Hello again!  Amber here to share a hybrid project with you!  Do you have kids that ask you, “Is today Christmas?” or “How many days ’till Christmas?”- yet no matter how many times you try to explain to them when it is or how far away it is, they still don’t understand?  I know with my kids, some of them really have no concept of time – except for the time of today or right now! :0)  A couple years ago, I went looking online for a Christmas Countdown idea to help with this issue – hoping to provide my kids with a visual aid to help them to understand – and, I stumbled across a few ideas to use 4 x 4 wood cubes for calendar blocks, or chore blocks and such.  One even suggested using these ideas to use for a Christmas Countdown.  And so, this is what I came up with!

Let’s get started!  I’m so excited to show you how to do this!  You will need:

• (2) Cubes of wood - these ones measure 3 3/8 inches on each side
• (1) 2 x 4 measuring 7 inches long – long enough to fit the two cubes on top
• Sand paper
• Mod Podge
• Paint
• Paint Brushes
• Block Designs measuring 3 inches by 3 inches

First, you need to design your blocks.  I used most of SP’s Holiday-themed kits, and then some from other kits here and there.  You are going to need to design squares for the numbers 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 for one block, and the numbers 0, 1, 2, 6, 7, 8 for the other block.  I also made a title block measuring 6 1/2 in x 1 1/4 in – or the size needed to fit on the small side of a 2 x 4.

The number 6 is also used as number 9, so design your block so that it can be flipped over and not look like it’s upside down.

When you are finished with all your number blocks and the title block, arrange them together to be printed.

(Number four is my favorite!  I LOVE the little train!) :0)  So, now that you have your blocks printed, you are ready to cut your wood!  Measure your 4 x 4 and cut your two blocks so they are square.  Then for the base piece,  cut a 2 x 4 so it’s long enough to put the two squares on top.  Sand down the rough edges.  Wipe them clean, and then you are ready to paint!

When your paint is dry, sand the edges again to give it a good “used” look.  After you’ve wiped the blocks off, you are ready to Mod Podge your designs onto the cubes and title block!  (Be sure to remember what numbers go where – 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 for one block, and 0, 1, 2, 6, 7, 8 for the other block.)   And, once they are dry, you are finished!  YAY!  :0)

Super simple, right?  I hope you’ve enjoyed this!  My kids LOVE these!  And, I would LOVE to see what you come up with!  Just post your Christmas Countdown in the Gallery!  Or, you could even use this idea to make countdowns for other holidays – Easter, Halloween, Birthdays… or make one for you parents who are excited when school is about to start for the kids! ;0)  You could even make them into dice for a fun game.  The possibilities are endless! :0)

Be sure and stop by tomorrow, because Aubrey will be here with our next inspiration post!  And, I wish you ALL a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

AmberHybrid Projects, Uncategorized 1 Comment

Hello to all of you on this Saturday!  Kim here to bring you an “extra” weekend post!  It’s my turn to share a hybrid project with you, but I must say I was a little unsure of what kind of project I had it in me to do this month.  At our house, Christmas decorations have gone up, food for parties is being made, and of course the secret shopping is also going on.  And speaking of shopping for gifts, we recently had family pictures made that will be given to some family members.  I thought it would be nice if I could find a little bit different way to frame them, so I was out there looking for ways to make a picture frame more unique.  One idea I saw was to use strips of fabric to wrap the frame.  Now since I can’t sew, I decided I would try to make this project a little more up my alley.  So… here is my frame wrapped in strips of scrapbook paper!

  I’ll admit that I kept this project as simple as possible, but it still has a bit of flair with the wrapped frame.  I like it!  And here’s what you need to create your own:

• Frame (This one seems so simple, but it was the trickiest part for me.  You need to remember that you are going to wrap the edges when you pick out a frame.  So, the kind of frame where the glass and backing needs to be slid in from one end won’t work.  You need glass and backing that goes straight in from the back.  I hope that makes sense!  And in truth, you may not be able to fit the glass back in the frame anyway.  In my example, I couldn’t.  You may have to experiment a little to see what works best for you.)
• Scrapbook paper (My example uses the plaid paper from Once in a Blue Moon.  I printed it on my home printer on 8.5×11 inch paper.  No need to have 12×12 inch pages for this project.)
• Tape or other kind of adhesive
• Printed out embellishments of your choice
• Scissors

