A Blue Zest

Hearts, flowers, shoes, rings, doves are only a few of the many motifs considered to be standard when it comes to weddings.

Rings are a challenge to cut out. The best way to create a ring embellishment is through a rubber stamp. Using gold or silver embossing supplies, stamp and emboss the ring on a square of card and if you can, make it look as much like THE ring (wedding or engagement) as you can. Cut the square out, mount on a slightly larger square of contrasting or gold or silver card (preferably textured) possibly using a foam pad for dimension, and you have a basic but effective wedding embellishment.

Wedding scrapbooks are usually full of wedding cake shaped embellishments, but if I can get hold a good wedding cake shape, I like to use them as tags. Every page needs at least one tag, so when working on a full wedding scrapbook instead of a mere layout, it is best to make them by batches. One of the easier things to use is a simple die cut of a wedding cake. These can be easily found on ebay or you can have your own die cutting machine for personal use. If you have the ability to create your own, pearlised card looks lovely, and is normally available in white or ivory as well as shell pink, all fit a wedding theme well. A sizzix bigz die will go well with this perfectly. Cut one from plain paper and one from fancy and write your journaling on the plain version. Be careful to do that before you assemble your tag, it’s not fun afterwards! You can transform a fancy looking tag to an elaborate cake by simply adding tiny pearly dots from a soufflé pen to give an icing effect and then decorate with the smallest cut out flowers you can find in several toning colors. You can then stick your journaling on the back and add to your page with enough ribbon for someone to turn it if they want to read. Or trim the journaling until it is slightly smaller and mount it on top of the full size cake shape. In either case add a ribbon or fiber so you can add the tag to the page. You can use the same technique to cut out shoes and add some tiny flowers where the buckles would be. Personally I like to finish most things with a little transparent glitter, but not everyone likes glitter as much as I do!

Flower embellishments can be made by cutting out flowers from any flowery scrapbooking paper, such as the le-romantique two sided paper ‘loves labyrinth’. A number of rose pairs are featured in this design. Cut out one entire design to use as a base and then cut out single elements. Add these to the base with a spot of silicone glue and tease into a 3D shape. Once dry, you can add a little clear glitter as a finish. The final product is an embellishment that matches perfectly with a layout made of l-romantique papers, frames and tags.

Another option is to create flowers out of die cuts or even more cheaply using a stencil or template such as ‘20 Blossoms’ from Hot off the Press. Many sheets of acrylic stamps include different sized flower heads. You can stamp these, cut them out and layer them together, gently curling the petals for a 3D effect. For something modern try ‘Mindy’s flowers’ from Mindy Terawasa which provides swirls and stems you can stamp on your scrapbook pages while you add the 3d flower heads you have created. For a truly delicate look, try making your flower head from vellum and add just a tiny amount of sparkle. Then you can make a bouquet by simply gluing several flower heads together.

Tiny 3D flowers look great attached to almost anything, a conventional tag, even one originally designed for a parcel, can be made to look good with a few 3d flowers. A heart motif is definitely one that fits the wedding theme. It is readily available so you would have no trouble finding it. There are several craft punches that can make different heart configurations, but don’t just use the cut outs. You can use the heart punches to embellish your wedding pages by cutting a strip of paper, plain if your background is patterned, patterned if your background is plain. Punch the strip and remove the punched out hearts (for use on other pages), then either placing the paper strip back direct over your background, or put a ribbon below it to make a very decorative border. Ribbon can be very useful in creating a contrast of texture as well as color and satin ribbon provides a beautiful shiny surface which looks very luxurious.

There are so many possibilities when it comes to wedding pages, I am often surprised that some people shy away from them in the belief that there’s little creativity involved. Your scrapbook is what you make it and that’s half the fun. One day create a layout from a design you’ve seen and embellishments you’ve bought, the next do it all from scratch and really express yourself. There are no mistakes to be made. Only what appeals to you!