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Using a Photo as a Background

August 11, 2011 By 7 Comments

I’ve seen lots of gorgeous pages in the galleries recently in which scrappers have used a photo in place of a background paper.  Being a fan of any technique that puts photos front and center, I decided to give it a try.

Sometimes trying something new can be a bit intimidating and I went through several processes until I found one that worked for me.  Thought I’d share it here for others who may want to try.

First I identified a photo I wanted to use as my primary background photo.  We spent a few days this summer with friends an family on Jetty Island and my mom got this great shot that capture the sand, water and surrounding mountains.

Next I ‘hide’ the photo background so I could scrap my remaining photos. You can hide and layer by clicking on the eye icon to the left of it in the layers palette. To scrap the rest of my photos, I decided to use this template from Cindy Schneider’s Set 96.

I focused only on creating the cluster around the photos and deleted the templates background layers.

Unhiding my background photo by clicking on the eye icon again, I ended up with something that looks like this.

I resized and moved the photo cluster.  To easily move them all at once, I held down the control key and clicked on each layer in the layers palette.  Then I clicked the links icon (looks like a chain) at the bottom of the layers palette.  Once linked, layers will move and resize together.  See the Creating Your First Page tutorial for an introduction to moving and resizing. I ended up moving around a few elements and added my title.

As a last touch I used a mask from Sanded Photo Masks 2 to rough up the edges on the main photo. A tutorial on photo masks is available here.

Credits: Shore Thing by Misty Cato and Amanda Heimann, Sanded Photo Masks 2 by Misty Cato, Cindy’s Layered Templates Set 96

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Fitting Text to Lined Journaling Mats

June 9, 2011 By 7 Comments

The idea for today’s tutorial came from a blog reader. After reading the Text Path for Journaling Mats Tutorials Part 1 and 2 Amy wrote,

Can you tell me how to journal on a lined journal mat? I can’t seem to get the correct font/size so that it lines up correctly!

Sure Amy! We will start where Creating a Text Path for Journaling Mats Part 1 left off – with a bunch of text inside a fitted path.

As you can see, my text does not line up with lines on the journaling mat.  We are going to fix that.

Click on the move tool and then use your arrow keys to nudge your text up or down so that the first line of text sits on a line of your journaling mat. Now click on the text tool and click and drag on your canvas to highlight all of your text.

Go to Window>Character to bring up the Character Palette.

On the right side of the palette you’ll see an icon with two letter A’s, one on top of the other.  This indicates the leading setting.  It’s likely set on Auto, but click on the drop down arrow to the right and you can manually set the leading.

If none of the numbers in the drop down menu gets you quite the right fit, you can type any number into the field as well (including decimals).  In my case 31pt gives me the perfect fit.

DJB TweenyBopper font shown in screenshot images for this tutorial.

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Paintstroke Tip for Photoshop and PSE

May 19, 2011 By 7 Comments

Paint strokes, splatters and other painty elements are great for adding depth and texture to a layout.  However, depending on the design of the element, sometimes simply dropping the element on your layout obstructs  some of the layering effects.  Take a look at the close up below.

I want the page to look as if I’ve ‘painted’ over the corrugated background, scrollwork matting and one other paper layer.  If I had actually run a paint brush over this page, the paint would be slightly textured by the corrugated background and you’d still be able to see some of the layering.  Here is a quick tip for getting some the layering effects back, while keeping the paint stroke.

Begin by duplicating your paint element once for each layer the paint will cover.  In my case, I need three paint strokes.  To copy your paint layer, click on the paint layer in the Layers Palette, and go to Layer>Duplicate Layer or drag the layer to the New Layer Icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette.

Now click and drag your paint layers in the Layers Palette and move them around so the one sits directly above each layers to be ‘painted’.

Clip the paint strokes to the layers directly below.

To do this in Photoshop, click on the paint stroke in the Layers Palette and keystroke, Alt+Ctrl+G.

To do this PSE, click on the paint stroke in the Layers Palette and keystroke, Ctrl+G.

Repeat for each paint stroke.

Click on one of the paint strokes in the Layers Palette and use the opacity slider to lower the opacity so some of the layer below shows through.  Repeat for each paint stroke layer.

Here is my completed layout.

Credits: Friends by Choice by Misty Cato and Meredith Cardall, SSD, Date Bits 33, Timeless Frames and Painted Backdrops by Misty Cato, Fonts – Lullaby and Birch Std

 

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Dashed Rectangle in Photoshop

April 28, 2011 By 7 Comments

SUBJECT: Create a dashed rectangle in Photoshop

PROGRAM: PSCS3 (can be adapted for other versions of Photoshop)

PREREQUISITES: Basic understanding of the layers palette, brushes and paths.

