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The line between paper and digital scrapbooking is fuzzier than ever, so I say "let's just take it away!" Many people have wondered what exactly is hybrid and how do I get started. If that is you, then you're in the right place. I'll start by showing just how to print some digital paper and add it to a simple layout and go all the way through to printing digital on fabric paper and making some digital embellishments really shine.

First I'll start with the supplies you'll need:

The Big Blue Digital Kit by Kim Hill

Must have paper supplies:

8.5x11 Premium Matte Photo Paper for your printer.

Next some optional supplies that I used but can be substituted for anything similar in your stash:

You may also like to have on hand:
a staper
tape runner
pop dots
tacky glue
sanding tool
3/4" circle punch

We will be making 3 layouts and using the following sketches as guides:

Here is the first layout we will be making:

First thing we need to cover is the printing of the digital paper used for this layout. This will be shown using Adobe Photoshop Elements 5 but you can print the paper in using any program that will open a JPEG file.
Open your photo editing program proceed to File > New > Blank File. You should now see this window:


You will want to change the Width to 8.5, the Height to 11 and the Resolution to 300 and hit OK. You should now see a blank 8.5x11 canvas as shown below.

Next you will need to go to File > Open, find the folder holding The Big Blue Kit and open 4 sheet of paper. The green, red, white w/suns, and the vertical stripe.

Now I'm going to show you one of my favorite things about printing your own digital paper. This is optional if you especially if these colors work for your photos but if they don't just follow along. The Big Blue Kit has a great red piece of paper but sadly my photos have more bright pink in them so I'm going to alter the color of the paper before I print it to match my photos better. Bring your red paper to the top, (your other papers should be hiding in windows below).

Now go to Enhance > Adjust Color > Adjust Hue/Saturation. You should now see this window:

Move the Hue bar until you get the color you are looking for. You can also change the Saturation and Lightness if desired. I moved my Hue bar to -37 and it gave me the color magenta I was looking for. See below:

 

Ok, that looks great but now the striped paper doesn't really go very well, so lets change that too. Bring the striped paper to the top.

Now click on Enhance > Adjust Color > Replace Color. You should see a window shown below:


Now you will use the eye dropper tool to select the red in the red stripes, you can see the red in the box on the window and it shows the selected stripes in white. Now you can move the Hue bar until you get the same magenta color that we changed the other paper too.

Now that we have all of the papers looking just right we will drag and drop each paper onto the original 8.5X11 canvas we made. You will need at least 2 inches of the green, sun and magenta paper (we will be cutting 2x2 inch squares) and the rest of the canvas should be the striped paper. Your canvas should look something like this:

Load your printer with the photo paper and go to File > Print and you will see a box something like this:

I would like you to know that some photo editing programs will give you more advanced printing options, sadly this one does not so I can show you. But I would like to tell about some of the options and what you may want to choose if you have them.  Once you get to the print window click on Page Setup to see if you have more advanced options. You should look for window similar to this:

When choosing Quality Options I usually stay with something in the middle like Text & Image because when you use the photo or best photo settings too much ink is put on the paper and it can look dark and over saturated.
Next would be Paper Options, always change your paper type to match the paper you have in the printer. In this case Premium Presentation Paper Matte.
Also take a look at the box that says Borderless, this is great when you are printing paper because it prints right to the edge so your not wasting and paper by having to cut off the white edge.
These tips should help you get some great looking hybrid paper and elements to work with.

Now that we have everything printed it's time to work on the layout. First take your base piece of cardstock and tear a 1/2 inch piece all the way down one side.

Now cut 2 1-1.5 inch strips of the striped paper. Make sure you leave at least 2 inches for the 2x2 squares we will be cutting later.

Next adhere the striped paper under the torn edge of the cardstock so that it peeks out making the page a full 12x12 again. You  will need to layer the 2 pieces of striped paper since they are only 8.5 inches long.

Trim off the extra paper and grab the Baker's Twine. Cut 6 8-9 inch pieces.

Next gather up all of the pieces evenly and tie a knot in one end.

Now split the twine 3 pieces and 3 pieces with the knot in the middle. Place the twine bunch near the torn edge centering the knot.

Holding the twine in place flip the page over and tape each end of the twine spread about 1 inch apart. Repeat that on the other side as well.

