Need some new border ideas to freshen up your layouts? Try these three terrific border ideas from Arlene, Shauna and Toddi. They’re fast, fantastic ways to add a little pizazz to your next album page.

Border #1: Ribbon Border
Designer: Arlene Peterson

Besides being a scrapbook instructor and designer, Arlene is also a talented seamstress. That might explain why so many of her beautiful layouts feature fibers, ribbons and stitching!  

For these cute candids of her granddaughter Hailey, Arlene chose to panel the bottom of her watercolor floral background paper with a 3" border of blue stripe paper, matted on white. A blue ribbon is centered across the blue stripe border; Arlene added a double bow and two heart-shaped buttons to the ribbon. One of Hailey’s photos even has a blue ribbon “hanger” while the other photo and the journaling box feature fibers.

In Arlene’s Supply Box:

• blue watercolor paper, blue watercolor stripe: Paper Pizazz® Watercolor Naturals
• pastel blue vellum: Paper Pizazz® Pastel Vellum Papers
• white paper
• white eyelets
• white sheer and blue tone-on-tone ribbon
• blue fibers
• heart buttons

Border #2: Mini Photo Border
Designer: Shauna Berglund-Immel

Create a clean, classic layout using five photos— all without crowding the page! What’s Shauna’s secret? Photo borders!  

Here, Shauna used a vellum overlay on her main photo, then cut four 2" squares from the other snapshots: three photos of Kaitlyn’s face and one close-up of her mittened hands. Shauna placed strips of light blue paper horizontally across the dark blue background paper; the straight lines add balance to the circular swirls on the paper. So her layout didn’t look weighted at the bottom, Shauna added a large bow at the top of the page for balance.

In Shauna’s Supply Box:

• light blue, dark blue swirl paper: Paper Pizazz® Swirls & Twirls Papers
• metallic silver paper: Paper Pizazz® Metallic Silver Papers
• light blue, dark blue swirl paper: Paper Pizazz® Swirls & Twirls Papers
• white eyelets
• sheer lavender ribbon
• white black pens: Sakura Gelly Roll

Border #3: Torn Border
Designer: Toddi Barclay

Who says borders have to be at the top or bottom of your layout? Why not break the rules, as Toddi did, and create a torn vellum border diagonally?

Toddi first placed her matted photo at an angle on the pink “leather” background paper, then tore and layered diagonal pieces of pastel pink and white vellums at the top left and bottom right corners of her page. Notice how the bottom layers overlap a corner of the photo, while the layers at the top left are tucked under the photo. This layout is perfect for drawing attention right to the photograph: the angled borders direct your eye to the center of the page, and the softness of the vellum layers adds dimension to the layout without overwhelming the photo.  

In Toddi’s Supply Box:

• patterned paper: Paper Pizazz® Part not in database (may have been discontinued): #3278
• pastel pink vellum: Paper Pizazz® Pastel Vellum Papers
or available Part not in database (may have been discontinued): #15520
• Part not in database (may have been discontinued): #15517
• 1/2"-wide pink satin ribbon with sheer edges
• 1/2"-wide pink satin ribbon roses
• white pen

“Borders are a great scrapbooking technique,” says Shauna. “They’re so versatile— you can use them anywhere on your layout for journaling, photos or pure decoration!” For more inspiring borders and layout ideas from Arlene, Shauna and Toddi, turn to Making Fabulous Scrapbook Pages—a 144-page idea book.