Simple Vintage Card with digital images

Yesterday I told you about the Twisted Papers site and promised I'd show you how to use one of the images for a project.  Much to my surprise, I had a nice comment from Russell & Stan, the owners of the site, and they said it would be fine to post one of the images, so I have edited yesterday's post.  I am so impressed at the quality of the images - very sharp and clear and I was able to enlarge them quite a bit.

I made this simple card using one of the images and my Creative Memories StoryBook Creator Plus 3.0 software (here is a LINK for more information about this program).  I downloaded the jpeg image from the Twisted Papers site and saved it in a file on my desktop.  Then I opened a new project in StoryBook and imported the image.

The next step was to resize the image to fit perfectly on an A2 card.  The original image is on the right and the slightly altered on on the left.  I sized it at 3 3/4 inches x 5 inches so I could have a mat layer on the card.

Once I had resized the image, I copied and pasted to set up four images on an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper. I used the properties box to get the alignment and sizing perfect.

 Next I added a plain black rectangle to fill the entire sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 page and moved it behind the images.

Then I filled the black rectangle with the tan color by sampling the background color from one of the images - I do this so there won't be a harsh contrast if my trimming of the image is a bit off.

I selected all of the images and grouped them - here you can see the individual selection boxes around each image.

After grouping, there is just one box.  I could now copy and paste these images to another page and keep the perfect spacing between images.

I printed the full sheet on letter size matte photo paper.  Here you can see the page before I trimmed the images.  I cut green mats at 5 1/4 x 4 inches and cut 8 1/2 x 11 white cardstock in half for the card bases.

I did not ink any edges - I liked the crisp look and contrast from white to green to the tan of the image background.  I did add some Stickles - you know I can't resist that bit of sparkle!

I used Crystal Stickles on the snow on the tops of the bells for both cards.  For the card on the left, I also dotted Christmas Red Stickles on all of the holly berries.  I hope you can see the sparkle if you click on the photos of the cards to enlarge them.

This is a fast and easy way to make a card - you are adding some personal touches but you can easily create a lot of cards in a hurry!

I haven't had a lot of time to use my Creative Memories software lately - I had forgotten how much fun it is to work with images for card projects in addition to the digital scrapbooking I usually do with the software.

This angel is also one of the images that Stan & Russell are sharing.  I added background paper, a flourish, a title, used a corner punch on the image and added shadows and glows to the elements.

Here is one more little experiment I made using one of the filters that creates a mosaic effect.  The mosaic seems to make the Santa even more twinkly!

So, if you want a change of pace - try doing some digital/hybrid projects.  They are lots of fun and a bit less messy.  I will definitely be buying a month subscription to Twisted Papers so I can download lots more of their great images - I will just need to wait until after all of the holiday festivities so I can spend time choosing my 500 images!

Sorry, no Cricut today but don't forget about the chance to win a free copy of the Cricut A to Z instructional DVD.  You need to go back to yesterday's post - here is a LINK - and leave a comment on that post to be included in the drawing.  Thanks again to Megan of Above Rubies Studio for donating this DVD.

We are watching the weather news very carefully again - tomorrow, if all goes well and there are no more airport closings and flight cancellations, our older son will arrive in Boston.  We can't wait to see him!