texture

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Scrapbooking can be as flat or as layered as you like, so why not use this freedom to your advantage? No matter what theme your layouts are, texture can be an important part of your pages to really make them amazing, as Karen Leahydemonstrates Karen Leahy

Texture provides interest and contrast for layouts, and can be added to your scrapbook pages in all sorts of ways. One of the simplest is by adding faux texture using papers or elements that look like they are textured but are, in actual fact, completely flat. There are so many ranges of papers and embellishments on the market that do this. You can buy papers that look like wire mesh, stitched fabric, buttons, fur, old weathered wood – the sky is the limit. You could also venture into the world of hybrid scrapping and print off digital elements, which give your page that textured dimensional feel. I use hybrid scrapping a lot, but there is nothing quite like the real look and feel of texture to give your pages that extra pizzazz.

From the beginning The first task for these pages is making the textured base. For the layout opposite I used a piece of velvet-textured fur fabric, which mimics the coats of my Bengal cats so well. Covering a scrapbook page with fabric is great fun. Something thicker and more substantial than regular scrapbooking cardstock is needed, but not so thick that it won’t fit into a page protector if you want to keep it in your album. You could just use two pieces of cardstock stuck together to give a stronger base. Cut the base slightly smaller than 12x12” – how much smaller you cut it depends on the thickness of the fabric you are using. Mine was reasonably thick so I cut my card to approximately 113⁄4”-square, but if

Tread carefully

Once you have the fabric-covered base you can treat it like a regular scrapbook page, but be careful with glues. You may have to use something stronger than you usually use to fix things to the fabric

How to adhere your base fabric

you’re using a thin fabric go slightly closer to the 12x12” size. You now have your base to work on. Cool ideas for a textured page would be to use hessian or canvas fabric for a natural effect – you could even paint the canvas fabric. A rich velvet would look lovely on a Christmas page, or imagine an ivory satin background for a special wedding or christening page. Fabric remnants can be bought very cheaply, so having a play around with the technique is cost effective.

Top tip

Do make sure that your fabric is not too sheer or the glue will show through – if you’re using a very fine translucent fabric you will have to think again about the adhesive you’re going to use

1Cut a square of your desired material to measure larger than the base by about 1” all the way around.

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2

Stick strong double-sided tape onto the front of the base along all four edges, and also add some strips across the centre of the base.

3

Press the fabric down firmly and flip the whole thing over. Cut the corners off across the diagonal and fold over the sides, fixing with double-sided tape.