Write. Click. Scrapbook.

Scrapbooking Over the Fold Day 2: Photo Selection and Size

Hello, Jennifer Larson again, sharing more about creating two-page layouts. Today I'll write about how I go about selecting photos to scrap and deciding how to size them.

 

First, photo selection: I keep a list of page ideas to scrap in my journal, but when I edit photos, I also figure out which pages I want to do. Based on the number of photos, I know if it will probably be a one or two-page layout. It's pretty simple: more photos or more big photos (I swear that's grammatical), I will do a two-page layout. Fewer photos or smaller photos means a one-pager.

In general, I look to see if any photos are "lead actors." Those I size bigger--4x6, 5x7, or larger. These photos will be the star on the page and should be bigger.

If the photos are "supporting actors"--providing detail and color but maybe supporting the story rather than being the star--those I print smaller: 2.5 square, 3 square, more rarely 4 square, or wallet sized. (NOTE: I don't print at home. I send them to a local developer online.) Sometimes a story might be all "supporting actors," sort of like the cast of Friends. It's the ensemble that's important in that case, not one photo above others, so those I print all the same size.

 

Next, more specifics about photo size. There are basically 4 types of photo sizes I use on a two-page layout:

1. A BIG photo with several smaller ones.

My local developer doesn't print 12x12 or 8.5x11 photos, so I can't do a photo on the whole page unless I send away for the photos to be mailed to me. Then I have to wait, and I hate waiting to scrap, so I rarely do that. My local developer DOES print 8x12, which I love. It doesn't fit the whole page, leaving some room for paper strips and embellishments, like on the page above, Around Town. I mostly added smaller photos plus one normal sized photo to complete this photo record of the places I go in my town.

On this page, I did something similar, this time with a people photo. I find this photo of my husband and son walking in the woods evocative, so I loved enlarging it to epitomize the lovely scene. (I'm pretty sure this is a Donna Januzzi sketch.)

 

2. Several 4x6 photos

I used pure 4x6 photos on this page about my beloved scrapping group, the Scrappin' J's, because to crop the photos would be to leave out details from our scrap retreats and shopping trips. It is harder to fit a bunch of 4x6 photos on a two-page spread, so when I want this to happen, I follow a hint I got from Angie Lucas at Simple Scrapbook years ago when I found the online scrapbooking community: I start at the middle, placing the photos there, and working outward until all the photos fit well and look good.

 

3. Tiny photos

This is an example of a page filled with supporting actors but no star. I didn't want to highlight one photo or one moment, so instead I tried to show the process where I documented my vacation via Instagram. To do so, I printed them all 2.5 square. (NOTE: I am not a Photoshop Elements expert, but I learned to make a 4x6 print that housed smaller prints by following this tutorial by Cathy Zielske. It's for a multi photo grid, but the concepts apply to fewer photos on a 4x6 print.)

 

4. Cropped 4x6 photos

(Please ignore the bent page; I have no clue how that happened!) Although a lot of time I plan on making a two-page layout when I'm editing photos, sometimes I print them and then decide on design later. That's the case for this page: I'd printed the photos then decided to use a sketch by Allison Davis. So I did what scrappers have done for years: trimmed the photos to fit the design, keeping the best photos the largest. (NOTE: The photo of my husband and me I took using the classic extend-an-arm technique. It's served me well for getting photos of me and my guy.)

 

Thanks again for sharing my process for selecting and sizing photos! Come back tomorrow when I talk about the number of photos I use.

Social Media Week - Day Two

Are you on Facebook?

Did you resist joining Facebook at first? I know I did. I wasn't going to follow the crowd. I wasn't going to give in.

Then I did.

Just like most things in life, you can find positives and negatives with Facebook. However, as an actor who meets a new group of fabulous colleagues with every show I start-- it's become a great way to keep up on what everyone is doing. On top of that, it allows me to remember what I was doing in February 2009, or April 2010--- when I would otherwise have no clue what I was up to. (I have a terrible memory. It's why I scrapbook.) I have found Facebook to be so useful in memory keeping-- and here is how some others have used it, too:

WCS member, Celeste Smith, created a grid of profile pictures to document all her Facebook friends:  Celeste says: "You can easily create a grid of all of your facebook friends profile photos by installing the application called Gridview. Unfortunately, the mosaic maker wasn’t working for me so I created a PDF of the screen the mosaic was on and then reworked it in Photoshop. In Photoshop, I lowered the opacity of the layer with the photos on it so that it dulled it a bit and my title, journaling and embellishments would pop more. You could also just lay a piece of vellum over the top. I found a font similar to the facebook font to create my title and use for my journaling as well. I only adhered the top of my journal block so I can lift it up and look at the photos underneath."

