Now I KNOW you have a digital kit or two *wink* and, combined with shrink plastic made especially for ink jet printers, we can print out and have custom embellishments for our hybrid projects in seconds!

First some supplies:

Grafix Ink Jet Shrink Film

Digital kits from The Digichick Boutique:

Where your Heart Is by Jan Hosford

Beginnings by Kelley Mickus

Every Life has A Story Ch. 1

Tools: scissors, hole punch, punches, heat gun

I printed out different images to test with my tools.  All tools pictured will work to cut or punch the shrink film.

You will want to remember to punch a hole in anything you need holes in (to make a charm or a button, etc) BEFORE you shrink the image.  Remember that everything reduces by 50% or more so start over-sized and anticipate that it will get smaller.  I have hand written digital image sizes on the sheet for reference.

Let’s shrink, shall we?

There are oven baking instructions on the shrink film package, but, if you have a heat gun in your bag of tools, I highly recommend it.  I like being able to individually control the shrinking of each item.  I also use a metal tool to hold my shrink film in place while I melt it.  Be sure to use a heat safe surface for this task.

Keep a flat bottomed water glass handy to set on the shrunken embellishment once heating is complete to flatten the image out.  Or, if you want your item to have curve to it, you have a few seconds to shape it once it is melted to its final size.  Handle carefully as it will be quite hot.

A before and after shot.  This is also a good time to note that it is a good idea to leave yourself room for trial and error when working with shrink plastic.  As you can see, my red clock is a bit on the lopsided side of things and I also held my heat gun a little close and scorched my clock!  That in mind, heat your item from the back side and keep your heat gun approximately4-6″inches from the item while moving it continuously. 

My happy little bits and pieces!  Let’s put a couple right to work…

The heart button tied with real embroidery floss and the new custom house embellishment look great paired with a digital background using papers and elements from Where the Heart Is and a fence line punch from Martha Stewart.

I hope you had fun seeing one way to take your digital elements and papers to another level…literally!  Thanks so much for stopping by the Hybrid Chick today!

Here it is…my confection built of  diapers and receiving blankets and ribbons oh my!  There are tons of great tutorials and advice articles to be had on assembling a diaper cake if you are so inclined to google.  Boy!  Do I love the web for all the sharing that goes on.

But, back to the gift topper…I first created some custom paper in Word to coordinate with the invites and such that were handmade for the shower.   My custom dot paper was printed on one side of white cardstock and then Kelleigh’s perfectly square template was printed on the other side.

Here is the template all cut out and scored.

Then I went to town embellishing the sides of my perfect square to resemble a baby’s block complete with baby-to-be’s initial and mom and dad when they were little.  Aren’t they precious?!  The “N” was cut using the Base Camp cartridge from Cricut and the monkey is from the My Cute Stamps Circus Animals set.  I used my trimmer and a square punch to make chocolate brown cardstock block frames.  A couple of holes in the lid and some brown grosgrain ribbon for a bow and ta da! The perfect gift topper.

When it came time to assemble the box, I used liquid glue to adhere all of the tabs together and then also glued the lid shut.  While this block won’t withstand toddler play, I’m quite certain this would be a fun keepsake in baby’s room to remind him that he is so very loved.

Thanks so much for stopping by today and checking out this project.  It was so fun and easy to make.  OK, I have to run, it’s time for a slice of  {diaper} cake! ; *wink*

So I’m here today with a simple project to make sure you always have a stash of easy but beautiful gift tags on hand for that gift wrapping emergency.  It all starts with a gorgeous digital kit….for this project, I fell in love with Mari Koegelenberg’s digital kit called Morrocan Sunset at The Digichick Boutique store.

Supplies:

Digital Kit, Morrocan Sunset by Mari Koegelenberg
Printer cardstock
Crochet thread
Stickles by Ranger
hole punch

Using Microsoft Word 2007 and Mari’s kit, I created a page of gorgeous tags.

OK, I admit, I can hear all of you Photoshop pros tsk tsk-ing right now, but I just haven’t taken the plunge into PSP or PSE yet.  The good news is, you’d hardly know it from this project   Shown in the shot above, I used the Insert function to add a rounded rectangle shape to my document.  I changed the outlines of those shapes to colors which closely matched the images from Mari’s kit.  The gorgeous butterfly/flower image and the vintage receipt images were re-sized and layered over the rounded rectangle boxes.  Save the document and print.

A little bit of glitter Stickles goes a long way!  I added glittery accents to the details of the images from Mari’s kit.  Be careful not to over apply Stickles as the liquid adhesive may cause some inkjet inks to run.

Given the size of tags I chose (2×2.5″), I was able to print 12 tags to one sheet of paper.

