Author: The Digital Press

Hybrid How-To | Decorated Envelopes

Hello and happy Saturday, Arielle here with quick little tutorial on making your own hybrid envelopes! Usually all of my mojo goes into creating cards, and obsessing over every detail… but I realized that I am missing an important part of the process – the envelope! Today I will show you how to make gorgeous, printable envelopes that take hardly any time at all, and will definitely make your snail mail “POP”.

Supplies Needed:

  • Digital kit of your choice (I used Bright Spark Elements and Bright Spark Papers by KimB Designs, shown below)
  • Paper
  • Paper trimmer or scissors
  • Scoring tool or a ruler
  • Adhesive (I used and ATG gun)
  • Envelope templates. (I found PDFs at SplitCoastStampers here [for 41/4” square cards] and here [for cards 41/4 x 51/2“])

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Design:

  1. Open the pdf template in your photo editing program.
  2. Add some paper and elements. (I took parts of the hybrid card I made and added them here to make a matching envelope!)
  3. Print! (I left the lines showing so you could see, but before I print, I usually decrease the opacity of the template to 35% – just enough to be able to see to cut it.)

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To Assemble:

  1. Cut along the outer lines of the envelope.
  2. Using a straight edge, or a paper scoring tool, fold in the sides.
  3. Apply your adhesive to the flaps and adhere.

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And that’s it — easy as pie!

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Here’s a couple others I made… this one is to match a card I made last week…

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with the One Kit Two Way | Girl Power shop collab and Dashies Vol. 1 by Laura Banasiak.

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And here’s a little “artsy” one…

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using Creashen’s Flora Life No. 1 and Brushies No. 2.

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And here are the finished envelopes…

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Now it’s your turn, make a decorated envelope and come share your creation with us in the forum! During August 2016, you can even receive points in TDP’s challenge system if you complete this project and enter it into the August 2016 Hybrid Challenge. 🙂

Arielle H GordonAbout the author  Arielle H Gordon is a wife and mom of two crazy kiddos, ages 6.5 & 8. 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 BBC! This time of year, you’ll find her reading like it’s going out of style, going to the gym, or in the car-pick-up line! 

Tutorial Tuesday | Make it Clean & Simple

There are many styles of design/composition in scrapbooking. We can find layouts with many photos aligned, and some with no photos at all; some with many embellishments, and some that are instead very simple. After digiscrapping for 5 years, I discovered the world of clean & simple design… and I fell in love with it.

Why?

  • I feel I can better highlight my photo, by using only one (or at most two)
  • My page can stay focused on the main emotion or message that I want to share or remember
  • It takes me less time to make a clean & simple page! 🙂

Today, I would like to share with you, step-by-step, how I create my clean & simple layouts.

 

Step 1

First, I choose a solid paper (yes, for me a solid background paper is more appropriate to maintain the clean feel on the page). Then I put a photo onto this paper. You can frame the photo or not… your choice. For the example I will show you here today, I clipped my photo to a brush…

Step 2

Next, I add a title. I usually like to put a title on all of my pages; it helps me to focus on what I would like to see on the layout. For this one, the purpose is to remember the good times my kids shared with their cousins, and how much they enjoyed it…

Step 3

Next, I add some embellishments. One or two, but usually not more… for me, the page must be light, and using colored elements helps to add a pop… 🙂

Step 4

I am not good with journaling (I tend to prefer to let my photos saying everything)… but journaling is part of scrapbooking and memory-keeping, and most of the time mine is so minimal it actually acts mainly as decoration. Here, I put on a title… telling nothing! LOL

 

Here is the final result of this clean & simple page I have been creating today…

 

You can do anything with a clean & simple page. The most important thing to work with, if you want to make your page clean, is some white space!

 

DSC_3131About the Author  Bao is a creative team member at The Digital Press. She has been a digiscrapper for about ten years now, and her style tends to be clean & simple. Most of the time she scraps her family’s photos. She also loves, however, to scrap other subjects such flowers, nature, environment, and foods. She says hello to all of you from her big island of Madagascar, and feels blessed to live there.

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Feature Friday | Sahin Designs

 

Today’s Feature Friday is all about Elif Sahin of Sahin Designs. Her design style is minimalist, clean, and simple… while being rooted in the style of the paper-scrapbooking world. Because of this, her products translate amazingly-well into hybrid projects, while also being gorgeous when used digitally. Her collections give a little of everything — brushes, flowers, journaling cards, papers, and alphas in stunning color schemes. All of her products give you the versatility to use them for a traditional scrapbook page, or a pocket page, or even a hybrid page.