 

WCS member, Lisa Ottoson, did a layout about all the Facebook birthday greetings she received. I can relate. My birthday was last week, and I got teary at all the people who came out of the woodwork to wish me a happy birthday. Here is Lisa's take:

I love this colourful Facebook layout that Danielle Flanders created using her status updates. Her use of polaroid frames reminds us of what status updates are-- "snapshots":

 

If you are a Project Lifer then you have to check out Christine Newman's blog! Great tutorials and details of how to stylishly put things together. It makes me want to start a project life album right now! Below is an example of how she worked Facebook statuses into her album:

 

Lastly, I have two gift ideas using Facebook. I made a card for friends of mine who had a new baby. They hadn't sent out photos yet, but I was able to download some from Facebook and turn them into a photostrip for the card:

Similarly, I made a wedding gift for dear friends of mine who didn't yet have their photos back from the photographer. I downloaded photos from Facebook, edited them a bit, then used them for this canvas:

I know that wedding photographers hate having people taking photos on the side-- but in this case it really worked in my favour! Thanks to Facebook, I was able to make this gift a surprise, rather than asking the bride and groom for wedding photos.

I'll be back tomorrow with more social media fun!

Since we are being so SOCIAL, why don't you join in? Link me up to your favourite projects using social media, and I will feature some this friday!

 

Just Add: Ink

Two different kinds of messy to look at today: Ink, in the pad form and in the mist form. I will say that although Ronda has taught me much about misting, like to use a pizza box lined with paper towels to hold my layout and mist into, I have played with both products so much on my own now that I feel quite comfortable sharing examples with you. But it took me a while and a lot of mistakes to get to this point. I've made a lot of cards--the small canvas is excellent for trying out techniques (Ronda also uses tags for this purpose as well), I've recycled a lot of pieces of cardstock that just didn't work. And I've learned a lot. That's the fun thing about getting messy, you have to embrace your mistakes, make them work for you. It's OK to play. And you know what? I don't think she blends ink pads very often, I think I may have beat her to that technique. :P

Our first examples, using ink pads are the epitome of neat and controlled messy. I have a lot of ink pads. I do stamp on my layouts fairly regularly, but don't consider it to be "artsy." So how do I get artsy? One way is to blend your ink. If you'd like to see a tutorial on this technique, I made one a few years ago for Studio Calico.

Here's the resulting layout I made from the sample in the tutorial. It's a really fun technique, often the best techniques are ones you didn't mean to do.

Paula uses another artsy technique on the following page. She used a stencil and rubbed over it with a cat's eye mini ink pad to get her background. Ink pad=much more control.

Now to look at spray inks, known to strike fear in the heart of many a simple scrapper. I know I am not alone. You can go sparse like Diane did here, just a light layer of misting can give a soft effect, especially when you use a white mist on a dark background. The best way to get a light layer? Mist from above the layout, give yourself a good couple of feet between you and the layout. It gives the ink plenty of room to fall, landing softly on your layout. You'll want to protect the surface around your layout, newspaper works well.

Francine and Celeste employ a similar technique on these two pages. Screw off the mister unit and just drip your mist on your page.

Francine did it with actual liquid, Celeste again worked her magic with digital brushes. I shared this particular layout because she looks so dang awesome! Go Celeste!

The more you play with spray inks, the braver you become. I still need my misting to be controlled, but I can now do things like this layered effect with punched shapes. I randomly placed about between 12 and 16 butterflies, misted. I moved the butterflies to other random places, misted again. I did the same thing one last time. Cool effect, especially when you overlap the wings of one butterfly with a misted image of another. You can try this with any punched shape or border. It's really fun to try, you get great resultsf is you use similar colors and mist from higher up, like explained in Diane's example. (Recognize this picture?)

