and making the digital shadow look real!

It’s time for a tutorial! Have you ever had a tag element and a loop element, and wanted to make the tag look like it was hanging from the loop? Or how about threading an element on a string? And maybe you figured out how to make it look that way, only to have your shadow layer point out your illusion? Then this tutorial is for you. I used PSCS4 for this tutorial, but most of the steps will be similar in PSE.

I always leave threading/looping until close to the end, when I’m sure I have everything on my layout the way I want it. But for the sake of simplicity, I’ve just put a background paper and my two elements on the layout. (Everything is from my Journey 365 Jumbo.) I’m using a tag and a loop of string in this example, but you can use this technique with just about anything you want to thread onto a string or something similar.

Threading an Element on Your Digital Scrapbook Layout

1. Arranged your tag and the loop so that the tag looks like it’s hanging from the loop. Make sure the STRING layer is ABOVE the tag.

2. With the string layer active (highlighted), CTRL+click on the thumbnail of the tag– this will put “marching ants” around your tag. But you want the string layer active, ’cause this is the item we’ll be changing.

3. Choose your Eraser tool, and select a small hard round brush. (I like to zoom in at this point.) Brush over the part of the string you want to erase. (You can go “outside the lines” — the marching ants tell Photoshop to only erase what you brush inside them. If you brush outside them, nothing will happen.)

4. Hit CTRL+D to deselect. Your tag should now look like it’s hanging from the loop of string.

Now for the shadows — if you’re using Photoshop, follow steps 5a- 5c. If you’re using Elements, skip to steps 6a – 6g.

PHOTOSHOP
5a. Add a shadow style to both the string and the tag. The shadows will look a bit funny where we erased, but we’re going to fix that.

5b. Right-click on the fx icon for your string and choose create layer — this will put your shadow on a separate layer.

5c. Make sure your shadow layer is active. Select your Eraser tool and choose a small brush with 0% hardness. Now erase the shadow bits that shouldn’t be showing on the tag. Skip to step 7.

ELEMENTS
6a. Elements doesn’t allow you to put your shadow on its own layer, so we’re going to have to do a couple of tricks. (These screen shots are actually from PSCS4, but the steps are the same in Elements — I haven’t loaded Elements on my new computer yet.) Apply a shadow style to your tag. Make sure you’re string layer is active. Now CTRL+click on the thumbnail of your string so you get marching ants.

6b. Hit “D” on your keyboard so that your foreground/background color chips are set to the Default — black for foreground and white for background. Hold CTRL and click on the new layer icon so that you add a new layer BELOW your string. Now hit ALT+BACKSPACE to fill the selection with black. Hit CTRL+D to deselect and then hide the string layer.

6c. With the “shadow” layer active, go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Choose a value between 2 and 5 — with 2 being less blurry and 5 being more blurry. For a string shadow, you’ll want a smaller number. I chose 2 for this string.

6d. Turn the string layer back on — you’ll see that we’re starting to get a shadow, but we need to manipulate the “shadow” layer we created a bit more.

6e. Make sure the “shadow” layer is still active. We’ll use the distort tool to adjust the shadow layer so it looks more real. In Elements, you’ll find this tool by going to Image > Transform > Distort. Then use your cursor to move the edges and corners of the boxes until you like the look of the shadow. Click on the green checkmark to confirm.

6f. Change the blend mode to Linear Burn and adjust the opacity to your liking.

6g. We need to clean up our shadow just a bit so grab your Eraser tool with a small brush and 0% hardness.

7. As a final step, I would link my tag, string, and shadow layer together, just in case I need to move or resize them.

And there you go. You can use this technique to thread simple elements, like I showed you. Or if you want to spend more time and play a bit more with shadows, you can do something like I’ve shown below, wrapping a string in and out of letters of your title, in just a few minutes.

If you use this trick on layouts, link me up! I’d love to see your creations. If you have any questions, please leave a comment and I’ll try to answer them. Or contact me using the link in the menu bar above.

