A personalized calendar makes a great gift for those on your Christmas shopping list (and of course yourself!). By creating a hybrid calendar, you can easily reproduce several copies of the same design. Follow along as I show you how to make a quick and simple hybrid calendar for 2012, made even easier by using a digital calendar template.
For this project, you’ll need the following supplies:
- Digital Calendar Template
- Digital Paper and Embellishments
- Software
- Color Printer, Paper
- Chipboard – 2 pieces cut to 4 1/4 x 6 7/8 inches
- Adhesive
- Binding Machine and Coil
- Distress Ink (if desired)
I used the following kits:
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Step One: Open January template, desired photo, paper and embellishments. Click on the dark gray background layer at the top of the template. Then, drag and drop your photo into that area, moving and resizing as needed.
Step Two: I resized the paper and moved the ribbon and bracket to show more of the photo. Use the Move Tool and select the ribbon, bracket, bracket border and month layers by holding the Shift key as you click on each one. Drag these layers lower on the template. Then resize the paper layer by clicking on the handle and dragging so it is behind the ribbon layer.
Step Three: Add paper and clip to the paper layer by clicking CTRL-G. Repeat for the bracket and bracket border layers. Add paper or embellishment over the ribbon layer.
Step Four: I moved and rotated the bracket and month to cover a distracting element in the photo. Add shadows and other embellishments as desired.
Step Five: Flatten image by selecting Layer>Flatten Image. Crop page to remove any items extending beyond the edge in preparation for printing. Select the Crop Tool, then for Aspect Ratio choose “Use Photo Ratio” and crop the image.
Step Six: Open new file by choosing File>New>Blank File, then in the dialog box choose Preset “U.S. Paper” at 8.5 x 11 inches at 300 dpi. Drag and drop your January page onto the new file and rotate it 90 degrees in order to print two pages per sheet of paper.
Step Seven: Complete your February page as above and add to the 8.5 x 11 sheet for printing. Align the two images for ease in cutting. Leave plenty of space for the binding punches at the top of each image (to the right as shown above).
Step Eight: Print your sheet on matte presentation paper or white cardstock. Trim to leaving 3/4 in. at the top of each page and 1/8 on all other sides (your page should be 4-1/4 x 6-7/8 inches. Ink edges if desired.
Step Nine: Punch and assemble the calendar. If you don’t have a binding machine, you can punch three holes and use binder rings. Use chipboard as your front at back cover, which also allows the calendar to stand upright. You can paint the chipboard or design a digital cover, print it out and adhere with strong adhesive.
Now you’ve got a great gift to give (or keep) that can be displayed on a desk, a shelf or even hung on the wall. To see the rest of the calendar pages, check out my gallery later this week.
Have a wonderful Holiday Season and take a little time to do something crafty!
Tags: 20 Days of Christmas, Angie Hinksman, Carey Bridges, Christmas, Color, Design, How To, Hybrid, Robyn Meierotto
Layout of the Week
There were so many amazing layouts in the gallery this week, from holiday layouts (Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas) to every day sweetness to hybrid projects that put me in the mood to create! It really was a difficult choice, but I finally chose “Snow White” by daiti73 as Layout of the Week.
The photos and color scheme are just so striking – I love how the red really pops on the black and brings out the red apple in the photos while also contrasting the girl’s delicate skin. Beautiful photos, beautiful girl and costume, and fantastic use of this template (52 Thursday Templates No. 25 by Tiffany Tillman) and the splatters. Simply gorgeous!
Congratulations daiti73, you have won a $5 DHD gift certificate! Thanks for sharing this layout with us!
Would you like to see your page featured as our Layout of the Week? It’s easy…upload your pages (using at least 50% DHD product) to our member gallery. We’ll choose a new Layout of the Week each Tuesday!
Tags: Carey Bridges, Inspiration, Layout of the Week, LOTW
Layout of the Week
It’s been a fun week looking through the gallery at all of the amazing layouts. I’m always in awe of the talent shared here at DHD! This week’s featured Design House Digital Layout of the Week is Looking Good by jbarksdale.
So many things come together to make this layout absolute perfection! First of all, I swoon for ledger paper. 
