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The look, the dimension, the feel of shiny gold or muted silver, the glimmer of color…no matter what the finish or color, brads are a hot look in paper crafting.
Yet here’s a surprise for many retailers—while we in the industry are well-informed about the latest embellishments, many scrapbookers and card makers are new to the very idea of a brad. It’s true: In the past two consumer conventions I’ve taught at, students did not know what a brad was or how to use it. In fact, I had students asking how to secure the brad to their paper!
They must be new, you’re probably thinking. Yes, many of them were brand-new to scrapbooking—but not all of them. Some had been scrapbooking for over a year!
So while we love the look of metal on a scrapbook page or card, let’s not forget that brads might be a new product for many of our customers. Take a look at some quick and easy ideas for brads—all featuring Finished in a Flash!™ page kits.
Harvest Time
Laura chose simple black brads in both mini and standard sizes to embellish her photos—both from the Halloween Finished in a Flash!™ kit. She cut a 1 1/4" square of orange textured paper, then cut the square in half diagonally to create her photo corners, adding a standard size brad in the center of each corner. Mini brads accent her “harvest time” punch-outs and a small mini brad also embellishes a small tag on top of the pumpkin punch-out.
5 Things We Love About the Beach
On this layout, designer Susan Cobb kept things simple by using brads from the At the Beach Finished in a Flash!™ page kit. She sanded the brads (round, sun-shaped and sunglasses) before inserting them into the background page. They’re used to accent the bracket punch-outs, and placed overlapping the journaling. Notice the little sandcastle in the upper right corner? That’s a Brad Buddy™—a lightweight metal sandcastle held onto the paper with the blue flag brads.
San Francisco
Looking for something a little more sophisticated? LeNae embellished this “grown-up” layout using the brads in the Winged Things Finished in a Flash!™ kit. She accented her journaling and file folder punch-outs with butterfly and dragonfly brads, and even added a pink butterfly at the tip of one of the swirl punch-outs. There’s also a very fun brad treatment on the “m” monogram punch-out: LeNae simply inserted two brads on the right-hand side of the monogram.
Love the look of brads? So will your customers—especially when you show them how easy it is to embellish their pages with brads of all shapes and styles. For more Finished in a Flash!™ page kits, simply click here.
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