Have a happy Tuesday!

I remember when I first started digital scrapbooking that I was SO confused about brushes. Once I figured out that many of the brushes were like “stamps” I decided it was time to overcome my fear of brushes and try using them. Now I use them every day — both in scrapbooking and in designing. I decided that others may also be confused about brushes, so here are some great resources for you.

Photoshop Brushes (TaylorMade Designs)
Brush Basics (Steph at The Daily Digi)
Brushes — Beyond the Basics (Stepha at The Daily Digi)

I love these heart brushes from TaylorMade:

And these paint strokes from Lauren Reid are totally on my wish list:

I just love paint strokes and splatters, so now that I’ve overcome my fear of using brushes, I think it’s probably time for me to create some fun splatter brushes. What do you think?

I’d love to see your layouts using any kind of brushes!

This week I thought I’d share some journaling tips, specifically on telling a “story” that isn’t there — i.e., scrapbooking pictures that don’t have an obvious story. I find it easy to journal about events when I’m scrapping pictures from a birthday or family gathering or holiday. But what about those pictures that don’t tell a specific story? Lots of my layouts don’t have any journaling because I felt the pictures said enough all on their own, but sometimes it’s because the picture itself didn’t have a story that went with it and I wasn’t sure what to journal.

However, I’ve found that some of the everyday snapshots I take can help inspire me to tell the stories that aren’t so obvious. Here are 2 examples. (Ironically, they both use Slink Slither and Plod.)

In this first layout, I wanted to find a way to use some of the pictures I’ve taken of the various reptiles that share our desert home. I could have just tossed the pics on the page with a title like Reptile Friends and shared a bit of journaling about them, but I decided to take it further and talk about why I even take pictures of reptiles and the significance they’ve had in my life. In this layout I was able to share a few stories from my past that otherwise would have remained untold.

And in this layout, I had this lonely shot I’d snapped of my ds. I didn’t want to scrap it all by itself, but I couldn’t think of anything to say about the picture … and it wasn’t really about anything. Just a random picture I took of him playing outside. But as I looked at the picture, I was reminded how that day my little boy had been following his daddy around, “hammering” stakes into the ground, and this sparked the ideas for the journaling.

3 Ideas for Telling Your Stories
1. Think of an experience you’d like to record … then dig through your stash of pics and find one (or more) pictures that could represent pieces of the story.
2. Write down some of the things your loved ones do that are hard to catch on film — pick one to scrap about, and find some random pictures of the loved one to help illustrate the story, even if they have nothing to do with the story itself.
3. Find a picture you want to scrap and study it. What feelings does the photo generate? What does it remind you of? Brainstorm for a few minutes and see if there’s an underlying story you can tell.

Looking for some more ways to tell your stories? Check out the Sweet Talk Journaling challenge at Log Your Memory. They’re tossing you some fun ideas for journaling — by the end of the month you’ll have 14 different methods to try. Each method comes with its own challenge, and if you complete all 14 you’ll receive a fun set of gel pens. You can view all the challenges in their Sweet Talk Journaling Challenge 2010 forum. I’m hoping to find some time to play along.

If you use any of the above tips for scrapping a layout, please send me a link — I’d love to see it!

I am absolutely not a photographer … not even close … but I take a ton of pictures. This is one of my FAVORITE ways to fix them up — adjusting the levels. I already used this nifty little tool in my designing — but never thought to apply that knowledge to my scrapbooking, lol. Don’t be intimidated by this tool — it’s really simple to use. I think it makes powerful improvements to my less-than-professional snapshots. I pretty much use this on every picture on every scrapbook layout I create.

And where did I learn this nifty little trick? From Janet, on The Daily Digi, in an awesome article she posted last year: Photo Editing for Beginners … Working with Levels. Love this article, and she has great screenshots to accompany the instructions. So head on over and learn all about this really cool trick. I promise you won’t be disappointed. And if you use this tip on a picture in one of your future layouts, please link me up. I’d love to see the magic you create!

