This Christmas ornament from bydelstorp really stood out in the gallery this week! In her credits, Karen even explained how she altered the template a bit so she could use a punch to make the circles instead of cutting them freehand. Now that is some awesome hybrid talent right there!

Congrats Karen!! Be sure to stop by the gallery or forum and leave some love for this super project!

-Jewelle

I was stopped in my tracks this week by one layout in particular. It was this wonderfully sentimental layout by Lisa_mommy2two! Her clustering along the left hand side is absolutely stunning, especially how she delicately wove her pictures within it. What really drew me in though was the elegant title and the beautiful journaling she wrote to her child.

Congrats Lisa!! Be sure to head over to the forum or the gallery and leave her some love for this beautiful LO!

-Jewelle

Hi there, Fran here with your Monday edition of Home Matters. This is a new series we will be having on the blog. Hopefully, you will get some inspiration from the team on how to use your digital layouts in your home.  Let me start off by saying I’m not the craftiest person. Some of the stuff the hybrid team puts in the gallery just blows my socks off! So I like easy!

I want to show you a couple things I’ve done that make perfect holiday gifts.  Last year, I made myself a mousepad for my gift to myself! I took one of my favorite layouts at that time, cropped off the top and bottom and sent it to Kodak and they sent me a mousepad. How sweet is that! Here is my original layout:

Another thing I give as gifts each year is calendars. In previous years, I made specific pages just for my calendar, but last year I saved time. I took layouts that represented each month from that year’s photos and chopped off the top and bottom to make it 8×10, perfect for a calendar topper.  I then sent them to Artscow for printing.  Here is a photo of my calendar and the original cover layout:

Here are some tips when using 12×12 layouts for these projects.  You will want to choose layouts that have a distinct clean horizantal line. This makes chopping off the top and bottom a cinch! Some layouts may need a little rearranging before you chop. The undo button is wonderful for this!  For the calendar cover, I had to move several bits in the vertical cluster before chopping. And for the mousepad image it was a simple chop off.

This year, there is a plethora of gifts suitable for putting on a digital layout and sending it off to print. There are also a lot of places that will do these for you.  Here is a brief rundown on available options.

ArtsCow – Please note that this company is in Hong Kong, and to keep that in mind when you order, as it will take longer than US companies to ship to you. Artscow is known for their low prices and numerous gift items. I have ordered the keychain, deck of cards, photobooks, calendars and I think that is it! I highly recommend signing up for their newsletter, they email coupon codes for different types of gifts frequently. On the gifts you can use straight photos or layouts. I used plain photos for the keychain (it was very small) and deck of cards. I love the quality on their calendars and will order again from them this year… I should probably get started soon on that! Other gift items they offer are: mousepad, folding umbrella, blanket, bags, lighters, clocks and more.

Kodak – I had an amazing gift certificate for Kodak last year, or I probably wouldn’t have used them. I got the mousepad, my Christmas cards and a mini photobook, which I gifted to my mom. The mousepad is fantastic quality and still looks new after almost a year of using it. They offer mugs, blankets, canvas art, books, ornaments, magnets and more. I plan to get my mom a mousepad and maybe a couple mugs for other people as gifts this year.

Persnickety Prints – Persnickety Prints has become quite popular this year among digital scrapbookers. I have ordered 8×8 prints from them and they turned out fantastic, but have yet to try any of their gifts. They offer shirts, canvas art, mugs, mousepads, plates and a lot more.

Shutterfly – Shutterfly is probably one of the original companies we know of for printing for our needs. They offer photobooks, of course and they have many gifts now too. They have mugs and mousepads and cards and ornaments and many other options. I have ordered photobooks from them and they are great.

Snapfish – I have only ever ordered prints from them, they were fine. They also offer gifts: photobooks, calendars, mugs, posters, cards, canvas art.

That should get you started on your planning! You will definitely want to figure out what your needs are and what you plan to purchase and then you might want to compare the prices at each place and see what works out best for you. Gift giving using already created digital layouts takes little time for the creator, but makes a wonderful and heartfelt gift for the receiver.

Happy DSD everyone! I hope you have fun shopping and playing around digiland this weekend! I also hope you enjoy today’s edition of ScrapMatter’s Saturday Special!

