Clear Cardstock Stamping

You'll clearly see in a little bit that I've had a lot of fun creating embellishments for my scrapbooks lately. Clear, decorative page and photo overlays, fancy flower embellishments and printed ribbon are really fun products to add to scrapbooking projects. However the price can really put a dent in your pocketbook. Follow me as I show you how to create your very own embellishments.

I have a ton of photos to show so I'll try to keep my writing shorter for each photo. For an overview, I've started two 8" x 8" albums for Josey and Jordan. I picked up an entire collection of products from the Making Memories line called Chloe's Closet from Michael's, so that's what you'll be seeing in terms of papers, etc.


We'll start with some simple embellishments with the finished products shown later on. Using Vintage Cream ink and Polka Dot Basics, I inked up some plain colored flowers. I let these dry and moved on to some other embellishments.
Next I used some cream colored acrylic paint (Claudine Hellmuth's available at Ellen's store) to stamp a scallop border from Beyond Basic Borders right onto my photos. Note: Papertrey Fresh Snow and Vintage Cream ink will not dry on photos or the Clear Cardstock, I found out by trial and error).

Next I went back to my Vintage Cream ink and stamped a row of polka dots from Beyond Basic Borders onto some Melon Berry Twill Ribbon.

Then the fun really began when I thought about stamping on Papertrey's new Clearly Creative Cardstock. It has a great thickness and worked well with some of my punches...you just have to experiment to see which punches will work.

I then took my dry, clear circles and turned them into button baubles. I punched some scallop circles from cardstock and then layered on my clear circles then buttons tied with twine. Cuteness, yes?

Then I really got on a roll. I decided to make some page dividers like you see in calendar planners. I cut my Clearly Creative Cardstock with my paper trimmer, rounded the corners and then painted the edges with cream paint.

Voila, here's my finished dividers. Using some journaling sheets, I stamped on a sweet sentiment using a small alphabet and Fresh Alphabet for the girls' names.

I also stapled on some of my stamped, polka dot ribbon along with a few other ribbons and tied buttons. Major cuteness, yes?

And notice the bottom of the dividers. I used rub-ons directly onto the Clearly Creative Cardstock. Looks amazing and just like something you'd buy at your local scrapbook store!

Well, than I got even braver and reached for some giant polka dots from Polka Dot Basics. Using a foam brush, I kept adding thin layers of paint to a sheet of Clearly Creative Cardstock.
My final result is an 8" x 8" page overlay with the edges brushed with paint.

I think all of my stamped elements come together perfectly for the cover pages of my girls' albums. Here's Josey's first page of her book.

The page overlay looks so cute when layered on top of some decorative paper.

I even fancied the overlays up a bit with some stamped tabs. Stapling is a great method of adhering items to the Clear Cardstock.

And here's Jordan's first opening page, using a green theme.

Again, the simple layering add so much to the albums, but without a lot of thickness.

I also made a small stash of 4" x 6" stamped overlays to add to photos here and there.

And don't forget about Pine's Journaling Lines stamps. I used them on two separate journaling blocks on the left hand side for notes from Eric and I.

Remember those stamped flowers? I added a tied button and adhered it to the outside of my page protector. The 3-D effect is really fun! I learned that little tip from Simple Scrapbooks magazine. I also added a little ribbon next to the scallop edge that I stamped on the photo.

I used that same application for Josey's photo, adhering the button bauble to the outside of the page protector.

Whew, okay that should be enough to get the ideas flowing for a while. Like I've mentioned before, I love that I'm getting back into my scrapbooking. Don't forget that you can get double duty out of your stamping supplies by using them on your pages too. And think about what products you like in the stores...you probably have items in your stash to recreate those trendy products. Have fun!