Custom Greeting Cards Tutorial

Here’s a gift idea to try – handmade custom greeting cards! I made this set of cards as a birthday gift for my sister-in-law. The bold colors and designs remind me of her fun personality. The cards can be used as-is to send a quick note, or she can choose from a variety of greetings to stick on the front of the cards to suit a special occasion. As seen on the Prima blog.

Custom Greeting Cards Tutorial

Digital Supplies: Tea and Silk chipmates sticker sheet

Physical Supplies (all by Prima): Life Colors papers (#910013, #910099, #910068), Say it in Crystals (#529314), Say it in Crystals packaging (#517328), Loft 18 felt flowers (#520052, #520045), Scribbles flowers (#528607), Center Kisses (#520724, #520717), Die-Cut Chipboard (#400026), Clear Epoxy Stickers (#400002), RFH Sticker Sheet.

Steps: Use a pre-made set of blank cards with envelopes or create your own out of sturdy cardstock. Trim patterned cardstock to fit the card fronts (I left a slight border showing on mine). For unity in the set, I chose coordinating papers all from one paper collection. Next, add simple embellishments, leaving room for the greeting to be added later if desired. TIP: I used strips of polka dot paper on most of the card fronts, this creates even more unity between the cards and makes them look like a set. The polka dot paper is actually from the packaging of some Prima Say it in Crystals . Once your cards are ready, you can create some custom greeting stickers. I created mine on the computer, using the digital Tea and Silk chipmates sticker sheet. I just opened the sticker sheet in Photoshop, used the “eyedropper tool” to select a coordinating color, and used the type tool to place messages on the stickers. TIP: once you type a message, you can rotate it to fit the orientation of the sticker by using the “move tool”. When I was happy with the custom stickers, I printed them out onto the RHF sticker sheet, stuck them onto the coordinating chipboard pieces, and placed matching epoxy stickers on top.

That’s all there is to it! Here’s a close-up view so you can see those funky flowers .

Altered Flower Pail Tutorial

Here’s a fun project I made almost a year ago! The full tutorial with step-by-step photos is on the Prima blog today. Actually, I made two of these last spring -  for my nieces, Emma and Madison. I don’t know which they were more excited about, the pretty pails or the candy inside .

If you are into “going green” with your scrapbooking projects, this is one way you can reduce/reuse/recycle! The little pail I altered is actually a recycled flower container. Here’s a shot of the flower pail before I started the project.

Click Here for a Step-by-Step Tutorial with Photos

Let the Christmas Crafting Begin :)!

Happy December everyone ! I’m home from my lovely Thanksgiving vacation, which was filled with the perfect mix of fun, excitement and relaxation with friends and family. Now I’m ready to get serious about making Christmas gifts and crafts!! I have a yummy cookie and a hot mug of coffee and there are some snow flurries outside my window – all putting me in the mood to cozy up to my craft table and start creating!! I enjoy making homemade gifts year round, but I always make more this time of year. If you’re looking for ideas, inspiration and tutorials for handmade scrappy gifts, decorations and crafts for the holiday season I hope you’ll join me here at Scrapbook Ideas – I have lots in store for you, including plenty of free projects !!

Altered Keepsake Box from Prima Hybrid

Here’s a project to kick things off – a pretty, altered keepsake box .

Prima Hybrid has just released a bunch of beautiful new hybrid kits, and I was sent the Shades of Splendor kit to play with. This altered keepsake box is the first project I’ve made using the kit. It’s really fun to use coordinating digital and physical scrapbooking supplies together – what a cool concept ! There are so many beautiful things included in this kit – I enjoyed layering these flowers and leaves, and since the flower centers are brads, everything is held in place perfectly! Gotta love all that glitter too .

Since I’m in such Christmas-y spirits, I of course picked out mostly red and green pieces to decorate my keepsake box, but there are lots of ways this kit can be used, it’s not just for the holidays.

Here are the images of the kit as seen on the Prima Hybrid website:

Lots of gorgeous details, romantic pink and purple colors and fun to use embellishments!

I have a tutorial in the works for how to make the keepsake box, but I’m not allowed to share it just yet – so look for it in a future post ! In the meantime, check out all of the fabulous kits at Prima Hybrid, I’m sure you will be inspired !

Happy Father’s Day! (Plus a Mini Book Tutorial)

I have been making so many fun things to help celebrate Dad’s Day . I’m pretty sure there are veeeeery few Dads who visit here, but I do know of at least two (hi Dad and Chris!), so for those of you who ARE reading – I hope you are having a splendid Father’s Day!! Here are some tokens of appreciation for all the dads in my life .

