materials like brass, cardboard or plastic. Trace the templates with an embossing stylus to create raised or recessed images.

The sky's the limit when it comes to embellishing your pages. Stores like Michael's or JoAnn's will have sections of embellishment materials from A to Z in scrapbooking tools. Alphabets, bottle caps, buckles, buttons, charms, pieces of jewelry, pressed flowers, rocks, sea glass, shells, paper or silk flowers, washers, wax seals, woven labels to zippers.

In your own home scrapbooking embellishment ideas surround you. Have you considered compact discs for an interesting background, game pieces like dominoes, file folders and library pockets for holding photos, journaling or memorabilia? Label holders can be used for displaying text or pictures. As fasteners, use brads, clips, conchos, eyelets, hinges, photo turns and twist ties.

This is just a small list of the continuing growth of scrapbooking tools on the market.

Scrapbooking Tools

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