Be sure to stop by tomorrow for a little gift from me!

Coming at you late tonight (which is what happens when I don’t take time to schedule my blog posts, lol), so I’m going to keep this short.

Have you ever scrapped a 2-pager? Do you even know what a 2-pager is? A 2-pager is a 2-page layout (or 2-page spread), typically for one event. I haven’t done one in a long time, so I don’t have an example to show you at the moment, but I plan to play along in Scrap Orchard’s Make Mine a Double Challenge this month … when they post the challenge, since I’m not sure what day it’s supposed to be posted.

Anyway, back to 2-pagers. First, I’m going to share a little trick with you, and then point you to 2 fabulous articles Janet posted last year on The Daily Digi.

So, for those of you who have ever done 2-pagers — have you ever wished that designers would design 12×24 size backgrounds so your 2-page spread would look good? Well, with this trick you won’t need a background that size. If you want the edges of your 2 layouts to meet up nice, all you have to do is flip the background.

PHOTOSHOP:

1. Create a document that is 24 inches wide by 12 iches tall at 300 ppi.
2. Pull your background in and slide it all the way to the left.
3. Now duplicate that layer.
4. With the duplicated layer active, go up to Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal.
5. Now slide that layer all the way to the right. Presto! The edges in the middle will match up perfectly.

ELEMENTS:

1. Create a document that is 24 inches wide by 12 inches tall at 300 ppi.
2. Pull your background in and slide it all the way to the left.
3. Go back to the original background you opened — go to Image > Rotate > Flip Horizontal.
4. Pull the transformed background in and slide it all the way to the right.
5. Close your original background and say NO, you don’t want to save.

Now go read Two-Page Layouts and Two-Page Layouts {Using Templates} to learn some more great ideas and tricks. I’ll be back tomorrow with some template resources for you!

P.S. Did you see that I’m a contributing designer in The Digi Files #12? Squeal! I’m so excited. Run on over to The Daily Digi to grab my kit (plus 6 other fabulous products!) for only $5! This is a smashing deal, because each of the products in The Digi Files will retail for at least $5 when they’re released in the individual stores next month. My kit alone is worth $6.49. So wait are your waiting for? Don’t miss out on this deal, ’cause after February, it’s gone!

P.P.S. I’ll post winners from last month’s Lucky Post and the challenge tomorrow. I need to go to bed.

Ever wonder about Photoshop actions? I remember when I first started digi … I had no idea what people were talking about, lol! But now I know that actions are a series of recorded steps that perform specific steps. Like turning a photo black & white. Or saving your .psd layered file in a printable .jpg format as well as in a web-friendly version. I use actions every day in my designing — and quite often in my scrapbooking too. Some are absolute time-savers … and others create super cool effects.

So, if you want to learn more about actions, I can recommend two great articles:
Actions in Photoshop (TaylorMade Designs)
Lights, Camera … Actions! (The Daily Digi)

Honestly, I’m behind the times when it comes to all the cool actions that are out there. But I have used actions from these sources in the past:
Pioneer Woman
CoffeeShop

And I hear My Four Hens also has some great ones … I confess, I’ve downloaded her free actions but haven’t had a chance to try them out just yet.

Atomic Cupcake has some neat ones for designers (and maybe for scrapbookers too, but I’ve only used her as a design resource) … I use her puffy felt action.

What actions have you tried?

So, do you ever have a hard time figuring out which font(s) to use on your layouts? Should I journal with a handwriting font, a typewriter font, or something totally different? Should I go grungy or classic? Should I use a script font? Same questions apply for titles too, especially when the alpha that came with the kit isn’t quite working with your layout.

USING FONTS IN YOUR LAYOUTS

Amanda Taylor has a FANTASTIC article — Text, Titles, & Journaling – 101 — which you may find helpful in learning more about which typeface to use on your page, and how to make it look good. She covers general tips and guidelines, choosing a font, creating a cohesive flow with your text, and what to say in your text. LOVE all the helpful info in this article — plus she includes awesome examples to illustrate her points. I highly recommend reading this. One of my absolute favorites!

