Ribbon has become a staple for digital scrapbooking, especially grosgrain ribbon. In this tutorial I will teach you how to make the grosgrain pattern and to then make it into a ribbon, like this one:

I am using Photoshop CS2 for this tutorial. It may work in other versions of Photoshop and other programs.

Feel free to print out TUTORIAL: Grosgrain Ribbon for your own personal use. Please do NOT redistribute TUTORIAL: Grosgrain Ribbon in any way without permission. If you wish to share TUTORIAL: Grosgrain Ribbon with others send them to Blogging Life as it Comes instead.
You may use this link: http://candaceduffyjones.com/2008/06/tutorial-grosgrain-ribbon/


This work by Candace Duffy Jones is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

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Well this is less about how to scrapbook and more about giving you a freebie with great elements for using on a masculine layout. So here is the freebie:

Includes: 2 Twills, 2 Buttons, 1 Cardboard Border, 1 Cardboard Frame, 1 Cardboard Star, 1 Chipboard Star, 1 Denim Star, 1 Snaps Circle Frame, 1 Bottlecap, 1 Staple, and 1 Paint Stroke.

You can download it here: Scrapbooking for Boys Freebie (917). The download link expires on May 4, 2008. Thanks to Atomic Cupcake. Please do not redistribute this freebie. If you wish to share it with others send them to the site http://candaceduffyjones.com. DO NOT link directly to the zip file, that is considered stealing!

Copyright Candace Duffy Jones 2008 for personal use only! This is an original design (see tou in zip for credits for brushes, fonts, and actions used). All rights reserved. If you have any questions please feel free to email me.

Make sure you check out:

• How to Scrapbook for Boys - Part II
• How to Scrapbook for Boys - Part I

One thing I don’t like about digital scrapbooking is that my layouts are still on my computer. I really like the 12×12 format over 8×8 but I only have a regular size laser printer (which is currently having printing issues). So what do I do? Well back in November I had an album printed by Shutterfly for a Christmas gift to my brother-in-law and his new family. The album looked fantastic! I used one of there pre-made covers because I couldn’t get the one I created to work. I should have bought one of the many Shutterfly templates available for sale so I could have things lined up correctly. But either way I loved it! You can view it by clicking on the thumbnail below:

Now I just wish I had the funds to get an album printed for me. Oh well I guess I will have to wait until one of us (my husband and I) gets a job

Use coupon code AF47-SAVE and you can get 25% off Photo Books at Shutterfly, just in time for Mother’s Day! Expires 5-6-08.

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View this Photo Book & See More Here

There are many elements that are often considered only for girl layouts, like flowers, glitter, bows, gems, etc. But they can be used on boy layouts.

Glitter - Use messy glitter, like glitter strokes or splashes. Golds, blues and greens work great!
Flowers - I found that small fabric flowers work best and in solid colors like brown, blue or white, with buttons in the center.
Ribbons - Use twill or grosgrain, in solid colors or simple patterns, stay away from florals or flourishes.
Gems - Antique looking gems or dull colors like blues, golds or dark reds.

Here are some layouts that use the items above in a boy layout (click on the image for credits):

Now how can you make a layout look masculine with all the great feminine styles, elements, kits, etc? Well here are some great, and popular, items to add to a boy layout: staples, tape, cardboard, boxes, snaps, buttons, twill, hardware (screws, nails, hinges…), string, paint, stars, keys, torn paper, denim or anything that looks old and worn. There are many other things to consider: colors, textures, and age of the male. The younger the male the more feminine items you can usually add. Like babies, adding lace, florals and pastels work but for a grown man that may not look so masculine (that also depends upon the man).

If you have some tips on how to make a layout masculine please feel free to post them here.

Have you ever seen a kit and absolutely fall in love with it, only to realize you have no photos to go with it? As a mother to a boy, this happens too often. I sometimes scrap my baby photos or photos of my sisters, but I would much rather scrap about my son. So what do I do? I buy the kit and use it on pages of my son! Yup, I have used flowers, pink and many other “girly” elements on my boy pages without making them looky, well, girly.

I bought this kit, Happily Ever After, by Nitwit Collections and Kay Miller Designers. I also bought the Happily Ever Flowers and Happily Solids (there is also an alpha, brag book and quickpages available too) by Nitwits Collections. I loved this kit so much I couldn’t stop myself from buying it. The dragons, frogs and flowers are wonderful! I told myself I needed to buy for this layout, which is very “girly”:

So how do I create a layout from a kit with a lot of pink? Well not everything is pink. I stuck mostly to the greens, browns and blacks that were also in the kit. You can also alter the color of an element or paper if you want to. Below is a layout I created of my son. I used some pink but I also used green, blue and black. The blue is from Bear Necessities by NitWit Collections. I even included a flower, which is tan, not pink. Basically I used the more generic elements as the dominate elements of the layout.

In the layout below I used the same kit and again stuck to non-pink elements, however this layout does use some pink.

Other “girly” kits I used for my son’s layouts are On a Lark Mini Kit by Correen Silke [layout], Festival by Shabby Princess [layout], Tag Sale by RetroDiva [layout], The Sun is Finally Shining by Pamela Gibson [layout] and Forever Yours Collection - Eternity by Jen Reed and Krista Mettler [layout] (this last kit is not exactly girly but it is geared towards weddings).

I would love to see your boy layouts using “girly” kits. You can post a link to your layout in the comments and I will take a look.