My fellow Emily, Emily Spahn did another form of masking and misting on this layout, I love the sunbeam effect she got by intermixing bits of misted sunbeam, papers, and journaling, it's gorgeous huh?

Or this layout with the entire background covered with intense misting. The mists blend much better than I expected as they dry, you don't see a hard line. To get this look, it's best to be pretty close to the paper as you're misting. A quick spray while moving along the page works well. 

Here's another video tutorial I did for Studio Calico showing the technique in action. 

Here's a layout by Ronda that uses the same technique, a solid squirt of each color of mist, close to the surface of the paper to get a nice strong color. Ronda is amazing with stencils, this shows her work quite well I think:

And should these all be more than you even want to think about attempting, there's always the fact that mist will change the color of most any embellishment to a different color. I do this all the time! The chipboard numbers, letter "E", and paper roses were misted with Maya Road's Fig Magenta. The yellow mums? They are really a silvery color but I sprayed them with Maya Road's Mustard Yellow. So easy to get a new color with nice rich dye inks!

I finish, hoping that today's post does not overwhelm, but instead inspires you to try out a few of these different messy techniques. Notice that my layouts are terribly messy? You can use artsy products in a nice and controlled way. That's what this week is for, except Friday...

Showing Off: Invitations & Announcements

Thank you for stopping by yesterday! Did you have a good day of lurve? I may or may not have received the new Twilight movie. Girls night at my house?

I hope you saw potential in the projects! I love scrapbooking and all the ways it has infiltrated my life. Do you feel the same? (I thought so. That's why we're such good friends. Because you get that part of me. (Which happens to be a big part of my life...))

Thank you for celebrating our craft with me this week! Today we are going to focus on invitations & announcements.

 

The Backstory

When Nigel was born, I hadn't yet begun to scrapbook, but I knew that I wanted some cool baby announcements. I looked in the yellow pages under "Paper" so that I could find a store that sold something that didn't look like it was supposed to contain a resume. And I found Paper Creations. I went in, got what I needed, and went home to create. (I would be lying if I failed to acknowledge that yes, I did notice the scrapbook stuff, and yes, I did exactly and certainly accept that I would soon be back to try out this growing hobby...)

The birth announcement wasn't anything pretty, but I was very proud of it.

A few months later, I returned to that same store to buy some scrapbook paper to begin my new life as a scrapbooker. And for several years, I made hundreds of layouts. Many layouts. But just layouts.

And then I realized that now I had the supplies, the tools, and a much better understanding of how to make cooler invites than I could buy in the store, and some pretty rockin' announcements.

 

Invitations

As you are putting your invites together, don't forget the basics: name, address phone number, RSVP info; but then, go wild! have fun! I love how an invite can set the mood and the theme of the party.

Might I share a funny story with you? We once had a neighbor girl (let's call her Sally) who invited every girl in her school class for her 7th birthday party. Her mom had sent invitations with Barbie on them. For no reason other than they were on sale. Lo and behold, come party day, Sally got 13 Barbies for her birthday. Every single gift was a Barbie. For those moms who didn't know Sally, the invitation was a clue as to what she liked. (And gratefully she did. Not sure about 13 dolls' worth, but did like them!)

It's true that invitations can tell much more of a story than just the pertinent details. When we don't much about an event, we truly look to the invitation for guidance. I tell you so that as you design an invitation, you are careful about what you put on.

I am a big sucker for theme parties and invites. As I was hunting for cute examples for you, I found these that I thought were awesome! This one was for a messy party. How fun is that?

I found this one on Pinterest. Oooh, love this one.

And here is a fun one! Prepare to giggle if you go look through the party pics!

Here are the last two invitations to leave our house. This year the parties had neither subject nor color theme (we often have color parties for birthdays!), so instead the invitations just became about representing the girls. Oh, and sharing the deets. Because the boundaries were so wide, the girls helped me with the colors and vetoed a couple of fonts on the way to the final product. Gotta love a four year with font preferences!!

Are you up for creating an invitation for your next shower or birthday party? I hope you will. You have the skills. I know you do!

