Jeanine DeOre Design Studio

Tutorial: Altering Papers with Gradient Tool

noreply@blogger.com (Michele Kendzie) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Here's a fun technique you can use to create new digital papers.

Open two papers and layer one on top of the other. It would be a good idea to rename your document using File>Save As at this point to make sure you don't copy over your original paper.

Click on the bottom layer in the Layers Palette to make it active, then click on the New Layer icon at the bottom of that palette, circled in red in the image below.

Now you will have an empty layer between your two papers.

Click on the Gradient Tool, fourth one up from the color chips, circled in the image below.

In the Gradient Tool Options Bar at the top of the workspace, click on the first down arrow to access the gradient choices. Choose the second one, titled "Foreground to Transparent." The square images indicate various types of gradients you can choose. I'm using the first, Linear Gradient. You can adjust the Opacity and experiment with a few other options too.

Making sure your blank layer is still the active (highlighted layer), click anywhere on your document, hold, and drag straight or at an angle. The length and angle you drag determine the appearance of your gradient. You can also drag multiple times.

Here is how my Layers Palette looks after I've drawn several gradients from points around the edge toward the focal point where I plan to place my photo. My gradient is red because that happened to be my current foreground color, but the color isn't important because of the next step.

Now clip the top paper to the gradient layer. I use the keyboard shortcut: making sure the top paper is active, type Control/Command-G. A small arrow appears to the left of the top paper indicating it is clipped to the gradient layer below, and the effect is visible in my document.

Here is my finished layout using my new paper that blends two papers from Jeanine's new kit Hearts and Flowers.

Ways to Use Textures

noreply@blogger.com (Michele Kendzie) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:00:00 +0000

Jeanine has several sets of textured paper templates in her store. Texture adds realism to our digital scrapbook pages and there are a variety of ways to use them. For today's tutorial I'm using Texture 2 from Volume 7.

1. One way to use these textures is to adjust color and lightness with the Hue/Saturation commands. You can find the Hue/Saturation dialogue box in the menus. Go to Enhance>Adjust Color> Adjust Hue/Saturation. This will open the Hue/Saturation dialogue box.

Or just hit Control/Command-U to bring up the Hue/Saturation dialogue box. Simply click on the pointer and slide it left or right for each of the sliders to chance the hue, saturation, and lightness.

If you selected a color with the Color Picker before you opened the Hue/Saturation dialogue, then you can check the Colorize box in the lower right corner first. That will apply your chosen color to the texture and you can further adjust it by moving the sliders. Here is a dark paper I made, and you can see how I've adjusted the sliders after checking the colorize box. (Make sure the Preview box underneath is also checked so you can see your adjustments as you make them.)

Experiment with all the choices and you will be amazed by what you can do! Here is another paper I made in just 2 more seconds by adjusting all three sliders again.

After making these adjustments, drag the paper onto your layout. You can also make adjustments on your layout. Just make sure you have the correct layer selected in your Layers Palette.

If you want to save your new paper to use another time, remember to choose "Save As" in the File Menu and give it a new name so you don't save over the original texture template.

2. Another fun way to use the textures is to enhance pre-made papers. Open up any paper. I used a solid paper from Hearts and Flowers. Drag the premade paper onto the texture template.

One thing you can do is adjust the opacity. That is located in the upper right corner of the Layers Palette. Here you can see I lower the opacity of the paper to 85% to let some of the texture show through.

Or, you can use Blend Modes. They are in the upper left corner of the Layers Palette and there are many of them! Experiment with them and you will find some that work well and others less so.

Here is the texture atop the paper blended with the Overlay Blend Mode.

Also, I find it does make a difference whether the texture or the paper is on top, so you can experiment with that too. While the above example has the texture on top, below the paper is on top and blended with the Color Blend Mode.

3. These texture templates can be used for other parts of your layout too. How about using them for a tag or a frame? They can also add interest to some photos. I layered my photo atop the texture and tried a few blend modes. I finally chose the Overlay blend mode but it was a bit too much, so I duplicated the photo layer (Control/Command-J).

Here's my textured photo in a layout in which I also used the texture for the background paper. The the other paper, which I also used to make the title, is from Jeanine's paper kit, Cirque Dimanche. The ribbon and button are from her kit, Twiight Snowfall and the stitching is from Hearts and Flowers.

I hope that gets your creative juices flowing. Have fun with the textures!

