Pagan Scrapbooking by Deanna Anderson
How to Embellish Your Scrapbooks with Pagan ImagesScrapbooking as a craft, hobby and art form has swept the nation as a favorite pastime. With an estimated 2.5 billion dollars worth of supplies sold in 2003, it can easily be labeled as on of the top crafts and hobbies in the nation. Supplies overflow our stores with albums, decorative pages, equipment, stickers and 3D embellishments, special scissors, glues and pens and a plethora of other gadgets that we don't need but just have to buy. It would seem that if you want it or can conceive it for your scrapbooking collection it can be bought.
With one exception: pagan embellishments are non-existent or hard to find. Generic Christian stickers and embellishments in the form of crosses or churches can usually be found but there are no basic or generic pagan embellishments. Granted, there probably aren't any Jewish or Hindu or Muslim embellishments either and I certainly don't expect companies to try to cater to every religious group and create a sticker collection for them. Normally my scrapbooks contain the things all scrapbookers have: seasons, birthdays, weddings, special events or family photos and the embellishments out there are certainly varied and diverse enough that I can always find something I like or befitting a theme.
However, as a practicing pagan I decided to combine paganism and scrapbooking in two different ways. One is that I have a scrapbook just for pagan events I have attended or of the altars I have created and secondly, I am creating a pagan scrapbook of shadows for my daughters with spells they have done, Gods or Goddesses they like, rituals and events they have been at and I include photos when possible. So, inevitably I want pagan stickers and there are none to be found (not that I have found anyway).
But, regular stickers and embellishments can be used in pagan ways (or other religions) by using a little creativity. In my scrapbooking I have:
1. Used the black kettle from a camping sticker set as a cauldron
2. Bought Easter stickers and used the eggs on a page for my Ostara altar
3. Purchased birthday sticker sets and use the candles on spell or altar pages or for candle magick
4. Stocked up at Halloween time! Granted, most of them are trick-or-treats, costumes, and other traditional Halloween items but I have used witchy stickers on a page showcasing a cauldron collection and for pictures of my and my friends, moon stickers for moon lore pages and a sticker collection of little iconic bottles of "potions" and a sticker with a "recipe" on it for a page with spells.
5. Used pictures of my daughters involving in different activities befitting the elements I used candles and campfire stickers for the fire element page; shovels and sandcastle stickers on the earth page; balloons and clouds on the air page (I used pictures of kids flying kites); water animals, boats and seashells on the water page.
6. Bought Christmas stickers with pine trees and holly for a page with a Yule altar or Yule events.
7. Bought fairy stickers for fairy magic, trees for tree lore and flowers for flower and herb lore.
8. Used gothic style crosses for my daughter who is interested in both Paganism and Christianity.
9. and used stars on everything from altar pictures to special events to spell pages.
10. Looked at using children's stickers: shows like Avatar the Last Airbender, Harry Potter, and Wizards of Waverly Place are rife with magic connotations and their stickers promoting the show might have some usable pagan scrapbooking stickers.
Recently I discovered a true gem in the scrapbook section of my local department store: 3Ddots. They come in a variety of sizes and are meant to make regular flat paper images stick out from the pages like most embellishments do. Now I make my own embellishments.
1. Purchase the dots, at less than $2.00 generally, several packs can be purchased.
2. Look for pagan clipart using search engines like Google.
3. Print out the images on card stock or regular paper and then glue to colored card stock later (if you cut card stock about a ¼ of an inch bigger than the image you will get a nice colored border).
I usually cut and paste several images to a word program and then print them out so I am not wasting paper on one small image.
4. Stick dots around the outer edge of the image and center. There really is no formula for how far apart they should be spaced or how many you use, it really depends on the size of the dots and the size of the image.
5. Peel off the paper and stick to your scrapbook page
This works great for anyone wanting a specific image or something clearly designed for paganism. On creating pages of Mother Nature and Father Time for my daughter this was the idea I used to get their images since there was nothing in regular embellishments I could use. However, the images are supplemented with trees for Mother Nature and a clock for Father Time. Since these images are going into a private scrapbook there is no concern with copyright images, but if you were to sell them or post the images online you would need permission from the creator. Looking for copyright free clipart or using the clipart programs in your computer are best.
Every now and then, organic items can be used as well. Being pagan, nature is very important to us and we are always on the lookout for treasures when taking walks. If feasible, I have used organic items in my pagan scrapbooking.
Leaves or flowers that have been pressed work great. To use these as scrapbook items make sure you are using the protective plastic covers on your pages to further protect the organic materials. Press the leaves or flowers in a flower press or in a large, heavy book until they are flattened and dried. If using a book please sandwich them between either paper towels or waxed paper to protect the pages.
We even have a dragonfly wind that we found! It was just sitting in the dirt, no other parts of the dragonfly were around it and so we took it home. I kept it for a long time before deciding to put it in a scrapbook. My youngest daughter's favorite insect is the dragonfly so I used clear craft varnish to adhere the wing to cardstock and then glued the cardstock to a page with lore and metaphysical attributes of the dragonfly.
Be creative and keep your eyes open, embellishments for pagan scrapbooking can be found but it takes a little more effort than mundane embellishments.