Hey there!
Happy hump day!
I’ve got another layout using the April kit to share today.
I was so inspired by Gigi’s post last week & I love her “She jumps” layout!
So I decided to make my own layout inspired by quilting!

Just like Gigi, I broke out out the square punch and punched a bunch of October Afternoon & Pink Paislee paper from the April kit.
I lightly inked the edges (to help the patterns stand out better against each other) and arranged them all over a piece of kraft paper to create the quilted background.
It’s super easy and fun!
And a great way to use your scraps!
You should try it!
:)
Thanks for the inspiration Gigi!
Have a great day!

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

i’m so inspired by the color & pattern combination of handmade quilts.  & i’ve seen around the web that April is quilting month,   so there have been many amazing quilters posting their gorgeous handiwork, including loads of tips & tutorials.  it has been inspiration heaven around the crafting/quilting blog world lately.   i LOVE it!  & it has come at a perfect time for me b/c i’ve got major quilting envy and have been squirreling away fabric for the past few month cutting squares trying to get over the fear of starting my very first quilt.  hopefully i’ll get the nerve to sew my first 2 squares together soon…

but in the meantime, i’ve been doing lots of quilting with patterned paper.

i used a square punch to create a quilted look on my “she jumps” layout in this month’s gallery

and then yesterday i created a little journal to keep all of my quilting dreams, ideas for color combination & pages i’ve been ripping out of magazines.  for the covers i chose to try out one of those freestyle log cabin patterns & it was so fun.  i love how it turned out.  now i really can’t wait try this with fabric!

i LOVE that purple combined with the other colors in this month’s kits….

hope you have a great weekend!  & happy creating!!

xoxo

gi

Like so many of you, I am a huge fan of our sweet design team member Debee Campos and I have always wanted to lift one of her many gorgeous layouts.
So that’s what I am going to do today! Here is the stunning paper layout simply titled *D by Debee Campos:

{♥}

So get comfy as I walk you through a few digital tips on lifting Debee’s layout using Photoshop.

1. Creating a Digital Sticker/Die Cut

I began by extracting some of the flower from the overlay in the Honeychurch kit by using the polygonal lasso tool with the feather set to 0. I altered the right side of the flowers so the edges didn’t look so straight.

I want the flower to resemble the paper flower on Debee’s page so I turned the overlay into a digital sticker/die cut by adding a new layer to the flower overlay and flood filled that layer with white. Drag this white layer below the flower overlay and click on the flower layer preview window in the layers palette to select the flower. Go to Select > Modify > Expand by 25 pixels. Go to Select > Inverse and select your white layer in the layer palette, then hit delete. Right click on the top layer in your layer palette and select Merge Down. Now you are left with a digital flower sticker/die cut.

NOTE: I have added a drop shadow to the overlay so you could see the edges of the sticker/die cut.

2. Cutting Out Pretty Paper Pieces

One of my favorite things to do digitally is to cut out assorted paper pieces and layering them on a page. As you can see on Debee’s layout she has skillfully hand cut strips of paper and layered them on top of each other and then machine sewn them to her page. We can easily replicate this using the polygonal lasso tool in Photoshop.

With the polygonal lasso tool selected and the feather set to 0, I simply made a selection of the paper strip shape I wanted. Once selected, right click inside the selection and click on Layer via Copy from the drop down menu.

Drag your custom made shape over to your layout and position it to your liking. Repeat this step with any other papers, overlays or even the KR bingo cards as I have done on my layout.  By using your polygonal lasso tool, you can create any shape you can think of. I treat the lasso tool as I would a pair of scissors, I am not fussed at all if the lines or shapes don’t appear to be perfect. I can never cut a perfectly straight line with a pair of scissors any way…lol

3. Ink Splatters Without the Mess

If you are a die-hard Debee fan then you know she rocks a can of spray paint like no one else! Well, you too can spray like a pro in Photoshop with just a few brushes. For those of you who have no idea what a Photoshop brush is, the easiest way I can explain it to you is to imagine a paint brush. Now imagine that paint brush has interchangeable tips and the interchangeable tips can come in any shape, size and pattern imaginable. You could even say it is very similar to a stamp. There are loads of websites that offer free brushes and one of my favorite sites is Brusheezy. I chose a few brushes from this site called Splatters and another called Splashes.

