Digital Scrapbooking and Photography

Free To A Good Home!

Instead of a tutorial, this week we're doing freebies! Download this page of fall floral inspired printable circle tags and you can just print, cut, and create! Download printable_circle_tags.pdf

Digital Organizing with the PSE Organzier

by Jan Barlow

Why should you organize your digital elements? 

Well, think of it this way. How hard would it be to pick out your clothes each day if you either a) threw them all into ONE closet and piled ‘em up and never sorted them out or b) put each different outfit into a NEW closet every time you went shopping?

Isn’t this exactly what we do with our digital kits and elements? We create a separate folder for each designer or kit we download – at best. Or, if we’re really unorganized, we just throw everything we download into one folder called “digi stuff”. Can I get a witness? Am I yankin’ your chain yet?

Well, I’m here to tell you there’s a MUCH better way! Getting all your digital stuff organized will be like being able to look into your closet and see everything you own, organized into categories and all just at your fingertips – all at once!

Getting my digital scrapbooking elements and collections organized has made a HUGE difference not only in my desire to digi scrap, but also in my enjoyment of the process. Sound good? Then keep reading…

Or, for future reference, you can

Download tutorial_organizing_with_pse_organizer.pdf

Getting Started

I personally use Photoshop Elements and that is the program I will be demonstrating here. But I have also used ACDSee and it works very similarly.

I could make this a REALLY long tutorial by explaining how to use the PSE Organizer in detail. But, since Adobe has already done such a good job of that, I would rather use this blog to inspire you to organize and give you some ideas on WHAT and HOW to organize.

If you have PSE, the first thing you should do is check out Adobe’s site where the Organizer and its elements are explained in detail. This will be a very handy reference in how to navigate around the Organizer. Here’s the link: Adobe website On the web page at the left, if you click on “Managing Files and Catalogs”, you can get a complete explanation of each element in the Organizer.

A note: I found it VERY helpful when I first purchased PSE to also purchase additional RAM. (The stuff than enables you to run multiple programs smoothly and quickly.) I got mine from Crucial. I upgraded from 512 mb so that I now have 1.98 gigs of RAM. Dude. I love speed. No huffing and puffing around here… And it wasn’t expensive. Just sayin’.

Anyway, I have decided NOT to store my photos in my PSE Organizer. I have them stored elsewhere on my computer and it’s very simple to open them up from the PSE Editor. Also, I have hundreds and hundreds of photos and hundreds and hundreds of digi elements. So I don’t want to bog down PSE with all my photos.

So, I use my PSE Organizer for ONLY digital kits and elements. When I first opened up the Organizer, I eliminated all of the categories and titles for albums and keywords given by Adobe – except for the FIRST keyword. I actually just changed that to MY first keyword – which is “Alphabets”, and then went from there.

If you do already store your photos in the organizer, that’s fine. You can still add keyword tags just for your digital elements.

So, getting started actually involves sitting down and thinking about how you would like to separate all your digital stuff. Maybe jot down a few ideas, make a few lists. Once you are armed with this information, you can begin your organizing project.

Once I share my organizer with you, you most likely will be prompted to think of more ways to personalize your own organizer.

When you open your PSE Organizer, there may be a bunch of stuff that’s already automatically been loaded into the viewer. I cleared mine out completely and made my settings so that I am in complete control of what goes into my organizer and what doesn’t. Otherwise, it will seem like a mess that my neat and tidy brain won’t be able to handle. (I know – I’m a dork/nerd.) You can easily remove items by selecting them and then choosing “remove from organizer” when you right-click on your selection. Removing something from your organizer does NOT remove that item from your computer (although, that will be offered as an option). The organizer copies the files you put in there so you can look at them. It does not removed and replace your original image files.

Setting Up Keyword Tags

A keyword tag is a descriptive tag that you can assign to any element that you bring into the Organizer. You can create categories and sub-categories within a category. You can use as many tags as necessary for any one element.

The first thing you should do is go to edit -> preferences -> general in the tool bar at the top. Go through each category and look at the options available to you. As you become more familiar with the program, you can tweak these options to suit your needs.

One that will be of particular interest to you is the “Keyword Tags and Albums” setting.

You will want to decide if, when you add tags/albums, you want them to pop into the bottom of your list (where you can then move them around as desired) or if you want them to be automatically alphabetized. Your preference will become apparent to you as you work. Clicking on the arrows just before the section titles in the organizer bin will expand or collapse each corresponding item.

