Write. Click. Scrapbook.

Hybrid Week: Let's Get Crafting

This week you've seen how versatile and awesome it is to incorporate some digital supplies and tools into your scrapbooking arsenal.  You saw some ways to incorporate digital typing and brushes onto your photos.  You saw some convenient ways to do hybrid Project Life.  You saw how awesome it is to use any digital graphics you want with your Silhouette. 

Today I will show you a few more hybrid projects you can make.  These are just some examples of items that I have made.  The possibilities really are endless.  You are really only limited by your creativity and imagination. 

DIY Washi Tape - just copy and paste four pieces of digital patterned paper into a 8.5x11 document in Photoshop.  Then print it out on Avery labels.

I used them here on this Smash book page.  You can go to my blog and download the free patterns and print your own tape!

DIY tickets - I designed these in Silhouette Studio and made them print & cut. 

You can see more about these tickets and how I used them in my Project Life here on my blog.

 

DIY Crafting Calling Cards - instead of calling them business cards, these are more like friendship cards.  I made these in Photoshop using digital doodles by Kate Hadfield. I take them to crops and crafty meetups and hand them out to new friends I meet.

They look like this digitally.  The front has several different designs, and the back has my headshot and contact info.  I had them printed at Moo.com.

And this is what they look like in real life.

Every time I give them out, there seems to be smiling and squealing involved.  People love them!

 

DIY Elf Party Souvenirs - we have an annual Elf movie viewing party at our house in December, where we invite friends over for dinner, dessert (involving all the sugar food groups), and Elf-movie-watching.  I used digital doodles by Kate Hadfied (again) and did print & cut with my Silhouette to make these party treat bags.

And I designed these Elf t-shirts in Silhouette Studio.  I cut the Elf shape out using Silhouette's flocked vinyl heat transfer material and ironed them onto the shirts.  I designed the lettering surrounding the graphic and cut out templates using my Silhouette.  Then I used fabric ink on the t-shirts.

 

These are just some examples of how fun it is to incorporate digital tools and graphics into your crafting toolbox!  I hope you will give hybrid crafting a try.  I know that you will love being able to make all these cool DIY projects!

Thanks so much for joining us this week for Hybrid scrapbooking and crafting.  I had so much fun showing you my projects and all the possibilities that can be achieved with digital + paper.  :)

 

 

Hybrid Week header graphics made using digital graphics by Kate Hadfield.

and the giveaway goes to...

Jenifer, congratulations! Will you send an email to us at writeclickscrapbook at gmail dot com? Thank you!

give.away.day. featuring ONE LITTLE BIRD

Now that you've seen all the hybrid scrapbooking and crafting possibilities using digital supplies, we have an awesome giveaway featuring One Little Bird Designs, aka Peppermint Granberg! 

I’ve known Peppermint since 2008, when we were on a few creative teams together.  At the end of 2009 she began designing digital scrapbooking kits, and the rest is history.  I already knew she was an incredibly talented scrapbooker.  But when she showed me her first designs, I was floored by her talent at combining just the right colors, texture, and elements into a kit.  Peppermint sells her digital designs at The Lilypad.  She has also designed journal cards for the Studio Calico monthly Project Life kits.  

Here are some of One Little Bird's latest digital scrapbook kits, along with coordinating journal cards. 

Philosophy digital kit and coordinating journal cards

 

Stargazer digital kit and coordinating journal cards

 

Rise & Shine digital kit and coordinating journal cards

 

Stay Tune digital kit and coordinating journal cards

 

Digital scrapbook kits are not just for scrapbooking.  If you've read the previous posts this week here at Write.Click.Scrapbook., you'll know that the possibilities are endless.  As an example, I made this hybrid birthday card using One Little Bird's Jubilee digital kit and add-on. 

 

Enter to win a $25 gift card to the One Little Bird Designs digital store by leaving a comment here in this post.  Comments will remain open throughout this evening. One lucky number will be drawn at random and posted tomorrow morning. Please remember to check back and claim your number by midnight Tuesday. 

And... Peppermint has generous offered a 20% off coupon code to her store for all our readers!  Just enter the code WCS20 during checkout.  Be sure to use it before it expires on 6/10/2013.

 

Please come back tomorrow for the Hybrid Week wrap-up as I show you more cool hybrid DIY projects!

Hybrid Week: Digital Graphics + The Silhouette

Most of us are familiar with the Silhouette digital cutter.  You can buy shapes from the Silhouette online store and cut the shapes out using your paper stash.  But did you know that the Silhouette works with any digital graphics? 