Follow these steps to wrap the edges of your frame:

• Remove the glass and backing from your frame.
• Cut your scrapbook paper into strips.  Mine were about 1/2 inch thick, but you can experiment to see what you like.
• Use tape/adhesive to attach one end of a strip to the back edge of your frame.
• Wrap the strip around the edge of the frame, being sure that you have some overlap each time you wrap.
• When you get to the end of the strip, cut it so that it ends on the back edge of your frame and tape it down.
• Repeat the last 3 steps until you have all the edges of your frame covered.  Just go as close to the corners as you can because you’ll take care of those next.

Now for the corners.  I wasn’t sure what I’d do about this part, but here’s what worked for me.  I cut out a square of the scrapbook paper, then cut a little bit into one corner of the square (shown below).  I taped the two corner pieces down on the inner part of my frame (where it wouldn’t show), then wrapped the rest of the square around the corner like you’re wrapping a present (with more tape to hold it down).

You’ve done the hard part at this point!  You’re all ready to put your pictures and the backing in the frame and add any embellishments you’d like.

There are a couple of other things I’d like to mention from my experience with this project.  Number one, the hardest part is going to be finding a frame that you will still be able to fit the picture and backing in after you wrap the frame.  You might try wrapping just a few strips of paper, then seeing if it’s going to work.  Using regular weight paper (not a thicker cardstock) to print out the scrapbook paper will allow the paper to bend and form more to the frame.  I’d recommend not trying cardstock.  That said, I did use cardstock to print out my embellishments.

I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing this little hybrid project!  And I hope you have a lovely rest of your weekend!!  Be sure and stop back by the blog on Monday as Lindsay will be here to announce our next Layout of the Week.  Bye!

KimHybrid Projects, Uncategorized 5 Comments

Hello fellow digiscrappers!  Rosy here.

Today I’m sharing a simple hybrid project idea that would also make a great gift for a special person in your life.  I was inspired by this project and decided to put my own spin on it.

First I opened a new 8×10 document in Photoshop and designed the image just like I do my scrapbook pages.

I used stitching to make the blank lines at the bottom to be fill in with a dry erase marker later.

I had my image printed and inserted it in a frame, and then I completed the message by writing on top of the glass with a dry erase marker.  Now I have a great way of displaying a favorite picture plus a little love note that can be erased and changed as often as I want to.

I’m not very happy with the quality of my print and will probably have it reprinted, but I thought I’d share the photo anyway so you can envision the end result.

This would make a fun little gift to let the special people in your life know just how much you love them.

Kim will be here tomorrow with another fun hybrid project for you!

RosyHybrid Projects, Uncategorized 3 Comments

Hello everyone!  It’s Casharina here to bring you another fun, yet EASY hybrid project!  So for starters, just to refresh everyone’s memory, I am a scrapper who does not LOVE to cut things! Ha!  I cannot cut a straight line to save my life, I have been through three straight paper cutters, and will just about do ANYTHING to prevent me from “having” to cut things out!  I recently splurged on a new toy for myself the Cameo Silhouette.  I have only had it for about a week and I absolutely love it, I can see it becoming one of my favorite scrapping buddies <“wink”>!!  After playing a few days with it and knowing I had a hybrid post coming up, I was determined that I had to use the machine, and with Christmas just around the corner I wanted to create some Christmas décor!  With all the beautiful new products from the Shabby Shoppe I had lots of inspiration and most importantly, many things to choose from!  I decided to create a Decorative Charger to display on my counter.

Gathering materials:

•  Cutting Machine - any cutting machine that will allow you to design your own cutting files, OR you can choose to cut the design by hand (but you all know I “don’t” do cutting!)
• White Contact Paper - I bought a roll from Walmart for $5.99.  It was 18 inches wide, too wide for my machine so this is where my carpenter dad came in! ;)  He took a skil saw to it, making it around 13 inches, leaving a second roll of about 5 inches wide, which is perfect for using on the mat that goes along with my machine!  He also told me that a miter saw would be perfect for the job! ;)  (The edge is a little rough, but not too rough, and fed right through the machine without a problem.
• Software to create the cutting file.  For this project I used the silhouette software that is free and came with the machine.
• Wordart of your choice – I used the “Cookies for Santa” wordart from the Holiday Wordart and More collection.
• Plate or charger to decorate, or a sign for that matter, whatever you want to adhere the contact paper to.

