Digital Items:

• Sassy Purse #3 by Kelleigh Ratzlaff Designs
• Strawberry Cafe [Revised] by Sugarplum Paperie

Physical Items:

• Claudine Hellmuth Studio Sticky-back Canvas by Ranger
• BasicGrey Magnetic Snaps
• Zva Creative ~ Pearl and Rhinestone rounds
• Brads
• Double-Sided Tape
• Crop-a-Dile
• Sewing Machine

Step 1: Design the front of the purse ~ I used the elements from Sugarplum Paperie’s Strawberry Cafe [Revised] kit. Next add paper to the front, clasp, and handle ~ I used the paper from Sugarplum Paperie’s Strawberry Cafe [Revised] kit and print it out on a piece of sticky-canvas.

Step 2: Open a new document and using the same purse template, add a digi paper to use as a liner (the inside) of the purse. I used a paper from Sugarplum Paperie’s Strawberry Cafe [Revised] kit. These pieces are important to add because it not only makes the purse look more polished, but it also works as a support so the purse is able to hold it’s shape.

Step 3: On another piece of sticky-canvas, print out any additional items ~ I printed out some hearts. Here’s a photo of all the elements cut out.

Step 4: Add the liner pieces to all the canvas pieces. The easiest way I found to do this, is to peel the backing from the canvas a little at a time, taking time to align both pieces together.

Step 5: I added double-sided tape and assembled the box. I then added some rhinestones around the stem for some glitz.

Step 6: I also wanted to add some fun details to the handle and clasp, so I used my sewing machine to add some zig-zag lines around the edge of the handle and clasp.

Step 7: For some additional details, to the clasp I added some hearts with halfback pearls and to the handle some hearts with brads which I will use to attach it to the purse.

Step 8: I used the Crop-a-Dile to make punch holes on the purse, handle, and clasp. I attached the handle and clasp to the purse with some brads and then moved on to the closure.

Step 9: For the closure, I added some magnetic snaps to the purse and end of the clasp.

Step 10: I finished the purse by adding a flower button with a black brad to the front. Here’s a photo of the front of the purse.

It’s ready to be filled with some note cards or perhaps a treat! Here’s a photo of it with the note cards.

Hope you find time to make one of your own and please share a link on this post so we can all check it out!

Today I thought I’d run through a few of my past hybrid projects and highlight some of the ways I’ve incorporated the use of stamps into them. Once you realise that stamping isn’t just using black ink on white paper, you’ll have ideas to make all sorts of projects!

I love to keep loads of spare greeting cards ready in case my kids go to a birthday party, or we’re invited to a wedding or a baptism, or Christmas comes upon you all of a sudden. I just reach for my shoebox and there’s always something suitable hiding in there just for that special occasion! I have made lots of cards that I don’t use because the greeting that I’ve used on them isn’t relevant for the particular occasion I’m searching for. So go ahead and make up your hybrid cards but leave off the greeting on the front. That way, you can reach for those greeting stamps when you actually need to. I’d leave a blank area where you can stamp ‘happy birthday’ or ‘thank you’ or whatever the occasion calls for. My greeting stamps are my most used ones in my collections. You can never go astray buying a ‘happy birthday’ or a ‘merry Christmas’ stamp can you?

WISHING YOU LOVE CARD

Another part to stamping is the ink you have on hand. I just love inking up the edges of my layouts, my cards and just about every project I make has something inked on it. It gives your projects that extra bit of warmth and depth that you may not otherwise be able to achieve. Try it and you’ll be amazed at the difference some shading or shadowing can make! Just check out Julee’s post yesterday as her shading is just exquisite. I tend to just go for it with a sponge dabbed onto an inkpad and slowly build it up around the edges of whatever you’re inking. Start off lightly and build it up to the depth you want. You can apply the inkpad directly to the side of your paper/photo but remember this will come out dark from the get-go. This gives a rather dramatic result which you may be looking for whereas sponging the edges will give you a softer, more subtle effect. Give it a go as I’d never heard of inking up an edge until a teacher in a paper scrapbooking class showed us how easy it was. From then on, I was hooked and my inkpads don’t always get used just for stamping now! Make sure to check out our DISTRESSING link at the top of The Hybrid Chick where you’ll find some further tips on distressing with ink.

LOVE CARD

And a final thing that I just treasure my stamps for is being able to create my own embellishments or to jazz up an existing embellishment. Before I’d had any ‘official’ stamping lessons, I had never thought to stamp an image, maybe colour it some way, but then cut it out to use as your own personalised embellishment! Who would have thought to do that!?! It’s great to be able to stamp a duplicate of an embellishment that you may have used on your project and use 3D foam tape to double it up so it gives the embellishment a more realistic and dimensional look. Take a close look at the flower on the right of the card.

