Reminded of why I do DIGITAL scrapbooking...

A homemade calendar? Yes, that's it; that will be my "affordable" gift to Mom.

Many hours and many dollars later, I realized that "homemade" doesn't always mean affordable. A digitally scrapped calendar would have been $20 and much less time-consuming. BUT, of anyone, my mom is certainly worth the time, money and effort.

This project made me grateful too - for the fact that I don't do traditional scrapbooking anymore. Let me break down the expenses (and I was trying to be conservative!)

$2.00: Spiral Binding
$3.00 : PS Calendar Brushes
$4.80: Poster board (x6, for twelve black 14 x 14" mats)
$10.00 (approx.): 12 x 12" Scrapbook Paper (x14, ea. sheet ranging from .50 - $2.00)
$10.00 (approx.): 5 x 7" Photo Printing (x12 + a few extras)
$10.00 (approx.): Adhesives (double-sided tape, glue, etc.)
$15.00: Embellishments (month-specific)

So, for those of you asking if digital scrapbooking is cheaper, here's the proof that it is! $20 v. $55.

Although, I will confess that this calendar probably does look better than what I could create digitally...more "crafty" anyway.

Fun text effect in PS

I was working on a new logo for a client, and somehow came up with this a couple of hours later. Obviously doesn't work as a logo, but I thought it was neat regardless. (And it only requires a mere 100 steps...)

How to use a quick page (+ a freebie)

Ok, so it's not my tutorial (and not my freebie), but it's still good to know - esp. for those of you who are just starting digital scrapbooking.

The "quick page" is really simple to do. It's just a pre-designed digital srapbook page that you can plop your photos in.

Paislee Press has put together a detailed tutorial on how it's done. Click the image to see the easy peezy instructions:

Simple white border

After doing a bit of research, I'm happy to say I'm not the only one who has been frustrated by Photoshop's strange lack of options when it comes to creating a simple white border on your elements. I've tried stroke, expand, and even "border", but all of them are either rounded or feathered, and it makes me crazy! Finally, I found something that works (other than layering a disproportionate white rectangle underneathe). Here's the step by step on how to get a simple square border (at least in PS3). Activate the layer. (Click the thumbnail in the layers palette while holding the Ctrl key) Hold down the Shift key and the letter "Q" From the top menu, select Filter> Other> Maximum Choose the width of your border Shift-Q again Now you'll see an empty marquee around your picture, fill that marquee with whatever color you want for your border. Now hit Ctrl-D on your keyboard to get rid of the marching ants and there ya go!
It may seem like a lot of steps, but after you've done it a couple of times, it's really quick and easy.

Fonts

These are 2 sites I recommend for fonts:
1. dafont.com (100s of free fonts!) Just about everything you could possibly want.		2. fontgarden.com This site has some cute handwritten fonts - great for scrapbooking. Not free but affordable.

Tips

So let's say you've decided to go digital (or, at least learn more about it), here are some tips and tricks that I wish I knew when I started.

SOFTWARE


Photoshop Elements - "The best selling consumer photo-editing software...combines power and simplicity".

Thanks to my job, I have Photoshop CS3, but I've heard that PS Elements is the best, affordable option for beginners.

It should sell for about $60. I would suggest looking for it on Amazon, eBay, Wal-Mart or Best Buy.

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FREEBIES

They're everywhere! If you just google, "digital scrapbooking freebies", you'll probably find more sites than you know what to do with.

I recommend IKEA Goddess if you want a good one-stop resource for freebies.

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GOOGLE READER

Something you should be using anyway. If you have a Gmail account, you'll see a "reader" link in the top left corner. It's just an easy way to keep track of all of your favorite websites in one place. You just subscribe to the sites/blogs that you frequent most, and the Reader lets you know when that site's been updated. It's nice b/c you can view all of the updates right there without having to browse around.

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TEMPLATES & QUICK PAGES

Simply Yin is my favorite spot for templates.

I'm a walking contradiction b/c I'm a minimalist when it comes to design, but I also take way too many photos. That's why I like Yin's templates; she has a way of organizing the chaos.

Here's an example of how you can use a template:

A "quick page" is pre-designed. So it would be like my finished layout above, but with open placeholders just for your pictures and text.

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DIGITAL SCRAPBOOKING KITS & GALLERIES


Ok, so it's not all free. Occasionally, you'll find a must-have kit that costs a few bucks (usually between $3 and $7). But, you can mix and match everything and use the papers & elements as many times as you like.

My favorite "store" is Oscraps.

It's also good to browse around the galleries for ideas...

Why go digital??

Ok, so I get it; you're nervous about making that big leap into digital scrapbooking - and abandoning all of your cheesy quote stamps, scalloped scissors and heart-shaped hole punches (that you spent entirely too much on to begin with). But, tell me this, when was the last time you actually sat down and made a scrapbook page? I have a feeling it's been a while. It's such an ordeal to get everything out, and - if you're like me - spread everything around all over the room just so you can recall what exactly you own. A mess only your kids will appreciate. So, I say it's time to simplify!