This is just a small sampling of the beautiful and elegant designs that can be found in Sahin Design’s store at The Digital Press…

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We asked Elif some questions to get to know her a little better…

Where do you live?
I live in Ankara, Turkey.

When you’re not designing, what do you do with your time?
When I am not designing I love to take care of my plants and play with my little nephew.

What are 5 tidbits of trivia we might not know about you?
—My age is 24, it’s a bit young for the digital scrapbook industry.
—I have a degree in International Relations.
—I love web design and I get my hands on it whenever I can.
—I love knitting and anything handmade.
—I love creating moodboards prior to starting on a new design project.

Which of your products is your favorite?
With each new product it changes. So, at the moment my favorite product is the Grad Collection…

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Now that we have learned about Elif and seen her beautiful, versatile products… let’s see them in action. Here is a sampling of layouts and projects that were created using her designs…

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After seeing all of these inspiring collections, you should be ready to scrap! And with a 30% OFF sale in Elif’s shop here at The Digital Press (sale will end at 11:59pm ET on Thurs 8/4) you can take advantage of a great discount and grab some beautiful new scrapbooking collections.

 


About the Author  Sabrina is married to a hard-working man and has two rambunctious kids, nicknamed Captain and Sunshine. She loves to chase after the kids, clean up their messes, and say “stop that!” 100 times a day. When Sabrina gets a break she loves to scrap, read, or watch an occasional show.

Tutorial Tuesday | Importing Photos into Lightroom

How many times have you opened your new Lightroom (LR) software and shut it because you found it too daunting? How many times have you tried to drag images over to LR, like we so easily do in Photoshop (PS), only to realize nothing happens? If you are anything like me, your answer is more than a few times! 🙂

We’ve all heard it time and again — Lightroom is a powerful program. It’s a game changer. And… it truly is. But how do we harness its power if we can’t even complete the initial step of getting started? Well, this post is here to do just that — to help you get your pictures into LR.

The first thing you need to do to get started is open the program. Once you have it open, click on the “Library” button at the top (see image, below). Then, press the “Import” button.

[Please note that my screen (shown above) might look a little different than yours… as I already have pictures in my LR.]

Next, from the left side panel, you will now need to select the photos that you want to import into LR. Photos can be on your hard drive… or on an external hard drive… or on a memory card. Wherever your photo is, you need to browse on this left side panel and select that source (as shown below)…

Using the image above as an example… suppose I were to select “Year 5 — April” as the source. LR will now show me all pictures contained in that folder. This is where you can select the specific photos you want to import. You can choose to select one photo… or a few photos… or even all photos in the folder.

Another thing to note — that top panel (see next image). I shoot in Raw, so I choose the “copy as DNG” option… which is the suggested option for Raw files. For JPEG images, I always choose the “Add” option.

Now we come to the right side panel (again, see next image). Here, there are two steps that I usually complete. First is to select the “Don’t Import suspected duplicates” box. You don’t want to import the same photo twice, right? 🙂

The other step I complete using the right side panel is very important — the destination step. This is where you tell LR where (and how) to save your images. I save my images chronologically… so my files are saved by year and by month. You can organize your files however you like, creating a filing system that works for you.

Now you come to the very last step. You can just press “Import” (as shown below) and tada ….. your photos should start uploading in LR. At that point, once the photos are imported, you are all set and can start playing with the program more! 🙂

Hopefully this “first step” tutorial is helpful in getting you out of the starting blocks, and on your way to using Lightroom. If you have any questions, definitely feel free to reach out to me using the comments on this post, and ask away!

PallaviAbout the Author  Pallavi resides in Mexico City with her husband and her ever-growing little son, Rajveer. She has previously lived in Calcutta, Pune, San Francisco, Chicago, and London. She reflects all these places in her pages as she captures her everyday stories. She is an alumnus of Northwestern University. Currently, she is learning photography and working towards getting to a healthy weight. Her days are full and she loves it that way!