When you flip the page back over your twine should look something like this:

A little dot of glue should help that knot from popping up. Next you will need to choose a few of the clear cut shapes for a small cluster under the twine. I chose the sand castle, sand bucker and water swirl w/ flower. Be sure to take off the protective backing off of the shapes before adhereing them to your layout. Just squirt a little clear drying glue on the back of the clear cut shapes and group the under the twine on the left side. Something like this:

Now we will work on the squares and triangles. Cut 2-2x2 inch square of all 4 colors. Then cut the striped paper, sun paper and green paper into triangles. Shown below are the exact pieces you will need for your page.

The next part is another one of my favorite things about hybrid, no matter whether the paper you print is solid or patterned you always have a white core which is great for distressing. This is optional so if you want, take a sanding block or nail file and sand the edges of the the shapes.

With that your shapes should look like this:

Now adhere the shapes in the top left hand corner of the page, start with the green triangle and work your way down.

I used pop-dots for the 4 squares running right down the middle. The left side of your page should now look like this:

Now grab the piece of Bleach Canvas Paper and cut it down to 8.5x11. Set the 8.5x11 piece aside as we will need it for a later layout. Take the smaller piece and cute 4 1/2 inch pieces like this:

I chose to distress the edges of the canvas pieces by rubbing the edges with my finger nail. You can do this if you like the effect or leave them just as they are.
They will look like this:

Next you will adhere the strips vertical along the page from the squares to the edge of the page. This doesn't need to be perfect because the photos will be going on top of the srtips and you will only see them poking out the sides. Or you can make them look just like this:

Now you can add the photos right on top of the canvas strips.

Now grab your canvas stickers. I used the SUMMER sticker as part of my title:


I then added the 2nd part of my title and a little journaling.

Again your final layout will turn out something like this:

Here is the next layout we will be working on. Be sure to have a good sharp pair of scissors for cutting out the digital embellishments.

The first thing we will need to do is print out our digital supplies, so open your photo editing software. Like at the beginning of the tutorial open a new canvas that is 8.5x11. Then open the digital paper from The Big Blue Kit that has a white background with colored circles filled with stars.

Again the red does not suite my photos so we'll get a little more practice altering the color of patterned paper. So go to Enhance > Adjust Color > Replace Color. You should see this box:

Use the eye dropper tool to select the color you would like alter. In this case I chose the red, again everything that is red will show white in the back square. Slide the Hue bar until you get the color you are looking for. You can also use the Saturation bar and Lightness bar to help with this as well. Once the you are happy with the color click OK. My paper now looks like this:

Now drag and drop this circle/star paper onto your 8.5x11 canvas and print the sheet as shown in the beginning of the tutorial.

After that page has printed delete that star layer using the trash can in your layer palette and close the original star paper. You should now just have the blank white 8.5x11 canvas. Go to File > Open and open the solid yellow and solid aqua blue papers. Drag and drop the paper onto the 8.5x11 canvas so that it looks like this. You will want to keep 1/3 of the paper blank because we were are going to fill it with elements, this helps save paper.

Put that paper aside and open the bubbles, both seaweed elements, the clown fish, the yellow and black fish, the blue and orange fish and both blue and green fish. When you get these elements open you will see that they are a bit too big so we need to change the size one element at a time. First bring one of the seaweed elements to the top.

Go to Image > Resize > Image Size, you should now see this box:

Make sure that the Scales Styles and Constrain Proportions boxes are checked. Then change the Height to 3 inches, the Width is automatically change. Hit OK and your seaweed should now look like this:

You will not need to repeat those resizing instructions for each element listed below. This may seem confusing at first but the goal is to reduce the size of each element so that they work well on the pages, then move them all to the canvas with the yellow and aqua paper so all of it can be printed on one sheet without a lot of waste.

