Callaloo Soup

Gift Idea: 2011 Calendars

Here are a couple of calendars I'll be giving as gifts this year. The first one features Kieran, one photo for each month

I used this calendar template by Karla Dudley, but resized them to 4"x4" to fit in the CD case. I have a tutorial up on the DHD blog with more details.

This second one uses the Monthly Bits by Kate Teague and photos taken by me

After printing out the months onto photo paper, I matted them on kraft cardstock. Check out this post for more details. Plus you can leave a comment to win the kit for yourself!

Are you making any kind of hybrid project as gifts this year?

Sunflare - Real and Photoshopped

This week on the Design House Digital Blog we are featuring the Sunflare overlay kit by Mary Ann Wise. What is sunflare you ask? Gen has written an excellent article explaining how to acheive sunflare with your camera, or how to fake it in Photoshop.

Here's the layout I did using the heart shaped flare (or bokeh) on my photo of this ice-cream cake.

A close up to show the heart overlay in the top right of the photo

You can learn more about my layout and see what the other Decorators did with the same kit in this post on the DHD blog.

Have you ever experimented with sunflare? Real or imagined?

Clipping Masks, an Afternoon at the Park, and Inspiration.. oh my!

Happy Tuesday! I wanted to share the latest two hybrid layouts that I did for Design House Digital.

The one above is a quick everyday page about Kieran. He is so expressive that I shot these photos off one after the other and got a diffeent face each time!  I used clipping masks to create the star/alphabet embellishment. You can find the tutorial over here on the DHD blog.

I used some of the same star elements on this page about a typical afternoon at our favourite park.

The page was done for the November Inspiration Challenge that I am leading on the forum there this month.

A little later this month I'll show you this page again when I talk about how I get several stories told from one single photo shoot!

 

Tuesday To-Do - Chipboard Mini Album

My latest tutorial on the Design House Digital blog shows how I made the cover and pages for this hybrid mini album.

Today I wanted to show you how I constructed the album itself. When I came up with the idea for the album I knew I wanted it to be a square chipboard mini. Looking through my basket of blank minibooks, I didn;t have one that fit my idea, but I did come across a package of 5"x5" Bazzill Really Big Chips. I'd also been hoarding some kraft book binding tape for a couple years now, and thought this would be the perfect time to try it out!

Above are the supplies I used, plus scissors and a craft knife. The tape is gummed and when wet becomes sticky.

I cut three pieces of the tape just longer than 5"

Then lay two of the pieces of chipboard next to each other, like so

Then with a sticky piece of tape attached them together

The tape forms the hinge bewtween the pages. To finish up the book I folded the pages up

cut off the excess, then added the next page

and so on until the book was complete.

I used a fourth piece of tape as a binding on the outside of the book.

Finally, I covered all the pages with kraft cardstock.

And voila! A blank minialbum ready to fill with memories!

You can see all the steps I did for creating and adding the pages over on Design House Digital.

Catching Up and a Quick Project

Last week I was extremely busy over at Write.Click.Scrapbook posting all about Hybrid Scrapbooking. It was fun to share my new passion with everyone and, to top it off I even leaned a new skill: how to make video tutorials for Photoshop. So you'll be seeing a few of those here in the future!

On Saturday after a lovely family lunch we headed to the park for a walk (had to walk off all those calories that were consumed!) Here's Kieran checking out the deer.

 

Finally, a quick project I did today. I wanted a cute way to keep Kieran's diapers together and labeled for play school. The whole rubber band/write his name on with marker wasn't doing it for me, so I came up with this.

 

I used digi elements by Spencer Nugent and Crystal Wilkerson which I printed out onto transfer paper, then ironed on to the tag. I've had that canvas tag for a good five years now in my stash. I just knew it would come in handy one day!

The green part is bias binding stitched to elastic.

Does anyone else think that functional stuff should also be cute?

Tomorrow I'll be sharing a tutorial on how I made a chipboard mini album from scratch, using some Really Big Chips by Bazzil. Another thing that's been sitting in my stash for a few years!

Until then,

Punch it Out - Hybrid Tutorial

My latest tutorial at Design House Digital shows how to make this simple layout using digital images and a circle punch.

Just an everyday photo of Kieran captured while he made faces at me across from my desk!

Hybrid Notebook Tutorial and a Freebie

My tutorial showing how I made this notebook is now up on the Design House Digital blog. For a while now I've wanted a way to make notes on what Kieran is up to. He seems to do new stuff every day, and many times I can't get a photo. So this notebook is for writing down things to keep track. 

My tutorial shows how I designed the cover and put the book together, but since I also designed the pages myself I thought I'd offer them up as a freebie in case anyone wants to make a similar book!

Just click on the arrow in the menu bar to download.

Update: It seems that little arrow deal isn't working. You can either print the page directly by clicking on the printer icon or you can follow this link to download the file.

Once printed out fold the page in half as shown (with the printed side out), then cut on the guidelines. This will give you a back to back page to use in the book. The pages are about 4" x 6" and the book is slightly bigger, my covers measure 4&3/8" x 6&1/2".

(European readers: this template prints out perfectly on an A4 size sheet once you select that paper size. I use A4 paper myself even though I designed the template as a US letter sized sheet.)

I used a Bind-it-All to construct my book, but you can bind yours in other ways. Some examples are book rings, or glue binding. I bound the open edge, leaving the folded edge free.

If you use this template I'd love to see what you came up with!

Hybrid Scrap-Clothing

Okay I just made that title up to point you to my tutorial that's up on Design House Digital, explaining how I customised the t-shirt that Kieran is wearing in this photo.

And I'm totally biased but doesn't my boy have the sweetest smile ever? I definitely have to do a scrapbook page about that!

If you use the ideas in my tutorial drop me a comment so I can see!

 

 

 

Masking and Misting with Hybrid Scrapbooking

My latest tutorial showing how to use digital elements to create the layout above, is now up on the Design House Digital blog. Remeber those photos of my desk from last week? I just had to scrap them right away! Click here to go check out the tutorial.

Have a fabulous weekend everyone!

 

 

Design House Digital Decorator

Several weeks ago I got the sweetest e-mail from Gennifer Bursett of Design House Digital, asking me if I would be interested in being on their team. After a short while checking out the site I was quick to reply with a resounding yes!

My term as a Hybrid Decorator began this month with my tutorial showing how to make this layout

You can also read my introductory interview on the blog here which features this layout.

 
I'll be posting twice a month to the DHD blog, sharing hybrid techniques for layouts and more! Be sure to check out the shop for digital kits by the likes of Audrey Neal, Tiffany Tillman, Kate Teague and more!