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! 

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)

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

Thread Tutorial – PSE

One of my CT members asked me how to make thread for “tacking down a button” to a page she was working on.  I quickly made her some “pieces” and made print screens as I worked so I could share it with anyone who might be interested.  I used PSE6, but I’m sure you can use it in any version.  So, let’s get started!

I like to give my “thread” a rounded end, so I use the “rounded rectangle tool” found in the drop down menu when you click and hold your mouse on the Custom Shape Tool (indicated by the heart in your side tool bar).  Or there is a teeny tiny arrow in the bottom right hand corner of the heart you can click to bring up the drop down menu.  As you can see, I am really zoomed into my work area and the “stitch” I have drawn is less than 2/32nds wide.  This stitch is for a 1″ button.  You may have to adjust the length a bit for your stitch, depending on how the holes are set in your button.  Be sure to “simplify” (rasterize) your shape.

I printed this screen to show you the default settings at the top for the rounded rectangle tool.  I did not change these settings any.

Now we are going to add some fiber texture to the thread.  I “drew” my thread vertical because that is the way the fibers are preset to run.  As shown in the print screen below, go to the filter menu and follow the path shown:  Filter>Render>Fibers.

It’s a little hard to see, but you can play around with the settings in this screen.  I think the more variance the more fibers. I played around just a bit, but I forgot to keep a print screen of my settings I finally landed on, so this screen shot shows the default settings.

Here’s the result (with the default settings).

Now it’s time to add some color to your thread.  I chose my foreground color and then just drew another larger rounded rectangle over the top of my threads.  Simplify (rasterize) this new shape.

Now, we will change the blending mode of the new layer to overlay (see drop down menu shown in Layers palette on the right of the screen).

Now you can see the threads through the overlay layer.  Group (aka clipping) the color layer to the fiber layer by following the menu path:  Layer>Group with Previous (short cut key ctrl+G).

Next, merge the layers by following the menu path:  Layer>Merge Layers (short cut key ctrl+E).

Voila!  You are done with your thread!  Drop your button in, rotate the thread as needed.  Duplicate the thread (ctrl+J) and rotate it to criss cross the other thread if desired!  My finished product is shown below.

You can further play around by adding a bit of shadow to the threads if you like.  You could add a slight bevel to the threads, too, if you want.  Depends on the look you like!

Now, suppose the thread showing through the overlay layer is not quite as dark (or light) as the color layer?  Here is how you make an adjustment.  Make sure your thread layer is selected and follow the menu path:  Enhance>Adjust Color>Color Variations.

In the pop up window, at the top, you see a “before” and “after” window of your thread layer in the top portion of the window.  Below that, you see a variety of ways to change the color of your thread.  If you are only interested in making the thread darker or lighter, you will click in those boxes.  If you want to go just slightly darker or lighter, just click in the appropriate box once and the “after” window in the top portion will change accordingly.  When you think it is where you want it, click the OK button.  You may have to play with this setting a couple of times before you get it just right.

I like to draw the color layer especially during my designing because when I change the mode to overlay, I can readily see whether or not I am going to want to darken or lighten the thread layer so it corresponds to my palette.

However, you COULD do an Edit>Fill Layer>Blending Mode: Overlay to your thread layer and skip drawing a color layer.  BUT, sometimes it is hard to tell whether or not the thread is the correct color to match the kit colors.  With practice, you will be able to determine which process you like the best.

Thanks so much for taking the time to read all the way through the tutorial.  I hope it helps you in some small way!  If you have questions or need me to explain any or all of this better, please feel free to leave a comment and I will try my best to answer your questions!

PSE Flower Tutorial

How would you like to learn to make a flower in PSE6 today (I’m sure it will work for newer versions, too)?  It is very easy.  Just follow the print screens and instructions below.

First of all, determine how many petals you want on your flower.  In my example below, I have 5 petals.  We need to determine the degree of rotation for our petals as we duplicate the first one.  Let’s visualize how you determine this.  If you draw a circle around your petals, they are going to touch the circle at 5 points.  The space between each point is the arc.  There are 5 arcs.  Since the radius of a circle is 360 degrees, you will divide 360 by 5 to get the figure to use in your rotation of the petals.

The first thing you will do is “draw” a petal using the raindrop shape from the shapes palette.

Now, duplicate this raindrop (short cut keys are ctrl+J).  You will now see from the layers palette on the right that there are 2 raindrops.  Scroll your mouse over the boundary of the raindrop til you see an object that looks something like <-|-> and left click once.  This will bring up the rotation menu bar at the top of the screen.  The far left diagram is where you will tell the program to rotate the petal from the top center “reference point” of the raindrop by clicking on the top center point.  (If you scroll over the diagram, you will read “reference point location.”  Further over to the right of this is a box with 0.0 (degrees) in it.  Highlight these and replace by typing in the figure from your equation as determined by how many petals you have.  If you enter a number with a minus in the front of it, your petal will rotate to the right.  No minus and your petal will rotate to the left.  Since I want to make a flower with 5 petals, I divided 360 by 5 and got 72 degrees.

Here’s the result of your first rotation.

Now, click on your original petal (the one on the bottom) and duplicate it again.  Set the reference point the same as you did for the first rotation.  Since we rotated the first one 72 degrees, we will rotate this one 72 x 2 = 144 degrees.  And here is he result of that rotation.

Now, duplicate the first petal again.  This time we are going to rotate the petals to the right, so you will add a minus (-) sign to the front of your degrees (-72).  Set the reference point and the rotation amount.  Here’s the result of that rotation.

And for the final petal, set the reference point and this time the degree of rotation will be -144.  Here’s the result of the rotation and your flower petals are evenly spread.  Now you can merge all 5 layers and add your style or whatever.

Hope that helped you in some small way!  Thanks for taking the time to read the tutorial!

Beginner PSE Tutorials

Start Here:
Digital Scrapbooking Tutorial – Getting Started with PSE6 (YouTube Video)
Digital Scrapbooking Tutorial – Using the PSE6 Editor (YouTube Video)

Digital Scrapbooking Tutorial - Adding Shadows to your first PSE Layouts (YouTube Video)
Digital Scrapbooking Tutorial - Altering Pre-made Elemenst in PSE (YouTube Video)
Digital Scrapbooking Tutorial – Creating Digital Paper in PSE (YouTube Video)
Digital Scrapbooking Tutorial – Creating Folded Elements in PSE (YouTube Video)
Digital Scrapbooking Tutorial – Creating Quickpages in PSE (PDF File)
Digital Scrapbooking Tutorial – Custom Drop Shadows in PSE (YouTube Video)
Digital Scrapbooking Tutorial – Cutting Photos into Shapes Using PS (YouTube Video)
Digital Scrapbooking Tutorial – Inking Edges in PSE (YouTube Video)
Digital Scrapbooking Tutorial – Making Faux Bold Text using PSE (YouTube Video)
Digital Scrapbooking Tutorial - Saving PSE Layouts for an On-Line Gallery (YouTube Video)
Digital Scrapbooking Tutorial – Using Brushes for PSE (YouTube Video)
Digital Scrapbooking Tutorial – Using Brushes for PSE (PDF file)
Digital Scrapbooking Tutorial – Using Pre-Made Clusters in PSE (PDF file)
Digital Scrapbooking Tutorial – Vellum Shadows in PSE (YouTube Video)