 

Announcements

Babies. I love them. The smell, the touch, the sleepy scrunched-up faces. Everything. But when I had mine, I found that as much as I wanted to shout the news of their births from the rooftops, the minute they were born, I was too tired to do them right away. Remembering that, I have begun to offer to create the birth announcements as a baby present. Not everyone takes me up on it. (To be clear, ALL the second plus time moms take me up on it right away. Some first-timers don't understand at first, but most eventually call!)

Here are a couple I made recently.

A quick tip on multi-photo announcements: if you include body part shots (ie. heads, toes, fingers, etc) be careful how you place them. Toes and feet are better on the bottom row, and heads on the top. And try not to gather these shots all together without a full body shot. It starts to look a little creepy. Likewise look for things like hands coming out of an adjacent head photo, etc. It can easily turn all Toy Story on you. (Remember when the boy combined parts of dolls together? I couldn't watch that movie for years--too creepy!)

I thought perhaps you might want to spread the announcement-making love, so I put together a printable for you that you can tuck into a card and to help you get all the pertinent information that you will need. You can download it here.

You have the skills, baby! Now show them off! You, my dear scrapbooker, are not just a scrapbooker. You are also a graphic designer and a master crafter. Yes, yes, you are! If you have any invitations, or announcements, please leave a comment and link to your project! I would love to see what you have made!

Tomorrow will be give.away.day. I look forward to your comments! And then I will see you back here on Friday!

until then,

Favorite Quotes Calendar

Hi there, it's Celeste sporting a new 'do! Calendars make great gifts for friends and family. This year I put together a printable calendar base for you that you can display in an empty CD case. Please download the file at this link. The file includes blank printable PDFs for each month of 2012. As well, I’ve included digital templates so you can make a calendar like the one I did or use them as a starting point for your own creation. I also created a PNG file of digital stamps for each month. You can use these and create any size calendar you’d like!

For my calendar, I decided to collect some of my favorite quotes and share them with my friends and family. I chose the Quatrefoil #2 Paper Pack and Spring/Summer Labels element pack from our dear friend Crystal Wilkerson. Lucky for me Crystal included 12 different colors in the pack, perfect for my calendar! I simply added paper to the tops of my bases and then a label. Using the font Rockwell, I added my quote on top of the label. Easy peasy!

By creating my calendar digitally, I can print out a slew of them to give to relatives and friends. Here's my calendar in its CD holder. If you wish to display your calendar like I did, you'll need to find an old CD case you no longer need or buy some new empty ones. Follow these directions to create the CD case holder for your calendar. You could also purchase magnetic clips from Staples so that the calendar can hang on the fridge.

I shared my calendar templates with Monika Wright. She created these fabulous 4x6 calendars and is sharing three amazing display options.

January shows the calendar embellished with some baker's twine from The Twinery and attached with cute mini clothespins. February has the calendar inserted into an inexpensive frame, this one from IKEA and embellished with ribbon...and you know you have plenty of ribbon in your stash to change out the ribbon to match each month's featured color! And for March, shop your paper scraps, adhere a bit to the top of the calendar and display on a small easel, this one from the Dollar Tree. In the extra space, jot down any important dates that you don't want to forget.

If you'd like to use these free downloads for your own office space or craft room, Monika has made them available on her blog, and will have the next quarter's calendar downloads available mid-March.

 

Cheryl Overton made a calendar using the digital template. I love how she used the artisan shapes as spaces for her photos. Her calendar is amazing!

Marnie Flores made a wall calendar incorporating all twelve months onto one poster. She created 12 boxes for photographs from each month of this past year. Marnie created her poster in a 16x20 size for her kitchen, and then had two extra printed in 8x10 as a little Christmas extra for the grandmas!!

If you make a calendar, be sure to share it with us in the Flickr gallery. Happy Holidays!

Hipstamatic Photos - cards and a Mini-Book

Hello Dear Friends! This is alexandra and today we're looking at cards and a mini book all showcasing Hipstamatic shots.

 

 

 

 

Here is a first card I made using two Hipstamatic pictures:

and this one with an off-centered glittered frame...

and to finish off this week of posts on the magic of Hipstamatic shots, here is a crazy mini. The idea behind it is a portrait of each member of the family (minus DD#1 who is away at University) coupled with a manuscript journaling of their favorite things in life! I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Avital for providing the journaling cards used in this mini-album.

