Tuesday Tutorial: Flipping & Rotating Digis with Word

Sometimes in crafting, I find that I really want a digi to be facing a different direction from how it was drawn. Maybe I want to flip it over (aka "mirror" it), or maybe I just want to rotate it in a slightly different direction. I'm sure I'm not the only one who's had this issue! So for today's Tuesday Tutorial, I thought I'd share how to flip -- a.k.a. "mirror" -- and rotate digis using Microsoft Word. These processes are so very simple, but will give you a lot of flexibility in your crafting, and who doesn't love flexibility? :-)

Please note that this tutorial does assume some basic understanding of digis. If you are brand new to using digis, please visit our Digi Stamps 101 page HERE for directions to get you started. Also, for this tutorial, I'll be using Microsoft Word 2010. If you'd like to follow along with my directions for creating scenes with your digis using Word 2010, but don't currently have this program installed on your computer, you can download a free 60-day-use trial of Microsoft Office 2010 HERE (Microsoft Word is included in the Office suite of programs).

A. Flipping ("Mirroring") Digis Using Word

1. Open a new Word document, and then insert the digi that you would like to work with.

2. In the Word window, click on the digi to select it. A blue "bounding box" will appear around the outside of the digi to show that it is selected.

3. While the digi is selected, the "Format Picture" tools will appear at the top of the Word window. At the far right of this group of tools, locate the Rotate button and click on it.

4. A drop-down menu will appear on the screen. From this menu, select either Flip Horizontal or Flip Vertical, depending on the direction in which you wish to flip the digi.

In the document window, the selected digi will instantly flip so that is now facing the opposite direction that it was, along whichever axis -- horizontal or vertical -- that you selected. Fun, huh, and as I said, so very simple!

B. Rotating Digis Using Word

Now let's say you don't want to flip the image, you just want to rotate it in a slightly different direction? That, too, is very easy to do! You simply follow the same steps as above, but when you reach Step 4, select either Rotate Right 90 Degrees or Rotate Left 90 Degrees.

In the document window, the selected digi will instantly rotate per the option you selected.

Imagine the different ways you could create using these little tricks! For example, to make my sample card today, I simply used two copies of the same digi -- one facing the original direction, and one that I flipped horizontally.

But you could create all kinds of borders, scenes, etc. using a combination of flipped and rotated images. As always, your imagination is the limit!

If you have any questions about this tutorial, please be sure to leave a comment on this post. If you would like a direct reply, please include your email address. Until next time, happy crafting! :-)