Scrapbooking Eyelets

Eyelets are the new craze in scrapbooking. See what the fuss is all about.

About Eyelets

Eyelets are embellishments used for scrapbooking and other craft projects such as card making. Eyelets are generally made of aluminum or brass and come in two sizes and three types. The most common size for eyelets is 1/8″, although they also come in 3/16″. 3/16″ eyelets are larger than 1/8″ eyelets and generally cost more.

Types of eyelets include plain, top coat, and anodized. Plain eyelets are not painted so they are the color of the metal they are made out of. This type of eyelets is not very common. Eyelets also come with a top coat color. These eyelets are painted. The last type of eyelet is anodized. Anodized eyelets have a more metallic color than eyelets with a top coat.

Eyelets have a hole through the center that is used to attach them to your paper. Brads are often sold with eyelets. Brads differ because they do not have this characteristic hole. Instead, brads have two metal flaps on the back that can be bent to attach them to paper.

Where to Use Eyelets

Eyelets come in many shapes and colors. They can be used to attach items such as ribbons, paper, pictures, and tags to scrapbooking pages. Eyelets are a simple way to add to the color and theme of your scrapbooking pages.

Here are 15 ideas for using your eyelets.

1. Embellishments on a paper piecing picture such as buttons on a snowman or dots on a lady bug

2. Attach vellum paper

3. To hange tags or frames from

4. Create movable parts on your paper piecing

5. Create a page theme such as shells for a beach page or fish for a fishing trip page

6. Corners of picture mats

7. In the hole of a tag

8. As bullets for a list

9. Journaling accents

10. Eyes of animals such as owls

11. The center of flowers

12. Create your own bugs, butterflies,or bees from eyelet shapes

13. As the dot on an i or the center of a letter

14. To make a string of Christmas lights or as the ornaments on a christmas tree

15. The M&Ms in M&M cookies

16. String ribbon or craft fibbers through a line of eyelets

The list could go on and on. You can use eyelets to add dimension that will spice up any page.

How to Use Eyelets

It is time to roll up those sleeves and break out your handy tools. You will need a hammer, hole setter, and a resilient work surface such as a rubber craft mat to get started using eyelets.

1. Place your scrapbooking page face up on your work surface.

2. Put the hole setter on your page where you want to insert the eyelet.

3. Lightly tap the end of the hole setter a few times until a hole is created.

4. Place your eyelet upside down on your work surface and put your scrapbooking page over the eyelet so that the back of the eyelet sticks throught the hole you just created.

5. Place the setter with the flat end over the back of the eyelet and lightly tap the end of the setter with your hammer until the back of the eyelet begins to bend outward.

6. Hammer the back of the eyelet directly until the eyelet flattens down into place.

7. Turn your scrapbooking page over and be proud of your work.

Where to Buy Eyelets

You can purchase eyelets from me! My eBay Scrapbooking Store has hundreds of mixes of eyelets. Just look for my seller id: scrapsandcrafts

ScrapbookFinds.com has a search engine for finding scrapbooking eyelets, brads, and other supplies. Try it out.

Lisa Robbins is a businesswoman and an enthusiast for sports, family, and crafts. She is the creator and maintainer of ScrapsAndCrafts.com, a scrapbooking tutorial and wholesale scrapbooking supply website. She is also a contributor to ScrapbookFinds.com, a search tool for scrapbooking products

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Scrapbooking is usually defined as the method of creatively preserving and displaying photos, along with journaling and other memorabilia. There are a wide variety of ways to do this. It's no surprise that many people are not sure what to include in scrapbook page layouts? These six basic elements are the foundation for great scrapbook pages.

There are many ways these elements can be used in your pages. Most pages include these elements, but occasionally you will find that a page may not need them all. There are not too many hard and fast rules in scrapbooking. Using these as a guide you can come up with some beautiful pages. We'll look at these basic elements, then you can decide how to make them work in your page layouts.

• Photos – These are usually the essence of the page. Although, we may occasionally create a page with no photos. Choosing instead to focus on a piece of memorabilia or journaling. Photos should be the focus of the page. All of the other elements should compliment and enhance them.

• Scrapbooking Page Titles – The page title conveys the theme and often the mood of the page. The title can be positioned anywhere on the page, but is usually a prominent feature. Quotes and sayings can be used as scrapbooking page titles, as well a names and simple phrases. There are many options for creating a page title. Some of these options are, handwriting, using stencils, stickers and stamps, and computer generated or preprinted titles.

• Journaling – Journaling tells the story in the photos, often including events you cannot see in them. Don't forget to include the names, dates and places. You can also include events and your thoughts and feelings. Poems, quotes and sayings are also part of journaling. Sometimes a page can focus more on the journaling, even having no pictures at all.

• Photo Mats – A photo is traditionally matted by placing a paper behind the photo with a small border all the way around. This can emphasize a photo or help it stand out. You can double mat a certain photo for extra emphasis. Photos can also be partially matted by a paper. You can mat all or several photos, or only the focal point photo.

• Embellishments – Stickers and other embellishments, such as brads, eyelets, and ribbons; can spice up your scrapbooking page layouts. Embellishments should enhance the page, not overwhelm or distract from the photos.

• Borders – Borders add visual interest to a page. They can be placed at the sides or the top and/or bottom of a page. Many materials may be used, such as pen, stamps, paper, stickers and much more.

Whew, we made it through the list. It wasn't so bad was it? Now let's get started on that scrapbook you've been dying to make. Remember these are some of the basics. Don't be afraid to experiment with these, develop your own personal style, and most important…have fun!