My SIL just started digi scrapping and as I’ve helped her a bit I have been reminded about how far I’ve come in scrapping since beginning two years ago! So much of what I have learned can be attributed to these amazing Saturday Specials here at SM too!

One thing Kimberly recently asked me was how to cut paper into shapes. So today I want to talk about the Shape tool. Being able to cut a circle, a heart, or a shape with rounded corners will add so much to your layout!

You will want to start with your background paper and choose another piece of coordinating paper to cut into whatever shape you want. One of my favorite paper scrapping tools was my corner rounder, so I’m going to use the rounded rectangle tool for my layout. If you take a look at the screen shot, you will see that I’ve chosen the shape tool, and then selected the rounded rectangle tool, but you can also see there are several other choices there.

The custom shape tool can be a lot of fun, and if you select that as your shape tool, you will go to the top of your program and select a shape that you will cut your paper into. Here are a selection of shapes that came with my photoshop program:

Ok, so now that I’ve chosen the rounded rectangle tool, I will need to set the radius. You will find that in your top tool bar. The radius basically determines how round your corners will be. I’m choosing a radius of 40. So, with my patterned paper selected in my layers palette, I will bring my mouse onto my paper, left click and drag until I get the size I want. If I want to cut a perfect square, I will hold down my shift key while dragging my mouse. Otherwise I will just drag until I get the rectangular shape I’m looking for and then let up on my mouse. You will see the shape appear. You will now need to select your shape by going over to your layers palette and clicking “paths.” You will then hold down your ctrl key and left click on the shape icon. My screen shot explains it a little clearer.

Once you do that you will see marching ants appear around the shape that you have drawn. You will then go to the top of your program and hit select/inverse and then hit the delete button. Voila! You have just cut your paper into a custom shape! Here is mine:

And here is my final page using GG Digital Designs kit Funk-A-Dily

So for this challenge all you need to do is use the Shape tool on your layout somehow. You can cut any shape you want…just have fun with it and get creative!

Here is some inspiration from our marvelous CT!

From Amanda:

From Andrea:

From LoriBear:

From Liz:

And for the nitty gritty…
You have until the end of November to complete this challenge. You will get one point for completing the challenge and can get an additional point for using a new release. I will choose one random winner at the end of the month for an additional bonus point. Once you have completed your layout, upload it into the gallery under the saturday special category and come in here and link us up. You don’t have to use SM products but we love it when you do! Most importantly, have fun!

I can’t wait to see your pages!! Happy Scrapping!

-Becca1976

Hi, everyone! Rebecca (reboscraps) here with this months Getting Hybrid Challenge!

Hi there! Tanya Riley bringing you this week’s exciting adventure we all love Grand Theft Layout. This is the challenge where you are encouraged to steal, borrow, and be inspired by someone else’s ideas! (with due credit of course!)

This week we will be lifting one of my personal favorite gals, Tiff. She is known as the Super Mama for a reason! Not only is she making some amazing layouts, but she’s also a super organized, crafty, and kind mama. The woman teaches you how to fold your fitted sheets for pete’s sakes! You gotta love her for that!

Take a look at her gallery here

Find a page that inspires you, take the color, composition, journaling theme, anything or everything that you want. Once you’ve made your layout upload it to the Grand Theft Layout gallery. Be sure to link back to the original layout in your credits.

Come back here and post your lift and Tiff’s original layout so we can all ooohhh and ahhh.

This is the layout that I chose :

And here is my layout:

Wide Ruled – Haynay Designs
Yesterday,Today, & Tomorrow – Plum Dumpling Designs
EZ Date Bits Vol 1 – Erica Zane
Acrylic Alphabet – GG Digital Designs

Tiff inspires the Design team too! Here are 2 products inspired by Tiff’s layouts that you are welcome to use to make your layout as well.

And here is some inspiration from the creative team!

Liz lifted this layout of Tiff’s

And another!

Fran chose to lift this cute layout by Tiff

A few reminders:
* You will receive one point for your entry

*You will receive one extra point for using a NEW product within the first week of its release – PLEASE MAKE A NOTE OF THIS IN YOUR POST

* One lucky winner will also receive an additional point at the end of the challenge

* You have until the end of NOVEMBER to complete your layout. This points will count towards your November points.

* No double dipping – please keep your layouts unique to each challenge

* HAVE FUN!

Be sure to leave Tiff some love while you peruse her goodies. I know it will make her feel like dancing!