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Scrapbooking Rub-Ons

Scrapbooking rub-ons can be applied to various surfaces. It's a popular scrapbooking technique used to embellish scrapbooking pages.

How's rub-ons different from stickers? With stickers, you just peel and stick on but they have a rather obvious outline/ring. Rub-ons are flat and you need to use a tool such as a popsicle stick to rub over the text to transfer.

So rub-ons have the advantage of looking like printed or handwritten text which gives a clean look. And you can apply them almost anywhere on your page.

Rub-ons come in many sizes, colours and shapes but alphabets are the most popular rub-ons. Alphabet rub-ons are truly versatile and you can apply them to your titles, as a monogram, as part of your journaling, or as descriptive words on your photos.

The Good and Bad of Scrapbook Rub-Ons

Rub-ons can be easy yet slightly tricky to use.

Easy because you just have to place the rub-on where you want it, use the popsicle stick to rub over the letter or word, and it'll transfer to your page.

Since they can transfer to most surfaces, you can apply them anywhere on your page or customize them as embellishments. Use them on cardstocks, patterned papers, ribbons, metals, and other embellishments.

Rub-ons can be tricky to use because, if you don't rub-on well enough, part of the text won't adhere and you'll end up with missing portions. The permanency of rub-ons also makes it quite hard to remove. As you usually have to set the whole sheet of rub-ons on your layout to rub out your desired letter/word, other letter/word on the sheet might stray onto your layout.

So if you've never used scrapbook rub-ons before, practice on scrap paper till you get the hang of it, before applying to your layout.

Steps to Applying Rub-Ons to Your Scrapbook Page

Step 1 - Find a flat surface to work on. Place your cardstock or accent on the flat surface.

Step 2 - Peel the backing off from the sheet of rub-ons. Position the letter/word over the desired spot. To prevent stray rub-ons, you might want to cover the other portions of your layout. Or you can cut out the letter/word from the sheet before application. Simply cut out both the plastic overlay and backing at the same time.

Step 3 - Use the enclosed tool such as a popsicle stick or you can use a bone-folder, embossing stylus or even your fingernail, and rub over the sheet until you see the desired rub-on peels away completely from the sheet.

Step 4 - Gently lift off the sheet from your project. If you notice any missing part that didn't come off well, reposition the sheet carefully and rub again.

Step 5 - To make sure the rub-ons are totally flat, use the back of the backing sheet, place over your finished work and burnish.

How to Fix Mistakes for Scrapbooking Rub-ons?

OK, your rub-on didn't come off as perfect. Don't panic.

Carefully reposition the sheet of rub-ons over the spot and rub again for the missing part.

For those mistakes where you can't do that, here's some suggestions:

To remove strayed or damaged rub-ons from your page, use an adhesive tab. Carefully press and lift the strayed or unwanted rub-on.

Alternatively, you can use Un-Du Adhesive Remover which is considered a life-saver by some scrapbookers. It can remove your rub-on mistakes while your page still remains intact.

To repair missing parts for black or white text rub-on, use a black or white jelly roll pen to write or trace over those parts that didn't come off well.

If all the above failed to work, you just have to cover up your mistakes, which are incidentally part of the scrapbooking process. Covering up our mistakes and creatively turning them into a design. ;)

Granted scrapbooking rub-ons have some bad bits but I believe their good sides more than make up as a easy scrapbooking technique which beginners can use.

As with most things, experiment and have fun and you might fall in love with how easily scrapbooking rub-ons transfer to many surfaces, and give off a neat and clean look to your pages!

To look at a large collection of yummy rub-ons by different brands, you might want to look at scrapbook rub-ons from Scrapbook.com.