Are you still trying to come up with a Valentine’s gift for the ones you love? Well, Janet and I (Steph) have been excitedly preparing this not-so-little Valetine’s gift for you that you can easily turn into a cute gift for the people you care about most!! 
We teamed up with another Stephanie from Homegrown Hospitality to bring some of her artwork to you digitally (because we just knew you would LOVE it)! You may recognize her work from the paper scrapbooking community.
I will share with you directions for how I made my hybrid album using our supplies (and a few things I bought from Misty Cato), but if you don’t love hybrid like I do, then you could easily do a digital only version using Janet’s templates. Finally, if you are a lover of all things paper, then we have included 2 PDF’s in the digital download with Stephanie’s signature Homegrown Hospitality artwork for you to cut and glue until your heart is content! You can also use the previews of Janet’s templates as a guide to create an album. If you are new to digital (or even if you aren’t) you might want to read this article before downloading the digital supplies.
Are you ready? Then, let’s get hybrid!
The papers that I used are from Misty Cato’s “Heartstrings” kit. I adjusted the hue on the papers with a lot of red to -14 so they would match the artwork.
I used some of Janet’s templates for the foundation of my layouts. I just centered everything because I knew I wouldn’t be punching holes in the 6×4 prints themselves. I created a two-page spread for each of my kids, a cover page, inside cover pages, and back cover page. I then uploaded to Costco for printing. I didn’t size down at all, like I do on my larger prints, so you could see what the templates would print like without sizing (perfectly). I always use the lustre finish at Costco.
Supplies:
- Basic Hybrid Supplies
- Paper lunch bags (I got a huge package of them at Target for $1.27)
- Paper flowers by Bazzill and Imaginisce
- Heart brad value pack by Making Memories
- Stitched rub-ons by Autumn Leaves
- Acrylic heart by Heidi Swapp
- Distressing Ink (tea stain) by Tim Holtz
1) Trim lunch bags. I trimmed my lunch bags down to 7.5 inches, cutting of the bottom part of the bag.
2) Add all paper embellishments (brads, flowers, ribbons).
3) Ink outside edges of paper bag. Now, I remember the first time I was told to ink on paper (not digitally) and I couldn’t imagine for the life of me, how to do it. I was at a class at my LSS and they got a chuckle and then showed me how to ink. So, if you don’t know how to ink, you can watch this video.
4) Glue prints to paper bag. I knew I would be stitching along the sides with my sewing machine, so I just put some adhesive along the top and bottoms edges (you can read about my favorite adhesive in this post). I then placed the 6×4 on the paper bag so it had a similar thickness of border on the top, bottom, and non-binding edge. This left extra room on the binding edge for me to punch holes and string with ribbon.
5) Punch holes in tags. I made a 6×4 tag for each child with a note on it to tuck inside the paper bag.
6) Loop ribbon through the tag. Fold ribbon in half and push through the hole in the tag from back to front, creating a loop. Then, push the ends of the ribbon through the loop and gently pull snug.
7) Sew edges of layout down. I really like messy stiching, so I wasn’t too careful, just tried to stay within the margins.
Punch holes on binding edge. I made sure the pages were in order and then used my Crop-A-Dile to punch holes through all of the pages at one time. I punched two holes about 1.5 inches apart. Then I pulled some ribbon through the holes and tied it in a bow.
And there you have it! A cute and easy Valentine project! I will also be making a smaller version of this album for each of my kiddies, with just their pages, note, and the cover.
Now for some more fun, here is a look at the goodies we have for you today as our EARLY HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY GIFT to our readers! We have LOVED being a part of your daily digi routine the past few weeks, and want to say, THANKS!!
You can grab them all HERE!
[...] did manage to make Jer this brag book from thedailydigi.com. It turned out pretty [...]
You know I get so inspired by visiting your site. I enjoyed your 25 things in the post above, really interesting, and I really like how you are doing this. Congrats. And thanks to you + Steph + HH for these wonderful doodles and templates.
thank you so much for this beautiful gift – you are very talented and love your journalling – it is much appreciated
hugs
thank you very much for this amaaaaaazing freebie and for the daily inspiration as well!!!!!
[...] Download all these goodies here. [...]
Totally in love with the word art/brushes! Thanks so much!
Thank you so much!! I love the ideas. I don’t know how I stumbled upon your blog, but I love it!
WOW!!! this is fantastic thanks so much!!
Thanks a lot! I loved this freebie!
Thank you so much — what a great project!! Thank you for sharing
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What a fantastic project. I love paper bag albums. Thanks so much.
such a cute project, thanks so much for this! And I’m LOVIN’ your new website. Keep up the fab work!
WOW! Thank you so much!!!
Thank you for the wonderful goodies and the instructions on the paperbag book. I’ll definitely be checking back to see what else you have made.
thank you… all the other good things about your freebie were already said:)
THANK YOU!!
Thanks so much!!!
This is wonderful – how fun! Absolutely adorable!Thank you so much!
Thank you for the gift! I just want to tell you that I so look forward to reading the Daily Digi every day and thanks so much for the time and effort you all put into it!
Thanks so much! I love those cute kids in the photos!
Coolio! Thanks!!!
Wow! Thank you so much! What a great idea! I love it!
thank you so much!!!
Thanks so much for the idea, I love it very much and I have publiciset it in my blog.
Bye Bye
Roberta
Awesome! Thanks so much! Very generous of you!
Thanks so much for the fabulous gift
This is soooooooo cute! I love it!
Maybe I missed it … what do you put inside the bags?
thank you!!!
So Amazing! Thank you for sharing!