Hybrid Anniversary Card

Just wanted to share a card I made yesterday .

Digital Supplies: Happily Ever After kit, by Meredith Fenwick.

Physical Supplies: Flowers and crystals by Prima

Font: Chopin Script

Tips and Technique:

1. For the front of the card, I blended two different papers together. I couldn’t decide which design I liked better – so I used both! Then, I typed the greeting and blended that with the papers (all using the blend modes in the Photoshop layers palette).
2. I used one 8.5″x11″ piece of double-sided matte photo paper to make this card. The card base was an 8.25″x6″ rectangle of the background paper (the design carries onto the back of the card); the front was a 4″x6″ rectangle of blended paper. Using double-sided paper makes the inside look much nicer, in my opinion .
3. I used scallop edged scissors to trim the front down to size, then pierced each scallop with a paper piercer for an eyelet effect (you could also use a large needle to do this).
4. I left a border of white paper around the card base when I cut it out. I measured to find the center of the rectangle, then scored a fold line down the middle. I used the scoring tool on my paper trimmer to do this, but you could do the same thing using the dull side of a butter knife along a metal ruler. It just makes the fold crisper and neater.
5. I adhered the front of the card to the base, and placed the crystals and flowers on top. Voila!

A Stamped Flower Freebie and Some Pages

I’m working working working away on some new things tonight, but I just have a quick post for you! Here are some pages I’ve made with some of the latest Weeds and Wildflowers stuff!

Chris and I are SO LUCKY to have an AWESOME family heritage scrapbook his mom made for us, with tons of detailed genealogical information from his family’s side (I cherish that book)!!! The other really cool thing is that I have many historical photos of his ancestors in digital format. Believe it or not, the following page is the FIRST one I’ve made using this scrapper’s goldmine . It was fun to look up all the information for this page and be able to create a visual representation from the family tree .

*Click Here for Credits*

The next page might not be as historically important, but it does capture a lot about how I think and what I love! Plus, I wanted to play with some of the newest Weeds and Wildflowers goodies – AND I wanted to show you a page using my new Stamped Flowers freebie !

*Click Here For Credits*

How To Tip: I added the flower stamps to the page, recolored them to brown, and changed the their blend mode to Pin Light. This helped them fade into the background a bit.

OK, OK. I know you just want me to get to the freebie, so here it is!!! 100% original digital flower stamps created from photos of the pretty flowers seen in the layout above ! Have fun with these!

*CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD STAMPED FLOWERS*

 

 

Shabby Miss Jenn Challenge

Even though I’m not playing for a prize (since I’m on her creative team), I still wanted to make a page for Shabby Miss Jenn’s Challenge – I LOVE the freebie she made for it!!!

Click here for the challenge details (but hurry, it ends soon)!

Here’s the challenge freebie (you can still grab it, even if you don’t participate):

And here’s the page I made for the challenge:

Credits: Challenge Freebie, Weeds & Daisies, Spring Junk Pile, Fallin’ Blooms, Autumn TidBits – All by Shabby Miss Jenn; Letters from the Patio by Dianne Rigdon. Font: Jane Austen.

Journaling:

because they reveal God’s
glory and remind me of
how awesome a creator he
is, because they appeal to
the hopeless romantic in
me, because they remind
me of so many happy
times in my life – and
sad ones too – not soon to
be forgotten, because of the
gardens my mother has
always lovingly cared for
and taught me about, and
the wonderful memories
of visiting the botanical
gardens with my mom,
grandma and family -
because of countless little
reasons, I have such a deep
love of flowers
 

Photoshop Tip: I love to use photoshop blend modes, and I’m always experimenting with the different effects I can get with them. On this page, I enlarged a flower photo, and placed it over the shabby brown background from the freebie above. Then, in the layers palette, I changed the photo’s blend mode to “Color Burn”. When I added my text, I used an off-white color and placed the text UNDER the photo layer. I really liked the pretty color variation the blended photo gave the text and background!