In digital scrapbooking a simple dashed line or rectangle can go a long way emphasizing a title, framing a photo, creating a visual flow or simply defining a space on a layout.  In this tutorial I’ll walk you through the process of adding a dashed rectangle to a page.

Start with a digital scrapbooking layout in process.  Create a new layer for your dashed line/rectangle, Layer>New or Shft+Ctrl+N.

Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool from the Tools Palette.  Click and drag on your canvas to create a selection rectangle for your dashed line.

Click on the brush tool in the Tools Palette. Click on the small down arrow to the right of the word ‘Brush’ in the Options Toolbar near the top of the screen. Click on the small right pointing arrow in the upper right side of the drop down menu and select ‘Square Brushes’.

Choose a Hard Square Brush (I selected the 14 pixel brush for a relatively thin dashed line).

If your Brushes Palette is not visible, go to Window>Brushes to bring it up.

Click on the Shape Dynamics section of the Brushes Palette.

Make sure all sliders are to the left (0%).  Turn off the Size Jitter  ‘Control’.  Set the Angle Jitter Control to ‘Direction’.

Click on the Brush Tip Shape section of the Brushes Palette.

Slide the Spacing slider to the right until the spacing is as desired.

Adjust the roundness to change the square to a dashed tip.  I set mine at 44%.

Go to Windows>Paths to bring up the Paths Palette.  Click on the create path icon at the bottom of the Path Palette, then click on the stroke path icon to create your dashed line.

Continue putting the finishing touches on your page.

Credits: Kickin’ It by Misty Cato, SSD – blue background, blue banner in title, alpha; Put Me in Coach by Julie Billingsley, SSD – green paper, stars, bat, ball; Date Bits 29, Misty Cato, SSD;  Squiggle Grunge 2 by Fee Jardine (retired); Fonts – CK Cheer Squad, DJB Gimme Space

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Adding a Frame to the Interior of a Photo

April 14, 2011 By 9 Comments

SUBJECT: Create a thin line frame around the interior of a photo for digital scrapbooking.

PROGRAM: PSE8 (can be adapted for other versions of PSE and/or Photoshop)

PREREQUISITES: Basic understanding of the layers palette and the selection, text tools and color picker.

This tutorial walks you through the steps of creating framing and text like this …

Start by opening in your photograph in PSE (or Photoshop).

Create a new layer on top of your photo by going to Layer>New>Layer or Shift+Ctrl+N.  Name your layer ‘Shape’ and click ‘OK’.

If there are not rulers visible at the top and left of your working canvas, activate them by going to View>Rulers (Shift+Ctrl+R).

Click on the ruler along the left and drag inward onto your photo.  You should find yourself moving a blue line across the canvas.  This blue line is called a guide. Using the ruler as a gauge, set the guide inside your photo 1/4 of an inch (more or less depending on how far inside the photo you want your frame).  Repeat this process to set a guide 1/4 of an inch inward on the opposing side.  Then pull two guides down from the top ruler setting them 1/4 of an inch from the top and bottom of your photo.

Now go to View>Snap to and make sure ‘Guides’ is checked.

Click on the Shape Tool in the Tools Palette and select the Rounded Rectangle Tool (or the Rectangle Tool if you want sharp corners).

In the Options Toolbar near the top of the screen, set the radius as desired, usually somewhere between 20 and 90px.  The larger the radius, the more rounded the corners. I am using 60px in this example.

Click on the canvas where the guides meet at the upper left and drag downward and right creating a rectangle in the empty layer on top of your photo.

Hold down the control key and click on the thumbnail of the shape in the Layers Palette to select the shape.  There should now be ‘marching ants’ around the perimeter of your rectangle. See arrow below.

Click on the eye to the left of the shape in the Layers Palette to hide the rectangle.  See arrow below.

Create a new layer;  Layer>New>Layer or Shift+Ctrl+N. Name your layer ‘Stroke’ and click ‘OK’.

Go to View>Clear Guides to get rid of the blue lines.

Go to Edit>Stroke (Outline) Selection.

In the Stroke Dialogue box …

Width: Set as desired. The higher the number the wider the line.

Color: Set as desired. I used white in this example.

Location: Center

Blending: Normal

Opacity: 100%

Click OK.

Click on the Text Tool in the Tools Palette.

Click on your canvas and type your text.  Change the font, size and text color as desired.

 

To integrate your text with the frame perimeter.  Click on the Move Tool in the Tools palette and click and drag your text so it sits along your frame.  Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool from the Tools Palette.

Click and drag over your text to create a rectangular selection around your text.

Click on the Stroke layer in the Layers Palette and hit delete.