Thank you for your visits and comments! I've enjoyed being your host this week. Happy Scrapping everyone!

Digi Scrap 102 - Day Four - Random Tips

Last day and so much more that I'd love to cover! So I figure I'd share nine completely random tips and tricks for Photoshop. What a bargain!

 

1. Eyedropper Tool

 Both digital scrapbookers and paper scrappers can use this tip. Select the Eyedropper Tool from the Tools palette. Click on any color in a photo or a digital element or paper. Papr scrappers you can call up an image of a sheet of paper or an element - just use the picture from an online store! Now you have a perfect match. I find this a great way to color text for journaling or title work. See how nicely the title matches the papers!

2. Creating a Sticker-like Alphabet

On this page, you can see I used a font to create the title then added a white outline to it to make it look like a sticker.  It's a super easy process and combined with the eye dropper tool above, it can perfectly match your papers and elements! Here I used the eye dropper tool to get the perfect green and I stroked the title text twice.

 

3. Rounded Corners

Paper scrappers use a corner rounder to create rounded corners.  Digital scrapbookers have to use other tools. I use Jessica Sprague’s Rounded Corner Brush. I know other folks like to use the shape tool. Check out the Daily Digi for a few tutorials on how to create this look on your pages. Here’s a page that I did using Jessica’s corner rounder brush.

4. Brushes

Why reinvent the wheel? I wrote an article this summer for Ella Publishing all about brushes. Head on over and check it out. There are even some free brushes to download! Here's a hybrid page I did using a brush that looks like a paint splatter. Brushes also look awesome on photos.

 

5. Align Bottom Edges

This is really simple, but I'm always amazed that seasoned scrappers don't know about this. Select the Move tool from the Toolbar (or press v on your keyboard.) In the layers palette, select the layers you would like to line up.

In Photoshop Elements, on the top toolbar, you'll see a drop down called align. You can align the bottom or top edges of the elements easily!

In Photoshop, you'll see icons along the top tool bar.

Easy peasy - but really saves time!

 

6. Another Way to Align Elements

You can turn on the grid function by selecting View > Show > Grid in Photoshop CS and View > Grid in Elements. Your screen will look like this…

Now you can use your move tool to align the layers up against the grid lines. Very helpful when you are trying to find the center of the page too!

 

7. Copying Layer Styles

So we talked about Layer Styles and shadows the other day. You can easily copy a layer style to another layer. Simply right click on the Layer and select Copy Layer Style. Select another layer (you can even select multiple layers) and right click and select Paste Layer Style.

 

8. Another Title Trick

After you have your text title the size you want. You can easily clip paper to the title to give your title a more textured or even patterned look. Highlight the layer in the Layers palette, drag a piece of paper onto your page so it covers the alpha. Then select the paper layer and right click and select Create Clipping Mask. Highlight both layers and merge layers. I clipped an orange solid paper that had some texture to the title on this page.

 

9. Keyboard Shortcuts

Nothing saves more time than learning a few keyboard shortcuts. Visit Adobe’s site for Elements or CS to learn more. A couple of my favorite shortcuts…

• v – by typing this letter, you’ll select the move tool.
• Select a layer in the Layers palette. CTRL [ will move a layer down and CTRL ] will move a layer up. If you hit CTRL Shift [, you’ll move the layer to the bottom and CTRL Shift ] will move the layer to the very top.
• To zoom in press CTRL + (plus) or to zoom out press CTRL - (minus)
• CTRL D will deselect an item and get rid of the marching ants!

 

Now the drawing for Julie Billingsley's kit - the winner is number 10....

 
Jen email me at celestefsmith AT gmail DOT com and I'll send you a code to pick up Julie Billingsley's fabulous kit! Thanks again to sweet Julie for donating the kit.

I have had such a fun week with all of you! I hate to see it end. I hope that you picked up a new technique or tip to try. Until next time!

