Sunday, February 04, 2007

How To Basket Weave Your Scrapbook Layout!

Basket weaving is not just for baskets! What a fantastic and unusual embellishment for your scrapbook layout! It adds color, depth and dimension and just brings the page layout all together. And if you want to use it for the upcoming Easter theme layouts - how perfect is that going to be!!!
"Catching Balloons"
I was making the layout for my grand daughter's memory album. She was at a wedding shower and she was amazed at the balloons and enjoyed reaching up to grab the strings and then hand them out to the guests. That is what I wanted her to remember. This is a 12x12 layout page
To Make The Basket Weave Embellishment
This is not has hard as it might seem. All you need is a paper cutter and some glue. Choose your colors for the entire layout. Choose which 2 colors you want for the basket weave. I choose purple and yellow. I cut strips from12x12 cardstock at about 1/4" in thick, making 12x1/4" strips. I started with the yellow strips and layed them across the top, with equal spacing between them for the purple ones to slide through. I glued them down to the cardstock back ground paper only as far over until I wanted the weaving to start. This makes for easy weaving. The ends are glued down so they don't move while you weave. Photos on top of the strips break up the weaving a bit so it doesn't get overwhelming.

Next, I weaved the purple strips in through the yellow ones. My weave area size guide was the photo at the bottom. Notice I made the purple strips portion of the weave only as wide as that photo at the bottom. The weave area of the yellow strips was just slightly less that the height of the pictures. It looked "over done" to have them the same "size" as the height of the photos. This is something you have to do and consider for your self. Since you aren't glueing anything yet, you can easily play around and find that perfect fit for your layout. The photos kind of hide the ends of the strips and tie the weave all together.

Once you have the weave the way you like, just add glue in a few places inside the weaved area and then glue down all the ends of the strips. Sounds more complicated and time consuming but it really is quick and easy. Hardest part is probably deciding how much area you want to cover with the weave.

In addition, I cut 3 photos of just the toddler catching or holding the balloons and cut them into thinner sizes - these are about 2 inches wide, 4 inches long. I matted them on contrasting cardstock and layed them over the yellow basket weave strips. The last photo, I cropped it to match the purple strip area size.

To Compliment the Basket Weave Area

Now you have an open space in the lower left corner of the scrapbook page. This is where I wanted my title to go. I didn't want to use more basket weaving as that would have been to much. So I just took small pieces of the cardstock I had used and with a 2 inch square punch, I punched out squares, and just layed them out into a nice catchy sploch of color. I used vellum and printed the title "Catching Balloons" via computer. Then I tore the vellum into a nice odd shape and laid it over the colored squares. I used yellow eyelets to hold the vellum in place. Again, quick and easy.

No Journaling, But the Story Is Still Told
This scrapbook layout has no journaling. It "shows" that my grand daughter liked catching the balloons and other than that, there was nothing else to say. The title tells the action and the photos tell the story. I always "signed" my scrapbook layouts with a stamp that said "I Love You" and my initial (N for Nanny to my GD or M for mom for my kids) I always used gold ink for the stamping of my signature. Just that extra added feature that holds on to a wonderful memory!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is really a great idea for an Easter Page. You have such good ideas that I have used several in the scrapbook for my daughter. I haven't used Vellium but it looks so good with the lettering that I'm going to invest in some. I don't really care for it covering pictures but love it with the printing on it. Thanks Cheri for another good idea.
Judy in Texas

Scrapbook Layout Ideas said...

Vellum is easy to use! Try it!

Anonymous said...

I've also seen basket weaving done with photographs; a b&w and a color, same size and shot. A little more advance level as you have to get the cuts perfect and exchange every other strip, but the effect was stunning. Always said I should try it - never have. Maybe someday.
Lisa D.

Scrapbook Layout Ideas said...

Using Photos!? WOW! That would be amazing! I'd like to say I'm gonna try that, but like you - maybe someday!!

Anonymous said...

This is an adorable lo. I love the idea of using the basket weave on the page, however, you said that no journaling is needed. While the story is told here, when your grandchildren or great grandchildren look at the lo, they most likely will not know who or when this was. I still think that you need a minimal amt of journaling.