New Releases - Textures

noreply@blogger.com (EllyMae) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 19:00:00 +0000

If you did not get a chance to pick these up over the iDSD weekend, now is your chance. Jeanine has un-wrapped them & put them in the store.
I have to say these are some of my favorite products because they go with EVERYTHING!

Click on the images above or check out her store HERE.

Tuesday Tutorial: Edge Overlays

noreply@blogger.com (Michele Kendzie) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:00:00 +0000

Are you unsure how to use Jeanine's Edge Overlays? Here are some ideas.

1. Drag the overlay over a photo. You may want to resize your photo to 12x12 to begin with, or you will have to resize the edge overlay to fit onto the photo and then crop. You can use blend modes, change the hue or saturation, or apply layer styles to the edge overlay.

I like how this photo looks with one of the Grunge-It Edges from Volume 1 turned white by moving the Lightness slider all the way to the right in the Hue/Saturation dialogue box (hit Command/Control - U).

Or how about with "Painted Wallboard," one of the default Layer Styles in PSE? It is accessible by clicking on the Layer Styles icon, circled in red beside the number 1 below, and clicking open the drop down box (2) to select Patterns. Scroll to find the pattern you want and either double click on it or hit the Apply button(4).

2. The edge overly is perfect for 12x12 papers, of course, because it is 12x12. You might also apply it to smaller pieces of paper for journaling or matting. In my layout below, I used the overlay on the background paper, applied a Hard Light Blend Mode, and reduced the opacity to 30% to make it more subtle. Blend Modes are found in the drop-down box at the top of the Layers Palette.

Layout uses Jeanine's new kit, Hearts and Flowers. Don't miss Jeanine's four Edge Overlays sets available at her store.

Product Highlight

noreply@blogger.com (EllyMae) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 03:12:00 +0000

Here are some products that will really make your "stash" go even further.

Grunge It Edges Vol 1

Grunge It Edges Vol 2

Grunge It Edges Vol 3

I have to say these are some of my favorite products to have in my collection. I have used them for everything from edging papers to making it look like tiles have been inked.

Tuesday Tutorial: Blending Modes

noreply@blogger.com (Michele Kendzie) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 08:34:00 +0000

Do you use blending modes? They can have amazing effects on your scrapbook page and once you get the hang of them, they're easy to use.

You'll find the blending modes at the top of the Layers Palette, in a drop down box, most likely showing "Normal."

Click on the blending modes button to open the list.

There is some organization to this list. The modes are separated into sections, with each section having similar effects. The first large section are darkening modes and lightening modes follow. The largest section contains more complicated lighting effects, and the last sections affect the colors in your image. If you want more details on how blending modes work, you can find in depth explanations by googling.

To use blending modes, you have to have at least two layers. You apply a blending mode to the top layer and it blends with the layer directly below it. The program will perform a calculation based on the mode you choose, changing the brightness or hue or which pixels in either layer get preference. In my layout today I have decided to blend this old, low resolution photo with a background paper. You can also blend two photos together, two papers together, text on top of paper, and so on.

The best way to learn about blend modes and figure out which one works best is to try them. Because I've been using blend modes for a long time, I have a general idea which ones will work better for what I have in mind, but I still go through a trial and error process each time, trying out several of the modes before settling on one.

For those of you new to blend modes, I would like to share several of them with you, so you can see the variety of effects.

I was surprised to find I like Luminosity best for this photo and paper combination because I think I've never used that blend mode before. Here is my finished layout, using Jeanine's new kit Hearts and Flowers. Can you see where I used another blend mode? On the tag, I applied hard light. Sometimes blend modes make writing look more realistic.

Also, if you are wondering how I blended the edges of the photo into the paper, the tool for that is the Rectangular Marquee, set to feather 40 pixels. After I drew the rectangle around the photo, I hit Command(Control)-Shift-I (the capital letter i) to inverse the selection, followed by the Delete key to remove the edges of the photo with a feathering.

Let's see some blending on your next layout. Happy scrapping!

Freebie

noreply@blogger.com (EllyMae) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 14:00:00 +0000

If you have switched over to the new Timeline on Facebook, you have discovered that you can now customize it.
I created this Facebook cover freebie for you using her new kit Hearts & Flowers.

Available HERE

Click on the image above or HERE to download

Hearts and Flowers

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon's blog) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 08:00:00 +0000

Hearts and Flowers is Jeanine's new release at Scrap Matters. It is beautiful! I love the colors. The pictures I choose are a good friend's parents wedding pictures from 1961 that she recently posted on FB. I thought they went so perfect with the colors.

