Hi All
Well the first of June means two things, we are
nearly half way through the year eek! Can’t believe it! And the other thing it
is my Mum’s Birthday …. Happy June and Happy Birthday Mum (who funnily enough
is called June ;)) As you read this we are on a trip to Country Baskets in
Gateshead to be inspired by the fabulous demonstrations of Jonathan Moseley and
to peruse the crafty, craftable goodies on offer ;)
In my absence I thought I might share this
It’s not often I get to play for the sake of it in
the studio these days but I had great fun creating this and mixing up lots of
digi kits with a bit of mess to create this hybrid card so here goes ….
I added the Graphic Authority Timeless 1 digi kit
to my workspace and added the background to an 8’’ x 8’’ page set up.
Next I added an overlay from the embellishment
section of the same kit (15th overlay down I think) I recoloured it
a pale green from the kit palette and then made it slightly transparent (27%)
Another overlay was added next (3rd up
from the bottom of the embellie section) building up layers and textures! And
this time I went to blend modes and chose erase.
To the embellishment tab I added the embellie
section from Timeless 1 brushes and stamps volume one and chose one of the
lovely text pieces (20th one down the list) I enlarged this and
recoloured it light green from the palette.
Then finally for my background I added the crease
overlay from the Timeless 1 brushes and stamps volume one digi kit (2nd
up from bottom) and recoloured it sage green from the palette.
I knew at this point I wanted to be able to build
my design and to be able to see anything that extended the edges of the work
page so I clicked the unclip mode button (at the bottom right of your screen) I
could now see everything outside the workspace but seeing the extra background
was confusing…
….so I selected the crop tool and pushed in the
edges of the layers to sit within the 8’’ x 8’’ space.
As I wanted to use the background paper on the
front and base of my card I copied the page by lifting the black arrow at the
bottom and clicking copy page.
Now my background was finished I didn’t want to
keep grabbing the layers as I built my design on top of it. Normally I would
drag these layers down to the background to lock them in but it would change
the look of the blend modes I had used so the other solution was to add a layer.
(Go to layers tab and click the plus sign and layer 2 will appear) The thing you
will notice now is instead of a blue line around my selected objects I have a
red line to let me know I am working on layer 2.
So moving on with the design of the front of the
card I searched 'dragonfly' in my digi kit browser and selected all the images it
gave me from my Nature Digi Boss kit. This also picked up the butterfly on a
flower and I added this to my page (7th image down)
I then added the dragonfly (10th image
down) and enlarged it.
I added the green material from the Timeless 1 kit
behind the Dragonfly (send back with arrange tab) and while the material was
still selected picked up the erase tool and erased around the edge of the
image (remember it has to be the material that is selected to do this!) I didn’t
go too close and wasn’t too precise.
Once I had removed all the material and while it
was still selected I made it more transparent, I liked the watercolour effect
it gave doing this. I then drew an imaginary box around the dragonfly and the
material and grouped them so they would move as one.
I added the postcard from Timeless 1 digi kit,
sizing it and putting it in a rough position for my design, this is where the
clip mode off is useful as I could still see it even when it extended my page.
I love to use the software as a design tool as I can make things the right size
to print off and get a rough idea of how I want to assemble things. To distress
my little card more I added a corner overlay to it from the Timeless 1 stamps
kit (9 up from the bottom) and recoloured it.
I then grouped both items to move as one
Next I went to my Serif Swirls 1 digi kit from the
Brushes and Stamps collection and added some of the flourishes I like, roughly
positioning them.
And then I created another little postcard from an
overlay in the Hearts Designs Vintage Paraphernalia kit and added some
distressed white material (recoloured) from the Digi Boss papers kit behind it….
…. Cropping the material to the edges and adding
some distress overlays to it from the Timeless 1 stamp kit.
Then grouped the layers to move as one. I created
this on my grey space as I wasn’t sure where it would go on my design but
thought I might like to use it when I assembled it in real life.
With the digi part of my card designed I needed to separate
my hybrid elements for printing so I opened a new A4 craft project ready (File ….
New …. Blank project from wizard … A4 page) then selected all the hybrid
pieces, right clicked and copied ….
...Then pasted them onto the new project.
I then inserted a new page into my A4 project, selected
just the flourishes, right clicked CUT and then pasted them to the new page.
I arranged the flourishes into a smaller area as I
wanted to export them as an image to then import it into my Silhouette Cameo cutting
machine software. I selected them all went to tools and selected convert to
picture (I always just click yes on the pop out box and don’t change any
numbers)
I then went to file and selected Export as image
In the pop out box I made sure I selected the image
to be a PNG to make sure it had no background and then clicked export, saving it
to the pictures on my computer
I could then delete the flourishes and make this
page into a paper to cut my flourishes out of. I returned to the original
project, opened the layers tab and this time dragged the background picture up
to the 1st layer, you can see it makes the edges whiter as the blend
mode I used reacts differently now but that’s fine for the paper I want to cut
from.
I zoomed out (bottom right) and drew an
imaginary box round all the layers grouped them all then right clicked and
copied …
…. Pasting it onto the blank A4 sheet of my 2nd
project.
I then pasted it again so I could fill the page.
Going back to the first page of my A4 project I
arranged the remaining elements for printing and copied a couple more of the
postcards just to fill in the space and to have for a future project. I also
selected the dragonfly and put the transparency back up to 100% as I wanted the
solid colour when I printed it.
I then added a sentiment which is from the Hearts Designs Vintage Paraphernalia kit (I cut this with the scissors as it was a
long sentiment originally) and put this on top of a tag from the Timeless 1 kit
(I erased away the string attached to the tag as I didn’t need it)
So that was my element sheets sorted. I went back
to the original project and returned that background layer I had just moved to
its original place and then on the page that I added my design elements to deleted the bits I didn't need anymore leaving the dragonfly and butterfly in place.
While my elements were printing I opened my
Silhouette Cameo software and went to the open file tab
I found my flourish image
And inserted them onto my cutting page, copying and
changing the size slightly a couple of times.
I then opened the trace window, selected the area
to trace (draw a box round all) and selected outer area so it knew just to cut
the outline of the swirls and once my A4 background paper was printed
Cut them out.
After cutting out all my elements I assembled my
design
Adding flowers and leaves
Distressing and inking the little cards and tag
Adding gilding flakes to edges and corners and the cut
out dragonfly that I shaped and layered up on the front
And finishing off with some dew drops and Pinflair
pearl wand pearls.
Phew! That’s it ;) I hope it all makes sense and
maybe inspires you to have a go at some hybrid crafting! Thanks for letting me
share my project with you and also a little insight into my design process with
Craft Artist 2 Professional.
I will love you and leave you now and wish you a
Happy June once more, I’ll be back soon, until then, as ever
Happy Crafting
Love
MJM x
PS The Timeless collection digi kits that I have mentioned from Graphic Authority are exclusive to Create and Craft TV until the end of June ;)
PPS I will *see you* tomorrow at 2pm & 5pm on Create and Craft TV with the Digi Boss kits M x
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