There is something so clean and beautiful about scrapbooking on clear pages. However, because it's clear, if you don't pay attention to detail, it could end up looking messy and it's likely that you will not be wowed by the results. There are a few tricks to clear scrapbooking and I'll get to them in a moment. First I'd like to go over different materials you can use. The obvious first choice is to buy a pre-made clear album such as those made by Picture It Pageframes (www.scrapbookframes.com).
Their clear albums come in a variety of shapes and sizes, including 3 square albums of various sizes, a 5" x 8" rectangular album, and shapes including flower, circle, tag, house and heart. Their square and rectangular albums include pages that are tabbed, the front and back covers are scored near the binding and the edges are rounded. The acrylic is the perfect thickness – not too thin and not too thick. Plus the holes for the rings are already punched. You definitely get what you pay for. I say this because in writing this article, I went in search of other options for comparison sake. I had heard people say that they were making their own, but every time there was a ‘but' in there somewhere. "I cut my own acrylic, BUT I had to sand the edges" or "I made my own album, BUT when I went to punch the holes for the rings, the acrylic split." There are other "buts", BUT I will get to them as they apply to each type of material.
I went to my local craft store first and headed to the frame department. They wanted almost $30 to cut a few 6 x 6 sheets, and then I'd still be finishing the edges and rounding corners and punching holes. No thank you. I understand there are some craft stores that are much more accommodating than this – so you might get luckier than I did.
Next I went to Home Depot. Their sheets come pretty thick. The smallest and thinnest piece I could find was 11" x 14" and .093 thick. I went to the cutting center and was advised that due to liability they no longer cut acrylic/plexiglass. So I bought two sheets and a scoring tool for $9 and change.
First of all, the acrylic is so thick that my album would weigh a ton if I put 6-9 pages together. I decided to keep looking.
Next on my list was Lowes. The smallest and thinnest piece I could find was 8" x 10" and .080 thick. This was sounding a little better. I thought I'd try cutting that in half and have a 5" x 8" book and leave an inch for the binding, making it a 5" x 7" book. The best part of buying the acrylic sheet at the hardware store is the price. Just a few bucks a sheet and each sheet would make 2 pages. I waited and waited for someone to come cut it in half for me since they have a cutting center specifically for this, but after getting tired of waiting, and reminding myself that I had just purchased my own tool from Home Depot, I decided to head home. I wanted to try cutting it myself anyway. But just know that Lowes says they will cut it for you. That being said, you will still need to put holes in the binding 
and make sure the edges aren't sharp. Trying to put the holes in the binding was the first thing I tried when I got home. I marked off where they should go with a Sharpie and grabbed my Crop-A-Dile. It punched a hole easily, but the acrylic also split. You can heat up the acrylic with a heat gun and then punch the holes with much better success. Your best option is to use a drill because the drill bit gently pulls the acrylic out instead of the pressure induced by a hole punching device leaving no cracks or splits. I tried scoring both sides of the piece of acrylic with that handy-dandy tool I bought, but I didn't get very far. I finally decided to try to snap it and while part of it snapped on the score, part of it just completely snapped into a jagged edge, completely off the mark. This leads to my one and only precaution when doing the DIY albums. Please wear protective eye gear when cutting, punching or drilling. Once you have your acrylic cut you'll want to sand the edges. This will take some time – make sure you have a couple sanding blocks or even an electric sander on hand if you're going to make an entire album. Now here's a little secret. If you want rounded corners, break out the iron. This is a rather tedious task, but if you have the patience you'll find that it really does work.
If you want a DIY option without the tedious job of scoring, snapping, sanding etc., you can opt to make your clear – or semi-clear album with the following types of material. None of these are as sturdy as the acrylic but they are nice alternatives. One of my favorite no frills options was a pack of presentation binding covers with a gloss finish (www.wilsonjones.com) that I found at the office store. These are about the weight of premium photo paper.
I also die cut a mini album out of a stencil blank. Stencil blanks are not perfectly clear; they are opaque like a milk jug. You can pick these up at most any craft store near the stencil and/or acrylic paint aisles. Along those same lines, I found a 2 piece presentation folder called the Flip N'Clip (www.mydocit.com) that was semi-opaque and less than $2. It was bound solely at the top left corner so it was simple to cut that small corner off and die cut from there.
Two words…product packaging. Let's see a show of hands for those that have kept their Heidi Swapp flowers and ghost shapes in their original packaging, anyone? Or QuicKutz Revolution Die packages? Maybe it was just me, but see there, sometimes being a pack-rat pays off. Well, actually I took them all out but never threw out the packaging because I KNEW they would be useful for some kind of project. They really do make cute little albums! If you like a funky, more eclectic look, you can even mix the sizes and just bind them all with some pretty ribbon. Try punching a few extra holes, join with ribbon and make a funky wall hanging. With the ‘wells' in the packaging, they would make for a cute keepsake album. Each page could hold something like baby's first socks, lock of hair, first hair bow etc. Or another idea is to use one of the large packages and design a mini book to store in the ‘well.'
Lastly, you can use badge holders from the office store. They are inexpensive, but very small in size. These aren't really to scrap clearly, they're more for mini layouts done on paper. Just slip the mini layout into the pockets.
Now comes the fun part. Embellishing! Instead of covering the acrylic with a 6" x 6" piece of paper, think of your clear page as if it's a piece of cardstock and go from there. Some great products for embellishing your clear pages include bling, ghost shapes, rub-ons and transparencies. When using transparencies and rub-ons, remember that when using words – they will show in reverse on the next page so you either need to plan to cover them up without changing the look of the first page, or just do a front page album only, knowing that the back of each page will not be pretty. Large flowers and ribbons are great to cover the backside of a photo, plus you can enjoy the flower or ribbon from both sides of the page. Be careful how you cover up a backwards word though – make sure it looks good from the front as well. Another trick is that when you mount a photo, mount it to the back of some patterned paper or card stock, so the backside is already done! Paint is another great tool to use on acrylic. A few swipes with a dry brush leaves enough coverage and color, but also leaves some transparent areas and gives you a peek at what's coming on the next page.
Another technique that works well with the clear albums is stamping. Try stamping on the front of your acrylic (I recommend using StazOn). Then color in the areas from the back with a white Sharpie and other colors. It leaves you with a stained glass effect. If you get really adventurous you could even break out the twinkling H2O's and add more sparkle to the page.
As far as adhesive is concerned, use what you would normally use for acrylic embellishments. KI Gloo, Ranger's Glossy Accents, Diamond Glaze, all wonderful adhesives for working with acrylic. Beware of oozing though – don't get glue too close to the edges or it will ooze and will be noticeable on the acrylic. Keep the Un-du handy. If it's something that will be covered up from the front and back, most any kind of adhesive will work.
Designing a clear album sounds like it could be tricky. It is definitely strategic, but if you play around with how different embellishments look in layers, you'll soon get the hang of it. Some people may find it helpful to start designing from the back of the album and work towards the front for the simple fact that you can see how pages look on top of each other while you're designing and once you finish a page you don't have to go back and make sure it looks ok with other pages added on top.