A hole punch and the addition of some simple crochet thread makes these tags ready at hand anytime.  Don’t these remind you of  price tags in a vintage boutique?!  I would buy something just for the tag   However, the tags are of generous enough size to write a little note on the back at their 2″ x 2.5″ size.

Thanks so much for stopping by for the project today.  Keep a supply of these pretty tags, some plain gift bags and lace trims in your gift wrap area and you are ready to go at a moment’s notice.  Use a seasonal digital kit from the Digichick Boutique for the images instead and your holiday gift wrapping will be done in a snap….just in time to enjoy all the festivities of that season!

Thanks for joining me!  Today, I will be using the super fun and easy to use Party Hat template from Kelleigh Ratzlaff’s August Grab Bag from the Digichick Boutique!  By printing Kelleigh’s party hat template onto cream cardstock, I was able to easily cut out and assemble the cone-shaped holder I need to form my tussy mussy! 

Here are the supplies I used:

• August Grab Bag from Kelleigh Ratzlaff
• Cardstock: Georgia Pacific (cream colored)
• Chipboard alpha and frame: Tattered Angels
• Glimmer Mist: Tattered Angels
• 3-D fabric paint: Scribbles in iridescent white
• Paper Flowers: Brides from Michaels
• Embossing envelope: swiss dots from Cuttlebug
• Ink: Chestnut Roan from Colorbox
• Craft supplies: ribbon, lace, tissue paper and craft wire
• Adhesive: ATG and Fabri-tac

Step 1:  Prepare chipboard and paper flowers by inking the edges and then spraying with glimmer mist.  I used fabric 3-d paint to make pearls in the centers of the flowers.  Allow to dry completely.

Step 2: Emboss the cream cardstock with the embossing envelope.  Assemble the party hat per the template instructions pulling the cone into a tighter, smaller shape.  Adhere with ATG or other strong adhesive at the seam.  Create a flat spot at the rear of the cone by gently bending a crease on either side of the seam in the back.  Line the top front edge of the cone with fabri-tac glue and adhere lace.  Use fabri-tac to adhere the hanging ribbons on the inside of the cone.  Hold in place until dry with clothespins.

Step 3:  While everything is drying, make tissue paper flowers.  You will need squares of tissue that are approximately 6″x6″.  Stack four pieces of tissue together and accordion fold them.  Secure the folds with craft wire twisted around the center point.  Trim the ends of the accordion folded tissue into points to vary the look of your flowers.  Carefully fluff the flowers by separating the layers of tissue and arranging to your liking.

Step 4: Adhere remaining embellishments to the tussy mussy.  Flowers can be arranged at various heights and then twist wire stems together and tape to the inside of the tussy mussy. 

 While this tussy mussy is intended to adorn the top of a gift box, wouldn’t this also look great hanging on the newlyweds wall at home or maybe made in multiple to decorate the ends of the pews in the church where they plan to get married.  No need to worry about wilted flowers or water damaging wooden pews when the flowers are made of tissue.  In fact, tissue flowers don’t get along with water at all.  No tape or nails required to hang these either, just make the ribbon long enough to tie around whatever shape of hanger they will be hung upon.  Also, this wouldn’t break the brides flower budget either.  The most expensive item on here is about 50 cents worth of chipboard   I love beauty for pennies don’t you?

Voila!  A paper masterpiece   Thank you so much for joining me today. 

Our family’s school year works best when all important things like homework and memos home can be found in one place, every time.  For the past couple of years that has been clamped in a magnetic bulldog clip on the front of the fridge.  BUT, this summer I gave my fridge a makeover and all the “stuff” has come down so we needed a new homework station. 

Enter this project that uses some thrift store finds, a cute digital kit from The DigiChick Boutique and some common craft items to corral those very important but oh so loseable school papers.

Gather your supplies:

• Clipboard
• Three Little Birdsby Pri Rocha at the DigiChick
• crop o dile
• clear spray paint
• color of choice spray paint
• acrylic paint
• glossy accents ( or like embellishment adhesive)
• fabric tac (for adhering fabric or ribbon)
• mod podge

Check these babies out!  I bet they could tell some stories about where they have been!

The story they told me from the shelf at the thrift store was “hey lady, I am a little rough around the edges but I have a lot of life left in me….and, check it out!  I am only 30 cents each!”.  The thrifty crafter in me took pity on these poor industrial orphans.  I had to take them home to see what they would do with a bit of shine and polish.  Now, of course, brand new clipboards will work for this project as well but I LOVE a bargain and had to share their “BEFORE” shot.

And this is the AFTER shot!  Wow! Totally new lease on life methinks!

