Make Your Mark!

Sometimes the simplest scrap booking supplies can give your page the biggest creative boost.

Colour your pages! There are lots of products that are made to be hand coloured. Use pencil crayons to energize the background paper or tile letters. Colour coordinate: when embellishing your layout make sure to take hues from your photos. Try to take hues that compliment the person/people in the photo.

Use puffy velvet markers to make your page pop with funky texture. Make sure you shake these well before use, then apply them like any other marker. Wait until the ink is dry, the to make them puff up move your heat tool back and forth over top until the design pops up.

For a creative twist on stamping, stamp with markers!  Carefully run your markers along the ridges of your stamp’s image. Make sure you go from lightest to darkest so you don’t end up with dark ink on your light marker. Be speedy. When stamping with markers apply the colour quickly so they don’t dry out before you press them on the paper. Stamping with markers will make the monochromatic look of stamp pads disappear!

Hand draw letters. Give your computer a rest and draw your letters out by hand. Use ink to fill in your letters instead of manipulating them on a computer. For added impact you can shade one edge or the outline with a marker.

Use watercolour pencils. Using water colour pencils will brighten up plain chipboard pieces. Always remember that water will soften up their hues so try them out first before you commit a colour to your page. Colour in certain parts of your image and then run a wet paint brush over the pencil lines and brush the colour into empty areas. You can also use two colours for a stronger blended effect.