Tutorials / Craft Projects / General Crafts / Various Crafts

How to Embellish Scrapbook Projects with Jewelry

Jewelry is a ready-made inspiration for scrapping projects. It is decorative, fascinating, eye-catching and often shiny. Before you throw out that leftover earring whose partner disappeared long ago, consider using these pieces to embellish your scrapping projects for an ever-lasting impression.

Steps

Choose some ideal pieces. Clearly you won't be using the diamond or emerald stones to make a scrapping project but you can indulge in any imitation costume pieces that you have around the house. Broken necklaces and bracelets are excellent sources to pilfer pieces from, as are the odd earrings without a mate. Brooches can be great jewellery items also. Just make sure that they are pieces that you don't wish to repair or keep as jewelry anymore.
Clean the jewelry up. Make sure that the jewelry is clean and as shining as it should be before using. Remove latches, pins, sharp edges etc. and aim to find a flat edge that can be stuck to a page.
Think of ways to add the jewelry pieces. If you are scrapping a collage or picture that will not be squashed flat into a scrapbook but will be placed on display, you have more leeway to use larger, non flat objects. For example, take the beads from various necklaces and bracelets and thread them into a design for working into your page. Glue one part of each bead to the page. Earrings will often have flat designs that will be fine in a scrapbook once attached. If you have large photos of people, you might even consider adding the jewellery to their body features for a three-dimensional reality.
Make special features from the pieces. Be inspired by the loose pieces to recreate something wonderful in your scrapping. The image shows a great example of reusing beads with fabric to recreate a flower design.
Think of themes for the jewellery pieces. Some jewelry will undoubtedly have sentimental attachments for you. Try to incorporate this jewelry into a page that reflects the memory - such as a first date, an outing with friends, a visit to a special event, a wedding etc. and design the entire scrapping theme around this piece of jewelry. Don't forget to add text to complete the story and enlighten future generations as to why that pieces was special to you.