*First drag and drop the first seaweed you altered onto the white part of your 8.5x11 canvas, then close that seaweed.
*Open the 2nd seaweed and change it's height to 3 inches as well. Drag and drop that seaweed to the canvas and close the original.
*Now open the bubbles and change their height from 1.703 to 1 inch. Drag and drop the bubbles to the canvas 4 times so that you have 4 groups of bubbles. Now close the original bubble file.
*Now open the blue and orange striped fish, change it's width to 1 inch, drag and drop it to the canvas and close the original file.
*Open the narrow/long blue and green striped fish, change it's width to 1.5, drag and drop it to the canvas and close the original file.
*Now open the round blue and green fish, first change the width of the image to 1.5 inches, drag and drop it to the canvas, now change the width to 1 inch, drag and drop a 2nd smaller fish to the canvas and close the original file.
*Open the clown fish, first change the width to 1.5 inches, drag and drop it to the canvas, now change the width to 1 inch and drag and drop it to the canvas, then close the original file.
*Last open the yellow and black striped fish, change the width to 1.5 inches and drag and drop it to the canvas, then close the file.

Once that is all done your canvas should look like this:

Print this page as you have done the other. Now it is time to start building your layout. You should have a white 12x12 piece of cardstock for the background of this layout.
First thing you will need to do is cut about 3 inches off the circle/star page you printed. Set the larger piece aside to use later. Now cut the 3 inch piece into 3 random triangles length wise like these:

As you can see you will do the same thing with the yellow and aqua paper printed on the 2nd sheet. There was not measuring done for these triangles, they are all random and will be fit together in whatever way looks pleasing to you.
In order to mimic the look the underwater photo of my daughter, I distressed my triangles. This is something that is optional, if you like the look go for it because is looks great on printed digi paper.
First crumple the triangles:

Now smooth them out and use a sanding block to sand the color off the creases.

They now should look like this:

I chose to do the same to my yellow triangles but you may leave them be if you choose.

Now you will start adhering your triangle strips to the white cardstock. Your photo will be placed in the bottom left hand corner against the edge but about 1.5-2 inches off the bottom. Keep this in mind when placing your triangles because you want the photo to cover the tips. Start in the top right have corner with your thickest strip.

Add the other triangles randomly mixing the colors and sizes until you have placed all of the strips.

It should look something like this when you are done:

Now trim the strips that have overlapped the edge of the page.

Now want to place your photo to the edge of the page 1.5-2 inches off the bottom and overlapping the tips of your triangles.

I wanted my photo to stand out more so I drew a black border around it with a pen.

This is optional, but if you find your photo getting a little lost in the layout it can help bring it forward.

Now if you have a 3/4 inch circle punch you will need to get it out. If you do not to can either omit this or hand cut the circles with scissors. Grab your larger sheet of the star/circle paper that you cut earlier and cut as many circles as you like. I started with the aqua colored circles and then added a few pink and green as I noticed places that needed a little something.

You can cut as few or as many as you like:

Now flip the circles over and add pop-dots to the back:

Now you will place the circles randomly around the page directly over top the circles in the strips.  I chose to have some overlap the white spaces between strips and I even have 2 overlap my photo. The choice is yours.

Now grab the green ribbon from the Making Memories pack. The cool think about this ribbon is how well is holds it's curled shape after being wrapped around the spool, use that. Staple the end to the bottom left hand side of the page. Let the ribbon curl a few times and then place another staple about at the other edge of the photo. These staples will be cover later.

Let the ribbon curl a bit more and place another staple about 3 inches from the right hand side of the page. Pull the ribbon to the end, grab the star fish clear cut shape (remove the plastic backing) and staple the star and ribbon right at the edge of the page.

It should look something like this:

Now grab your sharp scissors and the fish elements you printed. Neatly cut out both seaweed pieces and the yellow/black fish, blue/green striped fish and the large round blue/green fish.

Use a pop-dot to place the round blue/green fish near the left hand side of the page under the photo."

Using liquid/tacky glue use the seaweed to cover the middles staples in the ribbon. Sort of like the seaweed is growing off the bottom of the page through the ribbon. Then use pop-dots to have the fish swimming among the seaweed.

Now find those scissors again and cut out some bubbles. I chose to cut out 5 of them but you may do as few or as many as you like. Save 4 for the last layout.

Use pop-dots to place them around the fish.

Now it's time for your title. I chose to use Thickers and place it in an empty strip of aqua paper but as always the choice is yours.

Now for the journaling. That will be place vertical coming down the top left hand side of the page. You will want to write down about 3 inches, then leave a gap large enough for one of the canvas stickers before finishing the journaling.

Now chose one of the canvas word stickers to put in the space and your done!