You are done.  To collapse your image into a single layer, go to Layer>Flatten Image.

Go to File>Save As and name and save your altered photo.

Adding a Frame to the Interior of a Photo Summary

  1. Create a layer above your photo. Layer>New>Layer or Shift+Ctrl+N
  2. Set up Guides around the perimeter of your photo by dragging them from the ruler.
  3. Draw a rectangle in the layer above your photo, filling the space between the guides.
  4. Hold down the control key and click on the thumbnail of the shape in the Layers Palette to select the rectangle.
  5. Hide the shape layer and clear the guides.
  6. Create a new layer. Layer>New>Layer or Shift+Ctrl+N
  7. In the new layer create a stroke around your selection; Edit>Stroke (Outline) Selection.
  8. Type your text and move it to the desired location.
  9. Erase any portion of the frame overlapping the text.
  10. Flatten and save.
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Tips for Increasing Journaling Visibility

April 7, 2011 By 13 Comments

SUBJECT: Creating layer styles to increase the visibility of journaling on a digital scrapbooking layout

PROGRAM: PSCS3 (can be adapted for other versions of Photoshop)

If you’ve been digital scrapbooking for very long, you’ve been there – trying to journal on a photograph, paint stroke or other inconsistent background and your text seems to ‘disappear’ in places or gets completely lost.  Here are a couple of layers styles you can try to increase the visibility of your journaling.  I’ve put the samples on solid kraft backgrounds so you can see the effect clearly, but I often use one of these methods when I am trying to journal on a photo or paper of varying shades.

TIP 1: Add a Stroke

Adding a stroke places a line around the perimeter of your object.  When applied to text, this style thickens the letters.

To create this effect, make sure your text is the active layer by clicking on it in the Layers Palette.

Go to Layer>Layer Style>Stroke.

Use the following settings:

Size: 1 (you can increase this as desired)

Position: Center

Blend: Normal

Opacity: 100

Fill Type: Color

Color: Choose the same color as your text

Click ‘Ok’ to apply the layer style.

TIP 2: Add an Outer Glow

Adding an outer glow creates a ‘halo’ of light around your text.  This is especially effective when your text is dark.

To create this effect, make sure your text is the active layer by clicking on it in the Layers Palette.

Go to Layer>Layer Style>Outer Glow.

Use the following settings:

Blend Mode: Screen

Opacity: 100

Noise: 0 (although you can play with this as desired)

Color: I usually stick with the default pale yellow, but you can play with white or other light, soft colors

Technique: Softer

Spread: 0

Size: 250

Contour: leave at the default

Range: 50

Jitter: 0

Click ‘Ok’ to apply the layer style. If you want to make this effect subtler, lower the opacity slider.  If you want to create an even bolder effect, apply the style and then duplicate the layer (Layer>Duplicate Layer).

TIP 3: Add a Color Burn

Adding a color burn drop shadow creates a darker around your text.  This is especially effective when your text is a light color.

To create this effect, make sure your text is the active layer by clicking on it in the Layers Palette.

Go to Layer>Layer Style>Drop Shadow.

Use the following settings:

Blend Mode: Color Burn

Opacity: 100

Angle: any

Distance: 0

Spread: 0

Size: 250

Contour: leave at the default setting

Noise: 0 (although you can play with this as desired)

Click ‘Ok’ to apply the layer style. If you want to make this effect subtler, lower the opacity slider.  If you want to create an even bolder effect, apply the style and then duplicate the layer (Layer>Duplicate Layer).

Note: The font shown in the screen shots is DJB TweenyBopper by Darcy Baldwin, Sweet Shoppe Designs

 

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Resizing and Saving Layouts for Web in PSE

March 31, 2011 By 1 Comment

There are lots of online digital scrapbooking communities where digiscrappers can show off their pages and browse for inspiration.  Most of these galleries have limits on the size of file that can be uploaded.  The limit will vary from site to site, but usually falls in the 125-200KB range.  In order to post digital scrapbook pages to these galleries, users create smaller ‘web-sized’ versions of their layouts.  Here is a run down on how to resize your pages for the web in PSE8.  It will be very similar in other versions of PSE.

Start by opening your original layout in PSE.  Go to Image>Resize>Image Size.

Make sure the ‘Resample Image Size’ box is checked at the bottom of the Image Size dialogue box and adjust the following settings.

Width: 600 (you may choose to go as low as 550 or even 500).  I usually start at 600.

Height: 600 (with same comment as width)

Resolution: 72

Set the drop down menu at the bottom of the dialogue box to Bicubic Sharper, then click OK.

Go to File>Save for Web.

