I love borders. And anyone who knows me, knows I love to work fast. Borders allow me to work quickly. I use sticker borders, top borders and side borders the most. But sometimes in my haste to get pages done, I end up in a rut. Ever have that feeling? You know what I mean....Standard page formula....a order at the top or side of the page and rectangular pictures with rectangular journal box. Pretty soon, all the pages look alike within a section of your album. EEK! Put the brakes on! Time for a change!
What to break out or the rut? Want to look at borders differently? Today we will focus on adding the border to a different part of your page. Where? The BOTTOM of the page. That's right, take that border down several inches south to the bottom of the page! Some of you may do this occasionally for a landscape scene like the beach or pool in the yard...but let's use that bottom area for more than just the occasional outdoor scene.
figure 1 (fall pumpkin clip art)
Clip it!
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. In figure 1, 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.
figure 2 Navaho Art
Go TALL!
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.
figure 3 punch art
Punch It!
Got teens? Then you may recognize these goofy kids! These punch art Southpark 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?
figure 4 tire swing
No Floaters
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 the page.
Figure 7 at the top above 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 paperdoll 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!
figure 5 paper piecing
Widen Out!
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 paperpiecings 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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Group and Repeat
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 combiånation 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.
figure 9 beads
Think Outside the Box
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 Walmart. 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! :)
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!
