Back-to-school season has been reminding me of how quickly my kids are growing, and that I need to not only be taking more photos of them, but to be making more scrapbook pages! I've been scrapbooking a lot more than art journaling this year, and I've really enjoyed getting our memories compiled for the kids to flip through and enjoy over and over again.
I recently noticed my scrapbook alpha sticker stash was almost exclusively black or white, but I wanted something a little different for these pages. So I came up with three ways to make them more fun. These specific stickers are from the scrapbook section at Target and are matte so they took pen and watercolor really well. The two pen techniques would likely work on a variety of matte stickers from different brands, but I can only attest to the watercolor for this particular brand.
For the first page, I used my Medium Messy Pen for a thicker line and just drew a crisscross pattern across each letter in my word before adhering it to the paper. You could easily do a diagonal stripe as well.
I used the same pen for my next work and just free-handed a polka dot pattern. It helps to do the patterns before you remove them from the sticker sheet so you can get a clean look on the edges.
Finally, I experimented with a watercolor set (also from Target) and loved the results. Since I was using a large black and white photo, I opted for rainbow colors to help them stand out. I was worried about the stickers warping, but I used a minimum amount of water and they didn't wrinkle or tear at all. These are some tough stickers!
I also used some paper polka dot confetti and plastic hearts from previous Messy Box subscriptions as embellishments on these pages.
I love finding new ways to customize product! It makes it feel like I'm getting a little more bang for my buck when I can make one little change and get a completely different look. How else would you alter your alpha to get a whole new look? –Rachel
Credits//Author and Photography: Rachel Denbow. Photos edited with A Beautiful Mess actions.
14 Comments
Those look really cute!! Thanks for sharing 🙂
This is so cute! http://www.hannamarielei.com
I love it! Thanks for the ideas and inspiration!
These look wonderful. I adore scrapbooking with all of my heart! 🙂
Unique Geek
I love that polka dot confetti you’ve added to the page! I would have had no idea what to do with it. Very cute pages! 🙂
Monica / Mocha and Moccasins
such a simple idea yet so cute, thank you for posting, really need to start scrapbooking, love the idea.
https://justthatdiy.wordpress.com
These are so lovely! I love the watercolors so much!
http://annescribblesanddoodles.blogspot.com/
How cute!
http://www.littleblackshell.com
Love it!
http://xoxobella.com
My cousins and I were recently chatting about photo boxes. Both our parents keep huge storage boxes full of loose photographs of our childhoods, and we love just sitting and looking through them. So lovely.
We panicked though! Our children’s photos are on our phones, or laptops. How will our children sit and look through their photos?
We decided to start printing our photos, a few a month, ready for our children to look at their memories.
A scrapbook is also a fantastic idea. How about making scrapbooks together with the children. How lovely.
Thank you
http://www.homemadebyhail.blogspot.co.uk
I love your alpha letter ideas. I always thought maybe they looked a bit bland. But this is a great way to spice them up!!
Il be sure to use this tip on the scrapbooking segment of my blog.
http://bubbleomanda.com/2015/08/20/scrap-it-beginnings/
Amazing!
All the different varieties are great fun! Love the watercolor letters.
I love how they turned out! The rainbow with the black and white photo is beautiful. I can’t wait to try these techniques in my albums.
Laura
http://laurahager.blogspot.com/