The template I used was from ScrapMaters Template Challenge. Head on over and pick up Jeanine's kit because it is on sale right now! It is only $3.79

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

noreply@blogger.com (Jeanine DeOre) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 14:29:00 +0000

Hi everyone!

Well, if you wondering why the post has this title, it is because I am working on this Sunday's ScrapMatters blog interview and they asked what my first scrapbooking layout was about. I was perusing (big word for me! LOL) some of my first digital layouts and boy of boy are they BAD! They were made with heart but won't win any awards, I can tell you that much!

The first one is my favorite, because it really shows what I think scrapbooking is - preserving memories, feelings, emotions, etc no matter good, bad or otherwise. It is about my daughter's health issues as a baby.

Simple, graphic, and emotional. I still get tears when I read it.

Here are some funny ones (love my shadows and bevels!!)

"Around the Farm Kit" by Julie Meade, E-Scapeandscrap circa 2004

I think this was a Carrie Stephens kit circa 2004?

Not sure about these credits - if you know let me know!

Holly McCaig kit circa 2004

So I am now digi-daring you to post some of your oldies but goodies! You can leave a link in this post if you wish!

Make sure you read this weekends's interview on the ScrapMatters blog! Oh - and if you haven't signed up for my newsletter yet, you are going to miss some goodies!!!! Just sayin'!

Have a great weekend!

Hearts & Flowers kit

noreply@blogger.com (EllyMae) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 12:36:00 +0000

Here is a NEW beautiful kit with a gorgeous color palette.

Hearts and Flowers kit

I created a new siggie and a facebook cover with it.

And if you are a Papers and Pixels subscriber you can get a free matching set of papers and a coupon in the 1/15 edition.

Twilight Snowfall Layout

noreply@blogger.com (EllyMae) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 22:10:00 +0000

Here is one I just created with the Twilight Snowfall Collection:

This is such a beautiful kit for snow pictures or any winter pictures.

Tuesday Tutorial: Shadows on a Separate Layer

noreply@blogger.com (Michele Kendzie) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Sometimes when I am arranging the elements on my scrapbook page, I find the shadow layer styles don't look right. I've learned another way to create shadows, putting them on their own layer.

Here I am beginning a layout in which I placed a curvy piece of paper at the bottom.

To create my own shadow layer, first I duplicated the wavy paper layer, by hitting Control/Command-J. Then I clicked on the bottom wavy paper in the layers palette to select that layer. We want the shadow underneath, of course. To turn the layer into a shadow, I type Control/Command-U to open the Hue/Saturation dialogue box.

In the Hue/Saturation box, I dragged the Lightness slider all the way to the left. You can see this in the screen shot below. Notice there doesn't appear to be any change on my layout yet, because the layer I'm working on is hidden behind another the same size and shape. However, you can see in the layers palette that the layer has turned black.

After pressing OK in the Hue/Saturation dialogue box, keeping the same layer selected, I chose Blur>Gaussian Blur from the Filter program menu. In the Gaussian Blur dialogue box we can adjust the radius of the blur with a slider. I adjusted it until it looked good to my eye.

It is advantageous to have shadows on a separate layer. You can alter their color with that Hue/Saturation dialogue box. Shadows often have some color from the objects casting them. You can transform the shape of a shadow independently from it's object if it's on its own layer, which leads to some interesting creative effects. This last idea i'm still learning so I don't have a sample.

If you use this technique, link us up to it in the comments. Here's my layout, using Jeanine's kit, Twilight Snowfall.

Kit Highlight: Twilight Snowfall Collection

noreply@blogger.com (EllyMae) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 15:57:00 +0000

This is a beautiful kit for this time of year, well in some parts of the world.
I'm in the Midwest & we had one day this week that was 70 degrees, so not a whole lot of snow in the making there.
Twilight Snowfall kit is a beautiful kit to scrap all kinds of different layouts.

There is also a matching Alpha and Wordart available in the store or you can buy everything in the Value Bundle.

Take a look at some of the creative layouts from Jeanine's Gallery using this kit:

by Sharonbertolino

by Cinna

by prettypeaches

by Kat

by missi_me

by briarwoodpups

by briarwoodpups
This one just makes me giggle.

I just love looking through the galleries & seeing all the talent out there.