Here’s a page for my Dad, using the Dads Rule kit , by Shabby Miss Jenn.

Credits: Dads Rule, by Shabby Miss Jenn. Fonts: Weathered and Howie’s Stamps, by Fontologie, and 1942 Report.

And this is the card I made for him, using lots of goodies from primahybrid.com.

*Click Here For Credits*

I made this page in honor of my Father in Law, who I have known since high school, and who passed away shortly after Chris and I were married in 2003. His memory is still very much alive with us today!

Credits: Carousel kit, by Shabby Princess.

Hybrid Mini Book Tutorial

Instead of making a card for Chris this year, I created this hybrid mini album, using the Dads Rule quick album by Shabby Miss Jenn. I really love how she put all of these pages together, and I didn’t want to change a thing! I just added lots of photos of Gabe with his daddy, resized the pages down to 3″x3″ and printed them out on two sheets of matte photo paper. I also printed some elements from the Dads Rule kit for decorating the front of the album . To make the pages, I just used 5 sheets of textured, self adhesive cardstock from a neutral Mat Stack (by DCWV). I cut them into 3.25″x6.5″ strips, folded them in half and stuck the adhesive sides together to make a little book. After I decorated the outside of the book, I used some of the leftover pieces of cardstock to make a little binding for the book. Then I used double sided tape to adhere the printed pages inside the mini book. Lastly, I sanded the edges of the covers, binding and all of the pages. Oh, and I also made the little card that comes with the Dads Rule quick album (not pictured).

 That’s all for now! Don’t forget to let the dads in your life know how much you appreciate them today .

 

Hybrid Ideas For Digital Quick Pages

I’m still finishing up some Weeds and Wildflowers goodies I have been working on, but in the meantime, I thought I’d share some of the hybrid scrapbook pages I made using the Loving You Quick Album (note: this is a regular quick album, which can be used for 100% digital pages as well). If you’re interested in hybrid scrapbooking but you’re worried it will be too time consuming – these ideas could help speed things up!

Hybrid Quick Album Idea #1: Start Simple

If you’re just getting started with hybrid, you don’t have to try a super complicated project at first! Here’s my process for the following page:

Digital Steps: Added my photos and journaling to the premade quick page, flattened, resized the layout to 8″x8″ and printed it out.

Hybrid Steps: After allowing the page a bit of drying time, I added the chipboard stickers to spell “love”, then added a few heart crystals (both from primahybrid.com).

Close Up Details:

Hybrid Quick Album Idea #2: Embellishments Can Bring Unity To Your Page

The last thing you want to do is randomly slap some decorations on your page just for the sake of making it hybrid. If you choose your physical supplies wisely, they will unify the look of your page and help blend the digital and physical together.  On the page above, I used some heart shaped jewels to accentuate the pretty little hearts from the digital portion of the page. I also tied the digital and physical aspects of the page together by finishing my digitally created journaling off with a chipboard word. 

Hybrid Quick Album Idea #3: Plan Ahead For Physical Embellishment

For me, it really helps to have a pretty good idea what I want my final hybrid page to look like BEFORE I design the digital part. Here’s my process for the page below:

Digital Steps: Added my photos to the quick page. Knowing I intended to add the crystal swirl, I placed my journaling along the outer edge of the page (I had measured the swirl in advance to make sure it would fit). Finally, I flattened and resized the layout to 8″x8″, then printed it out.

Hybrid Steps: After allowing the page to dry, I added the crystal swirl and flower (both from primahybrid.com).

Lovely Flower Detail:

I have a bunch more hybrid quick page ideas to share, so I think I will have to save the rest for another post. If you’d like to “read ahead” you can check out the slide show found here, to see some more of the pages .

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See Also:

Hybrid Ideas for Digital Quick Pages: Part 2

 

Hybrid Ideas for Digital Quick Pages: Part 3

My Prima Flowers Challenge!

*ARE YOU HERE FOR THE BLOG PARTY FREEBIE?* Scroll down to the first post of the day, I’ve been blogging a lot today !!!

Have you SEEN all the awesome challenges going on at Prima Hybrid?? I have learned a lot and I’m filled with ideas I want to try now ! If you want to get in on the fun, and possibly win some prizes, go check it out – the deadline for all the challenges is tomorrow evening .

