Scrapbooking with Transparencies
12 March 2009
Author: Catherine Matthews-Scanlon
Scrapbooking with transparencies is a wonderful way to add interest and texture to your layout or home décor item. However, finding exactly what you want isn’t always easy. It never fails that I have a particular style or design in mind and I have to begin the search to find it on the market. I almost always never find what I want so I end up making my own.
There are many ways to make transparencies – and a couple of types of transparency film to choose from. Depending on the treatment you’ll be applying to yours having a couple of styles on hand isn’t a bad idea. Just be sure you keep them separated and clearly labeled when you go to use one.
If you plan on printing your images on the film with your printer or photocopier, it’s important to get the right type. Transparency film used in a copier needs to be formulated to handle the high heat of the copier drums. If they’re not formulated to handle the high heat, the film can melt from the heat of the drum as it passes through the machine. Film formulated for an inkjet printer needs to have a coating on it to aid in drying the ink. Without the coating the ink from an inkjet printer bubbles up on the surface and smears, this can be a good thing if you want to make a rub-on. Film used in laser printing is similar to those for a photocopier, though they are not able to handle the high heat of a photocopier.
Now that you know what type of transparency to use, let’s talk about the treatments you can do to them to make your own custom sheets.
- Create a sheet of journaling that you can lay over a photograph. Use a solvent ink such as Staz-On to stamp your journaling on the film without harming your photograph. Stamp on the shiny side of the sheet and use alcohol medium to wide off any mistakes. Color images with alcohol inks that will dry on the film.
- Use Photo Signature or Painty markers and draw your own image on the transparency. The great thing here is you can draw your design on a piece of paper and trace it with the marker, or repeat the pattern of your patterned paper – but with no color – to fill in areas over cardstock.
- Create a design, journaling or alter your photograph using word processing or photo editing software and print your design on the transparency film.
- Make your own rub-ons by printing a mirror of your image on the wrong side of the film (the shiny side), carefully flip your image over onto paper and transfer the ink from the film to the paper. The ink will smudge if you touch it so be careful when doing this process. I recommend a couple of tests to see how this will work for you before you do it on your actual project.
Tip: One thing I always do when I print using my inkjet printer on to a transparency is print my image backwards and attach it to my page with the ink facing the inside. The reason I do this is I have had the ink from the transparency stick to the page protector in my album. To print in mirror you’ll have to change the settings when you print the transparency. Check the User Manual for your printer to make sure you do it right.
Let’s talk about ways to attach the sheet to the project once you’ve gotten it designed. The secret to attaching a transparent sheet is to hide the adhesive. Sometimes this isn’t possible, especially when I’ve used only text on the sheet. In those instances I’ll attach the sheet with brads, a couple of staples or stitch using my sewing machine. When I’m sewing a transparency sheet I will use a few pieces of scotch tape to secure it in place so it doesn’t slide or move as I stitch. As I come to the tape I gently remove it without tearing the paper underneath. If your transparency has lots of colored in spaces it’s easy to attach it by hiding the adhesive under those colored spaces.
There are many creative ways to make, use and attach transparencies. I hope you’ll be inspired to start scrapbooking with transparencies today!