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Bottom borders often get used only for outdoor and
summertime pages.
But borders can be created for any season
with many types of art.
Clip art is often overlooked as a border
source.
On the page to the right, I used a fall
theme border from my Hallmark Greetings Workshop
program.
Adding the row of pumpkins along the bottom
just adds a little more to the page as it echoes
the photos of the pumpkins my family were carving
that night. Look in your favorite print shop
program with the keyword "borders" or "lines" and
see what is available.
You may be surprised!
you can drop these borders onto a 8.5x11
'poster' format to resize them and print out right
on the cardstock of your choice.
If you are a 12x12 page user, don't
despair!
Just rotate that border so it fits sideways
on the poster layout.
That will give you an 11 inch long border
to use!
Print it out on acid free cardstock, cut
out and poof you have a great clip art border.
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Think
borders have to be narrow?
Think again!
This piece of school artwork functions as a
theme-setting TALL border on the bottom of this
page.
Sure conventional borders measure about 1/4
or less of the page height but now and then
you can break the mold!
Go tall!
Use a child's actual artwork or color copy
it and make it a
part of the page.
What a wonderful personal touch!
Don't overlook children's art as a
potential border even when it is oversized.
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Got teens?
Then you may recognize these goofy kids!
These punch art South Park Kids cartoon
people were something I designed for my son's
birthday pages.
This page really reflects my son's
interests in this cartoon that year.
Punch art is not just for page corners
anymore!
Use it along the entire bottom edge.
Make your punch art look like a favorite
character or tie it in with the activities in the
photos.
Add a little humor too.
Don't you love how Wendy has her heart set
on Stan?
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This page is a little more traditional as far as
borders go.
It is rectangular and has a mat.
But note the use of the Mary Engelbreit
stickers in fall colors and themes.
Use stickers to form little conceptual
lines on the border.
The boy and girl in the sticker art echo
the brother and sister in the fall photo.
Sticker colors play an important part here
too.
Oranges and browns, golds and greens all
stay within the spectrum set in the fall photo.
Don't let your sticker art get away from
you.
Use the right sticker in the right color
family for the job. Tie the individual stickers
together by boxing them, matting them, or joining
them with another straight line sticker.
That way they are not floating 'loose' on
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This page to the right also shows how you can
anchor stickers on a border with a line drawn as a
clothesline.
The bottom border also features a torn
cardstock snow bank scene with handmade signpost
and sticker tree.
Landscapes are lots of fun to create as
bottom borders.
Another example of a landscape scene is
that in figure 10 above.
The paper doll girl stands in a die cut
grassy yard filled with punch art flowers.
Make your border look like your own
true-life scenery.
Bottom borders are SO versatile! |
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Think outside the box and allow your
extra-wide paper piecings to be the lower border.
This flower pot paper piecing from Windows
of Time looks great on this friendship page.
My swap pal sent it to me and I think she
did a great job! Paper piecings are dimensional
and take a little time to do but the look is worth
the effort!
Wide and large paper piecings work
particularly well with pages where you only have
one or two photos.
They can help set a mood and add decorative
flair.
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Don't forget the die cuts!
I like to embellish mine with chalk.
But even if you don't chalk them, you can
journal on them and use them for borders.
The trophy page shown here
groups three similar die cuts on the bottom
to instantly tell the viewer that this is a
'winning' situation!
The road
and car combination was used throughout a recent
album I did on our trip to the West Coast in 1995.
All through a WHOPPING 104 page album of
that trip, I used only bottom borders of die cut
cars on roads, MAMBI sticker kids, and
conversation bubbles to reflect the places we went
and the scenes we saw.
Sticking with the bottom borders added a
continuity throughout the large album and yet were
very, very quick to do.
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Don't overlook your craft supplies or the sewing
aisle when looking for border ideas.
This beaded border on my Native American
art pages is simply a trim that I found in the
sewing dept. of our local Wal-Mart.
It is a suede strip with beads that is
meant to be sewn onto jean cuffs.
I saw it as a way to add a little authentic
beading to this page.
It adds texture to the page border but the
seed beads are not so thick that they will make
indentations on the surrounding pages.
On other pages I have also used ribbon,
raffia, and jute. As long as the thickness does
not exceed 1/4 inch, it should work fine in a page
protector.
Be conscious of plastic or acidic content
and do not place these kind of supplies directly
near photos. Cruise your local craft aisle for
more ideas!
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There are endless ways that you can border up that
bottom of the page.
Anything you can do on the side of the page
can probably be done at the bottom. Go for a
change.
It will look fresher and snappier too!
Perhaps journal only at the bottom.
Or put your title letters only at the
bottom for once.
Try something new and use some of the ideas
here!
No more boring formula pages for you!
Get out of that rut and go south with
your border today!
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