While we were in Saipan, I took a bazillion pictures, but all of my scrapbooking junk was in a storage unit 7000 miles away. That's when I discovered digital scrapbooking and resolved never to turn back.

If you're thinking about making the switch yourself, here are some things you'll want to consider:

• NO MESS!
• Less expensive - there are thousands of freebies out there. You could easily create an entire album out of freebies. There are even crazy people out there who spend hours a day searching all over the internet for said freebies and then compile them all together for us. (ie. http://ikeagoddess.blogspot.com/)
• Requires design software. I strongly recommend Photoshop. I think you can get PS Elements for about $50.
• Printing: Shutterfly is one of the more popular Photobook printing companies, and you can print a 20-pg 12x12 book for under $40 right now ($1 per additional page)
• Storage: It does require a decent amount of virtual storage space. These days, however, you can buy massive external hard drives for really cheap (ie. 500 GB for $80, etc.) You'll probably use closer to 50 GB (at most).
• Convenient - it's so easy to sit down and create a layout or 2 in the evenings. And, if something comes up, you can just save the page and come back to it.
• Convenient #2 - All of your photos are right there, nice and organized on your computer. No more shoe boxes full of random photos, and no more expensive photo printing.
• Convenient #3 - It's also helpful to have all of your scrapbooking elements organized in tidy little directories. (ie. tan papers, stars, alphas, frames, etc.) No more digging!
• Convenient #4 - With traditional scrapbooking, once you've used a paper or element, it's gone, but with digital, you can use and re-use everything!
• Convenient #5 - You don't have to be a designer. It can be as easy or complex as you want it to be. If you just want to create an album as quickly as possible, they offer lots of templates, quick pages and even pre-designed albums to simplify the process for you.
• Convenient #6 - After you've finished a photobook, you can easily print duplicates (maybe for Grandma?)

Ok, I think you get the point. Ultimately, it's going to save you a lot of time and money (and stress!).

Slightly embarrasing (I blame my sister!)

Confession time. Ok, so my sister and I have a small crush on Wentworth Miller. So she asked me to do a little superimposing project for her. Don't judge us! This is totally just for fun. And, she's divorced so she's allowed.

The photo Amanda gave me to work with was difficult to say the least. That head angle?!!

I think she chose this one for it's steamy romance novel quality.

She actually sent me the challenge before sending me the picture so I decided to play with one of my own pictures first so I could have Wentworth's floating head all ready to go...

Click to enlarge

I promise I don't spend my days lusting after "Michael Scofield"! Eric is my one and only hunky monkey. :)

How it's done:

You can't see it very well, but I've outlined his face with the polygonal lasso tool (feather: 1 or 2px). Then, just cut-and-paste and do any necessary editing. I placed and re-sized the floating head by temporarily decreasing the opacity so I could see Eric's face below Wentworth's and tried to match the size and angle.

Unfortunately, it's impossible to re-create the quality and lighting of professional celebrity photos, but I tried to do a few alterations to make it a little less noticeable. For example, my original photo was too warm so I desaturated it a bit...Wentworth's picture was taken in a dark room with artificial lighting so, although I couldn't remove the glow from his face, I did increase the brightness (just on his layer) so it looks a bit more like he's outside. I also had to copy and paste small sections of the door in the area around his head to cover up Eric's hair.

Ok, I'm really spending too much time on this silly post. :)

Marquee tool (revisited)

I'm sorry! This post is about 2 weeks late, but I hope it's still helpful and demonstrates how ridiculosly EASY it can be to use the marquee tool. First, take a look at the screenshots below...

Simple, no? Here are a few extra tips:

1. To start, I usually create my marquee directly over the subject I want to "hide" (in this case, Brynne & pup). This way, you can make it the perfect size. Then, just move the marquee over to a similar area (typically right beside the suject), and use that as your copy area.
2. After you paste, it may seem like nothing has happened. That's because your pasted layer is directly on top of the original layer - it still needs to be moved. In this case, to the right. (Also, the new layer should appear in your layers palette.)
3. It may take more than one copy or edit to make your cover-up look realistic. For example, in my photo, you can still see Brynne's head poking out from the top the pasted layer. To hide that, I just copied and pasted a few more slices from the grassy area closest to her head. I also used the burn tool to darken the line between the tall and short grass.
4. Next, I cropped the picture to keep it simple...no roads and telephone poles, just Paige and the lush green grass. (see below)

5. Finally, I tried to enhance the photo itself (see final product in previous post). Unfortunately, I don't remember exactly what I did, but I'll usually try out a few PS actions & some manual edits (hue/saturation, sharpness, selective color, etc.)

Making good pictures better...

I thought this picture that Amy took was absolutely adorable! As soon as I saw it, Paige really stood out to me. Nothing against Brynne and their new dog Tenny, but I just thought sweet Paige's little pure white outfit coupled with the tall green grass was too perfect.

Unfortunately, it's almost 1am here in Saipan so I'm off to bed, but, hopefully, I'll be back to describe how I edited this photo tomorrow/soon.