Once you have downloaded your brushes and saved them to your computer, all you need to do is select your brush tool from your toolbox and click on your brushes tab to open your brush palette. Click on the drop down menu in your brush palette and select Load Brushes from the menu. Locate where you saved the brushes you downloaded and click on them to load them into your brush palette.

As you can see by my layout I chose to keep my ink spots black. Feel free to experiment with color to suit your needs! I added a little definition to the ink spots by using some grunge type brushes. Instead of selecting the brush tool from the toolbox, I selected the eraser tool and lowered the opacity to 71%. With your eraser tool, you are still able to use your brush presets from your palette which allows you to alter any flat color or object by erasing some of it. Experiment with different types of brushes and opacity’s to achieve so many different effects!

To finish off my layout, I simply added some digital stitching and a few Kenner Road digital elements from Honeychurch Kit, Junk Draw V.1, Tin Flowers, Swallowfield Elements and Bingo Cards as well as the gorgeous background paper from the FREE kit Swallowfield. I love the effect of the digital brushes I used on this page and the best thing is, I didn’t even get my hands dirty!

For those of you who still haven’t given digi a go……please tell me pretty paper pieces and fuzzy mess-free ink splats doesn’t get you a little excited to give it a try! Go on, you can do this!

As always, we love to see what you have created using Kenner Road digital goodies and paper kit goodies, so don’t forget to upload to our flickr group so we can all ooohhh and aaahhhh over your creative talents! Thanks for hanging with me today, I hope I have helped expand your creative thinking!

Diana xo

One of the beauties of digi-scrapping, is once you buy a digital element or paper you will never “run out” of it. Much like a rubber stamp, you can use the digital element over and over again – in various colors and on various papers. Unlike a rubber stamp, you can easily change the size and shape of your digital image. You can even cut-up your digital element and use them in ways not originally intended.

Take for example, this all-digital layout “3 of us”. Notice the stitching that I used as stems for the flowers (from the tin flowers kit by kR) and as stitching on the blue mat for my photo (from junk drawer v. 1 by kR). Then notice the subtle floral pattern on the kraft paper. Each of these elements were cut apart from one of the  12 x 12 overlays included in kR’s Honeychurch digi kit.

Click on any image to see larger view.

Here’s how I did it.

To “cut out” the stitched lines, I used my RECTANGULAR MARQUEE tool (looks like a rectangle of dotted lines on your Tool palette), to select a portion of the overlay I wanted.

Then I hit CTRL + C to copy and CTRL + V to paste on my layout. You can now use this portion of the stitching again and again on your layout. In the layers palette, select the layer with the stitching on it and RIGHT-CLICK. Select DUPLICATE LAYER. A copy of the stitching will be created on a brand-new layer. (OR you could go back and select another portion of the stitching on the original overlay.)

To cut out the floral pattern on the overlay, I  used a different approach. I went back to the original overlay. Hit CTRL + D, to get rid of the marching ants that you used to copy the stitching. Using my ERASER Tool I simply erased the stitching. It was easier for me to do it this way rather than try to select the floral pattern. Then I dragged the floral pattern on to my layout. To make the floral pattern more subtle and blend it into the background paper, I lowered the opacity of the layer to about 30%.

You can also play with the color of the element by selecting IMAGE > ADJUSTMENTS > HUE/SATURATION (or CTRL + U) and playing with all three sliders to get a look you like. For my layout, i wanted the flowers a bit more on the purple side so I played with the HUE slider, moving it slightly to the left.

NOTE: Just remember when you go back to your original file, in this example, the 12 x12 overlay, DO NOT SAVE CHANGES. You want to keep your original intact. Better yet, you can DUPLICATE your image before you start playing and leave the original alone.

Hope this gives you a few ideas on how to make your digital elements a bit more versatile for you! Please let me know if you have any questions!

******

LAYOUT CREDITS:

white fence, blue file:  kenner road’s odds & ends -  junk drawer v.1

stitched overlay: kenner road’s honeychurch kit

flowers: kenner road’s tin flowers kit

title alphas: kenner road’s schoolbox alphas