Design House Digital

Posts Tagged ‘Tutorial’

Tutorial-Rub-On’s – Make your own!

Rub-on’s – Did you know you can make your own. (You probably did) I didn’t. I wanted to make some milestone 3×5 note cards to record my kids little milestones. I like to keep them in my kitchen drawer where they are easy to get to. I wanted to make them cute, consistant, and customizable. So I needed my own rub-0ns. They turned out perfect for my project. They look a  little more stamped then a manufactured rub-on but I love the look. Note: I also tried them out on little canvas bags I had lying around. I am not sure how well the ink will stay on the canvas, but they would be perfect for little gift bags, or whatever.

What you need:

Ink Jet Printer (Or you can use a copy machine)

Transparency paper. (Ones that can go through an ink jet printer)

Craft Stick or Coin. (Or some kind of tool to rub the ink on with)

These are very easy to make.

First gather your images, I created my own and also used some .png digital elements.

If you are using an image that has words or lettering you will need to mirror the image so that when you rub it onto your surface it will read correctly. I did this in photoshop by going to Edit – Transform – Flip Horizontal.

Next print out your image. IMPORTANT: The transparency will have a rough side and a slick/smooth side. Print the image onto the slick side of the transparency. Be careful not to touch the ink once it’s printed. It stays wet and will smear very easily.

Finally simply place the rub on where you wish, slick image side down, hold it firmly then rub with your craft stick.

You can reuse your sheets of transparency. If you want to reuse them you may want to only print one or two images onto the transparency at at time so that you don’t smear all the images as you try to place them. I just cut each image out as I used it.

Also, I tried out color and it worked wonderfully as well.

I was so excited to learn I could make my own rub-ons. Even though I am probably late to the game… I thought I would share this fun technique with you in case it’s new for you as well.

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!

Hybrid Light Covers – 20 Days of Christmas

December is here and it’s time to decorate!

I hope you are feeling festive today because I have a really fun way to decorate your indoor lights! We will be creating Christmas Light Covers! I originally saw the idea for a Halloween theme on Pinterest and thought it would be perfect to use for Christmas as well!

So here we go! It’s really easy! The first thing you need to do is pick a bold colored Christmas kit – I chose Shannon Hegartys’s Peppermint Papers because, well,  they looked so yummy!

Additional supplies:

*small paper cups (I used dixie-type cups)

* a string of Christmas lights

* craft knife

* scissors

* black marker

* double sided adhesive

I used PSE 7 for this tutorial.  So here’s what you do:

Choose three different patterns from your paper stash.

Open a letter size document (8.5×11) and drag the first pattern to it.

Save as a .JPG and print the  image.

Repeat above for the other two patterns.

You should have three sheets printed. This will make 12 cup covers.  If you would like a longer strand of 24, then print out three more sheets.

Take one of the small cups and very carefully peel it apart. Start with the rim at the top and uncurl it and then carefully rip the seam. You should have a nice curved template of the side of the cup. Discard the bottom piece. See photo below.

By tracing your template close together on the back of each sheet you should be able to trace four cup covers.

Cut out each one using scissors.

Each cover will fit very snuggly around the paper cup. Use strong double sided adhesive to seal.

Now slice a tiny X on the bottom of each cup using a sharp craft knife.  This will allow you to feed the light bulb through the cup cover so don’t make the X too big as you want a snug fit.

Now just string up your adorable light covers on a window or fire place mantel!

*frame from Shannon Hegarty and elements from Lori Whitlock

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! Have a Merry Christmas!

13 Days of Halloween – Paper Pumpkins

Welcome back to the awesome blog series 13 Days of Fall and Halloween Hybrid Projects! Allison here with today’s painfully easy hybrid project – Paper Pumpkins!

In our house we like our projects to be quick, easy, and not too fussy. That may have something to do with the fact that I live in a house of boys! All you need for this project is your favorite digital papers, paper and a printer, scissors, and adhesive.  Let’s get started!

There are a couple ways you could go about this. The first way is to just print your favorite patterned paper, draw circles, and cut out. I used 6 circles on all of mine but you can use as many as you’d like. The more circles you use the more “dense” your pumpkin will look. My pumpkins range in size from 3″ circles to 6″ circles. If you don’t want to print as much you can create your circles in Photoshop and use a clipping mask to insert your patterned paper to the perfectly sized circles.

Fold each circle in half with the patterned paper on the inside (white on the outside)

Glue one half circle to another half circle and continue until all the half circles are glued together.

Glue the first semi-circle to the last semi-circle to form a complete sphere.

To make your pumpkin stand, cut off a bit of the bottom.

Embellish your pumpkin as desired. We chose to make a stem out of a stick from outside. Like I said before we like our projects simple and not fussy so we left them pretty plain. I think it would be fun to add photos or notes to each “page” of the pumpkin!

Have fun creating!

13 Days of Halloween – Hybrid Paper Dolls

Hello! It’s Decorator Jennifer Valencia here with another Happy Halloween Hybrid idea for you all.   This is one of my all-time favorite crafts to do with my daughter — paper dolls.  She LOVES playing with paper dolls of all varieties. We’ve done Dora and Diego, Disney Fairies,  Tuff Puppy, various Richard Scarry characters, and more.   We have often made paper dolls as big as she is (using easel paper), and small ones that fit into her hand.  Today I’ll give you a quick tutorial on how to make small Halloween ones.