EVERYone is different, and what works for me may not ring your chimes. But I’ll show you my categories and you may do the same or get ideas for your own. Here they are:

Alphabets

 Words/Phrases

Authors

 (I have a sub-category for each kit by a certain author under her name)

Brushes/Stamps

Design Sites

Embellishments

(I have a zillion - you can get as detailed as you want. Start with the basics and add colors)

Overlays

Papers

 circles, dots

 Colors (same as for embellishments)

 floral

 flourish

 grunge

 lined, graph

 plaid, woven

 print, graphic

 script

 solid, blended

 stripe

Previews

Ribbons, Borders

Templates, Masks

I can view everything in my entire catalog when I open up the Organizer, or I can click on any of these categories and ONLY those items which I have manually tagged as such will show in the viewer. Isn’t that GREAT? When viewing your elements you can choose more than 1 category. Like so:

I can choose, under papers, “lined, graph” and get this in the viewer:

I can then see all my green lined/graph papers by then also clicking on “green” in the “color” section of the papers category and will then get this:

How great is that? Let’s do that again. Let’s say I want to see all my buttons: In the “embellishments” category, I will first choose “buttons” and get this:

Then, if I click on “blue” in the embellishment color section, I will get this:

Now, you can see why I like to take the time to tag my embellishments with a color. J Also, for each author’s name, I also include the website they are associated with (i.e. Neal, Audrey – scrapinstyletv.com) on their name label.

The Process

So here’s how I do it:

I’ve set up a series of folders and sub-folders. I have a folder called (no surprise here) “Scrapbooking”. Within that folder, I have the following folders: New downloads to unzip; Digi Kits – unzipped; Digi Kits – zip files. I also have MANY more, but we will only concern ourselves with these three.

Always download digital elements into “New downloads to unzip” folder. Then they won’t be mixed up with stuff you’ve already unzipped.

Next, I unzip/extract newly downloaded files into specific author and/or design site sub-folders I have set up in my “Digi Kits – unzipped” folder. For example: SIStv => Neal, Audrey => Morning Glory. If an author is not associated with a particular website, then I will have a folder just for him/her – okay, her - with her kits as subfolders within. For authors that I only have an occasional, random download from, I have a “miscellaneous” folder and then a sub-folder for each author within. And that’s a detailed as my “Digi Kits – unzipped” folder gets. (It’s like a thousand “closets”!)

Before filing away the zip folder into my “Digi Kits – zip files” folder, I will make a list/note of the author/kit name that I just unzipped. Otherwise, I’ll forget and then that kit will never make it into my organizer. What a waste!

Open my PSE Organizer

Using my list of new downloads, I go to “file” => “get photos and videos” => “from files or folders”

Select the folder that contains the elements you want to categorize and then click “get photos” and all the jpg, png, tiff and psd files (or whatever you have determined) contained in the folder that you’ve selected will then appear in the organizer viewer.

The FIRST thing I do now is select ALL the images (“Ctrl A”) and, with them selected, right-click on the author’s name in the organizer bin (on the right). If this is a new kit (or even a new author) I’m tagging, I will create a new subfolder as well and, with my “Ctrl” button held down, select that keyword tag also. Then, when I right-click with BOTH author and kit name selected, I choose the bottom option, “attach selected keyword tags to * selected item(s)”. The image will now have a tag for both the author and the author’s kit. I DO tag the preview pages. Viewing just your preview pages can be a great way to start the process of searching for what elements you’d like to use.

Going to each individual image in the viewer I select that image and then, holding down the “Ctrl” button, I select all the keyword tags that might describe my item, including color if it’s an embellie or paper. Many images will get put in several categories. If you can’t see the detail on something very well, double-click the image and it will be enlarged (you can only do this for one image at a time). I like to do my papers this way because then I can really see what pattern and colors they are and tag them accordingly.

The tagging process may seem tedious, but it gives me the chance to get very familiar with the images/elements that I’ve just downloaded. The key is to do this process each time you download a new kit. If you wait until you have a ton, it will be an overwhelming process.

Also, if there’s an element in a kit that you don’t care for and that you know you’ll never use, why bother to tag it at all? In fact, you should ask yourself if you even want to keep it on your hard drive taking up space.

Now What?