THANKS CARD

It’s so much cheaper to be able to change up a flower you might have or some plain old chipboard with a bit of inking and/or adding some stamping to it. I love being able to stamp a script stamp onto a silk flower or in this layout, I have used a script stamp on some plain chipboard to add a bit of a vintage touch to the pieces. Can you see the word ‘you’ and the keyhole and the dramatic effect the stamping has on it in the layout below?

LOVING YOU 2 LAYOUT

For this baby keepsake tin, I used a stamp for the greeting ‘treasure’ and also for the angel wings. It’s so easy to stamp them onto your own papers, colour and cut out.

BABY KEEPSAKE/TREASURES TIN

And here’s my last example showing a beautiful butterfly that I stamped, painted up with some shimmery paints, cut out and 3D mounted. A special little touch to add to my canvas.

COLLAGE CANVAS

So there you have it! A few more simple stamping tips to explore when you’re hybrid scrapbooking!

I chose these little canvases at my local craft store.  They were the smallest ones I could find.  I would have preferred square ones, but I’m working with what I found.  The packaging on the canvas said that it was a 4″ by 5″ canvas.  NOTE: Please actual measure your canvas!  My little ones turned out to be 3.5″ by 4.5″…which greatly changed my project!  I painted both canvases a light yellow color, Lemon Chiffon, and set them aside to dry.   When they were dry, I thought they were a little flat.  So I gave each canvas a quick coat of Mod Podge all over, front, back and sides, and gave them a little while to dry.  Then I hot-glued rick-rack around the edges of the canvases to cover the ugly staples…remember we’re working with what we could find!

Here’s where a little math comes in!  I needed to make the inside accordian pages.  I knew that to make 6 inside pages I would actually need 9 rectangles.  You end up losing three when you overlap them to secure them together.  I added my width 3 times (3.5 x 3) and then measured my height(4.5).  I cut 3 strips of cardstock that were 10.5 inches long and 4.5 inches tall.  I then scored the strips every 3.5 inches on the long side.  I now had 3 strips of cardstock with three rectangles on each.  I folded the cardstock accordian style (back and forth).  Simply adhere the last rectangle of the first strip to the first rectangle on the next strip.  Repeat for the last strip.

Now to the digi creating!  I opened a new file that was 3.25″ by 4.25″….just a little smaller than my cardstock and my canvas.  I filled that space with beautiful papers and elements from both Mari Koegelenberg and Gypsy Couture.  I used Mari’s Flutterbies: Dotty Paper Pack and Flutterbies: Beaded Paper Flowers and Gypsy Couture’s simply adorable kit, Sweet Pea, for those great baby elements.  I wanted the pages to be cute, modern, vintage, and eclectic all at once and I think these kits really fit perfectly!I filled each of the six pages with information that you would normally find on a baby announcement…name, date and time of birth, height and weight, the proud parents, the place, and then added a little space for the parents to write their wish for the baby.  I printed these out on my Epson Premium Matte Presentation Paper (there’s a link in the sidebar for this awesome paper, a hybrid must) and cut them out.  I adhered one page to each rectangle on my cardstock strip.

Now to put it all together!  I cut some grosgrain ribbon to about 26 inches.  A little tip: if you run the ends of grosgrain ribbon over a flame (I use a candle lighter), the ends will seal and never fray!  I wrapped the ribbon around both canvases to measure the middle and then hot-glued the ribbon to the front canvas only.  That way the book can fold out!  Then I adhered the accordian pages to the inside of the canvases.  After a few tries, I think the best way to adhere the paper to the back of the canvas is by applying a coat of Mod Podge to the back of the canvas and then pressing the paper onto the back of the canvas.  I ended up trimming the very last rectangle off of the cardstock strip to make the pages fit.  I Mod Podged the back canvas as well and let them both dry.  When everything was dry, you simply fold up the pages and tie the ribbon around.  I am so pleased with this project!  It is simply adorable!   Such an adorable project…a precious keepsake to showcase or give as a gift!  As always, we would love to see your pictures if you make one of these.  Just upload your photo to the gallery at The Digi Chick!  As a bonus…I’m giving this little album away!   Although I’m absolutely in love with this, I’ll part with it for one of you.  Just leave a comment here for one chance to win. If you want more chances, then leave us a link to your twitter, blog post, or facebook comment linking up to this post.  That’s up to four chances to win!

I am by no means a Donna Downey or an Emily Falconbridge, so this was just a run-by-the-seat-of-my-pants project where I just did a bit of this and a bit of that. I still don’t know if I like the finished project, but I’m like that with all my scrapbooking projects and eventually it will grow on me!

So let’s see how I created this masterpiece (LOL)!

I have a large stash of cheap paint canvases that are about half an inch deep – the canvas is stretched around a wooden frame and this one is roughly letter sized. I primed it roughly with Gesso first.

I recently bought myself some Tattered Angels Glimmermist and Glimmer Screens so have been itching to try them out. So I used one of my ‘Blossom’ screens and ‘Garden Fairy’ Glimmermist to come up with this on the base of my canvas. I love the subtle mask it gives you and I love how it all bled slightly into the canvas. It’s oh-so shimmery too.

