What Are Brads? And What Do I Do With Them?

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beginner's scrapbooking, how to scrapbook, scrapbook supplies, Scrapbooking, scrapbooking for dummies, starting scrapbooking

Allow me to introduce my favorite scrapbook embellishment. Everyone, This is Brad.

Brad, this is Everyone.

Actually, this is my box of scrapbooking brads.  I like to have them sorted by color rather than size or shape because you can easily know what color would look good on your page, and then you can explore which shape/texture/size would be best.

Brads come in LOTS of different shapes, textures, and colors. Have a look.

Here we have squares, flowers, circles, polka dots, fabric covered, shiny metal, brushed metal, and jeweled.  And that’s just a small sampling of the possibilities.

It’s occurring to me now that I didn’t take a picture of the basic brad. They are the ones I use most often, just a basic circle of color. Either regular size–like you’d find in office stores, but colors–or tiny, about the size of a, well, I can’t think of anything that’s that size.

Oh, y’know the holes where the spiral binding goes through a spiral notebook. Or the dimple on a AA battery. They’re about that size.

Anyway. You can use brads in lots of different ways. You can attach ribbons and fibers. You can use them to punctuate the corners of photos, or you can use them as dots on the page. 

Here’s how you do it.

Put the point of the brad where you want it on your paper.

Press the brad all the way into the paper. Then turn over the page.

Now separate the little arms of the brad. And bend them down in different directions.

Like so.

When you turn the page over, the brad is securely fixed where you want it.

Ta-Dah!

Are you ready to move on to actual scrapbooking now?  Let’s make a page tomorrow.  🙂