Let the Festivities Begin!

Many of you already know that Saturday, October 6th is World Card Making Day (WCMD)!  In honor of this FABULOUS holiday, Papertrey has teamed up with Paper Crafts Magazine to offer you

THREE Digital Card Making Kits!  Absolutely FREE!

Two of the three have already been made available for upload on the Paper Crafts Magazine website.  One of which is entitled Spiral Bouquet Boutique:

(By the way, if this artwork appeals to you, you won’t want to miss the coordinating stamp set being released on October 15th!)

Many people may see the term "digital kit" and immediately run in the other direction.  If this is you, then you probably fall into one of two categories…

-You aren’t very computer savvy and the idea of using the darn machine for paper crafting frightens you!

-You’re a tactile person, you like to touch and feel your paper crafting materials.  The look of three-dimension really appeals to you.

If you fall into category one, and you just don’t feel as though you have the computer skills to use a digital kit, I am going to show you just how easy it is, step by step.  All you need is a word processing program (like Microsoft Word).

If you fall into category two, you will be amazed at how fun & easy it is to integrate your love of dimension and texture with a digital kit.  I’ll be showing you a perfect example of this in just a bit!

Now I am going to take you step by step through the process.  When I was thinking about how I wanted to approach this blog post, I decided it was better to be overly informative, rather than leave someone confused.  So I have divided the directions into three easy to swallow pieces.  That way, if you already know how to do one aspect of the process, you can easily skip ahead to the area that you might be unfamiliar with.  The three chapters are Downloading, Inserting and Creating.

CHAPTER 1: Downloading

To download your very own FREE version of the above digital kit, Spiral Bouquet Boutique, click HERE.  The page you come to will look like this:

Click on "Download Spiral Bouquet Boutique".  You will then have a smaller window pop open that looks like this:

You want to select "SAVE".  A second pop-up window will appear that looks like this:

 

You want to enter the name of the digi kit so that it is easy for you to locate it later.  You may want to even start a special folder just to contain all of your digi kits so it becomes you one-stop reference.  After you have entered the name, hit "SAVE".  A pop-up window will appear that looks like this:

You will visually see papers flying from the globe to the folder.  It will take a few minutes for the files to be downloaded, depending on your internet speed.  Once it has completed, you’ll want to close all of your current windows and open the folder that you just saved the digital kit to.   

If you’ll notice, the file type is a "zip" file.  This is just a special way to save several files within a folder and make it faster to download.  (You’ll notice the little zipper on the folder icon).  You need to extract the files from the folder in order to use them.  So click on your zipped file, and this window will appear, listing all of the files contained in your folder (in other words, ALL the cool elements you get to play with shortly!):

You want to click on "EXTRACT FILES".Then this window will appear:

At this point you want to choose the location of all you new files.  I put mine right back in my Spiral Bouquet Boutique Folder.  Click "EXTRACT" after you have selected your folder.  Once that is completed you’re ready for the fun stuff!

CHAPTER 2: Inserting

To use all the fabulous stuff you just downloaded, you need to open just your basic word processing program (like Microsoft Word).  You want to open a new document so you have a blank canvas to work with!  It will look something like this (depending on what version and program you’re using, but the steps should be the same regardless).

You want to select "INSERT" from your upper menu bar.  Once you have done that, it will provide you with a box to select the folder containing the digital kit.  Once you have selected the desired folder, a lit of all the images contained in it will appear, just as below (look at all those fun goodies!  And to think they are FREE!!!)…

Simply click on the image you want to use and it will be placed in your blank document.  (I decided to use the Flourishes & Curls paper here)

You can "pull" the toggles at each of the four corners of the bounding box to change he size of the image.  (As another helpful hint, make sure your margins are set at the lowest they can go and still remain compatible with your printer.  This is to allow you more printable space). After you have sized your image to your liking, just hit print!  (As a side note, it is very easy to insert more than one image onto a sheet so that you conserve paper!)

CHAPTER 3: Creating

I decided to create a SUPER SIMPLE project with this digital kit.  I printed out the Flourishes & Swirls patterned paper along with the Gratitude sentiment. 

I punched out "Gratitude" using a Mega Scalloped Oval Punch.  I also cut a piece of the patterned paper down to size to fit on a card front (4-1/8 x 5-3/8 inches).

I then sponged the outside edges of both the sentiment and paper with Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink from Ranger.  I also pierced a small hole in each scallop with a thumbtack.

I matted the patterned paper with brown cardstock and tied some pretty ribbon it.  I adhered it to my white card base.  As a final step, I attached the sentiment with foam dimensionals over the ribbon.

Viola!  You did it!!! You’ve gone "DIGI"!  Let me know if you have tried digital for the first time with this tutorial and whether or not you enjoyed it.  Do you think it is something you would like to expand on and learn more about?  Do you see yourself reaching for different elements of this digi kit in the future?  I wanna hear about it!  The digital part of this industry has really captured my interest!

I will be posting later this afternoon, some details as to how you can use your new digital skills to win some FREE stamps!  Be sure to stop by!