Hey hey sweet shoppers!! Are you ready to get your fingers sticky with some glue? I had so much fun with this little tutorial, and I LOVE what I created, so let’s get started!

When it comes to scrapbooking, most people think of “hybrid” in terms of altered art. Taking a box or a bag and covering it up and making it into something else. That’s how I got started in the world of hybrid, and I think a lot of other people did the same. But when I started doing those sorts of projects, my actual scrapbooking ended up relegated to the back seat. And not just the back, but the 3rd row seat where you have to climb around a bunch of other stuff and it’s a pain to get in and out. I created less than 12 actual scrapbook pages last year. 12! That’s almost disgraceful!

But in the beginning of the year, with the new challenges, and Janet Phillips and her wonderful clean-lined templates making her debut, it was like a light bulb went off for me. I can make hybrid layouts! I can get my pictures scrapped, but use all my favorite digital kits to do it. As a bonus, there are no worries about “ruining” that perfect piece of patterned paper because I can print it out 490284932 times if I wanted! Hooray!! So today, I’m showing you a little mini tutorial on hybrid layouts. 🙂

First, if you want, pick a template. I used one from Darcy’s “Inspired by Rubia” set, available this month only. I really liked the stitching it showed, and thought it would be fun to bust out my sewing machine.

Now that I had my template (the one on the top right), I started pulling in elements and papers and a photo, just like I would if I were doing a regular digital scrapbook page.  I chose a kit by Fee Jardine called “Crazy 4 You”. It has a soft, romantic feel that I thought would work well for some of my pictures from around Paris, France from our Honeymoon trip.

Here’s what my layout looked like when I was satisfied with the digital portion of the show.

You can see that I don’t have any journaling or text filled in, and I’ve got 2 hearts just randomly floating around, and those flowers aren’t exactly in the right spots either. None of that matters, because I’ll be printing everything out and then placing the pieces by hand!

As I’ve said before, I like to cram as much as humanly possible on my sheets for printing. This means that multiple projects can end up on the same file for printing. Here’s an example of a printing sheet. There are at least 2 projects on this page, maximizing the space.

Once I get everything printed out, I sit down for a night of tv, and start cutting and trimming away. I like to get a little stockpile of stuff all ready to go for when inspiration strikes or I have some extra time on my hands.  Then comes the fun part! Here’s my pile o’ stuff, ready to be put together. I found some red and white striped ribbon to use (I prefer real ribbons to printing and cutting out digi ones), and I pulled out a variety of glue, dimensional adhesive, and distressing inks. I also chose a piece of 12×12 paper to use as my background, since I don’t have a wide format printer to print out my own.

I also used some cream colored paint. I actually glued down my center pieces before I realized I had forgotten the paint strokes, and had to pull it off to add them (it tore in the center, but that was being covered anyway so no harm, no foul). I layered and glued the papers and photos together, and then it was time for the sewing machine.

I added stitching in mostly the same places as was shown on the template (my workspace is right next to my computer desk, so I just left PS up with this LO open so I could refer to it). Here’s a trick for making sure there are no long strings on the top side of your lo – tug gently on the string from the underside, and it will pull down a little bit of the top string that you can then grab and pull through, leaving no long messes on the front of your piece! I used regular old scotch tape to keep the strings in place on the back.

After that, I used my distressing ink to dye the white part of the ribbon to a creamier, more antique tone that is similar to the ribbon in the kit. I cut up some foam adhesive and adhered it to the back of the letters of my title (used the same thickness foam throughout so everything is on the same level), and then figured out my placement for the ribbon, flowers, and title. Glue it all down and ta-da! Hybrid LO! WOOT!!

Soooo much fun, so pretty, and I just LOVE it!! I’ve got a coordinating page in the works as well, so that when I slip them into our Honeymoon Album I’ve got a nice coordinating spread going on. Easy, easy, easy!

I hope you all enjoyed this little tutorial, and are maybe even inspired to make a hybrid LO of you own. I enjoy shrinking down templates to make them work as 8.5″ x 8.5″, so I can print out those special patterned papers that I love so much. I enjoy albums with all sorts of different shapes and sizes for pages, and I’m excited to keep working on this album. With all the wonderful templates in the shop, there’s no shortage of inspiration!

Until next time, enjoy!

~Col