The good news is that there is a seemingly endless supply of spring-themed scrapbook embellishments available in craft stores right now. The bad news is that many of the gorgeous accessories are quite pricey. Adding just a few of the eye-popping decorations can easily send the price of a single spring layout into the stratosphere.
Fortunately, there are a slew of affordable alternatives to expensive scrapbook embellishments. For example, rather than purchasing elaborate silk flowers to decorate your spring page designs, consider making your own colorful blossoms at home using inexpensive coffee filters. All you need are some basket-style paper coffee filters, food coloring, some water, buttons, craft glue and scissors.
The first step to making these simple spring-theme scrapbook embellishments is to add a few drops of the food coloring to bowls of water. Next, place the coffee filters in the colored water. Allow them to soak until they have the desired depth of color, and then spread them out on a cookie sheet to dry.
When the coffee filters are dry, fold each one in half to form a semi-circle. Then, fold in half again to form a pie shape, and then once more to make a narrow pie shape. Use the scissors to trim the edges into petals. Repeat this process with three filters. You need three colored filters to construct a single flower.
Once you have your filters cut, stack them on top of each other, staggering the petals. Place a small dot of craft glue near the center of the bottom two filters, and press together. When the glue is dry, adhere a button to the center of the blossom. You can then scrunch the filters around the button to give it some dimension.
To further embellish your colorful blossoms, you could add the following famous spring-themed quotes on the petals:
- “Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers today; And give us not to think so far away As the uncertain harvest; keep us here All simply in the springing of the year.”
- “Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush.”
- “Spring is an experience in immortality.”
- “Spring is a true reconstructionist.”
- “Spring is a heart full of hope and a shoe full of rain.”