Quick Pages the Easy Way with Photoshop

Just want the Quick page and not have to do the work?

I put this one and a 2nd one in my shop at Digitals today for a great price of only $1.50 each.

Learning my Way Around the New CS6

And if all that is not enough for you and you prefer videos, I did a detailed search in google.  Here’s your EASY BUTTON for that to find all good things CS6!

Cilenia

On StoryTelling

I have a lovely old photo album with family photos from the 1870′s. Some of them are labelled many are not. I have no idea who these people are or why the photo was taken. That is one of the reasons I scrapbook. I want others to know what was important about the photos that are preserved. Yet sometimes it is easier to just make a pretty page.
Over the last few years, I have been exercising my storytelling muscles. Today, I want to share a few tips with you for including the story in your albums.

1. Write a letter. Each year, I try to write a letter to my girls around their birthdays. I then include this in their album. This can be typed as part of the page. I could also be written on a pretty piece of paper then scanned and added to the page.

2. Use a quote. Sometimes I only use a quote. It gives some information about how I was feeling about the picture. It is not my words though. A quote could be a jumping off point for your own thoughts. These will be treasured because it includes you in the page.

3. Be a reporter. Do you remember in school looking a the who, what, where, why and when of a story or event? Some of this may seem obvious to you as you look at the photo. Now imagine the year is 2112, your descendants have just found your old scrapbook on the shelf. Can they answer any of those questions by looking at the page? If not write a paragraph with some of the details.

4. Write a caption. This is a short snippet under, or beside the photo that gives the main information. For this I often include a name, place and date with no other information.

5. Use a definition. Pick a main word that describes what you want your page to be about. Then add the definition of the word dictionary style to the page. I often use this as a starting point and add a short description to the page that expands on the idea.

6. Use a Poem or Song. I have written poems specifically to go with photos. Not everyone enjoys writing poetry. I used to hate it. A part of a song can fill the same function and you don’t need to be a poet to use this tip.

7. Hidden journaling. When I use paper supplies, I can fashion an envelope to hold the journaling. Digital scrap booking is harder to use hidden journaling. the best idea I have seen for this is to put the journaling on the back of the page after printing. This will not work if you print your pages as an album. It might be possible to create an envelope using the digital pieces so you can add the dimension after printing. I have a few pages where I have written the information on the page after printing because I did not want it on the web.

8. Separate pages for story. Sometimes I want to create a fancy page that has photos and embellishments but the story needs to be told. For these I create a double page spread where one side is journaling. This allows more room to tell a story.

9. Make a list. There are many topics that can use a list style for telling the story. It could be a list of some ones favorites. A gratitude list. A daily tasks list (or schedule).

10. Have fun. We are our families storytellers have fun with it.

Many of the challenges in the forums contain journal prompts if you want more ideas.

PSE Shortcut Keys and FREE Daily Download

The  iNSD sale at   Digitals’ is continuing through the 8th!  So don’t miss it!

Be sure to grab the FREE Daily Download that continues through the 11th!  The sale in MY Store will continue through the 11th!

For those who have missed some or all of the FREE Daily Downloads since April 28th, I also have the kit in the store. It is 30% off during my Featured Designer spot through May 11th. You can click on the preview to grab it.

PSE Shortcuts

In the busy environments that we all live in, it is helpful to be able to use shortcuts to speed things up and make those minutes and hours last longer!    It’s the same when it comes to scrapping!  The more shortcuts you can utilize, the more time you create to enjoy your craft!

I have a list of shortcuts I use all the time while creating and scrapping in my Photoshop Elements program.  Some of these shortcuts are carried over from the word processing programs, so some of them you will already know.  You just have to remember to use them while creating your scrapbook pages, too!

So, I hope you find these useful!  Once you learn them, you will wonder how you ever got along without them!  Also, I believe for the MAC person, instead of the Ctrl key, you use the Command key (???).

Thanks for stopping by Today!  Now you can scrap those memories a little quicker! 

Hybrid Chalkboard and FREE Daily Download!