The enlarged word art with the days of the week drew me in. The well-placed embellishments of circles, stitching and tape keep the eye focused on the adorable photo. I also love the well-placed label in the top left, which balances the weight of the lower right. And finally, the simple title of “Looking good” – a message we need to convey to all of our little girls! I know I am totally scraplifting this one – great job!
Congratulations jbarksdale, you have won a $5 DHD gift certificate! Thanks for sharing this layout with us!
Would you like to see your page featured as our Layout of the Week? It’s easy…upload your pages (using at least 50% DHD product) to our member gallery. We’ll choose a new Layout of the Week each Tuesday!
Tags: Carey Bridges, Inspiration, Layout of the Week, LOTW
4 Play
It’s time for another 4play! I’m loving how this weekly challenge stretches my creativity, and I hope you do too! Each week we choose 4 kits to mix & match exclusively. The challenge is to ONLY use items from the 4 kits that were chosen.
With Thanksgiving on my mind this week, I wanted to pick some kits that weren’t specifically Fall, but had traditional fall colors mixed with some non-traditional colors such as blue and pink. I started with Deena Rutter’s Hotel California Desert Highway Papers because I love the color combo. Next, I chose Audrey Neal’s Madeleine Elements since the colors coordinate well with the papers, and I love the assortment of elements. I added some solids with Gennifer Bursett’s Sweet Child of Mine Baby Girl Solid Papers, which includes both traditional and non-traditional fall colors and pulls the blues from the other kits. Finally, I wanted to throw some basic patterns in the mix, and Kate Teague’s Basics Patterns fit the bill with a wide variety of patterns and colors. I picked a variety that shared some common colors to show how you can stretch your kits and mix some not-so-obvious matches.
First up is Jennifer Hignite:
Jennifer said: This 4play was a challenging combination for me. My personal scrapbook style is pretty clean and simple and this many patterned papers honestly scared me at first! I definitely would not have thought to try to scrap all these papers together, but I love the results! The colors of each paper pack are subtle, and work together beautifully. The distressed frames, rotated and placed in a square pattern like I did here, makes for a fun peek-a-boo effect!! Audrey’s elements are the perfect way to tie the whole layout together.
Next is Liz Jutila:
She shares: One of my favorite tricks is to clip patterned paper to white stitching for coloring stitching. Deena’s buddy patterned paper from the Hotel California Desert Highway collection worked really well to color the stitching from Tiffany Tillman’s template (52template 28). A very light drop shadow helped give the stitching a little depth. The delicate pattern in the tan paper from Desert Highway had an understated and cool effect when clipped to the unusual shape of the mask in Tiffany’s template. I really liked Kate’s Basic Pattern dots for the background — subtle and not too overpowering, but not plain either. And, of course, you’ve got to love Audrey’s word art and fun elements. This turned out to be a really fun combination for the challenge!
We also have one by Gennifer Bursett:
Who said: I’ll admit, at first glance this 4Play scared me a little. I loved the kits; in fact, I already had every single one of them, but I had never really contemplated putting all those patterned papers together. In the end, I decided to go big, and used a little bit of a lot of them in the form of small strips. I kept a lot of white space to balance out the strong patterns, and added an unexpected twist with the baby pink background. I absolutely love the way it turned out, and I’m so glad I played along this week!
And finally, my layout:
The blues from each of the kits pulled together nicely to add a pop of color to the more neutral fall colors. The papers and elements coordinated beautifully to showcase the fall photo of my son from a few years back. The distressed frame adds to the rustic feel for my fall cowboy, while the banner ties everything together and adds a bit of whimsy fitting for a toddler layout.
Don’t forget that today only (ends Monday at midnight PST), you can get each of these kits for only a dollar, and one is even FREE! So go grab them, and then play along. Upload a layout using these four kits to the DHD gallery by Sunday, then come back here and post a link to it. Not only will you learn to stretch your kits, but you could win a gift certificate to DHD!
(Congrats to treasurebachs, who wins a GC for playing along last week!)
Tags: 4 Play, 4play, Audrey Neal, autumn, Carey Bridges, deena rutter, fall, Gennifer Bursett, Inspiration, Kate Teague
Monday is here and that means another 4 play! Each week we choose 4 kits from 4 Designers in the Design House Digital Shop to mix & match exclusively and share 4 different layouts by the Design House Decorators using those kits. The challenge is to ONLY use items from the 4 kits that are chosen.