Here again is the finished layout:

And finally the last layout we will be making:

To get started we need to print one more thing, so find the 8.5x12 piece of Bleached Canvas paper. Open your photo editing program and make the 8.5x11 canvas. Now find and open the digital paper this is blending blue to green and the digital paper with small hexagons in blue and green.

Drag and drop the blending paper onto the 8.5x11 canvas so that it covers 7 inches of the page from top to bottom. Then drag and drop the hexagon paper to fill the rest at the bottom. Your canvas should look like this:

Now print this page onto the Bleached Canvas paper. You should not need to change any setting on your printer. My page did have a bit of built up dark ink on one edge that I cut off. It should look like this:

Now cut apart the blended paper and the hexagon paper.
Cut the hexagon paper so that you have 2 pieces that are 2 x 8.5 approx. 
Then cut the blending paper so that you have one piece that is 2 x 7 and the other is 6 x 7. Make sure you  cut it so that you see the blend on both pieces. You should now have all of these pieces below:

Grab your background cardstock and adhere the small blended piece on the bottom about 1.5 inches from the bottom and about 1 inch from the right hand side. Adhere the large piece toward the top, lined up with the smaller piece about 1.5 inches from the top and 1 inch from the right side. There should be a gap between the 2 pieces about 1.5 inches wide.

Now take the hexagon pieces and fold them over themselves toward the middle so that you made one ruffle. Use a little of adhesive just to help it stick long enough to put in a couple of staples.

Adhere the ruffled hexagon pieces to the top and bottom of the blending paper so that you fill-in the gap between the blending paper and the edge of the page.

Add a staple to each end of the ruffled hexagon paper to that is stays secure.


Next grab the navy blue ribbon with the tan stick running down the middle and cut 2 9 inch pieces.

Adhere the pieces horizontal over the ruffled hexagon paper so that each end hangs over.

Add a staple in each end of the ribbon if you would like.

Look in the clear cut shapes and find the light green/blue wave swirls, you will need both along with the other blue wave swirl with a flower on it. Remove the plastic backing and staple and end  as shown below. The staple will be cover by a photo.

Grab your photo strip and covering the staple tuck the bottom right hand corner into the ruffled hexagon paper and tilt at a slight angle. Adhere this down once you like the way it looks. Depending on your photos you may want to adhere your 5x7 down first, something I should have done once I realized the 5x7 covered more of the strips than I wanted.

If you haven't already adhered your 5x7 do that now. I just peeled up a bit of my photo strip and placed my 5x7 underneath it.

Now peel the plastic backing off the other 2 wave/swirl clear cut shapes. You want to line them up on the edge of the paper so the overlap each other and the 5x7 photo in a cute cluster. I stapled mine but you had adhere them in a different way if you wish.

Now to add the title, I chose Orange Glitter Thickers and some Acrylic Alpha because it worked well with the theme of my page. Starting at the edge of the page curve the letters around the clear cut shapes.

Next cut out the 2 clown fish, blue/orange striped fish and the round blue/green fish you printed on the sheet from the 2nd layouts.

Place the large clown fish on the blue and green clear cut waves right around the bottom left hand corner of the 5x7 photo. Then  place the other 2 fish on top of the other swirl near the photo strip. You can use pop-dots to give them a little POP.

Now cut out 4 of the bubbles again from the printed page from the 2nd layout. Use pop-dots to place those around the fish.

Next find the sun shaped clear cut and cut it exactly in half.

Staple one half of the sun on the right hand side of the page even with the green/blue wave swirl. Put the staple right in the center so it will be covered later. Don't forget to take off the plastic backing.

Now grab the "at the beach" sticker or any other one you would like to use and layer it over the sun, covering the staple. Let it fall of the page a little also.

Next trim the little bit of sticker hanging over and use a pop-dot to add the smaller clown fish.

Now lets add a little sparkle to the fish. I really wanted the fish to match the Thickers, so out comes the Stickles. Use them to fill in any area you want to sparkle. When your done people will think you spent a lot of money on pop-up glitter stickers.

I added some to the acrylic alpha too.

Now for the journaling. I had a lot so I typed it up, cut it in strips and place half above the photo strip and the other half below the title.

And with that you are finish with the last layout. Here is that layout one last time.