Category: Tutorials

June 4, 2016

Hybrid How-To | Cushion Covers

I know most of the world is coming into summer now, but where I live we have the most beautiful autumns and I wanted to make some decor to celebrate that.

I make a lot of my cushion covers; they are so easy to do. Today, I will show you how!

First, I design the cushion cover in Photoshop. My printer prints up to A3, so that’s the size of the page I start with. For this project, I used Grateful Papers by Little Lamm & Co. and Wondrous Stamp Sheet by Karla Noél.

After creating the design, I cut fabric to A3 size. Make sure your fabric is ironed completely flat and stuck to the paper with double sided tape. The top edge should be stuck right to the edge of the paper. Print your design onto the fabric.

*NOTE* The ink will not be colorfast, so if it gets wet… it WILL run. You can use transfer paper if you want your design more colorfast, but I change mine around often, so its not a big deal for me. If mine gets wet, I just make a new one!

You will also need to cut a back for your cushion cover. I purchased a small cushion from IKEA that already had a pattern on it and wanted to make sure the pattern didn’t show through on the front, so I cut an extra piece of calico. Cut them slightly larger than your design to allow room for seams.

hybrid cushion covers

To make my cover look a bit more quilted I decided to sew where the different papers meet. Do this on the front so you can see where you need to sew.

When you are happy with your design, put the ‘right’ sides of your fabric together and sew around the edges, making sure you leave a large enough gap to put the cushion in.

Turn your cover inside out, paying attention to the corners, stuff your cushion inside and hand stitch up the gap.

Untitled-5

Voila!

Amanda

About the Author Amanda found digital scrapbooking in 2006 as a paper scrapper who was frustrated with the limitations of paper scrapping products. She now loves to combine paper and digital products and techniques for her pages and projects. She is the wife of a Naval Officer and has two teenage children. She lives in Australia, and has also lived in the U.S and Malaysia and loves that she has had the opportunity to travel the world with her family.

May 31, 2016

Tutorial Tuesday | Shadowing Transparent Items

Have you ever noticed that the preset shadows don’t work so well with vellum and other transparent elements? I struggled with it for a long time, and although I can’t profess I have mastered it all… I do have a trick or two to share with you today.

For this tutorial, I am working on a layout using River~Rose’s fabulous new collection Pursuit of Happiness…

In the following image, my layout is almost complete… and as you can see there are a couple of transparent acrylic elements on the page — the heart and the ampersand. With preset shadows in Photoshop, my layout looks like this…

Now the biggest quibble I have is that dark shadow showing through the transparent acrylic element. See how “grey” it looks? Logically, any transparent/translucent object that lets light through shouldn’t throw such a defining shadow. And that’s what we need to modify.

Step 1

First, you will separate out the shadow from the element (i.e. put it in its own layer). I do this using Photoshop CS2 (old free version of Photoshop!), and then open up my layout again in Photoshop Elements (PSE), which is what I’m showing my steps in for the screenshots in this tutorial. Once you have your shadow on a separate layer, you will press CTRL and select the element thumbnail in the layers panel. This will make the “marching ants” appear around the element, like this…

Step 2

Now, with that selection still on, you will click on the shadow to “cut away” the selection. Now you have two layers of shadow: one that shows immediately beneath the element, and the peripheral shadow that sticks out around it. We want this peripheral shadow to be pronounced — while at the same time downplaying the central part (see layer 2 in the screen shot).

Step 3

We can do this next part more than way…
a) Hide the shadow that appears under the ampersand entirely (as shown in the screen shot below)
a) Decrease its opacity (see top right of the layers panel and play with the slider till you like the effect)
c) If your transparent element is on a solid paper or background, it helps to recolor this part of the shadow in darker hue of the same color.

Play around till you are happy with the result you achieve.
Screen shot 3

And voila! …here’s my final layout. Compare this layout with the copy at the beginning of this tutorial, and see if you can see the subtle yet noticeable difference this makes…
Happiness-is-final layout

I hope you found today’s tips to be useful! If you have your own tricks about shadowing transparent items, please do share them. I would love to try out something new.

Until next time, then… happy scrapping!

About the author Shivani Sohal is a donner of many alter-egos. A finance professional by day in busy London, she morphs into a seemingly normal mum of two in the evenings and weekends. She is constantly found with her fingers in too many pies and juggling the metaphorical balls. That is living on the edge for her; aided by the two ankle biters and a darling hubby who define the warm and mushy for her. She is ferociously dedicated to memory keeping – almost immune to any nay-sayers (or equally disruptive crying children or annoying house fires!!!); keeping her head down and forging ahead at all times.

