Scrapbooking is a world where we create different effects using the materials that
are totally unrelated. As an example, we create rust metal effect without using
real rust metal at all. The trick to be explored in this article is another one
of those techniques where the real material not used to bring about the same effect.
So let’s look at how to give a chalk appearance without dealing with the mess of
chalk.
Scrapbook Layouts with Chalk - the downside
Chalk is used for making many embellishments and designs in scrapbook albums. Although
finding chalk of different colors is easy and inexpensive, one might not prefer
to go ahead with their own reasons. Health issues such as allergies and asthma are
a few of the prominent reasons for not choosing chalk for scrapbooks. So let’s see
what materials you need to have in order to get a chalk effect without using chalk.
A No Chalk Scrapbook
Firstly, you need to have following thing ready; vellum, a color marker and a pair
of scissors. If you do not have vellum, you can buy it from a crafts store easily.
Vellum is a little bit expensive than regular paper due to the special way of manufacturing
it. Anyway you need to have vellum for this exercise as any other material will
not give you the chalk appearance.
Now choose images that you would like to give a chalk effect to. There are no restrictions
in choosing photographs as there is no chalking. Imagine what it will be like, if
you were to chalk the fine photographs? So, select the best photographs that you
want to stick in scrapbook layouts and directly print them on to the vellum. There
are a few things that need to be considered in the printing process. When selecting
vellum, you need to make sure that it can go through your printer. Otherwise, you
may have to spend on an expensive repair for your printer as the rollers within
the printer may get damaged. Again, there are many different kinds of vellums with
different textures. Not all textures are printer friendly. So, select the appropriate
vellum for printing.
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After printing the photograph on to the vellum, take a color marker and color the
back of the vellum. In this case, you need to be careful when selecting the marker
color. It all depends on the color of the chalk effect you want to have on your
photograph. So the selection of the marker color should also go with your scrapbook
album’s color theme.
After coloring the back of the photograph, you can cut the photograph out and turn
them over. Then the photograph will have a very pretty, muted, chalk-like appearance.
Yes, this is the final product!
Softening the Tone of Your Photos
This chalk-like appearance gives a softening tone to your contrasting scrapbook
layouts. So, whenever you feel like some photos needs to be softened, you can always
add chalk-like effect without messing with the chalk. And last but not least, you
need to match your chalk-like colors with the theme of your scrapbook. Otherwise,
your creative effort of making this effect will not be given the due appreciation
as it deserves.
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