Which do you prefer?

Selective Color

Most of us have changed the hue/saturation of a picture, but have you ever wished you could edit just one color in your photo?

Swimming with dolphins last year in Bali was an incredible experience, but it was sad to see the murky yellowish pool water they were kept in so I decided to re-create the memory a bit by adjusting the water color to a cleaner, more refreshing hue.

Here's another awesome step-by-step tutorial courtesy of the very talented Amanda Taylor.

Pop Art!

This is actually really fun to do if you ever want to try it. And if you do try it, I'd love to see what you come up with! Unfortunately, I didn't have the best photos to start with, but, hopefully, you can create something much better with a higher quality photo. (I did this for Youth Conference last year)

Again, I'm going to save myself the time of coming up with a tutorial when there's a perfectly good one already out there> Melissa Clifton - Pop Art inspired by Lichtenstein

A touch of color...

I like to use this effect on photos that have fun dramatic colors.

Ok, so I LOVE this first picture of Eric in the man-pyramid. I couldn't help but bring extra attention to those little red shorts. (Don't worry, I plan to scrapbook the full-color shot too...it would be a shame to let that beautiful blue sky go to waste.)

I think, rather than try and explain the method myself, I'll just re-direct you to a couple of sites that explain it far better than I can...
Taylormade Designs
Digital Photography Schools

Not like I needed to draw any extra attention to their bright red hair, but I couldn't resist!

As a sidenote, there are actually several ways to accomplish this effect. In fact, I did it 2 different ways just in this post, and neither of them are the same methods used in the tutorial links provided. For the Ty and Tiff shot, I put a layer mask on the BW layer and just erased the areas where I wanted the color to show through. (Layer masks are probably the best option because they allow you to correct your mistakes...Maybe I'll do a later tutorial demonstrating what I mean). And for the pyramid shot, I started with the mask (demonstrated above), but ended up going back to the old-fashioned polygonal lasso tool. It took longer, but I needed it to be more precise (and I was having a hard time coloring (erasing) inside the lines. I would say 9x out of 10, however, that the mask is the better, more forgiving option.

Text paths

Text paths allow you to give your designs and journaling a fun, tailored look, and it's a piece of cake to do.

Be sure to use the "justify" paragraph style to really define the shape. You'll also have to adjust the font size and leading (*leading is the space between lines) in order to fit your content just right.

A lot easier than you thought, right? And you can do this with any basic shape you want (not just circles).

And always remember - when in doubt, right click!

Basic text tools

Layers Palette

It's important to understand the layers palette. It can either be a big help or a big headache.

The Basics:

• You can only edit one layer at a time - the active (selected) layer.
  
• You can drag layers up and down the list.
  
• Remember – create a new layer for each step so you can go back and edit the layers individually.
  
• Delete layers: Drag-&-drop the layer to the trash can at the bottom.
  
• Create new layers: Click the double squares icon to the left of the trash bin. (or CTRL-SHIFT-N)
  
• Duplicate layers: Drag-&-drop the layer you'd like to duplicate on top of the double squares icon (or CTRL-J)
  
• Hide layers: deselect the eye icon to the left of the layer
  

Suggestions:

• Name your layers: If you're working on a complex project with several layers, it helps to name your layers for easy distinction ("lime circle" v. the default "Shape 1 copy 2")
  
• Grouping also helps when working on a complex project. For example, say those 3 circles above are part of a poster project with 50+ layers, you can condense the layer palette by selecting & grouping the associated layers into one group/file (CTRL+G)

so it looks like this (above), instead of this >

Quick Keys (for PC users)

New Canvas:	CTRL-N
Open Image:	CTRL-O
Save Image:	CTRL-S
Close Image:	CTRL-W
Undo:	CTRL-ALT-Z
Redo:	CTRL-SHIFT-Z
Cut:	CTRL-X
Copy:	CTRL-C
Paste:	CTRL-V
Zoom In/Out:	CTRL + or CTRL -
Constrain Proportions:	SHIFT
Paint in straight lines:	SHIFT
Accept crop:	Enter or double click
Accept transform:	Enter or double click
Duplicate layer:	CTRL-J
Group layers:	CTRL-G
Ungroup:	CTRL-SHIFT-G
Select Inverse:	CTRL-SHIFT-I

* Hold SHIFT to add to and ALT to subtract area from selection

The tools

photoshopsupport.com

Obviously, giving these tools a name doesn't necessarily explain what they're for or how to use them, but it's not a bad reference. Sometimes we forget about all of the many options hiding under that little carrot drop-down option. Although, keep in mind that you can always mouse-over the tool while in PS for a reminder.

Over the next few weeks, we'll see if we can explain the uses for some of the more common tools.

Getting started

For those of you using PS for digital scrapbooking, the book dimensions are usually 12x12 or 11x8.5. From a design perspective, I prefer the latter, but if you take a ton of photos (like me), go big. Plus, you'll find a lot more resources out there for the 12x12 album (templates, papers, etc.)