Vertical Type Tips (plus a faithbook page)

After memorizing last week’s Bible verse, I decided that as wonderful as it was, it just wasn’t the same without the two preceding verses. So this week’s memory verse card has Ephesians 2:8-9, so I can put it on the page opposite last week’s card . Here’s this week’s card using, of course, a quick page from the brag book by SMJ and Dani:

And in case you missed it, here’s last week’s memory verse card, which will go on the next page in the mini book I’m in the process of making:

Last week the scrapbooks at Hobby Lobby were 50% off, so I bought this 5×7 Paper Studio album for about $2.50, I think it will be just the thing to hold these pages!

Photoshop Techniques: Vertical Type Tool 

OK, so let’s talk about the vertical type tool in Photoshop. This is pretty basic info, so advanced users can run along now LOL! But I know that there are many beginner Photoshop users reading, so this one is for you ! As I have mentioned before, I am totally self taught in Photoshop, so it took me a while to figure out certain things. The vertical type tool is one of the things I didn’t notice right away, believe it or not!

Most of the tools in the Photoshop toolbar have tiny arrows to the bottom-left of the tool icon, this means that there are additional tools hidden behind that tool. If you right-click on the tool icon, a fly-out window will appear showing the rest of the tools. So, as you can see in the image to the right, the Vertical Type Tool is hidden behind the default Horizontal Type Tool. Using this tool is different than typing a line of text and rotating it 90 degrees to achieve a vertical line of text, because with this tool, the letters stay vertical instead of being turned on their sides. I used the Vertical Type Tool to type the word “Grace” on today’s memory verse quick page. I like to keep three tips in mind when using the Vertical Type Tool:

• Choose a solid, wide, possibly decorative font  - think about whether each letter can hold it’s own on the page.
• In most cases, use all capital letters, since this will ensure that each letter is the same height.
• Keep in mind that the tools in the character palette still work with the Vertical type Tool (so you can add more space between the letters with the “Set the leading” tool, for example).  

To illustrate these points, here is an example of what the word “Grace” would have looked like if typed with the same font I used for the rest of the card (Book Antiqua), with only the first letter capitalized. Next to that is the word typed in all caps with a font called Extra Ornamental.

Looks better the second way, right? At least I think so .

OK, I’m off to do some scrapping! I want to make a page for Shabby Miss Jenn’s challenge, so I can use the AWESOME freebie she’s offering !!!

Adobe Photoshop Express (BETA) is FREE!!!!!!!!!

This is NOT an April fools joke people, I signed up for my own Adobe Photoshop Express account to make sure ! If you are looking for a fast, easy, awesome and especially FREE way to edit, organize and share your digital photos, you MUST check this out!!

I have literally only played around with this tool for less than 10 minutes, and I think it’s great! It is NOT a program you can do digi scrapping or in depth editing with – it’s mostly just for quick photo fixes. In a couple of minutes you can transform your photo from drab to dramatic, here’s one I played with really quick:

Like I said, I’ve only played with it for a few minutes, but so far here’s what I love about Adobe Photoshop Express (BETA):

• It’s free, and it is online, so I didn’t need to download a program or anything.
• It works with other free online photo management programs I use (photobucket and Picasa), so I could access those photos without having to upload them again.
• It is SUPER user friendly and automated - you select an editing mode, and Photoshop Express instantly gives you several versions of your photo to choose from, side-by-side so you can see what looks best.

Of course the full version of photoshop will still be my main editing program, but I think this will be my program of choice for quick photo edits for blogging, emailing and sharing online .

If you want to learn more, check out this post by John Nack (Adobe Photoshop Senior Product Manager ).

Important: before you share any photos publicly through this site, make sure you read the terms of use (especially section 8)! Apparently Adobe IS working on revising the terms so they don’t sound so scary LOL, but I would still think twice before making a public gallery there .

