Techniques
VELLUM
Vellum is a beautiful medium to work with in your scrapbook albums. Its soft, transparent look lends itself to many different uses and applications. You can add a unique touch to any album page with the use of vellum. Vellum can transform solid papers and customize patterned paper.
Because vellum is such a specialty paper, we need to take a bit more care than usual when working and handling it. There are tricks to working with it. Vellum is not as porous as your other scrapbooking papers, so adhesives and inks won't be absorbed as quickly. And because vellum paper is so transparent, most adhesive will show through. Once you know the tricks, you'll find that creating wonderful vellum pages is pretty easy.
A few tips:
Handle with care
Vellum is beautiful because it is so delicate. And because
it's so delicate, it also requires special attention. As with
any light-coloured paper, smudges and creases show up more
easily than on dark paper; protect your vellum until you use
it.
Picking Paper
When selecting paper to place under a white vellum overlay,
choose the brightest patterns and colours. These will show
up more clearly than a pale or very dark color. White vellum
is also perfect for softening a paper pattern that's too bright
for your photo.
Pastel vellum transforms solid and patterned papers-slip a few different papers under your coloured vellum sheet to discover just how many dramatic looks there are. Part of the fun of working with vellum is the delight of finding just the right combination, so play and experiment with your papers to see what you like best.
Vellum for journaling
Vellum provides a wonderful journaling option, as it allows
for perfect tracing. Simply lay the sheet of vellum over the
alphabet you want and trace with a pen. Because vellum isn't
as porous as regular paper, the ink often "sits"
on top. Whatever you do, always let the piece dry for a few
minutes before working with it.
For an extra-special effect, color with chalk, markers or coloured pencils on the reverse side of a sheet of white vellum. Chalks and coloured pencils will give a soft, muted look, while markers can produce a stained-glass effect.
Vellum and computer printers
Yes, you can run vellum through a computer printer. Just be
sure to let the ink dry for a few minutes before handling.
And if you're printing multiple sheets, be sure to remove
the vellum from the tray after printing.
Tearing vellum
Vellum can be torn for really beautiful borders. Torn vellum
lends a soft look to a page.
Matting with vellum
Vellum is great to mat photos with. Mat your photo onto a
solid paper, then onto vellum, and cut the border a bit larger
so the vellum shows up. Then place the matted photo onto the
background paper, applying adhesive only behind the photo.
It gives an extra-special look to special pages.
Adhering Vellum
Vellum is beautiful because it's so transparent-but this represents
a problem when you go to adhere it to your page. Glue will
show through, photo tabs will be seen as well. There are a
couple of new products on the market to deal with vellum adhering
now, like:
- Vellum spray adhesive, this is quite sticky and messy to use if you don't follow instructions. But if you do every thing correct, the results are outstanding.
- Transparent double side photo tabs are quite good now.
You can also place the glue or photo tab so it's hidden by under another element on the page. For example, glue the photo to a vellum mat, then pick up the matted photo and apply glue only behind the photo to attach it to the background.
Of course, the best option is to add even more depth and
character to your page and use eyelets or brads to fix your
vellum to your page. They do a great job of attaching the
vellum and they add style to the page.