Designing the cutting file:

If you’re cutting by hand you could simply print and trace the PNG file that comes in the kit.

If you’re cutting with a machine, you may want to modify it just a little.  For mine, I used the silhouette design software (the version that comes free with the machine).

Tracing a .png, graphic, etc. using the silhouette software:

• Drag the image into a new document.
• Click on the blue square icon (aka the Trace Window) in the top corner.
• Here you will choose the top box which will give you an arrow cursor.
• You will need to draw a box around your element that you want traced.  Make sure everything you want traced is in the grey part of the square.
• Next, uncheck the High Pass filter option, and then up the Threshold to around 80-100%.  It should fill in your whole design, if little pieces of it aren’t covered that’s okay.
• Lastly, you’ll select the Trace outer edge.  Now there should be red lines around the OUTSIDE of your letters.

Getting the insides of each letter:

•  Next, you’ll move the PNG file below the outline, leaving ONLY the outlined letters.  There will be NO inners for the letters so you’ll need to trace the original PNG again, following the same directions, but this time you need to click TRACE. Now the letters, as well as the insides of each letter should have red around it. Again, move the original PNG away from the trace lines.
• Right click on the new set of traced lines.
• Select Release Compound Path.
• Now you can select each individual little slither in the design.  (I didn’t want to worry with taking out each of the tiny cuts so I left those in the second design, but I used copy and paste to bring the inner portions of the letters into the top design, which will be the one I cut. I also chose to adjust a few of the inner designs, adding the small boxes to the I in cookies.  I also added the small star inside of the larger star so that it’d be cut out, but I left out the squiggly lines surrounding it.)
• Now the file is ready for cutting, so SAVE!  Now you can use it again for other projects!

 Tip: Directions to trace an object, any graphic can be traced in essentially the same way, making minor adjustments to the sliders to perfect it!

 As you can see in my design, I have also used the Candy Cane from the Sugarplum Dreams collection.  I adjusted it by taking out the “Pink” pieces of the candy cane following the directions above to create a red and white candy cane on my plate.

 Cutting the file:

For this one, I chose to use my smaller roll of contact paper.  Lay the vinyl on your mat, mine was approximately 5 inches tall by 12 inches wide.  When cutting vinyl you want a “KISS” cut.  This means you want to cut the top portion of the vinyl, but not the back part of it.  So you want to be able to peel away the extra vinyl, leaving the design still adhered to the backing paper.

On my machine I used the following settings:

• Blade set on 2
• Speed at 5
• Thickness at 3

Tip: Write down whatever settings work for your machine so that you can use them later!

 If you’re NOT using a mat, ensure that the Cutting Mat option is NOT checked, if you ARE using a mat, ensure that it IS checked.

•  Now click on the send to silhouette button.
• Follow the steps to ensure you have everything correct.
• Cut your file.

• Once the file is cut you’ll want to peel away the excess vinyl.  This is known as “weeding” the design.  This is the toughest part of the entire project; you have to make sure you get out all of the tiny pieces between the letters.  You can purchase a hook tool for this, but I have just been using a safety pin and it works GREAT!

Here’s another tip, instead of purchasing transfer tape, you can use contact paper, so that’s what I did.  I just grabbed a piece of contact paper, from the same roll and cut a big enough piece to cover the design.