Tutorial: Layer Styles

noreply@blogger.com (Michele Kendzie) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 08:29:00 +0000

I have a quick basic tutorial for you today. Have you explored layer styles yet? They are located in the Effects panel, accessible via the second icon, circled in the screen shot below.

You can select 16 layer styles in the drop down box. I've selected Drop Shadows in the screen shot above. After selecting the layer in your Layers Palette, double click on the style you want to apply. A symbol will appear on that layer in the Layers Palette to show that a style has been applied, circled in the screenshot below.

You can edit styles to make them more suitable for your layout. The default shadows in Photoshop Elements rarely work well. Double click on the fx symbol in the layer whose style you want to edit and you will get the following dialogue box.

As you can see, I have reduced the size and distance of the shadow on this layer to 9, and the opacity to 65%. Basically, the closer an item is to the surface, the smaller the shadow. You can also adjust glows, bevels, and strokes in this dialogue box.

Here is my completed layout using Jeanine's Happy New Year Collection.

What would you like to learn about digital scrapbooking in the new year? Please leave a comment to let me know and I will write about it in an upcoming weekly tutorial.

Happy New Year!

noreply@blogger.com (EllyMae) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 15:45:00 +0000

Wow - I cannot believe how fast this year has flown by!
I am sure that there are a lot of head nods out there.
As we start into the New Year of 2012 and we all begin our resolutions to become more organized and get more done, I wanted to show you a kit that can help.
This is perfect for those New Year's celebrations, whether you ring in the New Year with a bang at a party or home snug in your bed (which I've done several years now).
Check this kit out!

The Happy New Year kit includes:
(not all items shown in previews):
- 12 designer papers
- 40+ embellishments,
- A full upper case swirl glittered alpha with numbers

So you can make that 2011 into a 2012, or if you are like me, you haven't even scrapped the 2011 New Year's yet & still need it.

And right now, you can pick up Jeanine's kits for 40% off!!
What a great end of the year deal!

Here are a few things created with the great kit:

Created by JeanineDeOre

Created by briarwoodpups

We wish all of you a very safe & happy New Year!
Looking forward to seeing all your new creations in 2012.

Tuesday Tutorial: Resizing Layout for Planner

noreply@blogger.com (Michele Kendzie) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 20:34:00 +0000

Last weekend I began working on a calendar gift and I decided to make it easier on myself by using scrapbook pages I'd already completed. I wanted to make a 6x9 planner so I needed to turn my 12x12 scrapbook pages into 6x9 inch pages.

Here is the original layout I created recently with Jeanine's Twilight Snow kit. I opened the PSD file so I could rearrange individual layers.

First I resized the layout to 9x9 inches, using the larger of the new dimensions for easiest rearranging. To do this, go to Image>Resize>Image Size.

In the resulting dialogue box, change the height to 9 and PSE will calculate the rest for you. Then click OK.

If you do not have the rulers turned on, do so by opening the View menu and clicking on Rulers. The rulers will appear along the top and left side of the workspace.

Then I moved the elements on my layout until they fit into 6 inches of width. In the screenshot below you can see my rearranged layout before the final cropping.

Then I cropped the layout to 6x9 with the Crop Tool. You can enter the dimensions in the spaces at the top of the workspace in the crop tool options bar. You can see both the Crop Tool selected and the options bar in the screenshot below.

Click and drag out your crop box and click the green check mark and you're done! Here's my final layout, ready to be added to my planner calendar.

Of course, this would work for any size you need. I hope you find it useful. Happy scrapping!

New Release & Freebie

noreply@blogger.com (EllyMae) — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 03:53:00 +0000

Check out Jeanine's newest release - Seasonal Solids and get a bonus Alpha included:

And here is a freebie I created using the papers & her newest kit:
Wrap It Up (Christmas)

Well there is actually 4 paper stacks included - each one has a different cute character in the top right cluster.
Click on the image above or HERE to download.

Don't forget Jeanine is guesting at The DigiChick for this month & you can find all her other products at ScrapMatters.com.

Tuesday Tutorial: Realistic Shadows

noreply@blogger.com (Michele Kendzie) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 19:47:00 +0000

Shadows are very important in digital scrapbooking. There isn't just one right way, but there are some things to keep in mind. Digital scrapbook pages are improved when the shadows look realistic. I am trying to improve my own shadowing skills because some of the layouts I see with excellent shadowing look so real I almost think I can reach out and feel the texture!

