Color Watch: Tangerine Tango

Did you know that every year Pantone – THE color authority – releases their “Color of the Year” prediction? It’s the color they believe will most heavily influence many things in the design industry from fashion to home interiors, and scrapbooking is no exception. Sometimes the color saturates the market, like 2010′s Turquoise, which is still going strong. Sometimes it’s less prevalent, but still visible, like 2011′s Honeysuckle, a personal favorite.

The color they think will be big this year is Tangerine Tango, which they describe as a spirited reddish orange.

I love this color, but I’ll admit that orange is a tricky color to work with, and probably not one of the first ones you reach for when you’re scrapbooking! I’d love to show you some great color schemes to get your ideas flowing.

One thing you might notice… I’ve put an awful lot of blue in these. There’s a reason for that: If you think back to your art class, orange and blue are complementary colors on the color wheel, meaning they are across from each other. With a bold color like Tangerine Tango, blue (being its opposite) is the best way to bring it out that gorgeous hue.

Ready to jump in? Feel more like dipping your toe? Check out these great kits available here at Design House Digital, perfect for adding in this fun and trendy color.

• A Life Recorded by Audrey Neal and Karla Dudley (grid in top graphic)
• Rocketman by Deena Rutter
• Scarborough Fair Open Air by Deena Rutter (floral in top graphic)
• Ever After by Gennifer Bursett (stripe in top graphic)
• Sunny Days by Karen Funk
• Kraft – Brightsv1 by Robyn Meierotto
• Sunlight’s Delight by Tiffany Tillman (distressed solid in top graphic)

Do you see yourself using Tangerine Tango? Will you wear it? Decorate with it? Stay far away from it? I’d love to know what you think about Pantone’s choice, and what you would pick for 2012′s color of the year.

Behind the Scenes of a Digital Scrapbook Layout

Psst. I’ve got a secret. My layouts never “are” what they appear to be. I use smoke and mirrors to levitate my scrapbook pages off the ground. I pull a dove out of my top hat, frequently.

What I’m trying to say is I’m a master at making impossible situations possible on my layouts. And today I’m taking you behind the scenes of two my layouts. So you can see the magic too!

I’m fond of my Souvies layout’s color and design. But I chuckle each time I share the page because you’d never guess that sitting behind the barrage of photos is a very cut-up photo frame.

I duplicated and butchered that frame into a million pieces just so the textured edges would peek out from behind the photo grouping. Not so much magic as is “I’m going to fit this square peg into the round hole or else.” When I want an embellishment on my page, I’m going to do whatever it takes to make it happen.

Here’s another example.

Again, smoke and mirrors. Smoke and mirrors! Would you have guessed that sitting under my photo grouping were three journaling blocks plus a multi-photo frame? Maybe not, maybe so. But the point is to look at your elements as more than just a single object. Explore the edges, the center, the bottom and the top. Chances are you can make use of your elements in unusual ways. You just might need to think outside of the box. Or cut them up … literally!

Owl Treat Box – Free template and tutorial



Valentines day is right around the corner, no better time to get your little Valentine treasures all ready to give.

This free template is available on my blog at www.deenarutter.typepad.com .

Here I will show you how I used the template to personalize my little owl.

I used some paper from my SCOOT collection as well as the template.

Open up the paper you want to use.  I used SCOOT-hills-white for the box.

Place the pillow box template and make a clipping mask.

Place the other paper you want to use for the wings.  I used SCOOT-dots-white.

Make a clipping mask with the wings too.

Place the rest of the images as layers on your canvas.

I put my owl face directly onto my pillow box.

Print.

Get scissors, glue, scoring tool, pencil, and ribbon.

Cut around images.

Trace box template on back side of pillow box.

Score where you traced and crease.

Glue flap onto the inside of the owl.

Glue wings onto the back of the owl.

Punch a small hole through the top of the pillow box.

Thread the ribbon through and tie at the top.

Fill pillow box from the bottom with your goodies.

Flaps will fold right up into place if creased correctly.

Thanks for checking out this little tutorial.  Personalize your owls and add them to the DHD gallery!

Holiday Banner – 20 Days of Christmas

Are you a paper scrapper? Did you used to do most of your scrapping using paper, glue and embellishments? I used to be a paper scrapper and sometimes I still get that itch to be crafty with my hands. I have a lot of friends who paper scrap too and I wanted to give you all a look at what can be done using paper and digital supplies.

First, I picked out some papers that I wanted to use, Robyn Meierotto’s Vintage Holiday. I printed out strips of papers and then I also printed out some embellishments from that kit as well. You’ll see that I used the tags but then I put the red snowflake on them before printing. That snowflake would be super hard to cut out by hand.

Then, once I had my digital supplies printed, I dug around in my stash of embellishments and pulled out some buttons, gems, twine and glitter glue. I cut out all my paper strips, stars and tags. Then I started making some flower embellishments by folding my paper strips like an accordion.  Once folded, the strip can be stretched so the ends meet and it forms a flower shape.

Next, I attached the flowers to my tags with a dab of hot glue and then embellished each tag with a star, a few gems and a button. I also wanted my banner to have a little more bling so I put some glitter glue on the felt letters and on the star. The stars are popped off the tags with foam adhesive squares. The tags were then attached to a string of twine and the little red polka dot flags went between each letter tag.

Finally, I strung my banner from a little shelf above our piano and love to see it displayed with all of our Christmas decor. You could make your banner say anything that you want…Merry Christmas, Believe, Joy to the World, etc. I hope that this has given you another way to use your digital supplies!

Hybrid Calendar – 20 Days of Christmas

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!