The first way I use digital products with my Silhouette is to use black & white png/jpeg files to trace and cut shapes.  The ability to trace & cut inside the Silhouette Studio software is what makes this tool so powerful.  It means you can cut out any digital graphics you desire!

I love this set of digital arrow sentiments by Ali Edwards and wanted to incorporate the "love this" arrow into a paper layout.

So I dragged the png file into my Silhouette Studio software and performed a trace to get the cut outline.  (If you are unsure how to do that, you can see a video tutorial on Ali's blog.)

I cut the shape out with some patterned paper and adhered it to my Polaroid photo on my layout.  This one is actually a little sneak peek into my June layout for the Write.Click.Scrapbook. gallery!

I used these png edged border files by Amy Martin to trace and cut.

I resized them to 6 inches and cut them out with various patterned papers.  I ended up sewing these borders onto 4x6 cardstock to make custom journal cards!

You can trace & cut any digital shape you want.  This opens up your Silhouette cutting possibilities to any digital file you can find/purchase on the internet!  For this layout, I found a map of California on the internet and traced the cut outline in Silhouette Studio. 

A second way to incorporate digital graphics with your Silhouette machine is to use the print & cut function.  This is very similar to trace & cut, but you would use colored digital graphics, and you would only trace the outline versus everything.  After tracing the outline of the digital graphics, you would turn on the registration marks in the Silhouette Studio software.  Then print out the graphics with the registration marks using your regular printer.  Put the sheet back onto your Silhouette cutting mat and let the machine detect the registration marks so it knows where to cut.  I will show you a few examples.

Using these Everyday Story Doodles by Lauren Grier.

I traced the cut outlines in Silhouette Studio.  Then I printed out the sheet and had the Silhouette cut it.

I did the same thing using other various graphics from The Lilypad.

I created a video tutorial on how to print & cut any digital graphics using the Silhouette for The Lilypad blog.  You can find it here or on youtube here. 

More print & cut diecuts using digital graphics.

Which I used to make these two cards.

My coolest print & cut project was probably doing a whole hybrid 12x12 layout using digital scrapbooking supplies.  For this project I used the digital kit "For The Record" by One Little Bird and Paislee Press.  First I created a digital layout in Photoshop so I get the sizing and placement correctly on my page.

Next I placed all the elements I want to print & cut onto a separate 8.5x11 canvas in Photoshop.  I saved the 8.5x11 as a jpeg file.

Then I opened up the file in Silhouette Studio and traced the cut outlines.

Then I printed the page with the registration marks.  After that I put the sheet back onto my Silhouette cutting mat and sent it through my Silhouette machine to cut.

Then I created my hybrid page by placing and adhering all my elements onto white cardstock and adding other embellishments such as punched glitter paper, wood veneers, twine, paint, and sewing.

A third way to use digital graphics with the Silhouette is to trace the digital graphics and then use the Silhouette sketch function to draw them onto paper with a pen.  I made some cards using this method and some digital frames from The Lilypad.

Silly Frilly Frames by Valorie Wibbens

Thin Doodley Frames by Jacque Larsen

I traced the graphics inside my Silhouette Studio software.  Then I used a Chomas pen holder and used some Sakura glitter pens to draw the shapes onto white cardstock.

I arranged them so that I got two cards out of 8.5x11 cardstock.

After the Silhouette sketching was done, I just cut the sheet in half, folded both of them, and adhered some other digital elements I had print & cut (see above) using dimensional foam adhesive.

I hadn't gotten enough of the Silhouette sketching using the doodled frames, so I used some more digital graphics and made some sketched 3x4 journal cards for Project Life using more Sakura glitter pens.

 

These hybrid projects incorporating digital graphics with the Silhouette opens up a world of possibilities!  I love everything about it.

 

 Hybrid Week header graphics made using digital graphics by Kate Hadfield.

Hybrid Week: Project Life

Project Life, or photo pocket scrapbooking that incorporates photos + journal cards, is a perfect way for digi-scared beginners to jump into hybrid scrapbooking!  There are so many awesome printable journal cards out there, both free and for a small amount of money.  All you have to do is search printable journal cards on Pinterest or on Google to see a plethora of choices.  A lot of digital scrapbooking stores have sections just for journal cards, Project Life, or printables now.  A few examples are the journaling cards and Project 365 sections at The Lilypad, the Project Everyday section at Sweet Shoppe Designs, and the journal cards, InstaLife, and Project 365/52/12 sections at Scrap Orchard. The American Crafts Becky Higgins branded Project Life products are also now available digitally at AC Digitals. 

