the hybrid chick

Welcome back to the Hybrid Chick!

Anyone who has been around The DigiChick for a while knows that we often have a card swap challenge whenever we have some type of a celebration, so for NSD, we thought we’d extend that fun to the Hybrid Chick!

Let’s see your crafty card-making magic in action! As a fun little spin for NSD, everyone who participates in this challenge will receive a full set of ready-to-print hybrid cards. It’s always handy to have some cards on hand ready to go so that you can avoid those last minute card runs!

Here are the details:

• Go snag the gorgeous paper pack from Nicole/Sugarplum Paperie, Paper Daisies.
• Use those papers to create a digital version of a hybrid card. You will be printing out this digital version and embellishing it to make it hybrid. We want everyone in this challenge to use these papers as your base for the card so that everyone ends up with a matching set of cards at the end of the challenge.

I start a new document in my scrapping program. My printer prints 8.5″ x 11″, so that’s the size that I make my canvas.

Then I create a form for my card. The standard card size is 5.5″ x 4.25″, so for a bifold card, my form needs to be 5.5″ x 8.5″. You can rotate it to make this work for a landscape or a portrait card. I’m going to go with a landscape or horizontal card.

Notice that I have left some empty space around the outside of my card form. I will put some digital embellishments into that space and print out everything at once.

I have also added a 1/2 inch guideline border around the edge of my canvas. I have a borderless printer, but I find that I still sometimes end up with some chopped off edges, so that’s just a guideline for me to make sure that everything prints out clearly.

So, now to design the card itself. I’ll pull in one of the papers from that gorgeous paper pack and use a clipping mask to place the patterned paper over my card form.

I use PSCS2, so in order to do that, I drag the patterned paper onto my canvas and resize it so that it’s at least as big as the form. The patterned paper layer should be the one directly over the form that I want to clip it to. With the patterned paper layer selected, I hit Ctrl+Alt+G (or you can go to Layer>Create Clipping Mask). The patterned paper clips to the card form!

Next I play around with some digital elements to figure out what I want to add to my card. Once I get my placement/sizing/elements right, I drag those elements out to the empty space outside my card form. I added a few extra butterflies so that I could have extra, either for this project or some other project later. At this stage, save this version of your card. This is the “Ready to Print” version that I want you to send to me, and this is what the version that you will be receiving (in pdf format) in the final zip file will look like.

Now you’re ready to print! Print out your card (I use the borderless option on my printer) and then assemble the pieces. Feel free to add more hybrid goodness once you start!

Here is my finished card:

The final step is to send an email to me (Sinead) at sinead@thedigichick.com with a full resolution version of your ready to print file in jpg format. If you can send an image of your printed out and completed hybrid card, too (jpg), that would be awesome. I will compile all of the cards that are submitted this weekend and then send out a zip file with all of the “ready to print” cards and the previews of finished cards to each participant.

Your deadline for participating is 11:59pm CST on Sunday, May 10. After that I will work on converting each “ready to print” jpg to pdf format and then get the zip files out as soon as I can this week. Huge thanks to Kari Holt for sharing her beautiful cards at the beginning of this post. (And they will be included in the zip file for participants, so you know you want to play along now!)

To make this even more fun, the fabulous Nicole Seitler of Sugarplum Paperie has offered a $5 Gift Card to one random participant!

Sounds like fun, right? Well, if you think this will be fun, you should make sure to swing by the Workshop Challenge section at The DigiChick this month. In addition to the regular May Workshop, we have decided to offer an additional Special Workshop this month–cards! Participants in the Special May Workshop will make digital cards and hybrid (“ready to print”) cards, depending on which they prefer, and at the end of the month, all participants will receive another zip file with all of the cards. What a way to stock up on your card stash, right? Some of the DigiChick and Hybrid Chick staff members and designers will also be putting together some cards for this workshop, so don’t miss out on this awesome opportunity! Cards for this challenge can be completed with any kit or supplies (though, of course, we encourage you to use TDC products so that you can earn Chickie Points as well!), so go run wild in the DigiChick Boutique and let your creativity run free!

A quick enabling note…the papers used on the cards that you see in this post are the gorgeous (and free!) papers from Nicole/Sugarplum Paperie, Paper Daisies. Click on the link to get your set! The elements (alpha and butterfly) are from Mari Koegelenberg’s May Grab Bag.

Another addition–LuAnn just reminded me that you can buy envelopes to go with these cards at places like Wal-Mart, Michael’s, etc.!

Other Articles by Sinead:

• Easter Lilies - March 26th, 2010