1. If you use no shadows at all, your layout will be very flat. Look around. Shadows are natural and all around us all the time. On a digital scrapbook page, however, we have to make them happen. Shadows define elements on the page and help the viewer understand the layout. Furthermore, shadows can be overdone. If they are too big, elements float off the page in a disconnected way. See the difference?

no shadows

good shadows

shadows too big

2. Are you just beginning and don't even know how to apply shadows? In Photoshop Elements, the default shadows are located in the Effects panel in the upper right corner of the workspace. Make sure the second icon, "Layer Styles," is selected (circled in red in my screenshot below) and that the drop down box (circled in yellow below) has "Drop Shadows" showing, as in the screenshot. Also notice in the screenshot the "Low" shadow icon has a white outline around it, indicating it is selected. That means if I double click on it or hit the apply button, the Low shadow will be applied to whatever element is selected in the Layers Palette.

3. The default shadows that come with Photoshop Elements are often not very good for digital scrapbooking. I usually start with the Low shadow or the Soft Edge and then edit the shadow. To edit a shadow (or any layer style) already applied to a layer, double click on the fx icon on that layer in the Layers Palette. (In older versions of PSE, the effects icon is a starburst.) I've circled it in the following screenshot. In the second screenshot below, you can see the dialogue box when you click on the effects icon, Style Settings.

To learn more about lighting angle, observe shadows around you in daily life. The shadows are always opposite the light source. And, remember, the shadows always go in one direction. When you set the angle for one layer, it will automatically be set to the same angle for every layer.

The check boxes allow you to edit four different aspects of layer styles, so you can edit the others at the same time. I'm focusing on shadows today.

The size, distance, and opacity of shadows is determined by how large the element is, how far it is from the background, what it is made of, etc. I've found that generally I always have to decrease the default settings. Experiment to find what looks best to your eye. I have seen charts with suggestions for shadowing various items, but there are so many variables, you really must practice a lot and develop the eye for it. I still haven't mastered it, so I hesitate to give specific numbers.

4. Here is one of the most helpful tips I have. I only learned this last year, after several years of digital scrapbooking, and I wished I'd learned it sooner. Instead of applying shadows to each layer separately, you can copy and paste layer styles to several at once. First you must apply the shadow to one layer. Then, right click on that layer -- just the layer, NOT the fx icon -- and select Copy Layer Style.

Next, highlight all the layers you want to have the same style. Or, even include layers that you want to have a similar style. I do that a lot because it's easier to edit from a starting place closer to what I want than start from scratch. To highlight several layers in your Layers Palette, if they are all adjacent to one another, click the first one, hold down shift and click the last one. If they are not adjacent, click each layer one at a time while holding the Control/Command key. Then right click again on any of the layers and select Paste Layer Style. In the screenshot below, you can see I've selected several layers and I'm about to click on Paste Layer Style.

5. Here are a few more things to keep in mind about shadows.

Text is usually NOT shadowed. Not only do I not shadow my text, I use blend modes to make it appear more realistic, showing texture through it.

If you want to remove a shadow (or any layer style), you can find Clear Layer Style in the menu when you right click on any layer.

To learn more about realistic shadowing, I suggest three things. As I mentioned above, study shadows around you in daily life. Also, study the layouts other people post in galleries. Above all, practice, practice, practice! Experiment with shadowing and you'll improve over time.

Happy scrapping!

Get my next kit FREE! Everyone wins!

noreply@blogger.com (Jeanine DeOre) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 22:10:00 +0000

Hey everyone!

As EllyMae told you yesterday, I have the honor of being a guest designer at The Digichick this month! Yesterday I released the brand spankin' new kit, Wrap It Up.

If you subscribe to my newsletter, you know that this kit is on sale through the end of the day today only!!! And, subscribers were the first to know that I am offering my next kit FREE (if you aren't a subscriber, you are missing out on exclusive freebies and coupons! Subscribe here)! All you need to do is create a layout, craft, card, gift wrap, or other project with the "Wrap it Up" kit, post it in the gallery of your choice and email me the link. That is it! Everyone who emails me will get a voucher for my next kit FREE (up to a $5.99 value and expires 12/31/11). No random drawing here - EVERYONE who participates wins! How cool is that?!?

Here is the "Wrap it Up (Christmas)" kit again...

I am making my own gift wrap this year and using these papers, and the paper pieced cuties will be my gift tags. Fun huh? I am thinking I will use the word art to make some matching cards... maybe mix and match with my holiday kits and at ScrapMatters too!

