One of my all-time favorite hybrid projects is the hybrid mini. They are quick to make and oh-so-cute! I especially love those that fit in the palm of your hand like this tiny mini book (“sweet day”) that I made about my girls enjoying some Valentine’s Days chocolates and other goodies.

Here’s how I did it.

1) To make the background pages, I used a clipping mask to cut my papers into a die-cut shape.

In Photoshop, place the patterned paper you want to clip on a layer above your clipping mask. Your clipping mask could be a purchased element you have in your stash or you can create your own shape using the Custom Shape Tool.  For example, let’s say I want my pages to be oval like the “hoop” in the Junk Drawer kit. I would open and drag the hoop onto a 8.5 x 11 document. Then open and drag a patterned paper onto the layer above the clipping mask. With the patterned paper selected, I would hit CTRL + ALT + G (in Photoshop) or CTRL + G (in Photoshop Elements). Repeat this with different patterned papers until you get something that looks like this. (For my mini, I used a clipping mask already in my stash.)

Alternatively, you could print out your papers FIRST and then use a punch or die-cutting machine to cut out your shaped pages.

2) Now it’s time to add your photos and the digital elements you want to print out. I opened the photos and other digital elements I wanted and dragged them onto my document. I re-sized them so that they will fit my foundation pages. For my mini, I used elements from Honeychurch, Schoolbox Alphas and bingo cards from Odds and Ends: Bingo Cards.

An easy way to “frame” your photos is to add a stroke. With your photo selected, hit EDIT >STROKE.  Change the width to about 20 pixels. Choose your color. I sampled the color from kR’s schoolbox alphas to get a vintage looking frame. “Location” should be “outside.

For my cover photo, I added part of my title “sweet” using Schoolbox alphas, which I cropped to show only one side of the alphas. Later, I would spell out the rest of the title “day” using tiny alphas stickers.

3) Once your document is filled with digital goodies, print it out on the paper of your choice. I used matte photo paper. Then cut each element out.

4) Now for the fun part! Assemble all your pages, adding bits from your stash like alphas, ribbons, trim, distress ink. Don’t be afraid of crumpling up your printed elements for added dimension or using pop dots. For the photos that I added a stroke, I distressed the edges a little with distress ink and a distress tool.

Then glue your pages back-to-back. Punch holes in your pages and bind your mini using baker’s twine and you’re done!

***

Credits:

Digital (all by Kenner Road):

Honeychurch

Odds and Ends: Bingo Cards

Schoolbox Alphas

Physical:

Kenner Road Garden Party Add-on

Matte photo paper: Epson

Tiny alphas: Making Memories

Distress ink: Ranger

Distress tool: Heidi Swapp

Hole punch: Cropadile

Other: Trim, staples, baker’s twine

This entry was posted on Monday, April 26th, 2010 at 7:54 am by cathy and is filed under Uncategorized, creative team, digital scrapbook. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.