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Bring your tags, borders,
lettering and die cuts to life.
You can embellish just about anything with chalk!
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Have your die cuts been banished to a box on the
shelf? Bring them to life with chalk! Do you want your titles to
stand out on your page? Give your letters added dimension with
chalk! Do you love tags and want to give them a shabby chic feel?
Bring them from new to old in just moments with chalk! Do you
love the ease of a printed title, but want it to stand out? Make it
POP with chalk!
Welcome to the wonderful world of chalking!
Never used it before? Well, pull up a cotton ball and sit back and
get comfortable - with chalking!
There are many different brands of chalk on
the market, but I suggest using those made especially for
scrapbookers. They are easy to use, come in an array of colors, and
are made safe for our special memories. The three most popular
brands are Deluxe Chalks, Chalklets, and Craf-T Chalks.
And just how do you get the chalk onto your
embellishment? You have many choices available to you, but I have
recently converted to the little poms from Pazzles. I use a
Pazzles Chalk Applicator with my poms, and I find that I have the
best control over where the chalk is placed. I have used everything
from cotton swabs, cotton balls and sponge makeup applicators, but
love the soft, even application that the poms give me.
Now that you have your basic supplies,
scrapbooking chalk, and an applicator, you are ready to get started.
Clear off a little space in your work area, and put down a scrap
piece of paper or something that you don’t mind getting a little
bit of chalk dust on. The most important thing to remember is not to
chalk on top of your layout. Even though chalk is easy to remove,
especially with a chalk eraser, it does create dust as you are
chalking, and it is easier just to not do it on top of your
background paper.
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In the first example above, I have shown the
different ways to embellish a simple snowman die cut. You can see
how chalk brings the snowman from a one dimensional, white piece of
paper cut into the shape of a snow man, to a snowman the almost
comes to life on your page. I used only black chalk for shading and
pink chalk for the cheeks. The simple rule to remember when shading
a die cut is to pick a light source (where the light would be
hitting the object in real life) and shade the areas opposite the
light source. On the snowman, the imaginary light is coming from the
top right, so most everything on the bottom left of each ‘snow
ball’ is shaded, as it is farther from the light. I shaded
around the edges to give the illusion of being three dimensional
snowballs. I also like to draw freehand lines with a black
acid free pen, to give the embellishment edges a finished look. I
find that drawing the black lines before you chalk is better for
your pen. The chalk has a tendency to produce dust, and could clog
your pen tip.
After lining and chalking your die cut, you
can finish with many other embellishments. I have tried to give
examples of finished snowmen both with additional embellishments
such as buttons, beads and eyelets, and finished snowmen that are
done just with chalk and pens. The snowman that is completely
embellished with eyelets, beads and buttons but not chalked does not
come to life like the snowman that was chalked first.
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In the second example above, I have used chalk to
add dimension to the letters ARIZONA, the sand hills and the cacti.
I used a Pazzles applicator and a pom to apply brown chalk to tan
cardstock starting at the top of each letter. The chalk application
will normally be darker where it first touches the paper, so start
at the spot that you want to be darkest. Guide your applicator in a
circular motion lightly across the area you want to cover. It is
usually better to apply your chalk lightly at first. You can always
add more chalk later. This way you get comfortable with how your
color adheres to your page, and are able to get an even layer of
color.
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For the Nathan Is Seven title block, I die cut
the letters in a medium blue cardstock. I then used green and blue
chalk to give a watery effect, as his birthday party was at a pool,
and most of the pictures were taken in the water. I found patterned
paper that conveyed the look of water, and mounted my chalked
lettering on it. I will also use the same patterned paper in a
double mat on a few of the pictures.
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In this example, I used chalk and stickers to
embellish letters and tags. First, I die cut the letters COMO. Then
I drew a light pencil line almost half way up the letters. I chalked
down from the middle of each letter with brown chalk. I then chalked
the bottom of the letter with a gold/yellow chalk. Using more than
one color of chalk adds dimension to your piece. Choosing colors in
the same color family also add dimension to your piece, as opposed
to using opposite colors. With the yellow lettering, I used brown
and a darker yellow.
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The
full layout using all the above components...
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If you would like to print your titles, because
there are just so many cute fonts out there, but would like a
finished look that matches the theme or color scheme of your layout,
then chalk is your answer!!
I printed the word HAWAII out on my cardstock.
Instead of leaving the insides of the bamboo blank, I used brown,
tan and yellow chalk to make it look like real bamboo. I used the
smallest pom and Pazzle applicator to apply chalk to the very narrow
insides of the lettering. Below are examples of both the chalked
version of HAWAII, and the print version without chalking. Notice
how the chalked example pops off of the page.
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My final example is how I used chalk to add color
to plain background cardstock, and used chalk to define the edges of
my torn cardstock and mat. In both the title box and the bug border
I used two shades of green and two shades of blue chalk on white
cardstock with a large pom/pazzle applicator to give a multi-colored
effect. I mounted Embossible Designs Title box, and bugs to solid
cardstock. I wanted to add texture to my background paper, so I tore
the edges of a piece of green cardstock, then I misted it with
water. Next, I crumpled it up, flattened it back out, then I ironed
it. After the cardstock was dry and flat, I chalked the edges and
some of the creases. This gives the worn effect that is so popular,
and really adds character to the elements. Chalk was also used on
the tags to add color and interest.
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Chalk is one of the easiest and most forgiving
mediums for introducing color to your embellishments. Whether you
decide to use chalks to add texture, color, dimension or to
introduce another color into your layouts, the most important thing
to remember is to have fun and experiment. You can do this!!
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-- Shawn Gilson
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