Digi Scrap 102: Day Three - Actions

Hey there! I'm back and today we are going to take action! Well, okay we are really only going to talk a bit about Photoshop Actions. Photoshop Actions are basically just a recorded set of steps that you can run when you want to perform a task. (Don't you wish there was a action that would do the laundry?) Most scrappers use Photoshop Actions on their photos to convert to black and white or add a cool effect. There are other actions as well though. For instance, there are actions that resize and sharpen pages to put on the web. Text actions can change text into cool looking epoxies or chipboard. There are even actions that will literally scrap a page for you step by step!

Do you have a task that you perform repetitively in Photoshop CS? You can record custom actions. For instance, I recorded an Unsharp Mask action that uses Scott Kelby's recommended settings (Amount: 85% Radius: 1 Threshold: 4) and I use it on almost every photo I edit, quite a time saver. Unfortunately, Photoshop Elements does not have the custom actions feature.

However, you can run actions in either Photoshop CS or Elements. You just have to be sure that the action you are downloading is compatible with the program you have. I'm going to share a few of my favorite free actions here with you. Give them a whirl!

 

Actions for Photography

Pioneer Woman Actions (PS & PSE) - we've mentioned these actions time and time again here because they are truly amazing!

TIP: When the action is finished running, you can select the layer the action is on and use the drop down next to the word Opacity to lessen the effect. I find I run the Pioneer Woman's Boost at about 60% when I use it. The same with Seventies - one of my favorite actions in her sets!

 

Coffee Shop (PS & PSE) - Rita at the Coffee Shop offers a wide array of actions in both PSE and PS formats. I simply adore her Butterscotch Vintage action. It's just stunning! Be sure to check out her black and whites too!

Texas Chicks (PSE) - this site offers a few great Photoshop tools in action form. I use the Defog action and the Noise Reduced all the time. Worth signing up for the newsletter to get access!

Instagram (PS) -  I live in the dark ages and don't have an iPhone or even a smart phone. I have this really old flip phone with no keyboard or anything. So I can't take photos with my phone and use the app Instagram. Well now I can simulate that! This set of actions will take your photo and create similar effects to Instagram! Fun!

Rob Carr's Black & White Action (PS) - This was hard to find. I downloaded this action years ago and it is my favorite black and white conversion method. It really creates crisp, stunning black and white conversions. The action stops you in places and let's you tweak the conversion. Really cool!


Digital Scrapbooking Tools

Resize & Sharpen for Web - when posting layouts or photographs online it's important to sharpen them correctly. As well, using this action will easily resize your image to the size you wish.

Polaroid Frames - Polaroid frames are so retro and add interest too. This action set easily converts your image to have a Polaroid frame!

Installing Actions

Now you are probably wondering, I've downloaded all these actions now what do I do? You'll need to install them. I could go on and on for pages and pages here, but it's probably better to send you over to Wendy Zines' tutorial to get you started! Once you have the action loaded. You can open the Actions palette and click on it to run it.

I'll be back on Friday with some random tips and tricks. Be sure to stop by tomorrow for an awesome giveaway!

 

Digi Scrap 102: Day Two - Shadows

Today we are going to talk about shadows. Shadows are really important on digital scrapbook pages. Shadows give a layout dimension and depth. They are really essential if you want your pages to look realistic.

On this first page, I didn't use any shadowing. The page looks flat and there is no definition between the border strips at the bottom of the page. 

Perhaps you can see it a little more clearly in the close up. The border part almost looks like one piece of patterned paper. There is no separation between the layers.

 

 

By adding shadows, you can see the layers and elements begin to pop. There is dimension to the page and the layers of borders are clearly defined.

So how do you do it? Well shadowing is truly an art and I will admit it's an art that I far from excel at. Enter Shadow Layer Styles. Shadow Layer Styles are basically settings that have been saved for you. A set of them might include different styles for paper, buttons, stitching, and other parts of a page.

You can pick up a basic set of styles for free. This is a great way to get started shadowing and see if styles are for you!

1. Flergs has a free set of shadow styles and a quick tutorial on how they work. A great beginning set.

2. Megan Turnidge not only imparts a good deal of information about shadowing. Her free set of styles is top notch.

3. Krystal Hartley offers another free set. This set is what I started with. Krystal has a light hand with shadows and I used these almost exclusively until I bought a couple sets.