FONT SOURCES

Misty Cato posted several Typeface Tuesday posts on her old blog last year, which I figured I’d link you to if you’re looking for something in particular, or if you just want to see some of the variety out there.

10 Grungy Fonts
10 Sketched and Scribbled Fonts
11 Typewriter Fonts
10 Gothic Inspired Fonts
10 Fonts for the Young at Heart
Retro Edition
Howdy Partner
Stylized Script
Be Bold
Stamped and Stenciled
Cartoon Time

dafont.com is a great place to pick up loads of different free fonts in a variety of different styles.

If you’re looking for free handwriting fonts, check out the Fonts for Peas. (I really like Pea Sarah Lynne!) Amanda also creates some fun free scrapbook fonts. And I just stumbled across another site for free handwriting fonts, Sugar Frog Fonts.

If you’re willing to set down a little bit of money, you can also buy some really fantastic and fun fonts. I love Darcy Baldwin’s fonts at Sweet Shoppe. My favorite right now is DJB Poppyseed.

You can also have Darcy turn your handwriting into a font for as little as $10. Sweet deal! I just did it for mine — I’ll show it to you in tomorrow’s post.

Some other favorite fonts I’ve purchased are TK Turtle Soup by TK Whimsy at The DigiChick and MTF Chubb by Miss Tiina at Funky Playground.

(Designers and aspiring designers — Please note that MOST fonts available for free are only free for personal use. You must search carefully for fonts that can be used commericially for free, and what restrictions apply.)

FONT ORGANIZATION

Once you download some fonts, you then have to unzip and install the fonts so you can use them. Check out Font Organization by Steph at The Daily Digi for helpful information on organizing all those fabulous fonts.

So, what are some of your favorite fonts or font sites?

I don’t know about you, but I tend to see a lot of red eyes in my photos.  As I don’t have time to learn how to avoid red eyes in the first place, I rely on the Red Eye Tool in Photoshop to help me edit my photos. It’s a really cool tool, and *most* of the time it’s super good at what it does.

Adobe has a help center on their web site that gives you tips on using the various tools in their programs. I first stumbled upon it when I bought Illustrator — the welcome window had a link titled “Getting Started” and that seemed like a good place to start.

Anyway, I thought it’d be fun to link you up to Adobe’s help for the quick tutorial on using this tool. Read about the Red Eye Tool in Photoshop. Read about Auto Red Eye Fix and manually fixing red eye in Photoshop Elements. When I’ve used PSE, I usually try the manual method first. If it doesn’t work the way I want it to, I’ll switch to Auto Red Eye Fix and usually it’ll do the job. (Note: PSE gives you the option of automatically fix red eye as you load photos into the Organizer — I would NOT recommend this, as the Red Eye Tool is not perfect.)

Most of the time, the Red Eye Tool works great … but sometimes, no matter how you adjust the settings, it keeps trying to “fix” the wrong parts in the picture. Let me illustrate what I’m talking about with this picture (totally unedited).

Notice the red in my hair? I LOVE my hair, but sometimes it gives the Red Eye Tool grief. I used the Red Eye Tool to fix the red eyes in my hubby and son with no problem. It even fixed one of my eyes perfectly. But when I tried to click on the second eye — the one near the flash bouncing off my glasses — well, here’s what happened. Not very pretty, huh?

Sometimes the Red Eye Tool gets confused and darkens the wrong parts. I’ve also seen it only darken part of the pupil, and not the whole thing. So, here’s a trick to use when the Red Eye Tool just isn’t quite fixing those darn red eyes — use the sponge tool. It’s nested with the dodge and burn tools.

It’s best to zoom way in so you can see what you’re doing. Adjust the size of the sponge so it’s smaller than the pupil. Leave the mode on Desaturate. You can play around with the flow — in this case, I set it to 100%. Then brush over the pupil until it’s no longer red. Zoom out to see how it looks. See? Much better.

