Getting Hybrid- It’s Time for Labels

Happy Thursday, Everyone! Tgmousechick Kim back again for the August edition of Getting Hybrid. Today, I’m going to walk you through making printable/hybrid labels- just in time for heading back to school. Here are just a few ways you can incorporate printable labels into your life:

- Bookplates

- To/From Gift Tags (the holidays are coming!)

- ID and Name Tags (for events, moving boxes, etc)

- Jar Labels (doing any canning this summer?)

- Lunch Box Notes

- Homemade stickers

I thought I was going to have to go into depth about adapting Word templates into overlays that can be used in Photoshop or other programs, but I was pleasantly surprised when I went to www.avery.com (Avery-Dennsion, a popular label supplier) and a few of their templates were made for Photoshop!  When you go to the site, type in the keyword “Photoshop” and it will pull up their psd templates. These are free- you just have to register on the site. As of Tuesday, they had psd templates for their 3″x4″ shipping labels (6 per sheet- which is what I’ll show you today), and a few others.

So, let’s get started!

I opened up the Avery template in Photoshop, and it consisted of two layers: a blank background, and an overlay with the label boundaries. I started by simplying using my shape tool and drawing a rectangle to define the boundaries of my label. I drew the rectangle slightly bigger than the label to allow for full bleed (the design going clear to the edge of the label). It also allows for a millimeter or two here and there of where your template says where the label is and where it actually is. That said, when you design your label, be aware of where you place your digital embellishments. Don’t place them right up against the ede of the label unless you are OK with it potentially getting clipped off. Take my example in the screen shot below. I arranged the clouds knowing that parts of them will get clippped off, where I kept the kite a little closer to the inside of the label, since I wanted that element in tact even if my label was slightly out of alignment with the template:

Here is my complete set of labels, ready to be sent to the printer. I kept the Avery template overlay layer shown so you can see what the label should look like printed. Before you print, go ahead and hide the overlay layer. You don’t need those extra gray lines on your labels if the alignment is slightly off- less trimming for you later!

A summary of the kits I used:

top left: Kids at Play by the ScrapMatters Team; top right: Explore, Learn, Grow and Journaling Blocks by Sahlin Studio; middle left: Mermaid Lagoon by Britt-ish Designs; middle right: Kiss That Frog by Britt-ish Designs and DeCrow Designs; bottom left: I’m a Dreamer- Revisted by Britt-ish Design; bottom right: Double Dipped by Bella Gypsy

You see I put a collection of different projects on a single sheet: a bunch of ID labels for my daughter’s composition notebooks for school, a bookplate (the Journaling Blocks by Sahlin Studio made these ridiculously easy), a lunch box note, and a gift tag. For the future, you can save each of these mini projects as its own psd or jpeg. That will make printing a sheet of labels fast and easy.

Run your labels through the printer. If you want to be ultra precise on matching up the edges of the labels, run a test print in draft mode of a sheet of scrap paper. I hold that up to a sheet of labels to check the alignment, and move blocks as necessary for the real print. Otherwise, I just kept my scissors handly for a quick trim after printing.

When you print, remember that you are typically not printing on the same coated paper that you may use for other hybrid projects- so be prepared that your colors may not be as sharp and vibrant. However, I found my print quality to be very acceptable. Alternatively, you can print labels on your inkjet-coated papers, and then run them through an adhesive, like your Xyron (Amanda did this for her project you’ll see in a bit).

In this photo, you can see the benefit of making your starting rectangle slightly bigger than the label itself. See how the image goes right to the edge of the label?

Finally, to truly “Hyb-Up” your project, you can embellish with the usual suspects. Choose your embellishments carefully. If you are making book plates, for example, you probably don’t want to add anything super chunky, since it will be closed within the book. Don’t damage your book spines!! For the ID labels, I added some Stickles glitter glue:

Here are my finished projects! You can see the lunch box note, and two of the composition book labels. I also had my daughter write in her own name on one:

Amanda (AbHall), used this idea to make an ID label (and embellishments) for her son’s saxophone case. She use Night Music and Simply Stamped Red Alpha by Andilynn Designs:

You have all month to show me your label creations as part of the Matter of Scrap challenges! Remember to post your projects in the “Hybrid Challenges” section of the gallery, and post to this accompanying thread in the forums. Also remember that you get a bonus point for using a new product (a product is considered new if you post your project within a week  that the product is released). Challenge projects need to be posted before midnight PDT on August 31st.

Have a great week everyone!!

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 5th, 2010 at 6:48 am and is filed under Challenges, Hybrid Scrapping. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.