STEP 1: Clean em up!

I used Un-Du for any leftover adhesive and then just gave the board a good scrub with a brush and dish soap.  Let it dry totally before trying to adhere anything to it. 

STEP 2: Create an instruction sheet with totally cute digi kit!

Using Pri Rocha’s Three Little Birds kit, I created an instruction sheet for each of my girls. 

The list shows what should be in their backpack everyday and then lists other special days like library day, PE day, homework due and bible study.  These are days that require something extra to go into the backpack. 

I left space to adhere removable labels since the days for each event could change in the future.  Also, I did some doodling and defining with a couple of black markers on the sheet on the right versus the original images as shown on the left pink printout.

STEP 3: adhere the sheet to your clipboards

To get to the fun part, first spray the boards front and back with spray paint.

I painted the clip a contrasting color with acrylic craft paint.  Insert a pencil under the clip edge to keep if from sticking to the board during any drying time. 

The printed sheet was adhered with mod podge applied on the back of the cardstock.  REMEMBER to seal the front of the printed cardstock with clear acrylic sealer so your inkjet ink doesn’t run.  Smooth out any mod pdge bubbles with your hand or a rubber brayer. 

Once dry, spray the front of the board with the clear acrylic with several coats, allowing it to dry in between coats.

STEP 4: Get your embellishment on!

A crop-o-dile makes a clean hole through this THICK metal! I had my doubts for a second and then POP! Worked like a charm! This made it easy to securely attach flowers with a decorative brad.

For added good measure, a strip of ribbon under the clasp and some fun bling. Let your imagination run!

Here it is in action with a piece of kindergarten news already! Can’t believe it!

I’m so glad you stopped by today. I hope you enjoyed this project and that you’ll try it for yourself.

Ok, I have to go now, recess is over….. 

For the spunky baby or mommy to be in your life, how about the tres chic zebra stripe from Melissa Wilson’s Tween You and Me Creative Girl kit to spice up the already adorable templates from Kelleigh Ratzlaff?  There are tons of great paper and element choices in this kit that make this project a snap! 

Ready?  Let’s go for it!

Supplies:

Templates: Baby Themed Shaped Cards Template Set and the Take-Out box template sets by Kelleigh Ratzlaff

Digi Kit: Tween You and Me Createive Girl Kit by Melissa Wilson

Other: Acrylic clear spray sealer, 22 gauge floral wire, eyelet, button, adhesive velcro, embroidery floss and safety pin, vintage cream ink by Papertrey Ink

Using Microsoft Word, I arranged digital papers and elements to fit my templates and printed everything out.  Each sheet received an even coat of acrylic spray sealer to avoid smudging of the ink.

I then cut out the two diaper templates I printed and glues them together to form a printed inner and outer diaper.  I also wanted this card to be free standing so instead of folding straight in half I folded the card so it would have a base to stand on.  I allowed the adhesive to dry completely while having the card stand in this position to reinforce the shape I wanted the finished product to be.

While the body of the card was drying, I adhered the two half flowers from the digi kit to form a whole flower and layered on some fun embellishments.  This was adhered to one of the diaper tabs.

Self adhesive velcro was applied to form the diaper card closure.  I also inked the edges of the diaper with vintage cream ink to help the front stand out from the back.

Next up is the take out box template.  I prescored lines on the  printed paper and traced the template on with pencil.

Assemble the box and add embellishments and eyelets to the side in preparation for a wire handle.

The two half daisy images from the kit are perfect to adorn the tabs on the top of the box.

The flowers match perfectly once the tabs are aligned.

Adhere the two layers of the rattle together and allow to dry folded to reinforce the shape.  A few simple embellishments to the rattle and adhere to the side of the box for the perfect box tag.

Thanks so much for joining me today.  I hope you had fun!

EDITED TO ADD: Enter to WIN!  Leave a comment on this post and you have one entry to win one $5 coupon card from the very generous Kelleigh of Kelleigh Ratzlaff Designs at The DigiChick which I will randomly draw at the end of our Baby Shower celebration. If you would like to give yourself more chances please leave us a link to your twitter, blog post, or facebook comment linking up to this post telling everyone about the WILD baby card and gift box you saw here.  Thanks!

Supplies:

• wooden craft shapes
• Mod Podge (I like Matte)
• Spray acrylic clear sealer
• acrylic paint
• digital kit in theme with your shapes – I used the FABULOUS Flight of Fancy by Elise Hansen
• foam brushes
• buttons
• twine
• permanent ink pad ( I used StazOn)
• Permanent ink pen
• pencil
• glossy accents
• clothespins

Let’s get started!