Photoshop Elements Book Recommendation

I can’t wait to tell you about this great resource for Photoshop Elements users: Digital and Hybrid Scrapbooking and Card-Making with Photoshop Elements by Patty Debowski!!! If I had this book when I started digi scraping my life would have been soooo much easier and I could have spent way more time scrapbooking and less time trying to figure out what I was doing. Even though I am no longer using Photoshop Elements (I won a free copy of Photoshop CS3 Extended), I’m so glad Patty sent me this book to review, because I can now recommend it to all my friends .   Nobody should have to spend countless hours teaching themselves the hard way, like I did, when there is such a handy reference book available! I think it is well worth the $39.99 price tag.

What I like about this book: 
This is a wonderful book for Photoshop Elements users who are learning digital scrapbooking - it answers EVERY question I’ve ever heard from beginners, and offers plenty of great tips for advanced users as well! Even though this is a huge (384 page) reference book, it is easy to read and I read it from cover to cover. It’s the kind of book that’s great to keep on your computer desk so you can grab it and quickly look up a tip or technique (I’m sure you’ll find what you need in the 20 page index). I LOVE that there are lots of detailed instructions with screenshots and helpful photos, and I especially love the big chart of keyboard shortcuts!

For More Information: 
If you want to read more about the book, check out this press-release and this book review, and you can also see the book’s table of contents (and much more) at thedigitalscrapbookteacher.com.

I know Patty’s book is going to be treasured by so many Photoshop Elements users, now if only I had a book like this for Photoshop CS3…

Quick Page and Text Adjustment Tip

*Click Here for Credits*

Just thought I’d share another Bible verse quick page I made using the brag book by SMJ and Dani. I also used a notebook element from their collab kit to fill in the empty space behind the text. And here’s a little Photoshop tip for you:

Adjusting Text for Notepaper in Photoshop

Before I learned this tip I used to resize my text by trial and error, I even made separate layers for each line of text sometimes so that I could line it up on the notepaper. This way is much easier and faster. After typing your text in the selected font and size, open the “Character” window (Window>Character) to make your adjustments.   With your text selected, hover your mouse over the “Set the Leading” icon (circled in red below). The cursor will turn into a hand with arrows pointing outward from the index finger. Click and drag to the left or right to change the distance between the lines until they line up perfectly!

New SMJ Release and a Blending Technique

I’m SUPER excited to announce that Shabby Miss Jenn has invited me to be on her creative team FULL TIME!! Wow, I thought I was lucky to be just a guest team member!!! WOOHOO!

She has just released all kinds of adorable springtime products in her shoppe – here’s what I made with the HUGE new kit (Click Here for Full Credits):

Technique: Blended Photo Background 

Here’s how I made the flowery background on this page (using Photoshop CS):

Step 1: I opened a blank 12×12 300 dpi document in Photoshop, then copied and pasted a the 12×12 “Sunshine” paper onto the background.

Step 2: Next I opened the photo for the background, did my basic edits to the color, levels etc., and resized to fit the width of the page.

Step 3: Finally, I copied and pasted the photo to the top of the page (over the Sunshine paper), then I changed the blend mode to “Pin Light” and lowered the opacity a little (to about 89%).

That’s it!! If you experiment with different combinations of photos, papers, blend modes and opacities you can come up with limitless unique looking backgrounds!! Have fun . 

Looking for Scrapbooking Tutorials?

I have had this post-it note on my desk for ages with a list of some great blogs with scrapbooking tutorials – it’s about time I share it! Here they are in no particular order (and please, if you know of some more great sources, leave a comment to let us know)!!

Misty Cato - Here is a great selection of digital scrapbooking tutorials using Photoshop – I’ve learned a lot from her blog.

Emily Giovanni - Lots of cool tutorials for scrapbooking, altered items, and even some digi scrapping. Tons of beautiful cards too – this gal has a lot of talent!