Feature Friday | Laura Passage

This week, we’re excited to feature the designs of Laura Passage (known to many of us as Wishing Well Creations by Laura Passage, or just WWC). Laura is not only a designer at The Digital Press, but is also our fearless leader! As a designer who also works in the paper scrapbooking industry, designing for companies like Echo Park Paper Company and Carta Bella Paper Company, Laura creates digital products that also have a distinctly paper-ish style and feel. You’ll find lots of flat stickers and icons in her kits, mixed with the types of dimensional items you tend to find used on traditional paper scrapbook layouts — stuff like wood veneer, string, staples, paper flowers, etc. Her kits are always bright and colorful and fun to work with.

Here is a look at just a few of my favorite products designed by Laura…

I interviewed Laura so that we could all learn a bit more about her, and here’s what she had to say…

Where are you from?
I live in the Pacific Northwest (about 45 min south of Portland, Oregon in Salem — the state capitol).

When you’re not designing, what do you do with your time? I sort of “unexpectedly inherited” full ownership of The Digital Press this past winter, and for the past few months my design time has been really limited while I have focused most of my time on expanding and updating the site (and there are lots of really fun new things on the way to The Digital Press this year!). When I’m not doing that and/or trying to find time to design fun digital or paper goodies… I like to (in no particular order) go sit on the sidelines and cheer on my kids during their sporting events; cook and bake; read good books; binge-watch my favorite series on Netflix or Hulu with my husband; and sleep (although I really don’t do that very much! haha).

What are 5 tidbits of trivia that we might not know about you?
—Before I had kids, I worked as a college soccer coach for about a decade.
—My favorite place in the world is the mountains of Colorado. I lived there when I was a kid, and nowadays as an adult even just the act of driving through that area calms me and centers me and makes me happy.
—I’m kind of obsessed with rainbow colors. The clothes in my closet are even hanging in rainbow order, because it just seems happier that way.
—My computers are all PC-based (and that isn’t going to change, because I keep buying PCs every time I need to upgrade — which I actually just did a month or two ago)… but I am totally an Apple snob when it comes to phones and devices. So yeah, basically, I am a walking contradiction and I know it makes no sense haha!
—I have had a love affair with paper goods my entire life. When I was 10 or 12, I would save up my allowance and spend it on pretty patterned paper stationary and matching envelopes… and then that stationary would seem too nice to actually use, so I would just hoard it. This info completely and totally explains my craft space in my home office, which is overflowing with patterned paper and other gorgeous crafty stuff. I mean, washi tape, people. Right?! I have a giant collection of it just because it’s so pretty.

Which of your products is your favorite?
Oh man, I cannot choose just one. I’ve done it before, and then I always feel like I am cheating on my other favorite kits, hahaha! I have multiple favorites, depending on the time of year / theme / etc. Right now because it’s summertime here in Oregon, though, I will say that there is something I adore about last year’s Project Twenty Fifteen | July Collection… I love the happy colors, and the combination of travel-themed items and outdoorsy things and girly florals…


And here are some gorgeous layouts and projects featuring some of Laura’s designs from her shop…

If you love fun color and papery goodness, you need to be sure to check out Laura’s products in the shop! My personal favorite item of hers is her Project Twenty Fifteen Template Bundle. These templates are my go-to templates for all my pocket scrapbooking layouts. With real stitching in both black and white, and tons of layout varieties, they are the templates I turn to when I have lots of photos to include on a page. They are a pocket scrapper’s dream come true!

Be sure to head over to Laura’s shop at The Digital Press this week for an amazing 30% OFF SALE on all of her products. (sale runs through 11:59pm ET on Thurs 7/28). You can pick up some of those amazing templates… or anything else that suits your fancy!

About the Author  Katie is a member of the creative team here at The Digital Press. She lives in Central Florida with her husband and their four sweet but crazy boys. When she’s not dodging Nerf bullets or trying to dig out from under the never-ending pile of laundry, she enjoys photography, cooking, going to Disney World with her family, and, of course, digital scrapbooking.

Tutorial Tuesday | Expanding Your Digital Toolkit

We’ve all had that moment when our creative mojo just escapes us. You’ve been there before, right? You’ve got the time to create… a brand new kit that you really want to work with… and nothing. So what do you do?

Most of us browse galleries for inspiration, of course. Then you find “it” — a layout that has you saying, “wow, I really love that!” Maybe it’s the pictures, the composition/proportions on the page, the kit selection. Oh, hang on a minute… that’s your layout! Wow, that’s a little embarrassing. Actually, it’s not. Most of us are the resident memory-keeper for our family. We should be proud of – and love – the layouts we create. So how about using your own layouts as the inspiration for something new? Yes, I’m talking about expanding your digital toolkit and scraplifting yourself!