For minimal cost, you can pick up a set or two that have more options. Peppermint Granberg and Jenn Barrette offer amazing shadow style sets. These sets include many different styles for different elements on your pages. The two sets work together really well as both sets have the light hitting at the same 45 degree angle. I use these styles on almost all of my pages.

Installing layer styles is a fairly easy process. Check out the resources below for how to's.

• Photoshop Elements 9
• Photoshop Elements 7 & 8
• Photoshop Elements 6
• Photoshop CS

Using the layer styles is even easier, simply click on the layer you want to shadow in the Layers Palette, then click on the style in the styles palette. Simple!

More advanced digital scrapbookers create their own custom shadows for each element on a page.  If you'd like to learn how to create your own custom shadows I would suggest the following resources.

• The Daily Digi's post on shadows
• Peppermint Granberg's post on shadows
• Designer Digitals forum on shadows in PSE
• Scrappers Workshop Shadow tutorial
• Peppermint Granberg's class at Big Picture
• Divian's Tutorial for PSCS
• Something Blue Cast Shadow Tutorial (PSCS)

I hope you'll give Shadow Styles a spin! Come back tomorrow for a little discussion about Photoshop actions! Until then...

 

Digi Scrap 102: Day One - Templates

Hi there! It's Celeste back hosting this week. A few months ago the lovely Rebecca Cooper hosted a week that introduced us to digital scrapbooking. This week, I'm going to focus on some next steps, kind of a Digi Scrap 102. I'll share some tips and tricks to help you easily add punch to your digital pages. Some of the tips I'll share will also help paper scrappers - so hey you, over there with the scissors, don't tune out! And everyone be sure to read the postscript below!

Today we are going to focus on Templates. Back in February, Rebecca shared downloadable instructions on how to use a template and Crystal Wilkerson provided a fabulous video on how to get started as well. If you are just starting out, take a moment and check out those resources!

To start, I created this template for all of you to play with. As you can see, you can use the large block for a photo and the smaller blocks could be papers or photos. The choice is yours. To download the template, click on the image.

I filled in the blocks and added my title and journaling much in the same way Crystal discusses in the video to create this page about my niece and her dog, Sadie. I added some digital stitching, a couple extra buttons, and a clip to personalize the template.

 

Digital templates are great starting points for pages. You can use them as is, like I did above or you can change them up a bit for different looks.

Above Francine Clouden rotated the template 90 degrees clockwise. Then pulled the journaling back to the bottom of the page. To accomplish this in Photoshop Elements or Photoshop CS, simply go to Image > Image Rotation and select 90° CW. Then in the Layers Palette, click on the Journaling layer and go to Edit > Transform > Rotate 90° CW. Using the Move tool on the Tools palette (this looks like an arrow with a plus), click on the Journaling layer and drag it to the bottom of the page.

 
Another easy way to change up a template is to shrink or stretch the template. In the Layers palette, select all of the layers except the background layer. You can use the CTRL key and a click of your mouse to select multiple layers. Then go to Edit > Free Transform and while holding down the shift key, use your mouse to resize the layers either bigger or smaller. As you can see, Ann Costen stretched the template to fill more of the page. Then using the same process for rotating the journaling; she rotated the title and placed it on the left edge to balance out the page. I love how she filled the template with photos!

Other template changes include resizing from 12x12 to 8.5x11, using blocks for photos instead of papers, and only using parts of the template to create your page. Paper scrappers, this same technique can be used with sketches. It's a great way to get more than one look out of a sketch!

To close the day, I thought I'd share some places you can go and download free digital scrapbooking templates. Paper scrappers check out these sites and use the templates as sketches!

• Get It Scrapped
• Simple Scrapper
• Free Digital Scrapbooking Templates
• Jessicasprague.com 

If you create a page with the template, I'd love to see it! Post it in our Flickr gallery and link me up here! I'll be back tomorrow with more digi tips. Stay tuned!

P.S. I made the banner using Julie Billingsley's kit Rule the School available at Sweet Shoppe Designs! And keep this on the down low (i.e. don't tell the boss lady) shhhhh! Julie is a sweetheart and offered up a little giveaway to one lucky commenter. You'll get a copy of Rule the School for free! Leave a comment on this thread (you have until Thursday Midnight EST) and I'll pull a winner and post on Friday.