Welcome back!  I have got the cutest hybrid project for you today!  As I mentioned yesterday, as you met my CTMs, Lori does wonderful hybrid projects and she has one for you today!  I hope you enjoy it!

I know you don’t want to miss today’s FREE Daily Download, either!

Lori used my “Springtime is Mine!” kit to make her chalkboard project.  Wait til you read about how she made the 3D flower, too!  You are gonna HAVE to try it!

Thanks for stopping by Today!  Enjoy reading the following hybrid tut from Lori!

Hybrid Chalkboard

by Lori Imel

1. First I measured the chalk board (I picked it up at a thrift store). Then I put those dimensions in photoshop (or whatever program you use). Open the new image at 300 ppi to match the kit size. I did both outside and inside the framed area.

2. Then I started arranging the flourishes, etc in the corners. See image, for example.

3. Open a “new” image – paper size. Take the items from the 1st image and arrange them on this new paper. Do not overlap and leave room to cut around these edges. (So I would not have white edges showing, I used the dropper tool and “stroke” to place a color edge around each item. Then if I did not cut away all the excess – it blends well into the item. On large items that do not have a lot of intricate detail – this is NOT needed).I also took Vicky’s tag (round circle with a fancy edge) and filled up the page with these (I had extras).

Prep work in graphics program

4. Print on cardstock (use a good printing mode). Then carefully cut out each item. I have found that “cutter bee” scissors are fantastic – you need sharp scissors with a very fine tip to cut out small detail well.

5. Take your flowers and leaves etc and give them dimension. I take a crochet hook, or pen and “curl” the items. Sometimes I will curl from different directions. The idea is to make it look more “real”

6. Those tags I added (3D flowers)…. I took them and cut between each area that goes in (depression between bumps) – cut towards the middle but you want to leave a significant amount of space in the middle. The first one I did 1 inch, 2nd a little more, and 3rd one even more – but not so that it would break apart….. I also used 1/4 of a yellow post it note and cut along the long edge about 1/8″ strips, but leaving about 1/4″ edge along the top edge – to make a fringe.

Take the 1st tag piece and curl the petals down (curling from the white side – non-printed side). Do this with each tag piece. Then I used tacky glue in the center (printed side) and placed the next tag piece in the middle section. I had 3 layers of tag pieces (petals). Adjust them so that the top layers do not have cuts in the same places. The top layer I actually squeezed a bit more up (think of a flower starting to bloom). Then I added the “stamin” – yellow post it note to the middle of the top layer. I also put the “butterfly) on my flower.

7. Arrange the items on your chalk board – use your 1st image as a guide. I use double sided tape – mounting tape – puffy tape…. you want it to be dimensional….. When working with hybrid – look at real items. How do they look? Look at the distances (drop shadows), different heights….. This is when your paper projects really begin to look so real….

Here’s the finished product. Enjoy!!!

Finished Project

Please share with the buttons below this post.

Creating Realistic Shadows in Photoshop & PSE

Shadows are arguably the most significant aspect in making your scrapbook layout look realistic. Here is a tutorial series by Sherry Saunders and Cilenia Curtis, that we ran in our newsletter on adding realistic shadows to your elements and papers using several different methods.

Creating Realistic Shadows Part 1 (PDF file)
Creating Realistic Shadows Part 2 (PDF file)
Creating Shadows/Layering (PDF file)
Warping Shadows in PS & PSE (PDF file)

How to recolor multiple colors on a single element tutorial

ok, I have given in to the world of video sharing! lol  I was just going to make a post with the how to do this, but thought, “Why not just record it as I do it?”  So I did.  I hope I did this right as I have never used YouTube before, so cross your fingers!

PSE can do this also. The only difference is you go to “Enhance” in the top menu and then to “Adjust Color” and then to “Replace Color”. Then work everything else the same way.

In case the video doesn’t embed correctly, here is a Link to it on my blog. And here is the YouTube link too.  Still learning how all this video stuff works so bear with me. lol

And as I said, don’t ever be afraid to ask me something if you don’t know it.