May 17, 2016

Tutorial Tuesday | Libraries

If you are like me and working on multiple albums at the same time, you will no doubt have experienced the following problem — in which you cannot remember the basic technical specifications for each of your albums. For example… you may be working daily on a pocket-scrapping project, and then also go back to do a page in your recipe book and find that you have forgotten what font you were using (or what shadow styles you were using, etc.). It’s frustrating to constantly need to go back to a previously-completed page to check out all this information before you can start a new page, right?

If the above description is you, then I have a great tip – Setup Photoshop CC Libraries.

I discovered this feature early in the year and now use it on a regular basis.

So what are libraries?

Libraries can be used in many ways, but for me they are basically collections of style presets for the photo books/albums that I am working on. They can be accessed in the top right-hand corner of the page, and are on a tab next to “Adjustments” and “Style” (*NOTE* to enable libraries you may first have to select Window/Libraries).

Here, you can see how I have setup my “Project Life 2016” library…

As you can see, I have added the “character” and “layer styles” that I regularly use to this library collection… but you can also add things such as “colors” and “smart objects,” as well.

HOW TO DO THIS

1. Set up your Libraries

Click on the Libraries tab, and then click anywhere in the text box to bring up the dialogue with “Create New Library.” Select this option and name your new library. You can set up as many libraries as you like. For myself, I have created libraries for my “Project Life 2016,” “Penang Travel Book,” “Recipe Book,” and “One Little Word Book.”

2. Add items to your Library

There are 2 methods that I use to add items to my libraries.

The first is to add all styles from a document. I used this at the beginning of the year when I had started my “Project Life 2016” book, and already had some complete pages. To do this… open your completed layout and (after you have created your library) select the first icon with the upward arrow at the bottom of the libraries panel. All styles from your page will automatically be added to your library. You can then go in and modify them by right-clicking on each library style item.

The second method — which happens to be the one which I use more often — is to add items individually to the library. To do this, you select the layer in the layers panel of the style you wish to add to the library. Then just click on the relevant icon at the bottom of the libraries panel to add it to the library. If you mouse over the icons, you can see there is one for Graphics, Character Style, Layer Style and Color.

Now comes the fun part…

3. Use your library of styles

I find the easiest way is to apply the style after adding the photo or text to a page. For example, I add text to a page using any font. Once text input is complete and text layer is still selected in layer panel, all you need to do is click on the font style you want to use in the library and the font automatically changes. Simple!

You can also apply the effect across multiple layers. So, for example, I have created my own templates for “Project Life 2016” …but each photo layer has a shadow layer style. To use these templates for my flat graphic style this year, I open a template in Photoshop, select all photo layers and then click on the “Grey Stroke no shadow” layer style within my library. This year’s stroke style is now applied to all my photo layers, instead of last year’s shadow.

Isn’t this easy? It’s such a time saver, too.

I hope that you find using Libraries as helpful as I have. Enjoy!

About the author Carolyn lives with her partner, eldest daughter, and 3 rescue dogs on 5 acres of paradise in the hinterland of the Sunshine Coast, Australia. Her camera, along with an assortment of lenses, is never out of sight. When not taking photos, she loves cooking and gardening and, of course, scrapbooking.

May 10, 2016

Composition in Square Scrapbook Layouts

When I’m looking to make a successful composition in a photograph, one of my go-to tactics is to use the Rule of Thirds to find a place to put my focus of interest. But, with the rise of the square format in recent years, I’ve been looking for alternative ideas and it struck me that, with the dominance of the square format in scrapbooking, that these ideas can apply in my other hobby too.

Apparently, when we look at a image in landscape orientation, we scan from left-to-right. If the image is portrait, we scan from top-to-bottom. Because of this, it can be advantageous to put elements in the image (or layout) on the right for landscape and towards the bottom for portrait. This stops the gaze travelling out the other side of the image and on to something else! But in a square image, the eye is much more likely to move in a circle around the image, this means that we don’t have to worry so much about the viewer wandering off, but it means that we have to think about how we guide the viewer around the frame or page in a slightly different way. It can sometimes have the effect of making the image less dynamic. Depending on our intent, that can be useful – or it might be something we need to counteract.

