by Sara Naumann, visit the Hot Off The Press web site
Page Designs by Amy Gustafson

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What’s that? You say you’re confused about vellum? Your adhesive shows through? You keep smudging the ink? You have no idea how to combine it with other papers? Never fear! We’ll share some basic tips and tricks to working with vellum, and best of all, we’ll also show some great examples created by scrapbook page designer Amy Gustafson. 

Adhesives

You’ve probably discovered that besides being delicate and transparent, vellum isn’t porous like other paper. That means liquid adhesive will dry very slowly, and most adhesives will show through the vellum. 

Start with the right tools: an acid-free glue stick, like Pioneer’s, gives the best results. Of course, you’ll apply any adhesive sparingly, but the trick is to place the adhesive on the paper you’re layering the vellum on to. When gluing vellum to cardstock, apply the glue to the cardstock, and let it sit until it becomes tacky—then attach the vellum.

Before gluing vellum to paper, look for ways to use a non-permanent mount, like photo corners. You can disguise a “glue-show-through” problem by strategically placing a Punch-Out™, die-cut or punched piece to cover any glue spots. 

Take a look at this heritage page—Amy attached the vellum to the background paper by placing adhesive under the photo. “I placed a heavier application of adhesive under Iris’ photo and the journaling paper, with a few dabs placed under the parts of the border with the darkest color,” reveals Amy.

Supplies for Iris Badman Heritage Page: 

Patterned Paper Pizazz™: purple sponged (Pretty Papers or available by the sheet), purple handmade, indigo handmade, brown handmade (Handmade Papers); vellum Paper Pizazz™: floral border heritage vellum (Heritage Vellum Papers); white pen: Marvy® Slim gel roller; X-acto® knife