Ghostie Paper Dolls for a 4-year-old

Playing With Halloween Paper Dolls

Probably you are thinking: “Seriously? I need a tutorial on how to make paper dolls?”  Well, sure, if you want to make the really cool ones, I say!  Also:  Isn’t it true that seeing something you know how to do can still spur your creativity or remind you of something fun to make?  I mean, I don’t necessary need instructions on how to eat a Snickers bar, but if I saw instructions on how to eat one, I’d probably start craving one, and then I’d get one, and then the Mars Company would have cleverly made $1.00.   (Off topic: Did you ever see the Seinfeld show where they all start eating Snickers Bars with a knife and fork?  Do you think candy sales went up after that one originally aired?)  And I don’t need instructions on how to dry my hands in the public bathroom at the mall, but they like to tell me anyway with cute little wiggly lines and a picture of hands on the dryer.  I found one that I liked at HappyPlace.com. Helpful in its own way, no?

Wash Hands, Get Bacon! From HappyPlace.com

Back to topic: Paper dolls. We use these for several things. First of all,  it’s fun for kids to plain-old-PLAY with them; my daughter tells stories about them and moves them around and makes houses and habitats for them.  Also, we can practice counting with them. Sometimes if I bring out a batch of brand new paper dolls, she is excited enough by them to practice counting in English and Spanish, and doing some addition and subtraction practice with me.  We can also work on fractions (1/2, 1/3, etc.)  We do this not by ripping a Tinkerbell into two even pieces, but by batching — 2 fairies here, 2 fairies there…1/2 in each pile.  (I just wanted to clarify so you don’t think we’re paper-thirsty crazed doll-killers over here.)  And if I make paper dolls based on animals or objects,  we can play vocabulary games in Spanish with them.  If you are learning another language,  this can be a fun and easy way to learn new vocabulary words.   Sometimes we play hide-and-seek with them, too:  She and I take turns hiding the paper dolls around the room and then have our very own Easter Egg Hunt to find them.

Deja Vu Check: If you’re feeling a sense of deja vu, it’s not a mistake. I have done these paper doll posts before for other holidays.  I’m sort of wondering how many more of these I can do before I wear it out?  One, two more? But there is nothing quite like rehashing my old wheels, so here goes!

Instructions: First, get a roll of clear packing tape, sharp craft scissors, plain white paper, and some cute embellishments from Design House Digital.  I recommend this kit called Life In October by Kate Teague. It’s an oldie but a goodie, because it has CUTE Halloween thingies in it, and the last thing I want to give a 4-year-old (at least MY 4-year-old) is creepy ghouls and goblins, kwim?  Those are great for other things…just not for kid paper dolls. After all,  I do not personally live in the Adams Family home. Nor do I want to wake up to a toddler nightmare.

You can find the kit here:

http://www.designhousedigital.com/kate-teague/life-october-illustrations

Directions: Start a 8.5×11 page in Adobe Photoshop or Elements.  Drag several of the embellies onto your page and resize them as desired.  We like to always make a “mom” paper doll and then “kids” for her. So if we have large ghost, that will be “mom,” and then I need to make some smaller ones to be her “babies.”  I’m sure you know this, but to resize an element: Make sure the appropriate layer is highlighted. Hit CTRL T to get your transformation box, hold down the SHIFT key, and drag one corner of your embellie up or down to make it larger or smaller.  Then hit ENTER to accept your new size.

Resizing a Candy Corn - If Only We Could Do This For Real, Right?

I like to fit as many of these as humanly possible to conserve paper, because every 1 cent saved is…well, I guess I just like to conserve paper. Good for the environment and all!  Print out your page and then coat it front and back with slightly-overlapping layers of clear packing tape. Smooth the tape down carefully so it does not create large air pockets.  Using tape to laminate the dolls is a total God-send, in my opinion.  It’s WAY cheaper than buying a laminating machine and laminating paper, it’s easy to cut, and it makes the dolls semi-permanent.  They can still get ruined if, say, then are immersed in a cup of apple juice, but they can handle damp or sticky fingers and still live to see another day.

Packing Tape - We Go Through These Like You Wouldn't Believe

Then, once your taping is complete,  cut out all of the dolls with your craft scissors.  Regular scissors will drive you insane because all of the images will have intricate edges that big old dull scissors will turn into cheap-looking mincemeat of a paper doll. And a cheap-looking paper doll is just not worth having, right?

When they are done, present them to your child, and have fun together!  Here are some images of my daughter’s paper dolls.

Playing With Halloween Paper Dolls

Showing Off A Paper Doll Spider

Thanks for reading along with me.  Please let me know if you decide to make some Halloween paper dolls…and post pictures so we can all “oooh” and “aaaah” in the gallery.  Please also comment if you already use or like the packing tape idea!  And now I will sign off. Wishing you gigantic candy corns….or not, if you don’t like candy corn…but definitely a happy fall season!

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