So how do you incorporate digital items into your Project Life album?  Let me give you some examples.

The most basic and easiest form of incorporating digital items is to use them on your photos before printing them out.  This can take the form of simply typing out journaling, using digital brushes/png overlays on top of your photos, or using a tablet to doodle on your photos. 

For my 2013 Project Life Title Page, I used a very simple font to type out a favorite quote that spanned over all my photos.  I lowered the opacity of the font so that you can still see the photos underneath them.  I love how it looks all together on the page!

For this photo, I created a banner on a separate layer on top of the photo in Photoshop.  I changed the opacity of the banner to around 70% so you can see through to the photo for a vellum-esque effect.  Then I typed my journaling and printed out my photo.

For this photo of my cat Noodle, I combined digital handwriting ("Noodle") with typed journaling on top of the photo.  I always love to also put the date right onto the photo as well.

I often hear scrapbookers complain about not liking their handwriting, or not being able to fit a lot of journaling.  Typing your journaling in MS Word or Photoshop, and then printing them out onto your traditional paper journal cards, is an answer to that dilemma. 

I have a video tutorial on my blog that shows you my step-by-step of printing journaling onto journal cards.  Liz Tamanaha also has a tutorial on her blog using a different method.  There are other tutorials out there too, just google around and see.

If you like typed journaling on journal cards, why not take it to the next step and use digital journal cards?  I dragged 6 3x4 digital journal cards onto a 8.5x11 canvas in Photoshop.  Then I typed journaling right onto the journal cards in there and printed them out.  All I needed to do was trim them and put them into my Project Life album!

Another example.

This is what they end up looking like in my album.  I love the ease and how much of the story I can fit by typing them!

You can also create your own journal cards using digital graphics. For the journal card on the right, I used a hamburger, french fries, and a drink from some digital doodles by Kate Hadfield.  I created a 3x4 canvas in Photoshop and just dragged my digital graphics onto my canvas, sized them to the proper size, and added my journaling.

I also love to incorporate social media into my Project Life album.  Here I took a screenshot of a status update and pasted it onto a 3x4 canvas in Photoshop.

For these pockets about running, I created the photo effect in Photoshop.  I also pasted a screenshot of my Daily Mile page onto a 3x4 canvas in Photoshop to print out.

Another DIY journal card.  This one is 4x6 and incorporates a movie poster graphic downloaded from the internet, along with my review of the movie.

I know many digital scrapbookers who do their 12x12 Project Life pages completely digital.  Then they send the pages off to get them printed.  Once they receive the prints, then slip them into regular 12x12 scrapbook page protectors and into their album.

In a similar vein, I thought it would be fun to do a complete Project Life spread digitally.  I did this on a 12x24 canvas in Photoshop.

Since I don't have a wide-format printer to print 12x12 pages, I sliced up the pieces in Photoshop into 4x6 and 3x4 and printed them out and put them into my Project Life album.  I thought this was quite clever!  :)

Closer look.  The whole thing was created digitally!

One final way to incorporate digital methods into your Projec Life album is to create photo collages in Photoshop.  I love to do a 8.5x11 Month-In-Review page every month to insert into my Project Life album.  I type journaling and print it out onto both the front and back of my 8.5x11 cardstock base, leaving room for the photo collage. 

Then I print my photo collage out and cut them and adhere them to both sides. The insert ends up looking like this, summarizing my awesome month!  I use Lightroom to create my photo collage, but if you are looking for a Month-In-Review template for PS/PSE that incorporates both the photos and the journaling, you can find templates by One Little Bird Designs here and here.

I know this post was long, but I hope you are inspired to give hybrid Project Life a try.  It is so versatile and a perfect way to jump into using digital items if you are scared of it. 

 

 

 Hybrid Week header graphics made using digital graphics by Kate Hadfield.

Hybrid Week: What Is Hybrid Scrapbooking?

Hi everyone!  Christine here, hosting a week about hybrid scrapbooking and crafting!  You may have heard the term "hybrid" scrapbooking before.  But what does it mean?  It sounds kind of mysterious!  I'm here this week to demystify "hybrid" for you!  Simply put, "hybrid" just means combining digital + paper to create a scrapbook page, cards, or any other craft project. 

So why would anyone want to do hybrid scrapbooking?  Here are some reasons.