Based on the measurements of the wood pieces, I cut and pasted the images from the digital kit that I needed into a Word document.  I resized the designer papers so I had just what I needed and no waste.  I also pulled in the airplane image and two banners.  The “special delivery” letters and the “Name:” and “Born:” were text boxes that I could move and layer over the banners.  The Special Delivery, while destined to be a message in the cloud shaped sky, was left to print on the white cardstock so I could hand trim those letters to be small rectangles.  Once I had everything I needed, I hit print and I was on my way.

I wasn’t sure if my inkjet printer ink would be able to withstand a layer of mod podge without smearing so I sprayed a portion of my printed sheet with a fine mist of clear acrylic spray.  The Scrapbook Spray was something I had on hand, but a plain old clear finish spray paint would do the trick as well I think.

It’s very slight, but if you enlarge the above photo, you will see that the “Born:” type that was not first sprayed with an acrylic sealer smeared when I foam brushed on the Mod Podge.  I set about clear sealing the rest of the page and reprinted the “Born:” banner.

Once everything was clear sealed, I brushed on Mod Podge in smooth, same direction strokes.  Be as consistent as possible since your stroke lines will be present when the Mod Podge dries.

While your page of Mod Podged items is drying, paint your wooden shapes.  I used acrylic craft paint I had on hand.  I painted two coats on the back of the shapes as this layer will show in the finished product.  I also painted the edges and towards the middle of the front of the shapes.

Be sure to get the edges painted and clean off any pools of paint in the crevices.

Once the images and the Mod Podged page are TOTALLY dry, trace the shapes on the portions of the printed image sheet that will serve as the background paper to the wooden shapes.  The Mod Podged image sheet, once dry, takes on a feel of wallpaper and is very easy to write on and cut out.

Of course, since my images were already painted, I had to ERASE the pencil marks after tracing.  WHOOPS!  If possible, trace your images onto the dry mod podged image sheet before painting them!

So here they are, painted wood shapes and their matching cutout papers.

Next, apply a layer of Mod Podge to the front of the wooden shape and smooth the matching paper image over the top.

Let the images dry completely on the wooden shapes.

I sponged Timber Brown Staz on around the edges for a more rustic feel.

Next I applied the small images by brushing Mod Podge to the back of the cut out images and smoothing them on with a baby wipe to help clean up the edges where extra Mod Podgehad escaped.  A damp paper towel would work well too.  A final layer of Mod Podge was applied to the whole shape to further seal the project.

Add fine details with a slick writer or other permanent marker…in this case, black lines to connect the “Special Delivery” sign.

Next I chose some coordinating buttons and a length of twine to string my items together.

I wove the hemp twine in and out of the buttons down to the bottom of the airplane.  Any open button holes were filled with a short piece of twine and tied for decoration.

Slide the buttons to make room for the cloud and the airplane and then use invisible tape to temporarily hold the images in place.  I held the string of items against a wall to see that everything was balanced the way I was hoping.

Carefully fold back areas of tape to clothespin the twine to the shapes in preparation for the liquid glue.

With the twine arranged and held in place, use glossy accents to run a bead of glue down the length of twine on the backs of the cloud and the airplane.

Here’s how it looks right after applying the glue.  Then leave it alone while it dries.  Mine took about an hour but more dry time would be better

That’s it!  Here it is hanging on baby’s wall!  The parents can personalize it with a sharpie marker or you can deliver it personalized by adding another layer of mod podge and little letters like in the cloud above.    This keepsake easily moves from gift bag or box, to wall, to baby’s scrapbook or ???  So many fun possibilities with this one!  A note: wood contains lignin which produces an acidic environment as it ages.  Even though this piece is well sealed with mod podge and paint, take care in allowing wood to touch irreplaceable photos in scrapbooks.  With the ease of digital photography, I feel very free in using almost anything in my scrapbooks but I felt it fair to issue the warning just in case

I hope this tutorial finds it’s way to your creative space.  I can’t wait to see what else can be done with these wooden shapes as this is, no doubt, only a few of the many, many wonderful ideas out there.  Please feel free to ask any questions that I have not answered here in the comments or on my blog.  I will be happy to answer them. 

How about a giveaway?  This project will be part of the door prize gifts that will be given away to lucky random posters throughout the week.  Please enter you comment here to be eligible.  Also, you can get an extra chance to win if you blog, twitter, or mention our baby shower on Facebook and link us up just like we did for NSD - please spread the word about what’s happening here at The Hybrid Chick

Thanks so much for visiting today and I hope you’ll be back for MORE amazing gift and project ideas this week and next, all about sweet babies!  Can you smell the pink lotion and baby powder yet?