Articles : Tutorials - Hybrid

Hybrid Christmas Mini Album

Prerequisite Digi Templates 101

Class: Hybrid Christmas Mini Album

Inspiration: Hybrid projects that combine digital pages with dimensional supplies.

Class Objective: To make an album using Digital and Traditional Scrapbooking techniques.

Prerequisite: Digi Templates 101

Materials:

Cosmo Cricket Abby's Blackboard Album
Creative Imaginations Be Merry CS Stickers
Fancy Pants Designs Daily Grind Buttons
Petaloo Holiday Mix Daisy Small Box Blend
Bo Bunny All Stuck Up Apple Green Flowers
Creative Imaginations Pearl Gems
Mark Richards Clear Round Rhinestone Strips
Rootbeer Float White Foam Thickers
Digital Scrapbooking Program of your choice
Digi Doable Class Template
Digi Kit(s) of your choice
Ribbon
Mod Podge & applicator
Hole Punch
Adhesive
Pop Dots(optional)
Xacto or craft knife
Scissors
Embroidery Floss(optional)
Paper to print your layouts (a medium weight photo paper)
 

Welcome to the Hybrid Christmas Mini Album Class! Today we’re going to be combining our digital work with traditional paper scrapping to make a cute, fun mini album you can keep for yourself or give away as a gift. Let’s get started!

You should have already downloaded the Digi Doable Class Template and unzipped it, so now let’s go to Photoshop/Elements and create our base pages. Please be sure you have also familiarized yourself with the basics of using a template by reading Digi Templates 101.

Open up your Template Shape & Border file and you will see you have two layers. One is for the base page. This is already sized and shaped to fit the Abby Albums by Cosmo Cricket. The second layer is the border and is completely optional. If you choose not to use it, you can either make that layer invisible or discard it entirely.

Next let’s open up the paper we’d like to use for our cover. I’ve chosen papers from Designs by Shelle’s Funky Christmas kit. Tile your windows by clicking the second icon in the top right of the workspace screen. Then drag and drop your paper onto the template.

Go ahead and close that paper now so only our template is open. As you can see, the paper will need to be resized a bit. Click on the layer with your paper and then click on a corner of the bounding box and drag towards the center to make that smaller. Once you’re happy with it, click the green check mark to accept. If you need to move your paper (which I do) click on the thumbnail in the layer palette to move it into position. Your paper should be in the layer directly above the template shape.

Making sure that your paper layer is the active layer, press CTL+G or go to LAYERS> GROUP WITH PREVIOUS to clip your paper to the template shape. Repeat these steps for your border layer if you’re going to be using it.
 

You are now ready to add your photos and any digital embellishments you wish. The amount of your page that will be digital is completely up to you. Just be sure to leave room on your pages for the traditional supplies we will be adding later. For this project, I chose to use only my photos and the journaling as the digital base for my pages. Save each of your pages as a separate file in PSD format.

Be sure to flip the template vertically for your top pages before you start designing them. (Pages 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9 should all be flipped)

Once you have completed the digital layout for each of the pages in your album, the next step is to get them ready for printing.

Create a New Blank File using the following settings:

Now open up the cover pages (both front & rear). You will have three files open in your project bin. The new blank file, your front cover, and your rear cover.

Click on your front cover in the Project Bin so it is the active project. We will now flatten our image. You have two choices here. You can right click on any layer(except text) in the palette bin and choose MERGE VISIBLE or you can go to LAYER>MERGE VISIBLE.

   OR    

Do the same thing for your back cover.

Tile your windows again and drag and drop both the front and back cover to your new blank file.

You can now close the front and cover files. Your new blank file should look like this. Move the layers around to fit them inside the page if necessary. Do not resize.

This is now ready to send to the printer. I have printed mine at home, which is one of the nice things about working with an album this size. I don’t need a wide format printer to do so. You can also send your pages to a photo processor if you so desire, just use an 8x10 size for your New Blank File instead of letter size. I used a Premium glossy  photo paper for my pages.

Follow these steps for each set of pages in your album.

As an aside here, I did print test pages first. I sent them to my printer in draft mode. It gave me a feel for what the pages were going to look like finished, and I was able to see if things needed to be moved from where the album holes are. I also used them as a ‘planning page’ for how I wanted to lay out my traditional elements. This is totally optional.

You want to make sure the ink is fully dry before going on to the next steps. Follow your printer’s instructions on drying time. I let mine sit for 24 hours.

Once your pages are dry, you can carefully cut them out.

We’re ready to start adhering our pages to the album. Get your album and remove the rings. Stack your pages in order in one pile, your album pages in another. You will need Mod Podge, an applicator, a brayer, and a clean working surface and hands here.
 

Side note: I am told that if you have a Xyron Cheeta that it will adhere your pages as good as or better than the Mod Podge. I do own one, but I didn’t have enough adhesive to complete the album, hence the Mod Podge. If you have one and want to use that to adhere your pages, you can do so.

Starting with the cover, apply a thin layer of Mod Podge to the album and place your page over it, centering as best you can.
 

Once the page is adhered, I used my brayer to smooth out the pages making sure to really go over the edges. This will keep you from getting air bubbles and help to get a good adhesion. As you can see, my brayer is filthy, so I’ve laid a piece of wax paper over the page to protect it. I think this is a good idea in any event since any Mod Podge that squeezes out on the edges will not get on your brayer and transferred then to the next page you adhere.
 

Continue applying your layouts to every other page. Each album page should, at this point only have one digital layout adhered to it. Stop here.

Let the pages fully dry.

Once they are dry, you will now with a hole punch, punch the holes for each of the adhered pages. You should also at this time, carefully trim any excess around the page edges with your knife. (I totally forgot this step and so I don’t have nice edges on my album.)

You are now ready to begin the process again for the facing pages. Again, let these fully dry before punching the holes, trimming and embellishing.

Here’s my album with all the pages adhered.

Next, gather your album pages and all your traditional supplies, you are ready to embellish!

Once your pages are all embellished, you can put the album rings back on and add ribbons to them if you desire.

Here’s my completed album.

About the author ...
Tracy joined the Creative Team in June 2008. She has been Scrapbooking for 8 years, and has been Digi exclusive since 2006. Tracy has been featured in Bella Scraps Magazine and Gallery Standouts.

Submitted by -Tracy-