Oh, and the kit that I was making that this was from?  It’s called Lovely in Lilac and was inspired by Digitals Monthly challenges which I’m a part of and run the Art Journaling Challenge.  I like it so much, that I decided to make a whole kit instead of just a mini kit for the bonus.

This was just an impromptu whim of mine.  Promise, I will learn how to make these better quality as I learn the ins and outs of YouTube.

Have an awesome day!

Embellishing Ideas for your Pages for Visual Design and Focus

Thought since we are focusing on clustering and embellishments this month, we might want to take a look at how these relate to the whole design of a layout too for some basic design principals.

Creating a frame of elements around your photo.

By adding elements clustered at the corner like Aria did here, you are grounding your photo.  Using like colors or repeating elements found in the paper, you are grounding your photo to the background also visually.  Notice how all of these used this technique of creating a cluster of elements to frame and ground their photos.

By clustering your elements AND photo to a corner of the page, you are also creating what we call “white space”.  This “space” is a place for the eyes to rest while looking at a page but it also draws your eyes to photo on the photo itself.

Aidan by Aria

First Grady by Joyce de Jonge

Make a Wish by Jean Ann

You can do this also by filing the whole page like Angie did here.

She is still framing and clustering using embellishments, but by desaturating her photo, it will naturally draw the eye there first and the photo actually becomes the neutral “space”.  Everything added here is being used to “frame” this photo by matting and clustering around it.

She also played a with her title and journaling to create it within this space and this is again, drawing the eyes inward to where she wanted to draw the focus to.

Stand by Angie

In turn you can also try a more linear look and using repetition of photos or elements to ground your embellishments and/or photos to a page.

See how Judy used clustering of elements, note pieces and photo frames here in a vertical orientation.  By doing this, she is drawing the eye inward but grounding them at the same time.

Close to You by judyinsd

Another example of this is from two of my own pages.

Here is this first one we see the linear line creatd by the photos on the left with all the clustered elements and papers tucked under and around them.  The blended photo into the background becomes the resting space but the eyes still want to be led to the main photo and is drawn down to the journaling.

Sharing Curiosity by Cilenia

Again, linear clustering on the left, but now the page has more movement and is being drawn outward into the photos sitting in the “white space” and the bottom right corner with it’s brushwork and element is visually framing it all together.

What do You Want by Cilenia

Now look at another way Beth combined these design principles of using clusters to frame out your photo, clustering your photos and leaving some white space, and using repetition of elements also to frame the photos, and repeating the elements in the corners of the page too, for a whole other type of effect but still visually pleasing.

Make your own Music by mystampin

These are just some of the unique ways you use clustering and embellishments to draw focus and give some visual grounding to your layouts.

While doing your layouts and clustering, keep in mind the types of elements and the layering and don’t forget to adjust your shadows for the different depths created by the layering of embellishments and papers too.  That is what usually will make or break your layout from looking good to looking awesome!

Till next time,

Cilenia

I Didn’t Know PSE Could Do That!

I love to use PhotoShop Elements to scrap and to design, and hopefully, I can surprise you with something new that you can try.

You have an element on your page, but you want it in the direct center. Do ctrl+a, ctrl+c, ctrl+v, and then throw away the layer with the element that isn’t centered.

Do you want to change the size of a layer but keep it in the same location on your page? Hold down the alt key while you pull the corner in or out.  Cool, huh?

Would you like a slightly different perspective to an element or a photo? Play with ctrl+shift, alt+ctrl+shift, alt+ctrl, or just the ctrl key by itself while you move an element (or photo) by the corner. Each of these will tilt the element in a different way, and you can get amazing looks with these controls. Just for fun, you might try making a photo box like this one I made of my 3 kitties. I added a soft shadow shape below it to make it appear to be floating in the air.

Hope you had fun!

Kathryn

PS Tutorial – Showing the “Bump” for the Hidden Part of a Paperclip

When using a paperclip in real life, you can see the shape of the hidden part of the clip as a bump or raised area on the top of the paper. Getting this effect with a digital paperclip element on a digital layout is very easy. The following picture shows the end result of the tutorial.