So, what are we trying to achieve? We need to work out what the focus of our layout is. Often it’s the photograph itself, but it could be the journalling, the title-work or even a part of the photograph if we’re using a large image. Once we know that, we can use the papers and elements to guide our viewer around the layout to finally arrive at our focal point.

Let’s look at some examples from The Digital Press’ Creative Team:

In this layout, Arielle has used a frame within the layout to effectively turn a square layout into a more dynamic rectangle.

Next, Hillary’s use of strong rectangles results again, in a dynamic composition where we scan down the page and then back up to focus on the adorable photos. The brights reds of the repeated flowers contrast against the more subtle colours of the rest of the layout to ensure that we’re focussing on the most important part of the page.

This layout from Bao, shows clearly the calming effect of placing the focal point in the centre. Her subtle use of color and minimalist design reinforces that feeling.

Biancka has a rectangle within her square frame, but in this layout, her positioning of her papers and elements have, along with the white space around them, defined the area without need for an actual frame or mat.

When using a larger photo, it can be sometimes harder to define where the focal point of the layout should be. Rae has used the face of her lovely dog and the elements around the edge draw my eye in a circle in to connect with his gaze.

Of course, one of the best things about scrapbooking is that we can use all these rules to give us a starting point, we can adhere to them strictly or we can ignore them completely and do whatever makes us happy! It’s worth stepping away from your layout for a while though. You’ll come back with fresh eyes and when you open it up again, think about how your eye travels around the layout and see if you can move anything around to guide the viewer to exactly where you want them to look.

About the Author Jude is part of the creative team here at The Digital Press. She lives in the UK with her husband and two fantastic girls. She loves traveling, and would be off in her campervan every weekend if she could get away with it. She loves time spent exploring new places, trying new experiences and photographing them! She also spends too much time on the computer, and still doesn’t go running as often as she says she’s going to.

May 7, 2016

Hybrid Saturday | Easy Hybrid Hacks For Digital Layouts

Hello and happy Saturday! Arielle here, getting all “hybrid~y” today, as I show some techniques for turning digital layouts into hybrid. Sometimes I think certain layouts are far too awesome to be stuck in an album – they should be featured on my walls or given as gifts. But I like to jazz them up a little before I stick them in a frame!

Today I will show you two hybrid layouts based on this all digital layout, and show you some of my fail-proof tips for adding just the perfect amount of pop!

It’s great if you already have a layout you’d like to use, but if not, you can certainly start from scratch! Alex loved this layout so much, that I decided to “hybrid~ize” it for his room. I used the kit Game On by Inside Pixels by Lisa Bell. What a great soccer kit for boys! (She needs to do one for gals, doesn’t she? wink, wink!)

When you know what you’re using, gather your crafty supplies! I used:

Thin cardstock
Tissue , vellum, and other assorted papers
Adhesives (I used a Xyron machine, ATG gun & dimensionals)
Scissors and paper trimmer
Other embellishments such as enamel dots or buttons.
photos
layout base

When I do a hybrid layout, I always start with creating the digital layout. That one’s for the albums. Then I decide what the base of my layout will be. Either printed on 8.5×11″ at home or on photo paper. I did one of each for this layout.

The pros for paper are:

You can write, stamp, paint without destroying it
You can print it at home
Much cheaper

The pros for photo are:

Colors are more vivid
Is nice and glossy
Lasts longer, perhaps?

First up is the paper based layout. I decide before I print, what layers/elements I will leave, and what I will print separately and add on. For this, all the elements, photos and the two paper layers under the photos were removed (the text remained, along with the stitching and the frame and background soccer paper) from the digital layout before printing. Then everything was printed and adhered back on.

This one is an 8×10″ photo base. I printed this exactly the same, except I also left the two papers that are layered under the photos. (That way, I know those paper will match up, and save me a little time.) They are all shadowed, too. You can’t tell too much of a difference between the two layouts in these photos, but I love the look of the one with the photo base, the shadows really pop!

Now onto the fun stuff!

HACK ONE – POP IT UP!

Adding a little bit of height is a great way to jazz up your hybrid layout… it will also create more interesting shadows! You can use a thin dimensional – say 1/8″ or so, and it will still fit in a regular frame. But not much more than two additional layers above the base, otherwise it will get a squashed look. (Of course, if you’re putting it in a shadow box – go crazy with the layers!)

