There are never ending ideas and tips to be applied toward scrapbooking.  The best thing about scrapbooking is that every new product offers new ideas for the perfect project.  At InnovativeKeepsakes.com, we are hooked on embellishments and accessories that also offer versatility.  If you enjoy scrapbooking, it's likely you enjoy and apply many of the same techniques and materials toward some other craft or artistic project.  We try to cover, tips for acquiring materials that are versatile and cost-effective. [Also refer to our article "Breaking All The Rules, Helpful Hardware Tips"]. The following materials can be found in almost any craft store and are ideal for scrapbooking:

Flat Cotton Canvas- If you enjoy adding liquid mediums (acrylics) to your pages, painters' canvas' are great to add that single pop to embellish any page.  These canvas' come in many miniature sizes, such as 3 x 4", 4 x 5", 6 x 8" or 5 x 7".  They are also mounted flat instead of the typical wood mounting that create a cavity in the back.  Great for your own personal artistic touch.  Paint a base coat or artistic design to the canvas using your acrylics and leave it as-is, or embellish your canvas with glitters, stencils, chalks or stickers.  You can use the canvas for a small back-drop to your title or journaling.

Wood Shapes - They are flat and so cheap!  You can get them in just about any shape and again, if you like using paints, these are small (anywhere from 1" to maybe 6"), light-weight and versatile.  If you don't put much faith into your painting techniques (shame on you!), you can always give them a stained and/or weathered look.  We'll cover cost-effective techniques in future articles.

Sequins and other flat-bottom beads - These are usually found near the clothing embellishments and come in a wide variety of colors and sparkle.  Use the clear, crystal-like plastic beads over small stickers to give captions or titles depth.  The possibilities for these type of embellishments are endless.  Just be careful of the weight and bulk they may add to your book.  Consider placing them anywhere from the center of your page to the outside edge and alternate placements on each page so that they don't bump up together when you close your book.  Placing them toward the outside edge also prevents too much bulk near the spine of your book. 

There are so many possibilities for adding the right touch to every page.  While it's tempting to add so many great accessories or products to a single layout, it's also important to remember that less really is more.  The pages should be about the focal point, being your photos.  Also, while discovering new techniques or materials in your local craft store, don't confine yourself to just looking in the scrapbooking or paper-craft isles.  Scrapbooking has gained so much popularity in the past year or two that some very common materials used over many years for other crafts are now packaged especially for scrapbooking.  You can still find these very common accessories or materials in the more traditional isles, such as those geared toward painting, clothing embellishments and even kid's crafts. Most importantly, you may find them packaged in greater quantities and at a more reasonable price than you would in the scrapbooking isle.  Just because a product is not marketed toward scrapbooking, doesn't mean that it's not archival safe or versatile enough to use in your scrapbooks.  Think outside the box!

Look for future articles and tips at http://www.InnovativeKeepsakes.com.

Author and Copyright 2006,
InnovativeKeepsakes.com Jewelry & Gifts.

Have any great tips or resources to share with other scrapbookers?  Write us at info@innovativekeepsakes.com so that we may include it in this or a future article.  Refer to the title of this article and don't forget to provide your name, city and state so that we may give you credit.

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