Here’s my second challenge (of two) for the Prima Hybrid crop: Prima Flowers Challenge!

OK, so this one is even easier than my first one (IF you like flowers as much as I do, that is)! Remember: each challenge has a winner, so with 17 challenges, your chances of winning some Prima Hybrid prizes are pretty good :)!!! Please check it out, I love seeing your projects!!

And here’s my layout for the Prima flower challenge ….

 

*Click Here For Credits*

My Layout Challenge at Prima Hybrid!

*LOOKING FOR THE BLOG PARTY FREEBIE?* Scroll down a few posts, I’ve been blogging a lot today !!!

Wow, there are already TEN challenges going on at Prima Hybrid right now! They are such beautiful and inspiring projects – I want to try them ALL .

Here’s my first one (of two): Hybrid Layout Challenge: Grow!!

Trust me, it’s an easy one! And each challenge has a winner, so your chances of winning some Prima Hybrid digital AND physical goodies are very high !!! Please check it out, I’m so excited to see what you make!!

Here’s my layout for the challenge:

*Click Here For Credits*

 

 

Inspiration Journal

Can you believe that up until yesterday I did not have my very own Inspiration Journal? I’ve been keeping all of my bits and pieces of inspiration and notes about my ideas in piles and drawers for many years now. But recently, I have undertaken a huge scrap room organization project to make way for all of the awesome stuff Prima Hybrid keeps sending me! So I decided it was finally time to make an inspiration journal to keep my overflowing bounty of creative ideas in . Here’s what I made (using mostly Prima Hybrid Supplies):

*Click Here For Credits*

Tips and Tricks

• I printed the “Silhouette Gem Strips Hearts” by IOD, on transparency film, then used “Clearly IOD Tape” to adhere the strip on the journal cover before adding the gem hearts.
• I used a scallop edged punch to make the white shape, and used a tiny heart shaped hole punch to add some extra detail to the scallops.
• The title was from a magazine ad I clipped – perfect, isn’t it?
• The purple paper along the binding is the original design of the journal – I liked how it looked with the Steel Toe Mary Jane papers, so I didn’t cover it .

That was easy – now I just need to find the time to fill my journal with inspiration!
 

 

Another Free Template from Prima Hybrid!

*Click Here for Credits*

Aren’t these little baskets ADORABLE??? A few weeks ago I noticed these gorgeous little treasures made by Laura, and I just HAD to make some of my own! Luckily, expert template maker Melinda, was sweet enough to create this super cute basket template, which is now available for FREE at Prima Hybrid – just in time for Easter . Grab yours right here!

Quick Tip: I used double-sided matte photo paper, and printed on both sides so that the folded down scalloped edges would be pretty too !

It’s Blog Party Time Again!

Have you met the newest Prima Hybrid Flower Girls?? We are so excited to welcome four talented new ladies to the team:

Teresa Victor - Gallery
Laura Kannady (LauraKaye) – Gallery
Patricia Komara (Patty K) – Gallery
Monika Martinson (Monika) – Gallery

To celebrate the new Flower Girls, we’re having a blog party this weekend with lots of free templates to share!! So after you grab my freebie below, make sure you stop by all of the other participating blogs as well (listed below)!!

Here’s my template, based on this hybrid page from a little while ago: 

*Click Here to Download this 12×12 Template*

This is the digital page I made with my template .

*Click Here for Credits*

Don’t forget to stop at these blogs for more blog party freebies!

Cindy ~ www.AnAlteredState.blogspot.com
Melinda ~ http://myscrapcorner.blogspot.com
Andrea ~ www.andreagourley.blogspot.com
Cathy ~ http://paper-cat.blogspot.com
Teresa ~ http://www.teresavictor.com/perspectives
Danielle ~ www.danielleflanders.blogspot.com
Di ~ http://dihickman.blogspot.com
Amy ~ http://alb52.typepad.com
Indah ~ http://inskidahv.wordpress.com
Julie Ann ~ http://jshahin.blogspot.com
Monika ~ http://monma.blogspot.com/
Jamie ~ http://twogirlsdesigned.blogspot.com
Kristin ~ http://wyowoman.blogspot.com
Angeltown ~ http://angeltown.typepad.com/
Patty D ~ http://scrapbookdimensions.com/blog/?p=265#more-265
Patty K ~ http://plkomara.blogspot.com/

I believe there will be even more free templates in the Prima Hybrid Forum later today! WOW, what a list!!! Have fun  gathering all those goodies !!!