Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Scrapbook Pages that POP!

I wanted to do something really spectacular to commemorate my sister’s wedding. When deciding how to create a layout as beautiful and memorable as her wedding, it hit me that the design needed to pop off the page – literally.

I love doing pop-up and interactive scrapbook pages and this subject matter was worthy of the extra work it takes to create such a layout.

When my sister’s photographer was taking pictures of the wedding party, he walked us outside the hotel a couple blocks to Monument Circle in downtown Indianapolis. If you’ve ever been to Indy during the holidays, you know that they turn the towering monument into a giant Christmas tree by stringing large colored lights from the top of the monument to the ground.

I decided to recreate that monumental tree on my scrapbook page. Here’s how I did it:

1. For the base of a pop-up page, I use watercolor paper. This is thick and stiff, yet still pretty easy to fold.

2. I fold the paper in half long ways and lay it down so it’s opening toward me.


3. I then cut a slit in the lower half of the paper from the middle of the page vertically down to the bottom.


4. Next, I fold the upper half of the paper vertically away from me.


5. I decided to make the background to the pop-up monuments a circle to mimic the center of the city. I cut out the circle and covered it with a sheet from SEI’s Juliette collection.


6. Then I adhere the two bottom flaps to the two sides of the layout and lay the patterned paper and cardstock over them.


7. The pictures of the monument need to be adhered to stiff cardboard. I ran them through my Xyron machine (sidebar: best invention ever!!) and stuck them right to the cardboard before cutting out the monument. Cutting out the monument first before adhering it to the cardboard would have meant I would have had to cut out each picture twice – which means there’s an increased chance I could have cut or ruined the photo.


8. After adhering the monument cut-outs to the pop-up, I reinforced the back of them with another thick strip of cardboard.


9. I put my photos and embellishments on the bottom part of the layout and finished it off by running some Jolee’s Boutique Christmas light strings from the top of the two monument photos to the bottom part of the layout…just like the real thing!!


While pop-up pages are fantastic additions to a scrapbook – there are a few things to keep in mind.
• You can’t usually use page protectors with them.
• They will make your book thicker – ϋber-thick. I have one book with three or four pop-ups and was only able to fit a few other layouts in the book.
• The bottom two pieces of cardstock need to have a gap between them. I usually put my pop-ups in Creative Memories books – which need a gap of about a quarter of inch between the two pieces of paper.
• This is a pretty basic pop-up design. There are some that are much more complicated and I’ve found the more complicated they are, the more fabulous they are!

11 comments:

Bonnie said...

Impressive!

fong33 said...

Absolutely fabulous! I love the pop up and the string of lights!

Sharon H. said...

Thanks for the instruction. That page is amazing!

Anonymous said...

I am loving this week!!

Eric Erickson said...

Thanks everyone for the great comments and for visiting this week!

Geralyn said...

So inspiring, as a new, very new scrapbooker I love your ideas and enthusiasm. I can't wait for the rest of your blogs.

Donna VW said...

I am amazed - this is so creative!

Anonymous said...

This page is great and I look forward to seeing it in person well I look forward to seeing the whole album in person!!! :) Love your sis or should I say the "Bride"

Mom2Fiveplus3 said...

This page is stunning. I absolutely love your layout ideas.

Cathryn V. said...

Awesome! I've admired these type pages, but haven't been able to decipher how to do them. DUH to me!
A light bulb went off after reading your instructions. Thanks for your insight.

Anonymous said...

Wow - that makes a fabulous memory, they will relive that night every time they open that awesome page

 

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