• Place the sticky side on TOP of your design.  Using an old credit card (or one that you’ve had in a drawer FOREVER and didn’t call and activate it! ;) like I did here!) press down on your design to make sure it’s all “STUCK” to the new contact paper.
• Pull the original piece of contact paper away from the back of the new piece.  Ensure that ALL of the letters (and the small pieces, dots of the i’s, periods, etc.) are also sticking to the new contact paper.  This makes the design backwards when looking at it, but it gives you a way to transfer the design in tact without having to place it one letter at a time on your new surface

Adhereing it to the Plate:

• Now take the piece of contact paper and place it where you want it on your decoration.  Again, using your credit card, press down hard enough to ensure that the letters will come OFF the vinyl and go onto the decoration.
• Begin peeling up the “transfer tape/contact paper”.  This time the design should be adhering to your charger or plate.  Make sure you are SLOWWWW in this process, ensuring that each piece is sticking.  I had a little trouble only on the last bracket; it didn’t want to stick as well. I just used the credit card to pull it down on the plate and once it stuck, the whole piece stuck!
•  Now, do the same process to the candy cane, if you decided to add one!

 And you’re finished; you’ve got a new beautiful decoration!!  Just remember if you use contact paper, it will NOT be water proof, so no washing, and I’m not sure how long it’ll hold up, but I’m thinking if it’s just left on display it should last quite a while!

I plan to make a few of these using the monograms from the carousel monogramkit for friends and family!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this project!  If you’ve got any questions feel free to post, I’ll try my best to help you out!!  It is really an easy process once you get into it though.  Check back in with us on Monday for another Layout of the Week!  Enjoy your weekend!!

CasharinaHybrid Projects, Uncategorized 3 Comments

Hi everyone!  This is Lindsay here with my very first Shabby Shoppe blog post ever!  And not only is it my very first Shoppe blog post, it is my first blogging experience too!  And if that wasn’t pressure enough – wait for it – this is also my very first attempt at a hybrid project!  Whoa!  But good news – this little project was so quick and easy, even a first timer like me had no problems with it!  So here’s today’s project – the Gratitude Journal!

Before I had kids I used to love journaling.  Now if I have a spare moment, there are more productive things I can be doing.  But I do miss spending that time writing and processing my thoughts, and I always enjoyed going back and rereading the things I wrote and remembering the things that had happened.  Now, I love Pinterest, and recently, during one of my spare moments I was (productively) perusing the site for some scrapbook inspiration.  I stumbled upon a cute little gratitude journal and I loved the idea behind it – every night before you go to bed, write down one thing you are thankful for or one good thing that happened during that day.  I thought it was awesome – and perfect for people who don’t have much time for journaling!  I decided I could surely make one for myself, and I did!  (Actually, they were so fast and fun, I made three!)

So, here are the quick and easy steps to make a gratitude journal (or three) of your very own!

First, gather your supplies.  I found these cute little journals at Michael’s craft store for a dollar a piece!  You also need some spray adhesive, your fabulous stash of digital scrapbook supplies from the Shabby Shoppe, scissors, and if you want, some cute stickers or other embellishments to add some 3-D flair to your journal!

Second, measure your journals.  Mine were 5×7, and one was 5×5.  In your scrapbboking software, create layouts for the front and the back of your journal.  Since my journal covers were very thin, I didn’t need to cover the edges, so the image size I created was exactly the size of the journal covers.  If you have edges that you need to cover by wrapping paper around, account for those measurements when creating your layouts.  The other thing I did was to make a thin strip for the spine of my journals.  This way I could cover the edges of my new paper covers, and add some extra pattern to my design.  I made my spine strip 1.5 inches wide - but yours obviously will depend on the size of journal you are working on!

Third, print out your designs and carefully cut them out.  Spray a thin layer of spray adhesive to the back cover of your journal first, and position your printed layout over it.  Do the same for the front, and finally, spray the strip of paper for along the journal’s spine and position it along the spine, pressing to seal.

Finally, add any fun 3-D embellishments you want!

There you have it!  With Thanksgiving right around the corner, what a perfect time to get in the habit of practicing an attitude of gratitude!  These would be so fun to put at everyone’s place at the Thanksgiving table as a little gift, or a quick, (cheap!) and easy handmade Christmas present to begin working on for the holiday season!  I hope you give these little journals a try, and if you do, I’d LOVE to see your creations in the Shoppe Gallery!

Thanks so much for stopping by and checking out my little project today – I’m so grateful that you did!!!  I hope you all have a great weekend and we’ll see you back here on Monday, when Casharina will announce the next LOTW!

LindsayHybrid Projects, Uncategorized 13 Comments