You might also notice that there are some brown images on my canvas. I ‘attempted’ to stamp a couple of images onto the canvas and the ink ran when I used the Glimmermist but that’s just added to the effect for me! Note to self – stamps do not really work on a soft canvas, thus the whole image does not appear and need to use waterproof ink (not water-based ink) if spraying any liquid onto them! But there are no mistakes in scrapbooking, just creating art, and I continued on!

(By the way, you can click on any of these images if you want to see them in more detail.)

Next, I started to gather up and lay out some of the bits and pieces that I pulled together for this project. I printed off a paper from Gypsy Couture’s ENCHANTED AFTERNOON kit which is due for release on Thursday.

I scrunched it up a little, scratched it, distressed the edges and cut it to size. I then tore out my photo to fit – and yep, I’m only a spring chicken in this photo – maybe 16 or 17!

I adhered some white tulle to the left of the paper and some pink fibre across the bottom of the paper. I also had a go at making some embellishments out of tulle.

I cut out a number of rough circles with green and white tulle, layered them, stitched on a button with some fibre underneath and stuck a couple of digi leaves in behind the button.

I also ruffled up some ribbon and hand-sewed it to the canvas with some clear beads scattered along it.

Next, I stamped a couple of butterfly images with black Stazon ink, which is waterproof, then used some H20 Twinklings luminescent paints to colour the images. After I cut out the images, I stacked the butterflies with 3D foam tape to give it a more realistic look.

You’ll notice that I have added some pink glitter around the bottom of my tulle flower and onto the green paper – I added some drops of Crystal Effects and tipped the glitter onto them. On the paper, I also tipped some heart confetti onto the Crystal Effects. There is also some hand stitching around the paper to hold it to the canvas.

Using some metallic rubons, I worked some colour into the corners of my canvas with my fingers and you’ll see that it highlights the texture of the canvas too.

I have added the word ‘beautiful’ to the bottom left hand corner of my canvas with a Basic Grey rubon. I just adore how versatile rubons are and they adhere to just about any surface. There’s a couple more flourishes rubbed onto the bottom left corner of my photo which you may see in the images below.

And here’s some pics of the final canvas which I could have kept adding to. It’s fun to just get your goodies out and have a play around and see what you can create!

Supply List:

• Paper from ENCHANTED AFTERNOON by Gypsy Couture
• Gingham leaves from COTTAGE GARDEN MINI by Kaye Winiecki
• Letter-sized paint canvas (from a Dollar Store)
• Gesso
• Glimmer Mist – Garden Fairy
• Glimmer Screens – Blossom
• Tulle
• Basic Grey button and rubons
• Thread
• Fibre
• Ribbon
• Beads
• Butterfly stamp from Lucy’s Stamps
• Crystal Effects from Stampin’ Up (a/k/a Diamond Glaze)
• H20 Twinklings by Luminarte
• Glitter
• Heart confetti
• Assorted stamps used on canvas
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink – Vintage Photo

Here’s the low-down for the pink canvas…

I opened an 8.5×11 blank project in my photo-editing software (I use PSE5).  I do this because I know that’s the size of my paper and it helps me gage my space.  For the pink project, I used the entire space knowing that I wanted the paper to wrap around my canvas.  I used my Dots and Doodles kit for the background paper and the cute label.  I knew the front was, of course, 5×7, so I made my label slightly smaller so I knew it would fit.  I printed on my Epson Premium Presentation Paper (check out Kelleigh’s great article on paper) and used the borderless printing option on my printer.  Since this project printed all together on one piece of paper, I lined up my paper with my canvas, centering the label image and carefully marked around the canvas on the back of the paper with pencil for a guide.  I extended my pencil lines and cut out the excess on the corners to allow for easier folding aroung the edges.  Then I mod-podged it on.  Now, Mod-Podge is like my Crafting Kryptonite…but I managed with a few simple tips.  I applied the mod-podge to the canvas and to the back of the paper.  Then I used a brayer to smooth it out.  I then wait a few minutes and allow it to set before I add the layer of mod-podge to the front of the project.  Allow that top layer to dry completely before adding another thin layer.  Check out Jill’s Mod-Podge Tips for more.

I love that canvas so much, I decided to try another.  This time I used a different technique.  I first painted the canvas a coordinating color.  This one is a gift for a baby’s room, so I used the nursery colors.  I made a paper I knew would match the room and then used the label again from Dots and Doodles and the same ‘L’ (that font is MB Flamingo, by the way) in brown this time.  I used a brown paper I made to back the label, so that cutting it out would be easier.  I printed them separately and cut them out.  I mod-podged the background paper on first using the same technique as before and allowed it to completely dry.  I then mod-podged the label on and smoothed it out before applying the top coats.  Then I just stapled on some ribbon to the back to use as the hanger.

There are so many things you can do with this project!  It was inexpensive, quick, easy, and I can’t wait to give this one as a gift!