Well that is all for now... so get creating! Have a happy weekend!

Xmas Wrap kit

noreply@blogger.com (EllyMae) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 22:01:00 +0000

Since I mentioned it yesterday, I thought I'd pop back in & show you my layout.

What a cute kit!

Pick it up HERE.

Check this out!

noreply@blogger.com (EllyMae) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 15:17:00 +0000

Jeanine is guesting this month at The Digichick

And she has a new kit - Wrap It Up
perfect for those Christmas photos.
We had a photo done with Santa this week & I can't wait to play with this kit.

Our creative team is so talented, here are a couple layouts:

Created by Brenian4ever

Created by michelepixels

And until tomorrow you can pick up this kit for 20% off.

Have a great day!

Tuesday Tutorial: Inner Shadows

noreply@blogger.com (Michele Kendzie) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 13:37:00 +0000

Today I'm going to show you a simple trick using the native shadows in Photoshop Elements.

1. Open a paper. I'm using a paper from Jeanine's Dimanche paper kit.

2. Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool, the fifth tool down. You may need to right click and choose it if the Elliptical Marquee Tool is showing in the tool bar.

3. Drag out a rectangle approximately where you want it on your layout, but the size and shape are not critical because you'll be able to edit it later. You will get a rectangle of marching ants after you click and drag.

4. Use the color picker to choose a color. I wanted to select a color from my paper back ground, so after clicking on the color chips to get the Color Picker, I pointed at the color I wanted on the paper. The arrow becomes an eyedropper for selecting a color and you can see the new color indicated in the color picker. Click OK.

5. Create a new layer by clicking on the New Layer icon at the bottom of the layers palette. It's the first one in the row:

6. On that new layer, fill the rectangular selection with your chosen color using the Paint Bucket tool.

7. Type Control/Command-D to deselect the rectangle.

8. With the rectangle layer still selected in the layers palette, choose Inner Shadows from the Layer Styles drop down box in the Effects palette. The Layer Styles are the the second icon at the top of the Effects palette, circled here in red. In the screen shot I've already clicked on the drop down box arrow and I'm about to select Inner Shadows.

9. Making sure you still have the rectangle layer selected, double click on the Low Inner Shadow (or click on it once and then click the Apply button).

10. As you can see, the shadow appears on your rectangle and makes it appear to be below the background paper. The good thing about creating a shadowed box this way instead of cutting out a piece of the background paper is that you can move and resize this shadowed rectangle. See in the screen shot, I have done so.

11. You can also copy the shadowed rectangle layer to make another box. I use the keyboard shortcut Control/Command-J. See, now I have two rectangular boxes. The second one was a copy of the first, resized and arranged neatly with help of the Align option of the Move Tool (see my last tutorial).

12. Add photos and embellishments to finish the layout! Here's mine.

Have fun with this technique! Is there anything you've been wondering how to do? Let us know in the comments section and I will write about it in an upcoming tutorial.

Tuesday Tutorial: All Lined Up

noreply@blogger.com (Michele Kendzie) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 16:43:00 +0000

Good morning digital scrapbooking friends! Today I'm going to share a very useful technique in Photoshop Elements. Have you explored the Options Bar for the Move Tool? There are many things you can do with the Move Tool besides drag elements around!

I'm going to show you the last two options, Align and Distribute.

I decided to create a paper blocked look with a series of short strips of paper down one side of my layout. So first I needed to create the shape to which I would clip my papers. I used the shape tool, located near the bottom of the Tool Panel.

If you do not see that blue rectangle in your Tool Panel, right click on whatever shape is there and you will see all the shape choices you have. I also want to point out the color chips here. When we make a shape, it is created in the foreground color (the front chip). It doesn't really matter what color you use for this because it will be hidden by the paper you clip to it, but if you're making a lot of shapes it helps to use a color that contrasts with your layout.

After selecting the Shape Tool, click and drag the shape out onto your layout. Here's what mine looked like.

I had already decided on a piece of Word Art for my title. It's hiding behind my shape. I dragged the rectangle to just the right size to eventually frame my title.

Next, so I could manipulate my shape, I simplified the layer by right-clicking on the layer in the Layers Palette and selecting Simplify Layer.

Then I clicked on the layer again and hit Command/Control-J several times to duplicate the layer until I had as many copies of the shape as I wanted. I decided on 9 because it fit and because odd numbers are more visually interesting in design. Notice I did not worry about lining them up or spacing them. I have a computer and Photoshop Elements to do that work for me!

