I’m a DigiChick!!

My digital designs are now being carried over at the DigiChick.com.  I’m so excited I can hardly stand it!  Its an amazing store overflowing with digital goodness and an amazing creative team  – and they let me come in and play!  “squeal!”

All Paper Garden Projects designs over there are 20% off…. so feel free to go check it out

I thought I’d celebrate by sharing a digi-hybrid project and a little template freebie.

I made these 2 treat holders by simply clipping some digital papers and digital stamps into the template.  Easy-peasy…

You can download the free template here – it is a PSD file for use with Photoshop Elements or regular Photoshop.  If you are strictly a paper scrapper, the measurements to make the treat folders by hand are at the end of this post.

When you unzip  and open the PSD file in Photoshop, it will look like this:

You can see all the layers on the side.  Each layer is a “clipping mask”.  All you need to do is position the digital paper you want to use above the mask, hover your cursor on the line between them and click down when you get the little snowman symbol.  The paper will conform to the clipping mask.

For my projects, I used the wonderful new Digi Chick April collaborative kit called Wishes Hopes and Dreams.

What is a collaborative kit?  All the designers get together and create a kit with the same theme and color scheme.  It is simply amazing – 71 gorgeous papers, 96 digital elements (like frames and flowers and tags), 2 alphas plus templates.  I got to play with it – somebody pinch me!!

You can see some of my papers clicked in here.

A couple things – you can resize the papers to make the pattern smaller if you wish – just make sure it covers the area you want to clip into.  In this template, you need to flip the paper upside down for the back piece if it is a pattern where direction matters.  When you fold the treat holder up – the back will then be right side up.

Here is how the holder looks with the papers clipped in.  You can choose to use the scalloped circle, the scalloped square or no frame just by clicking the little eyeballs on the layers on or off.

Last, you can add the stamp images of your choice to the white windows.  I use the Loving Critters Stamp set (bunny) and the Spring Blooms 2 stamp set (Daffodil) in my samples.

Target the white window layer and drag the stamp image on top.  You can resize it to fit in the white space or you can “clip” it into the window just like with the papers.

Once you are happy with your project, just print it out.  I used the X-Press It Blending Card and was very happy with the result.  The digital papers printed beautifully and I was able to color my stamped images with Copic markers easily.

Note that not all printers print to the very edge.  You might need to tell your printer to “size to fit” in order to get a complete print.

Here is my printed, folded piece.  I also cut out around the image so the jelly beans would peek through.

For the jelly beans, I added a clean piece of card stock to the back of the bag just to keep my beans from slouching  (its hard to get beans to sit up straight!).  The bags are the Wilton Chocolate Lollipop covers available at craft stores.

Assemble the holder (I added a small piece of adhesive to the back to help keep the bean bag in place).  Punch the holes at the top.  Thread a ribbon through to the back  (like shown) and then feed the tails through the opposite hole in the front and trim.

Done!

I hope this simple tutorial is helpful for those of you who are new to Photoshop.  If you like digital images, seriously consider saving your pennies and getting Photoshop Elements.  It it an awesome tool.  Adobe has a free 30 day trial if you would like to check it out.

If you are a “just give me the paper – I don’t want no pixels” crafter, here are the measurements for all the pieces for the treat holder so you can make it by hand.

Stay tuned for more fun digi news….