I look at scraplifting as one of the sincerest forms of flattery in the digital world. When you scraplift a page, you’re saying to the creator that their page inspired you to create; it struck a chord with you. It’s okay to give yourself a pat on the back for a layout well done… and if you find a formula that you like, why not repeat it? Scraplifting could be duplicating a layout design, or using it as inspiration to build from. I love doing the latter and wanted to show you my process for “lifting” the page shown here…

 

[credits: Sweet Dreams — a collaboration by Sabrina’s Creations and Designed by Soco]

 

Where to begin? Open your original file in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements and save a copy to work from. This is so important! You don’t want to make changes to your original file and then accidentally save them and over-write your original! Take it from someone who has “been there, done that” — it’s not pretty. On your duplicate file, start removing any paper or photos layers that you might have clipped to shapes. You want to strip the layout down to the basic design elements, like this:

 

 

Now, I like to use my existing layouts as inspiration and not necessarily duplicate an existing design (although that’s a great option, too). With that in mind, now that I have the base design laid out in front of me, it’s time to play around by moving elements (or groups of elements) around to create something new.

I like the vertical paper strip on the left with the scalloped edge peeking out and the stitched top edge. This would really lend itself to being on the bottom of a page. Ah, rotate the layout counter-clockwise (all layers), and then lower that portion of the design just a little…

 

 

With that central cluster of elements on the bottom edge, I’m now starting to think a vertical design — right down the center of the layout — might be the way to go. Here’s what the design looks like after I’ve moved and re-sized some of the papers. You’ll see that the overall design of the original page is still there; it’s just been modified enough to make it a little different…

 

 

Some of the original element clusters on the sides are now looking… well, “off” for want of a better word. This doesn’t mean they should automatically be deleted, however; they can still be re-purposed in the new design layout. Sometimes simply rotating and moving the elements can breathe new light into them. The cluster on the right-hand side of the page, for example, is one I really like. However, the vertical placement just doesn’t work now. Making it horizontal again (as it was in the original layout) will work.  Rotated and moved around a bit, here’s how my page’s composition is shaping up…

 

 

You’ll see that I’ve also hidden a few layers, like the element cluster that was originally in the upper left-hand corner of the new design. It was just too much. Also, at this point I haven’t even thought about a kit design, new papers, or new elements. I’ve simply been setting up the foundation on which to build from — and that’s not always easy to do, as I want to jump right in!

Using this scraplifted version of my original layout, I can now start adding all of the new pieces to complete my layout. If I move things around again, that’s fine — it’s my page, my memory. I can do whatever I like with it. I’m a firm believer that there’s no right or wrong way to scraplift a page. Bottom line: have fun with it!

Here’s how my now newly-designed page came out:

 

[credits: Away by Creashens]

 

…and just for fun, I did a second variation of the original page, just to show you that you can expand your toolkit and scraplift one page several times with each layout being unique to the memory you wish to record:

 


[credits: Leelo and Kiwi by Wildheart Designs]

 

So, if you like what you create… go ahead and give yourself permission to create it again, with a twist! A few things to remember:

  • Create a copy of your original Photoshop file and work from that.  Don’t work on your original file.
  • If you rotate the design, watch for your shadow angles as they will rotate, too.
  • If your original layout was based on a template, which you would normally credit a designer for, think about whether you will still give credit when you share your new layout. My own personal rule of thumb: If the new layout still closely resembles the original template, give credit with something like, “Template (modified) by …”

Scraplifting from your own gallery can be a great way to get your mojo going — or even just a fun exercise to do when you’re in a creative rush. It’s an easy way to expand your digital toolkit since you have all the inspiration right there at your fingertips: it’s you! If you would like to give this a try, I’d love to see what you can do with your own layout, so link me up with a before and after!

KatAbout the Author  Kat Hansen is a creative team member here at The Digital Press. A Director of Human Resources by day, she loves the opportunity to spend a few hours each day being creative. Vacation memories feature pretty heavily in Kat’s scrapbooking pages, as do her son and “daughter” (of the four-legged furry kind). Kat has quite the sense of humor (she “blames” her father for this), which she incorporates into her journaling and memory-keeping.