Holy heck! It’s Saturday! Almost Sunday! It never ceases to amaze me how 24 solid hours could slip by almost unnoticed. Oh yeah. I was cleaning and masking for paint at the new house, driving back and forth, picking out a paint color for Elliott’s room, random sorts of stuff.
Oh yeah. And they have a boil order on the water here in Cary. Apparently there are unsafe levels of e.coli?
What the?? *sigh*. But I have to say this. My life is not dull.
So I’ve been racking my brain for a PS Friday. On Saturday. But this one’s worth the wait, I hope.
Something a Little Different
I got the idea for this one from the Dares. Way back at the end of July (okay, that’s like 3 weeks ago) their last dare was to create something about WHY you scrap. And they went and created some freakin awesome stuff. Just check out Kristi’s mini album for a little mind explosion. Whoa.
So I got inspired to try something a little different for PS Friday this week. I wanted to help all the PS Friday-ers (dang it! Let’s think of a new name, okay?) to be able to make a really quick hybrid album all about why WE scrap. And by “quick” I mean you can plunk down photos, a bit of text, and have the thing busted out in an evening. The secret is having most of the work done for you already. ;)
Here is the completed layout (click for larger), which you’ll just repeat for each page in your album:
Now you know that I’m all for combining some PS with some paper-and-glue action (and I have to find a way to use some of my ribbon and cardstock stash), so here was my solution. I only have an 8.5 x 11 printer, so I made do with what I had, and conserved paper by formatting the entire layout onto one 8.5 x 11 sheet. So you’ll print one of these onto an 8.5 x 11 photo paper for each layout you want to make. The finished size of the photo is actually 6x8, but I mounted mine on the brown cardstock and I can slip it in a Target binder. :D
Okay, so let’s get started.
I created a layered .tif file, which you can download and open in any version of Photoshop. (Tifs can compress smaller than a full .psd file can, so I chose that format)
When you open the file you’ll see the layout divided into three separate pieces. There’s the green background, then there’s the bottom piece that is sort of color-blocked, which you adhere to the bottom of the layout to make a tag pocket, and then there is the tag over on the side.
So all you’ll need to do is crop a photo to 5 x 4, drag it onto the layer just below the brown wireframe, change the text, and print.
Supplies and Instructions
Here are the supplies you’ll need:
- The layered .tif file, which you can download right here (or right here if you are on a mac)
- A printer. ;)
- Some 8.5 x 11 photo paper (I like using Matte for doing layout-type stuff - the colors come out crisp and true, and you don’t get the photo-ey look of gloss paper)
- A 2-inch circle punch (for the tag insert - I’ve included a guide line that punches right out). If you don’t have this you can always resort to a pair of scissors.
- A hole punch (to punch a hole for the ribbon)
- Ribbon
- Cardstock (if you’re mounting this onto larger cardstock)
Detailed instructions:
- Download the .tif file (see the link above) to somewhere easy-to-remember. I have a Digital Scrapbooking folder, and each month I create a new WIP (work in progress) folder inside that. All my working stuff goes in there for that month, and so is easy to find later on.
- Open the .tif file. (If it says Some text layers need to be updated, just hit Update or OK).
- Open and crop a photo to 4x5, 300 dpi (use the options bar at the top of your screen)
- Drag the photo onto your layout, and position it in the layers palette just below the brown wireframe layer.
- Select the text layers one by one and change them to say what you’d like to say. The text on the blue piece is the hidden journaling.
- When you are satisifed with your text and photo, print your layout. If you’re using an 8.5 x 11 printer, you’ll need to change the settings in the Properties to borderless printing.
- Cut all the pieces out.
- Punch a half-circle from the color block piece, following the guide line.
- Punch a hole in the wide end of the blue tag. Tie ribbons through the hole.
- Carefully place adhesive around the three sides of the color block piece EXCEPT the side where you punched. (For this, I like to put a piece of scrap paper just inside the edge, so I can control how far in to the piece my adhesive goes.) It’s really important that you only put adhesive on the very edge of this piece, or the tag won’t slip in.
- Adhere the color block piece to the layout.
- Slip the tag in.
- If you want, mount the entire thing on brown cardstock to slip into an 8.5 x 11 album.
- Rinse and repeat.
Here are some alternative ideas:
- The theme of this page is related to reasons why I scrapbook. You can change the theme to be anything you like. (10 things I love about you, my 10 favorite foods, reasons why I really NEED that new 55-200 lens…
- If you’d like to have the facing pages with ribbon sticking out to the left on the left page and the right on the right page, do this:
- Flip the colorblock section horizontally (Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal (PSE: Image > Rotate > Flip Layer Horizontal), move the text blocks, and edit the text
- Select the journaling text block on the tag. Choose Edit > Transform > Rotate 180 (PSE: Image > Rotate > Layer 180).
- Print as usual
- Rather than mounting to larger cardstock, consider pasting these into a 6x8 spiral bound album or custom-making a mini-album to fit.
Okay, I know this is kind of an ambitious project. But I would LOVE to see what you come up with using this basic layout in hybrid format. I’m thinking of giving RAKs to every single person who posts a completed layout. I’m really trying to test out some ideas here - to really sort of push the boundaries of what’s possible in this hybrid world, and I could use your help.
So what do you say? Are you in? :D Come on! Delurk!
(oh, and PS. Don’t forget about 2Fer Tuesday. You’ve got a couple more days to post two layouts made with the same kit, and link me up in the comments of that post. In exchange I’ll pick four random comments and you get a MM idea book. Okay? Awesome!)
(oh, and p.p.s.. I promised a sneak of my new kit. You’re looking at it. ;) Shhh! Don’t tell!)
Jessica