You can also try using the recoloring method I taught you a while back — just make sure to use a small brush size.

Sometimes the problem isn’t red eyes — like with pets, and even some shots of my son, when you end up with a greenish or yellowish color. Dave Nagel has a pretty cool article about working with the channel mixer to fix red eyes, green eyes, and yellow eyes.

Hopefully, one of these tips will help you be able to fix those problematic eyes in the photos we take with our less-than-professional photography skills. Let me know what you think! And if you know of other good tutorials or tips, link us up!

Yay for another installment of Tips & Tricks from the Q!

First up — creating waves. Misty Cato has a fabulous tutorial about creating wave shapes using PSE. This technique works in PS as well — the wave filter is in the same place: Filters > Distort > Wave. Trying playing around with the various settings in the filter to see how it alters your shape. You can make fat waves by using a fat rectangle, and skinnier waves by starting with a skinny rectangle.

Second — creating scallop or zigzag edges. Steph posted a fantastic tutorial about a week ago on The Daily Digi, with great instructions on how to create a scallop or zigzag edge.

And, of course, if you don’t want to do it yourself, you can find lots of fun shape templates on the market. I stopped by Sweet Shoppe Designs and found these:

Check their store for more shape templates.

If you create a layout using either of the tutorials, link me up so I can see — and be sure to pass along a thank you to Misty and Steph for their awesome tuts!

P.S. If you’re looking for the winners from the Facebook drawing, newsletter drawing, blog drawing, and December challenge, scroll down to the next post.

One of my goals for 2010 is to complete Project 365. I started it this year. And then I got discouraged and finally gave up. Sad, I know, but the truth. And I’m hoping to do better this year. I don’t want to just DO Project 365. I want to ENJOY Project 365, be INSPIRED by Project 365, LOVE Project 365.

Here’s a little list of ideas I’ve come up with to help me stay motivated, so I thought I’d share them with you.

8 TIPS FOR PROJECT 365

1. Visual reminders — Keep your camera in a visible, easily accessible spot. Make little reminders to stick to your mirror or fridge or anywhere you frequent where you’ll see it.
2. Do Project 365 with a friend — Find a buddy so you can motivate each other.
3. Focus on everyday stuff — Waiting for that perfect picture? Don’t. Take photos of the everyday parts of your journey — the spilled milk, the tantrums, the silly smiles, the groceries, laundry, mowing the yard, etc.
4. Take your camera with you — Don’t leave it at home. If it’s too big or bulky, slip a small point-and-shoot into your purse or diaper bag.
5. Keep your camera battery charged — Rushing to take your picture a minute before midnight and then finding your battery is dead can be completely deflating.
6. Upload/organize your photos every few days — Last year I put all my pictures in a folder for the year. Then I’d look at the dates, and snag one from each day to throw into my Project 365 folder, so that when I went to scrapbook them, they were easy to find.
7. Choose now how you want to share your Project 365 — Maybe try a Project 365 blog where you post your pictures to share — add some text too, explaining the picture or telling a story. (Sites exist that will print your blog, so that’s something to think about.) Or create an album on your Facebook just for Project 365. Try printing the photos for a 365 brag book. Or, since you’re a digital scrapbooker, create layouts — 1 layout with 7 pictures, 2 pagers with 7 pictures, or maybe just your favorite picture from the week. If you do want to scrap each week, do yourself a favor and use templates — and don’t forget to do some journaling so the pictures mean something later. Whichever way you choose to document your project, pick something you’ll enjoy doing, so it doesn’t become a chore.
8. Make time to document your project — Daily is just not going to happen for me, but I know I could block out time on a Sunday, during nap time, to organize my pictures and scrapbook them. Or blog about them. Or upload them to Facebook.

I hope you’ve found this list helpful. Feel free to share your tips with me. If you’re looking for more ideas, check out Janet’s 4 Months and 11 Days … post on The Daily Digi.