When I think of hybrid scrapbooking, I usually include ideas like using a computer to create journaling for paper projects, or printing digital layouts and adding physical embellishments to give them more of a 3D feel. While preparing to teach a digital class at a local scrapbook store, I stumbled upon a different take on hybrid that has given me some great ideas for breathing new life into older paper projects.

The Paper Layout That Needed Help

When looking through my 12×12 paper layouts for candidates to scan during a “Scanner Magic” class I was teaching, I found this “Stars” page I made a number of years ago. I really liked the layout and remembered spending quite a bit of time punching out all of those star dots from yellow paper before adding black cardstock behind the punched paper and a ribbon.

Oh, but the photo! It is embarrassing that I used it, as it is too dark and came back from the printer very orange. I knew I could make the photo better with some tweaking in Photoshop.

Simple Layout, Badly Printed Photo

The Digitally Enhanced Layout

I scanned the 12×12 paper layout using my 8.5×11 sized Canon flatbed scanner. (I’ll blog about my favorite way to do this soon!) This gave me a TIF format digital version of my layout that I then altered in Photoshop. Here are steps I took to create the new “hybrid” layout.

Photo Fixes

I found the original photo, which was also digital. (yea!) Using Photoshop CS3, I opened the digital photo by itself and was able to make a series of color and lighting adjustments. I used the “Levels” adjustment to lighten the image and a blue Cooling Filter to counteract the overly warm tones. (I also added a Cooling Filter later to the scanned paper as well.) My final step was a slight Smart Blur Filter to smooth out some of the graininess from the dark exposure.

To Change Levels: Layer >New Adjustment Layer > Levels
To Add a Photo Filter: Layer > New Adjustment Layer >Photo Filter
To Add a Smart Blur: Filter > Blur > Smart Blur

The digital photo did not have the printed border I still liked it, so I just opened the scanned TIF layout and placed the fixed photo over the scanned version, being careful not to block the old border.

More Digital Additions

While my original intent was to just have a scanned version of the layout with a better photo, my digi fingers found a few more things to add to the layout. I felt the layout lacked a few white elements to compliment the glowing stars in the photo background. Here are four more things I did in Photoshop to digitally enhance the layout.

1.) Digi Tag

I added a small curled note from my Stitched Journal Tags embellishment kit and typed “Argentina 2005” using one of my favorite fonts, “Paulinho Pedra Azul.”

2.) Copying the Ribbon.

Using the Magic Wand Tool in Photoshop (settings: 30% tolerance and contiguous checked), I was able to select the white ribbon and copy it. I copied this selection to a new layer (Layer > New > Layer Via Copy) and moved this new ribbon over the corner of the curled tag.

3.) Fireworks Brushes

CD’s with Photoshop tutorials and tools often come with magazines. I had installed a few free brushes from Issue 28 of Photoshop Creative Magazine and included were some “fireworks” shaped brushes I thought would be fun to try. I stamped the burst shapes with the Brush Tool about 6-7 times using various sizes and white, lavender and peach colors.

4.) Custom White Star Brush

Again using the Magic Wand Tool but with a few different settings, I selected the circles from one of my black punched stars. I made my own custom Photoshop brush and with the Brush Tool stamped a few white versions.

Here are the details. With the Magic Wand Tool (with contiguous unchecked and the scan layer selected), I clicked on one of the black circles from the larger top stars. This selected all the circles on the page and anything else with a black color. Since I only wanted one star’s worth of circles, I switched to the Lasso Tool (Intersect Selection setting), and loosely drew around the star. Now with only 1 star of circles selected, I made my own brush. (Edit > Define Brush Preset…) I choose this brush and stamped a few white versions.

5.) Word Overlay

I typed the word “Stars” in the “Snell Bt” font and made it transparent so the paper and journaling were still visible.

I am now much happier with the layout and the photo. While the photo will never be stellar, now I can actually see us! The new color accents and digi details were just fun to add.

I probably would not have re-made the paper layout ever again because of all the punching, but now I have already reprinted the new layout since its digital.

I will definitely be taking a second look through more of my paper layouts to see if I can bring to them a bit of digi magic and make some new hybrid creations!

