Hybrid Scrapping

My blog friend Sally over at Sal-utations has recently done her first digital scrapbook layout and asked the question "is digital scrapping cheating?"

This got me thinking. A lot of people digital scrap because it can be quick and easy and you don't end up with a lot of mess afterwards and the results can be amazing. I have seen some great layouts in magazines. They are certainly much easier to share electronically.

For me though and, I think a lot of others, going to the craft shops and browsing amongst all the wonderful goodies, choosing which papers, glitters, paints, chipboard etc to buy is the best feeling and then getting it home and spreading it all over the dining table spending hours deciding what to make, cutting things out, painting and stamping and making a layout that you can touch and say "I made that" is a great feeling. You add it to your already brimming album and look at it when ever you want to.

I like to use one album a year and it's interesting to look back and see how your style has changed and your techniques have improved or advanced.

I have tried digital scrapping with mixed results but read some time ago about Hybrid scrapping and investigated further.

Basically you use some digital images, by printing them out, on your paper layout. There are lots of sites out there that offer free digital kits, 2 Peas In A Bucket offer one each month. You download and save it and then you have a lots of images you can use over and over again that haven't cost a penny. I like to print things out like journalling tags or titles and then colour them further or print them on patterned paper so making them completely unique. You can also use them again and by changing their colour they don't look like the same thing.

There also lots of papers that can be printed out which would be ideal for card makers too. It's well worth investigating.

We like to be thrifty in Yorkshire and you get quite a kick out of making something that has really cost very little. It leaves a few more pennies for that next visit to the craft shop!!!!

The layout at the top of this post of one of our cats, Oscar, when he was just a tiny kitten is a traditional layout on core-dinations black card which has been sanded back round the edges to reveal the blue core. I used matching K & Co papers and Basic Grey figgy pudding letters for the title.

The journaling tags were from a Digital Kit. I opened them in Photoshop Elements, typed in my journalling, printed and then cut them out and then added some ink to ensure they toned with the rest of the page.

I then added some WeRMemoryKeepers embellishments and stuck on some gems to finish off.

I'd be interested to know what anyone else's thoughts are on digital or none digital.

A SCRAPBOOK PAGE AT LAST

Oh what a lovely sunny warm day it has been here. I have spent the afternoon pottering in the garden and have also cleaned the windows, that's bound to make it rain tomorrow for sure!!

Tonight I thought I would share with you one of my Scrapbook Layouts. I have been scrapbooking for the last 3 years and am totally obsessed with it. I love documenting little events that would otherwise be forgotten and never go out without my camera in my pocket, despite the groans from the family, although I think they have become used to being continually snapped. It also gives me lots of opportunity to try out all sorts of crafty techniques, there always seems to be something new to experiment with.

This layout was inspired by a beautiful bouquet of flowers my husband gave me for our last Wedding Anniversary. He rarely buys me flowers, so these were extra special and I took lots of photos to remind me of them and wanted to use as many as I could on this page. Because of this I decided to keep the rest of the layout quite simple.

The background paper is from the new Nonsense paper pack from WeRMemoryKeepers, one of my favourite at the minute. I used a strip of matching ribbon and then a wide strip of matching dotty paper from DCWV to put my title on, which was just coloured chipboard letters. To make this more interesting I tried Chesseholing, which is just punching different sized holes with the Crop O Dile. I decided to stick this strip on with foam squares to raise it up a bit so that you could see the punched holes better.

I used a Prima stamp for my journalling and date but didn't have any photo anchors in the right colour. In the end I stamped them using Kelly Panacci stamps & colorbox chalk inks and used glossy accents to make them shine.

I love how the colour combination came together. Although our Anniversary is in the Autumn the flowers were bright and light and just right for scrapping with the lovely spring papers.