Creating your own embellishment from digital scrapbooking supplies doesn't have to be complex and time consuming. Today I'll show you how I added a little custom embellie love to my baby boy's album.

I used Karen Lewis Designz Silly Billy Kit to create a monogram embellishment for the first page of my little boy's baby album.

Want to create this yourself? Follow along with my video:

Or here's the how to in Photoshop Elements.

Step by Step

Set up the Canvas

1. Create a new 300 dpi file the size you want your embellishment to be. I chose 5 inches by 5 inches
2. Save your work as a Photoshop Document (PSD) file, which will retain all the layers of the embellishment so you can return to it later
3. Open up a plain paper, patterned paper and ribbon to use in the cluster
4. Drag them all onto the  new Photoshop Document (PSD).

Create the Base

1. Give yourself a clear work surface by hiding all the layers in my PSD except the patterned paper.
2. Click on the patterned paper to select that layer.
3. Use the polygonal lasso tool to select a few hexagons from the patterned paper.
4. Create a new layer via Copy (Ctrl+J Mac Cmd+J). This will take only your selection.
5. Click on the eye icon in the layers panel to hide the original paper.
6. You have a fussy cut base for your embellishment.

Distress the Text

1. Add the letters with the type tool (shortcut T) in a bold serif font  - I used Rockwell Extra Bold.
2. Move the blue paper up in the layers panel to be on top of the text.
3. Create a clipping mask (Ctrl+G Mac Cmd+G) and voilà my text is now a beautiful textured blue!
4. To add some more distressing I created a new layer and then clipped it (Ctrl+G Mac Cmd+G)  to the text layer too.
5. Use the brush tool to paint black around the edge of the letters.
6. Changed the blend mode to overlay with an opacity of 40% to give a darker, inked look to the edge. The clipping mask means you will never ink anywhere except the letters. Easy!

Add Texture with Ribbon

1. I clicked on the eye icon in the layers panel to turn on the ribbon layer and use the polygonal lasso tool again to select only a portion of the yellow ribbon.
2. Create a new layer via Copy (Ctrl+J Mac Cmd+J).
3. Repeat the process for a second piece of ribbon
4. I clicked on the eye icon in the layers panel to hide the original ribbon.
5. Using the move tool, rotate and move the ribbons till they look good to you.
6. Add a digital staple and to 'fasten' them.

Finishing Touches

At this point I used Rosey Posey's shadow styles to add dimension to my cluster. But it wasn't quite looking finished. I had a little blank spot above EJ.

So I added part of Little Rascal rub on from the Silly Billy Kit:

1. Select just 'lil' with the marquee tool.
2. Create a new layer via Copy (Ctrl+J Mac Cmd+J).
3. I clicked on the eye icon in the layers panel to hide the original rubon.

Adding it to the page

I simply selected the layers in my new embellishment and in the layer panel I used my right mouse button to click and then selected duplicate layers. In the dialog box that appears I selected my digital layout to add everything into my layout.

Then I linked all the layers (using the chain icon at the bottom of the layers panel) to keep it all together as I positioned the cluster on my layout.

How it all turned out

I was thrilled with how my cluster turned out, it was just the handmade touch I wanted. I added it to a page created with a template from Biograffiti.

Hybrid Hero?

If you want to combine a digital cluster with a paper layout, follow the steps above and instead of adding to a digital page print your finished embellishments on Epson Premium Presentation Paper and add it to your page with dimensional adhesive.

Not a fan of Photoshop?