In the Save for Web dialogue box, adjust the Quality Slider until the adjusted file size is at or below your target file size (usually around 150KB for most galleries).

If you have to loose too much quality to achieve the desired file size, you may need to go back to the image resize step and try resizing to 500px instead of 600px.  When you are at the file size you need, click OK, give your file a new name and save.

Credits: Sunbleached by Misty Cato, Art and Soul Alphas by Julie Billingsley (recolored), Date Bits 16 by Misty Cato, Bad Sewing Machine XVIII by Traci Reed, Fonts – Traveling Typewriter

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Quick Tip – Inverting a color scheme

March 24, 2011 By 4 Comments

Using Keystroke Ctrl+I in Photoshop or Photoshop Element inverts the colors scheme.  In many cases this will result in a really ugly paper/element, but in some cases the result is quite good and can give you a whole different look with the same product.  Here are a couple of samples from Date Bits 30 and Le Jardin.

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Creating a Text Path for Journaling Mats Part 2

March 17, 2011 By 15 Comments

SUBJECT: Create a text path for adding text to a journaling mat.

PROGRAM: PSCS3 (can be adapted for other versions of Photoshop)

PREREQUISITES: Basic understanding of the layers palette and the selection and text tools, Creating a Text Path for Journaling Mats Part 1

Last week’s tutorial Creating a Text Path for Journaling Mats covered making a path that fits inside a journaling mat, but what if you have elements around the mat?  Or have ‘tucked’ the mat under a photo.  This tutorials will show you how to use the selection subtraction options to further customize a text path.

My starting point below is a journal spot that I have embellished with various elements.  Each item is still in it’s own layer.  I’ll quickly recap the steps covered last week, see the first part of the tutorial for more detailed steps with screen shots.

1) Ctrl + click on the journaling mat icon in the layers palette. You should have marching ants around the edges of the journaling mat.

2) Go to Select>Modify>Contract, enter the number of pixels you want to contract the selection. Click OK.

3) Click on the Polygonal Lasso tool in the Tools Palette.  Toward the left side of the Options Bar, you’ll see 4 icons with various square configurations.  Click on the third one from the left. This is the ‘Subtract from Selection’ option.

4) Now outline the area around your elements that you want to ‘take away’ from the selection.  To do this, click on your canvas to create ‘corners’ of a shape around your elements.

Continue around your elements until you are back to your starting point and click.

The shape will automatically be subtracted from the original selection.

6) Repeat this process as needed until only the area in which you want text is selected.

Note: I use the Polygonal Selection Tool because I find it works the best for creating an irregular shape around elements.  However you can use the subtract setting with any selection tool (Lasso Tool, Marquee Tools, etc.)

With your selection set, all that remains is to create your text path and begin typing.  These steps are covered in detail in part 1, so I’ll just give you the basic steps here.

7) Open the Paths Palette by going to Window>Paths

8) At the bottom of the  Paths Palette, click on the dotted circle with two arrows to create a path from your selection.

9) Click on the text tool in the Tools Palette then click on your canvas inside of the path.

10) Begin typing your text. Your text should fill the inside of your journaling mat as you type.

Embellishments used in this tutorial are from Down in the Meadow available at Sweet Shoppe Designs.

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Creating a Text Path for Journaling Mats Part 1

March 10, 2011 By 17 Comments

SUBJECT: Create a text path for adding text to a journaling mat.

PROGRAM: PSCS3 (can be adapted for other versions of Photoshop)

PREREQUISITES: Basic understanding of the layers palette and the selection and text tools

This tutorial walks you through creating text inside a journaling mat.  It works on mats of any shape (hearts, brackets, etc.) as long as they don’t have irregular or intricate borders (such as scallops or scrollwork).  While this tutorial will work for rectangles and squares, this tutorial walks you through a faster method. Begin by opening your journaling mat.  If the Layers Palette is not open, open it by going to Window>Layers.

Hold down the control key and click on the journaling mat icon in the layers palette (see arrow below).  You should have marching ants around the edges of the journaling mat.

Go to Select>Modify>Contract.

Enter the number of pixels you want to contract the selection, this will be larger for a large mat or a mat with a large border.  Click OK.

Open the Paths Palette by going to Window>Paths.

At the bottom of the  Paths Palette, click on the dotted circle with two arrows to create a path from your selection.

Click on the text tool in the Tools Palette then click on your canvas inside of the path.

Begin typing your text.  You can adjust the font, size, color and alignment as desired.

Your text should fill the inside of your journaling mat as you type.

You can take this technique one step further and create a text path that fits a journal spot while leaving room for element clusters or ‘tucking’ the mat in behind a photo.  Find out how in Creating a Text Path for Journaling Mats in Photoshop Part 2.

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