HACK TWO – PRINT ON VELLUM

You can easily add some pop by printing on vellum! It’s so fun to get a little peek of what’s underneath the vellum, it’s a classy little hack! (After I printed the vellum stars, arrow and soccer ball, I put a few of them in my palm, one at a time with the image up, and pressed into the middle of it a little, so it wouldn’t sit so flat on my layout.)

HACK THREE: PRINT ON TISSUE PAPER

Last month on the blog, I showed off a technique for making your own washi. (In this post) I made a couple small pieces and you can see one below. Yes, it may sound like a lot of trouble, but they do match the kit – LOL! I loved this soccer ball pattern! But you could always use any washi you have!

HACK FOUR: ADD EASY LITTLE DETAILS

I love adding buttons or enamel dots to hybrid layouts. Or paint, glitter and stiching. It’s fun to shake up the whole paper thing with some actual hardware ~ to me it creates a Trompe-l’œil effect. It’s interesting to see people trying to figure out what is real and what’s printed. (Text or overlays on photos is another great detail, too.)

Now it’s your turn! Want to try your hand at a hybrid layout? It can be as easy and as simple as you want it to be! Please come join us in The Digital Press’s forum for a fun challenge related to this tutorial! You can create an amazing item for yourself or someone you love AND earn points doing it! Points can later be cashed-in for discount coupons to the shop at the end of the month if you participate in the challenge system at The Digital Press!

About the author Arielle H Gordon is a wife and mom of two crazy kiddos, ages 6 & 7. She moved around (a lot!) before returning to settle down in her hometown of Enterprise, Alabama, to marry her sweetheart and start her family. She is an avid crafter — digital, hybrid and otherwise! She LOVES Jesus, family time, camping, gardening, reading cozy mysteries, hot tea, popcorn, and anything on the BBC! This time of year, you’ll find her gardening, gearing up for summer and reading like it’s going out of style (while sipping sweet tea!)…

May 3, 2016

Tutorial Tuesday | Teacher Appreciation Cards

Did you know May 2-6 is National Teacher Appreciation Week? This is always a great time to show appreciation and love to a favorite teacher. Today, I am here to show you two simple ways to dress up a card for a teacher gift. For this project, choose a favorite school themed scrapbook kit.

Supplies Needed:

ribbon
glue dots
scissors
template
pencils
printer
digital elements (School-themed, etc.)
card stock

I chose School Rules by Mari Koegelenberg for the petal gift cards.

For the pencil card I chose Project 2015 August Papers and journal cards by Wishing Well Creations (Laura Passage).

Tutorial Tuesday | Teacher Appreciation Cards

Pencil cards are a fun way to show appreciation for your child’s teacher. They are so simple to create! To make one, gather your supplies.

I created my card from Laura Passage’s 2015 August collection papers and journal cards. Don’t you just love that little clip element from LJS Design?

To create one I sized my graphic design 8″ x 3″ using the darling pencil papers. I incorporated some digital stitching elements from my stash around the image and sized down the journal card to 2.5″ x 2″ and then added my text. I placed all of the elements on the right side of an 8 1/2″ x 11″ paper as you can see below. Once you have the graphic designed, you can print on card stock, then fold and trim. Or just cut around the graphic as a single page. I added some glue dots to the back of the pencils and tied them with a bow. You can write a fun little note on the back or folded on the inside of the card!

Tutorial Tuesday | Teacher Appreciation Cards

For the second card I created a petal gift card. I chose elements and paper from the School Rules kit by Mari Koegelenberg.

Tutorial Tuesday | Teacher Appreciation Cards

Click on the image to save and print.

First, you want to choose your paper and card element to print. I centered my 3.75″ x 3.75″ apple graphic on the center of my page. With my chosen printed paper behind the image, I used an 8 1/2″ x 11″ size for the paper. Next, I printed out the image. Now I am ready to trace the template and score the edges. Once you have folded your card, you can add a fun gift card inside. I closed my card with a glue dot – you could also punch two holes across from each other on the petals and close with twine.

Tutorial Tuesday | Teacher Appreciation Cards

I hope you have fun creating a pencil card or petal gift card for your child’s favorite teacher. Happy Teacher Appreciation week!

About the Author Terresa is a mother to 5 beautiful children. She loves capturing memories with her digital camera and creating a visual family memory book to be enjoyed and treasured. She enjoys designing and creating personalized items for her home and children. Other interests are crafting and gardening, and you will often find her enjoying the outdoors and soaking in the beauty of nature.