Everyday Digital Scrapbooking - TONS of tutorials, including an awesome Hybrid scrapbooking section .

Leah Fung’s Video Blogging - Check out Leah Fung’s blog to see vblog sessions created by Leah and some of my other favorite designers who were on Scrapbook Lifestyle. These ideas are perfect for paper or hybrid projects.

Hummie’s World - Digital scrapbooking tutorials for Photoshop Elements (but they can be adapted for other programs). Hummie seems like such a sweetie too!

Also, if you like to hunt for digital scrapbooking freebies, you will love these blogs:

Ikea Goddess – I knew about Angie’s freebies blog even before I started working with her at Weeds and Wildflowers, it is the go-to site for finding tons of goodies!

Happy Scrap Girl – Another great freebie source, and she also links to other goodies sometimes, like tutorials .

I Love Fall!

Just wanted to share a few fall pages with you and a couple of quick tips . I don’t know what the weather is like in your area, but it has really just begun to feel like autumn where I am. I just love this time of year, the fall foliage, pumpkins, apples, it’s a time to admire God’s beautiful creation, which leads nicely into Thanksgiving celebrations! Anyway, I hope you’re enjoying the season as much as I am if you have made some fall pages, please share your links in the comments section .

I made this page using the FREE Harvest Spice kit by Shabby Princess!!

Tips and Tricks:

• Using a font like “Acorn Initials” allows you to add some extra color to your title. In your layers palette in Photoshop, just right click on the text layer and choose “rasterize” (or simplify). Then you can use the magic wand tool to select areas of the title to fill with color with the paint bucket tool.
• Try using elements in new ways; I used a ribbon “tie” one of my words together. 
• I used my “Leafy Heart” shape template to help showcase some of SP’s gorgeous papers. Then I added a bold photo border by using the eye dropper tool to grab a coordinating color from one of the flowers to fill a couple of the template layers with.  

I used an awesome Weeds and Wildflowers collab kit to make the page below . 

Technique: Here’s an easy way to get your B&W photo to perfectly match your page: once you convert your photo to B&W, go into your Photoshop layers palette and right click the thumbnail of the photo layer, then choose “select layer transparency”. Next, create a new layer, and fill the selected area with a color that matches your page (in this case, I picked up some of the brown from the background paper). Going back into the layers palette, change the new layer’s blend mode to either “hue” or “color”. 

The following page uses the super fun Smell My Feet kit, by Shabby Princess!

Photo “pop” technique: Recently, I accidentally discovered this simple technique that really brings some life to my photos. I have used it on almost every photo since then! Here’s what I do: I use image>adjustments>levels to open the levels window. I move the middle input slider (tiny triangle at the center) all the way over to the left until it overlaps the left input slider (the image looks really white at this point), I click “OK”. Next I use image>adjustments/brightness/contrast to open the brightness/contrast window. I move the contrast slider way over to the right, then adjust the brightness accordingly (usually a little to the left). For the example below, I set the brightness to -20 and the contrast to +87. I have no idea why this trick works, but I love the result !

For this last page, I used my “Mosaic Leaf” shape template to frame my photo, and to show off several papers from Jeannie Papai’s Blissful Fall kit at the same time!

Tips and Tricks:

• This is how I added the monogram “A” to my page; I used the type tool to type a very large letter “A” in a dark brown color I picked up from one of the papers, using the eyedropper tool. I then opened my Photoshop layers palette, and used the drop down menu from the top left corner to select the blend mode called “Soft Light”. Voila!
• To distinguish the photo layer from the rest of the layers in the “Mosaic Leaf” template, I merged the photo border and photo layers together, then added a drop shadow to the newly created layer. I also rotated the layer and sandwiched another leaf element between it and the lower portion of the leaf template.

Well, that’s all I have for you today. If you have a fall page (or two or three!) to share, please leave a comment and link us up!!