Those of you who make embellishments

I do.

I use paper punches, dies, and pop-dots to make cardstock layered flowers.

I make mini-pinwheels.

I stamp images, fussy-cut them out, them pop-dot them on layouts.

I stamp phrases and words on small tags (I bought jewellry tags and 1" Avery tags at WM).

Little touches go a long way. Enamel dots, Stickles glitter glue, sequins, sparkily confetti really jazz up plain cardstock embellishments.


I also make little sequin pockets. I seal up thin plastic (like from packages, cut up page protectors, etc) with washi tape. I fill them with sequins, confetti (in different shapes to fit the theme), small stamped images and stamped words.


I think it helps if you have some basic shape tools. Punches and dies in stars, circles, rectangles, squares. Stamps in images you like to use over and over. I have arrows, stars, butterflies, flowers, etc. And I have a good bit of confetti & sequins that I bought at the Dollar Tree (I spent probably $5 total on confetti/sequins, but it lasts a long time, even when used liberally)

Lots of things! I hate buying something if I could make it myself. I do a lot of paper piecings, used to do punch art before I got my cutter, embellished tags and journaling spots, layered titles, layered flowers from diecuts, diecut shapes or letters cut from chipboard, I even jumped on the melted Perler bead enamel dots thing and bought thousands of beads to melt, LOL. Any time I see something I like, I always try to figure out a way to make it myself. I take it on as kind of a challenge!

I used to make paper piecings.
It's been so long, I should get back into that
I like to cut out images from patterned paper and
pop them up when I put them on my page.

When I had my Expression I would make
all kinda of embellishments and ...the word is escaping me right now but it's like paper strips that have decored edges.

I buy thin cork board and punch shapes out of it. I also love to make banners.

Thanks for all the suggestions! I was just on a rosette kick for cards. I have little folded rosettes all over my scrap table. They're fun to make while watching tv.

I recently learned to decorate raw chipboard. I've been inking, stamping, and embossing bits and pieces of it.

I find it relaxing to focus on one tiny thing. It doesn't take such an overview to plan as a 12 x 12 page.

ETA: @amayalylac I love your board! Those vellum butterflies are gorgeous. I'm going to be making them soon.

I did some swaps at 2Peas that gave me some practice with embellishments. Some categories were paper clips, flowers, ticket strips, along with themed items. I also did a Big Picture Class on flower clusters. Here are a few of the things I made:

     (Photos removed)  

I used a variety of punches, silhouette cut outs, Stickles, buttons, whatever was handy. Just get out some little items, start layering them and see what happens. It's fun when you feel like spending some time with it.

Not a ridiculous question at all.

When I work on a layout, I try to have repeating shapes and elements on it. It makes it m ore cohesive. So if there are stars on the pattern paper strip that I have at the top of the layout, I'm going to want to repeat the star element.

One embellishment I might make is to have a strip of cardstock (this is where you use your scraps from the layout so everything matches) with a word stamped on it horizontally, and more towards the left.

I snip the ends of the paper to make it have the flag/banner look.

Remember you stamped your word more towards the left? Now you have room for a punched/diecut star there. Again, use your scraps. They match! Pop-dot the star for dimension.

Now is the fun part. Jazz it all up. It's like putting jewelry on your embellishment. My rule of thumb is to put on just enough. And then ADD one more piece. So, I might ink all the edges. Then add Stickles just to the tips of the star. Or heck, cover the whole thing with clear glittery Stickles. Stick an enamel dot so that it is to the right of the stamped word, and slightly above and hanging off the cardstock strip.


I truly find that I cannot go wrong if I repeat colors and elements. I always use my scraps (from making that layout) because they match perfectly.

Very pretty! I love all of your flowers!

It's interesting but, you have to buy each shape punch separately, and a sheet of acrylic caps for each shape separately. I think it would be too costly for my tastes.

I have 8 of them.  My favorites are the banner and chevron.  The button is cute too.  They are pretty small.  I have used the resin, but I also use glossy accents if I am out of the resin shapes.  

It gives the appearance of an acrylic sticker if that makes sense. Say you have a heart that is punched out of a regular piece of card stock. You put the glossy accents on top, once dry it has that acrylic, shiny look.

I also used it when I made washer necklaces as a craft project at a former job.

Because I'm cheap  frugal, I'm always looking at embellishments for inspiration on what I can recreate on my own.  I bought two roller stamps and wanted to buy a third for a travel mini album but didn't want to wait for it.  I'd have to order online.  I typed up the words in fonts I liked and cut them apart.  Inked them a bit, rounded the corners, and tucked them behind pictures and layers.  

Last night I had a bit of free time (I was avoiding a layout that I started and didn't like) so I looked through my Silhouette wish list and recreated some things and saved them to my library.  

I will also print a word, title, or a ding and adhere it to a piece of chipboard.  Then I'll use gelly roll glaze pen on it to give it some shine and ink the edges a bit. I use a rough emery board to burnish the edges a bit.  It gives some dimension to the page without too much thickness. 

Banners, tags, circles, hearts, stars, etc., all add a little something something to a layout.  I like to layer them sometimes. My next Silhouette project is to add hearts to the bottom of a banner.  I think that would be cute.  Especially with a different patterned paper underneath. 

I like to make up page kits and then make embellishments to go with them.  

I usually make embellishments to go with a page after everything is laid out. That way I can see the shape, color, texture, space that the layout needs.

Most embellishments I've made ahead of time sit unused because they end up not fitting right. I know it isn't trendy to be a matchy-matchy scrapper, but alas, it still usually ends up that way for me.