Next, I selected all the shapes at once. I do this by clicking on the top and bottom shape in the layers palette while holding down the Shift Key. This highlights all of them in the palette. Then, making sure the Move Tool is selected, I clicked on Align in the Options Bar at the top of the workspace and selected Left Edges. Make the choice that best fits the shapes you want to align. (By the way, I want to mention that this is a fabulous technique for lining up alpha letters when making a title!)

After I got the left edges aligned, making sure I still have all the shapes selected (highlighted in the layers palette), I went back up to the Options Bar and clicked on Distribute and chose Vertical Centers. The program calculates and spreads out the shapes so their centers are evenly spaced along the vertical.

While the shapes are still all selected, it's a good time to arrange them precisely. I decided to push the strips over behind the the frame a bit. (You can see my title word art in front of the strips now too.)

Now it's time to turn all those shapes into pieces of paper. This is done by clicking on the shape to select it, dragging a paper onto the layout directly above that shape (so it's immediately above the shape in the layers palette) and then hitting Command/Control-G to clip the paper to the shape. Here's how my layers palette looked after I clipped my first paper.

See the little arrow that appears on the paper layer, pointing down to the shape to which it is attached?

You can resize and reposition papers you have clipped to a shape.

Here I have clipped my third paper to my third shape. The snowflake print was so large I wanted to reduce the size of the paper to show more flakes. You do this the same as you would any other time and you'll only see the part of the paper that is clipped to the shape. In my finished layout you'll see I resized or rotated several of my papers (if you compare to the original papers in the kit), such as making vertical stripes diagonal.

After I clipped all my papers to my shapes just so, I clicked on each paper in my layers palette, one at a time, and hit Command/Control-E To flatten the paper together with its shape.

This makes it possible to rearrange clipped pieces more easily later, if desired.

Then I finished my layout.

created with Jeanine's kit, Twilight Snowfall

Happy scrapping!

Winter Wonderland

noreply@blogger.com (mama4bears) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 20:05:00 +0000

We still had snow on the ground this morning when I left, Gracie says winter is almost here! I've been waiting to scrap with this kit until it snowed so here it is. Twilight Snowfall by Jeanine DeOre

Tuesday Tutorial: Out of Bounds

noreply@blogger.com (Michele Kendzie) — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 17:05:00 +0000

Have you seen that fun out of bounds technique, in which a part of a photo is made to appear as if it were sticking out of the frame? Today I'm going to show you how to do it. I'm using Jeanine's kit, Autumn Beauty.

1. Place your photo on your layout where you want it.

2. Bring a frame onto your layout and arrange it on top of the photo so that it will frame the part of your photo you want within the frame, leaving the part you want to pop outside.

3. Now we need to extract the subject of the photo so we can pop it out of the frame. The quick selection tool (the 8th tool down in PSE9) can work pretty well, but doesn't always select exactly what you want. Use it by clicking and dragging. Notice the options bar choices at the top. The brushes with the plus and minus signs will add or subtract from your selection and there is also a Refine Edge button I encourage you to explore.

You can also use the Magnetic Lasso tool. You have to click around your object many times around its perimeter, and when you get back to the beginning and click on your very first spot, it will "lasso" your selection. Zooming in and out with Command/Control - (plus) or (minus) helps a lot. And you can use combinations of the tools to refine your selection. Remember to include in your selection the part of your object that passes over the frame.

Type Command/Control - J to copy that selection onto a new layer. The screen shot shows how my selection looked after just using the Quick Selection Tool and then hitting Command-J. Later I would use the Magnetic Lasso or Eraser to remove more parts that I don't want. Remember, Undo or Control-Z is our friend during these hard tasks!

4. Drag the extracted subject layer above the frame in the layers palette.

5. Now we need to delete everything outside of the frame except the subject. With the frame layer highlighted, use the Magic Wand tool to select the area inside the frame. Then, switch to the photo layer, hit Command/Control-Shift-I (the capital letter i) to inverse the selection, and hit delete.

6. Now it's easy to see parts of the extraction that need to be refined, so I finish it up at this point. I also applied a Hard Light blend mode to the original photo because I liked the increased vibrancy. Then I added my embellishments, title, and journaling to finish my layout.

Extracting is tedious, but the results are awesome, so try it out. Happy scrapping!