1. You don't need to buy a bunch of physical supplies like traditional scrapbooking.  All you need is a computer, a printer, and some digital graphics.  You print what you need and you don't waste paper.  It's actually quite environmentally friendly!
2. It's inexpensive.  Buying only the digital graphics you need and printing only what you need for your projects saves money.
3. It's instant gratification.  It is 11pm and you finally have some time to yourself to make a page.  You don't have the exact graphics you need, but you find it online at a digital scrapbooking store and purchase and download it right away.
4. You can make highly customized and personalized projects using digital graphics, such as custom digital cut-outs and t-shirts.
5. You are already using your computer to process and print photos, why not take it to the next step?

For me personally, I started scrapbooking digitally in 2006.  It wasn't until 2011 that I integrated traditional paper scrapbooking into my life.  Just like in life, I don’t like to limit myself or pigeonhole myself into categories that can be counter-productive to creativity. I love to use whatever tools are available to me to be creative, whether that means digital or physical items.  I am a scrapbooker and life-documenter. It doesn’t matter to me whether I’m documenting my life on my blog, on a digital layout, a paper layout, a hybrid Project Life album, or any combination of the above and more. I use digital tools like Photoshop, Lightroom, Illustrator, Silhouette digital cutter, and even my iPad to help me create both digital and physical products to put on my pages. It’s exciting to me that we live in a time where we have all these tools at our disposal to create anything our heart desires. The line between digital and paper scrapbooking is very blurry for me. Almost all photos are digital now. So if you process your photos digitally, and add some journaling on it and print it out, are you paper or digital? Both!

A very simple way of hybrid scrapbooking is just typing journaling onto your photos before printing them out.  You can also use digital brushes, or just doodle on the photos yourself using Photoshop or PSE, or even your iPad.  I do this for photos in my Project Life album a lot.

Using Ali Edwards Beach Outline Banners.

My own handwriting using a Wacom Bamboo Tablet on my computer, plus typing the day and date.

A combination of my own handwriting and typed journaling.

What do all these projects have in common?  They all involved a computer and some digital tools!  

 

I'm very excited to host this week of hybrid scrapbooking/crafting with you!  I can't wait to show you more projects using digital + paper, including Project Life, cards, layouts, Silhouette print & cut, and other fun crafts!

 

Hybrid Week header graphics made using digital graphics by Kate Hadfield.

and the giveaway goes to...

Congratulations, Jill! Please email us at writeclickscrapbook at gmail dot com. Thank you!

Sunday Photo + Words

In Review

With just one week left this month, it is that time again. That time where we take one last look at the gallery before we celebrate a new one. Shall we begin?

 

This month we celebrated all things daily. Routines. Repeat adventures. The tedious. The average. The little things that fill our days and our lives. To make our lookback more educational, we have included a tip that you can use to help you better understand what makes a great page. We hope you enjoy the last look.

Hope you enjoyed our gallery walk! Until next month...

Prepping for Father's Day (day IV)

Thank you for joining us for our week of Father's Day preparation. We hope you have been inspired to create something magical for Father's Day.

 

To finish our week, we wanted to leave you with some suggestions for getting a photo that you will love this year. We hear the same excuses you do concerning photos. While we might worry about the weight we have gained, our lovely husbands worry about the hair they have lost. ☺ They may shy away from the camera for myriad reasons, but we know we want them remembered, too. Here are a few thoughts.

• ask your husband or father to read a book to your kids and get a picture of them snuggled up in a chair or on their bed
• get a photo of your husband (alone or with kids) while doing his favorite activity. It's less pressure when the timing is right.
• consider photos without faces. Zoom in on an embrace, or from behind while he holds a little hand. He doesn't have to be looking into the lens for it to be a perfectly memorable photo.
• look for an everyday moment to capture--pouring milk on cereal, sitting to eat, grilling, reading, stretched out on the couch--and let it be imperfectly perfect 
• hand your camera to your kids. They are unstoppable!
• lead by example. You might have to get in that photo, too!!

 

And once you have that photo, you need a story to go with it. Your journaling doesn't have to match the date for the photo, nor the event. Here are a few ideas for page starters.

• set a timer for 30 seconds and make a list of all the things you love about your dad
• reset the timer and make a second list of lessons you learned from your dad
• record your feelings about seeing your husband become a father. Include things you knew to expect and then a few things that surprised you.
• remember a time that your father's actions helped demonstrate the kind of man that he truly was
• finish the following sentence: When I grew up I wanted to be just like my dad in that...

 

Lastly, don't forget to put it all together in a layout. 

Thank you for joining us this week! We hope we have helped you get ready! See you tomorrow for a gallery walk!