Supplies:
Paper Layout Supplies:
Paper – Marcella by Kay
Black Cardstock
Karen Foster Punch
White Ribbon

Digital Supplies:
Stitched Journal Tags by Bevin Dunn
Photoshop Fireworks Brushes – Free in Issue 28 of Photoshop Creative Magazine

 The theme and talk of the Memory Trends Scrapbooking show was digital! In its first year as a combined show with PMA (Photo Marketing Association), technology was everywhere and photo books and photo gift kiosks, software, and websites were popular.   Even though there were more “suits” in attendance than I could count, women now outrank men in the purchase of digital cameras and this too is impacting the industry. Impact literally, as I attended the show with two paper scrapbook store retailers and it was sometimes painful to see how pushed around they felt by all the pixels. 

I noticed that paper retailers and scrapbook store owners were generally open to incorporating digital scrapbooking and technology into their stores, but most were unsure how to start, how to make a profit from it, and if doing so would further put their paper based sales in jeopardy.  

Sessions

Unfortunately, registration for Memory Trends was a bit rocky, and many classes had been canceled for low attendance.  I took the first day’s Education Session on Digital Scrapbooking Trends. After getting past a traditional make n’ take that had no connection to digital, it was great to see a packed class in rapt attention to Renee Pearson, Digital Scrapbooking’s Online Editor, and her demonstration of a creating a digital layout in Photoshop. April Oaks of Digital Scrapbook Memories also led a good digital Q&A.

I have to give big shout out to Ali Edwards and her amazing talk “Creating Students For Life.” If you get chance to see her, go!  Her well researched, organized and notated points made for an amazing talk. We also got a copy of her awesome book, Life Artist - Scrapbooking Life’s Journey.

Dennis Conforto (of A-Z Media and the Smart Group) gave a talk about the future of the scrapbooking industry which crystallized what I saw on the convention floor and focused on the point of the expo merger; Paper scrapbooking as a craft is in decline, but scrapbooking by other names (photobooks, digital scrapbooking, online at sites like MySpace and Facebook) are growing rapidly. 

I think some people misunderstood my question in Dennis’ talk, when I asked how training fit into the mix with so much new technology around and especially with software like Photoshop.  Dennis answered, time & money.  Women want a photo page pronto and Photoshop’s not it.

As a user and teacher, I agree that Photoshop’s learning curve is way beyond the average scrappers need and there are so many easy fast photobook solutions now (like Heritage Makers.) But part of my question was answered when talking to Lynda Angelastro, Digial Scrapbooking Magazine’s Managing Editor, about the next issue.  After a year on the market, and extensive polling of customers, the magazine is revamping to target the beg-intermediate, and advanced scrapbooker.  Their readers want technical and in depth articles and are adept at utilizing them.  Tutorials are for Photoshop.

There are distinct reasons that some scrappers, like the magazines’ readership, will still want to use Photoshop (or similar photo editing programs) and I will suggest that the “Photoshop” segment of the photo / scrap market are the new digital bloodline of the craft side of scrapbooking.

The Merger

I could really see the mental merger inside both the Photography and the Scrapbooking camps to understand just how they should fit together.  I visited a number of photobook and photo-gift booths from large kiosk and printing distributors , to new web based companies.  I saw the most integration between embellished “scrapbooking style” photo products in businesses who market, at least in part, directly to store retailers.  These companies like Rocket Life and larger Lucidiom offer consumers templates resembling scrapbook like layouts. There was still some disconnect, such as with  Rocket Life which did not directly offer 12×12 or 8×8 layout printing, although they said they could integrate it.

As I moved from those companies that offer retail store owner options, to those who manufacture photobook printers and technologies, there was a real lack of understanding of what the craft / hobby oriented term “scrapbook” was and how it applied to “photos and papers”. 

All of these vendors did want to know more.  I was drilled by two great guys at Imaging Solutions AG, a Swiss based co, on what digital scrapbooking was, who did it, how it worked and why Michaels closed its “Remembrance” stores and didn’t convert them to digital shops.  (I couldn’t answer that one!) 

One of the Sr. Marketing Managers at Kodak was stationed next to a display of professional photography albums, some costing $2000, in which you would be lucky to find a word of journaling or embellishment and maybe a few interesting photo borders (of course the photos themselves were amazing!)  While he seemed perplexed at the word scrapbooking and did ask more about it, he ended up directing us to another man who was keeping Kodak’s upcoming digi-negotiations very hushed. Hmmm…

It will be interesting to watch both the photo and paper scrapbooking industries merge and embrace digital scrapbooking in it’s many forms.  This is inevitable, as the the photobook industry is projected to reach $10 billion by 2012!