Clear albums are the hottest new trend in scrapbooking and mixed media art. Clear albums and pages are typically made of acrylic, acetate or other clear synthetic material. You can use them to create

• Scrapbooks
• Mini Books
• Altered Books
• Diaries
• Art Journals
• Planners
• Calendars
• Collage Art
• Mixed Media Art

Removing the Protective Coating From Your Clear Album

When you buy your first clear album, you are likely to find that it doesn’t look clear at first glance. Upon closer examination, you will see that the album’s pages are coated with either paper, plastic or another substance to protect them. The paper may be sticky and challenging to remove. I purchased my first clear album on ebay from Inkognito Art, and I emailed the seller to ask for tips on how to remove the paper. The seller suggested that I try wetting the paper a bit before attempting to peel it off.

I tried that, with not much success. I finally found a method that worked better for me: take some clear packaging tape and attach it to the outermost edges of the album in such a way that the tape hangs over the edges. Then peel off the tape plus the sticky paper. If your album is a complex shape this step may need to be repeated several times for each page.

Designing With Clear Albums

Clear albums pose some unique design challenges that other types of scrapbooks do not. Most scrapbook pages are done on paper that isn’t see-through, so you never have to worry about what the adhesive looks like, or be concerned that anything will show through from the back. The greatest challenge with designing for clear albums is that anything you put on the front of the page can clearly be seen from the back of the page. So, if you don’t design carefully, you could end up with a bit of a mess. On the other hand, a well-designed clear album allows for a whole new level of SPECTACULAR that you just cannot achieve with an ordinary album. Clear albums will allow you to layer and collage in a whole new way.