by Pamela Kay

Created on: June 20, 2009   Last Updated: August 03, 2009

Using transparent overlays for scrapbooking not only adds dimension to your page and helps protect your photos, it also helps create awesome and unique pages. These clear sheets of plastic are fun, inexpensive to use and allow you to add other elements both on top as well as beneath the overlay, to create a memorable scrapbook.

*Use Overlays To Protect Your Old Photos

We all have them; those precious old photos that can never be replaced. You can still use them in your scrapbook without harming them if you place an overlay over them and add embellishments, mats and frames on the overlay instead of on the photo. Transparent overlays come in 12x12 or 8x8 sheets and can be cut to fit your page.

*Use Overlays For Awesome Embellishments

Brush gold on the edges, stipple with ink around templates or ink the whole sheet. You can stamp a design on one side of the overlay and using a permanent ink pen or a liquid acrylic paint you can color the design on the back side of the overlay, allowing the detail of the stamp to show.

Another way to make a one of a kind page is to lightly sand the surface of the overlay in circular motions. Next, press the ink stamp pad onto the sanded surface where some of the ink will sink into the sand grooves and give you a two toned effect.

Transparent overlays are most commonly clear but can be found in many pastel colors which add another dimension to the page. You can use glue, brads, eyelets and other means of attaching embellishments to the overlays. You can even cut metered slits and weave ribbons or yarn into them.

*Use Overlays To Add Text To Your Page

Overlays come plain or with many different text themes already printed on them (Happy Birthday, Just Married, etc.), saving you a lot of time as well as the expense of embellishments for each page. Just cut out the text you want and attach to the page. The price is usually between $3.00 and $10.00 depending on the design and can be ordered on-line or found in craft stores.

*Use Overlays For Your Journaling

You can actually do your journaling on a transparent overlay using whatever color you choose. You can use an inkjet printer to add your journaling or do it freehand. Plain text or a fancy calligraphy will both work well on these transparencies.

*Use Overlays For Added Flair

Printed overlays come in many styles with a wide variety of fancy scrolls and swirls, geometric designs or flowers already printed on them. Use them to add some flair to a page. There are also digital overlays, which measure 8.5x11, for your digital scrapbooking needs.

There you have it, how to use transparent overlays for scrapbooking, how to create color on the transparencies and how to attach them to the scrapbook page. It really is simple to do and when you consider how it adds interest and greater dimension to your page, it's worth it.

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