Each time I go to create a digital layout, I open up my photos first and then I open up the organizer to see which elements I’d like to use. If I’m highlighting a new collection from SIStv, you can see how useful this organizer is. It’s as if I have each element of the collection lying on a table in front of me and I can just choose the elements I’d like to use. This makes all the “trouble” of organizing SO totally WORTH IT!

I simply pick my category, select all the elements I might like to use (by holding down the “ctrl” key as I go) and, then, when I’m ready, I right-click on any of the selected elements and choose “full edit” from the drop-down box. This will load all of my selected items right into the Photoshop Elements Editor.

What could be easier? Of course, if I want something else, I can come right back to the Organizer and choose. Once I’m done with something up in the Editor, I close it, being sure NOT to save any changes (like re-coloring) that I’ve made to the element. Easy peasy.

Adding Albums

Remember how I said I’ve chosen not to store my photos in the organizer? Well, I’m always changing and re-arranging (also easy to do in the organizer) and I’ve decided that it would be a good idea to start marking certain photos for scrapping as I upload them to my computer. (The old memory is “beginning” to fail me, you know?) I’m going to do that by creating albums in the organizer.

By clicking the green “+” sign under “albums” I can choose new album. I admit that I’m new to using the albums, but I do think I’d like my photos separated from my digital elements and putting them in albums (instead of creating a new keyword tag category) will do that.

I’ve created three albums: Events, Moments and People

Now I’ll select some photos from a recent picnic we had. They will be brought into the organizer the same way all the other elements were brought in.

Some of the photos may go into two different albums. Once I do scrap any of these photos, I will remove them from the albums (which, again, will not remove them from my hard drive).

After I download new photos onto my hard drive, I will most commonly import them into Picasa (a great little photo editing program, free, from Google). And that’s fine for looking at them and basic editing. But if I’m going to scrap them, I’m going to want to do my finer editing in Photoshop Elements. So, the beauty of marking my scrap-worthy photos and bringing them into the PSE Organizer is that the next time I want to digi scrap, I can just open my organizer, select my photo(s) and digital elements and go right to the Editor from there.

Your Turn!

I hoped I’ve inspired you to make use of your PSE Organizer. Or maybe you’ve gotten some ideas for better organizing within the program you already have.

If you have any questions about organizing, please feel free to pm me at SIStv or email me at janlbinpa@hotmail.com. Organizing is one of my favorite subjects! And, if you have any great tips or suggestions of your own for organizing, please feel free to share by leaving them in the comments! Now, go forth and organize!

Free To A Good Home

Printable Tags!
Just Print & Scrap!
Download KAT_SIStv_retrotags_1.pdf

How to Photograph Your Layouts

I think one of the questions I get asked most often is how do you photograph your layouts.....so I'll give you a little run down of what I do. Give you some hints and maybe answer some questions you've had on the subject.

The first thing you have to remember when photographing anything, THERE HAS TO BE LIGHT. You really can't get around this, whether it be natural or you have a studio with high tech gear. This is really the key when doing any kind of detailed photos of crafts, projects or scrap book pages. SO being that probably most of us DON'T have a studio just photograph our layouts here are some simple tips to get the results you want.

1. Indirect light is best, and you really want that light source to be natural if at all possible. Don't put your project DIRECTLY in the light rays. Just like when we photograph people being in the bright light created unwanted shadows and can distort the true color.

For example, look at these two photos. The top photo was taken in DIRECT light, right next to the window. Do you see how the photograph looks blown out and the colors seem really washed and faded...

Now look at this second image, it was taken in INDIRECT light, there is rich color and the detailed spots of the photo are crisp. I focused on the fabric fringe at the top of the layout in this photo so you could see the difference...

2. If you can avoid it, DON'T take photos of your layouts flat...

prop them up, ALL layouts look SO MUCH better propped up so we can see them...

And while your at it, try and put things in the photo that play off the colors in your layouts, if you aren't going to prop right around the edges. It just gives the layout more interest and makes them pop.

3.Don't get too close! We all get carried away sometimes, we wanna get the details shots just perfect, but sometimes getting closer is not better. If you have a DSLR camera, know your focus distances for your lenses. If you have a point and shoot, it is the same for you too, you can get too close as well. If you have Photo Shop, trust me it's WAY easier to take a sharp crisp shot farther away and crop it than it is to go back and re-shoot all the photos that you just took. Look at these two photos...

The first is way too close and as a result, BLURRRRRRRRR.......YUCK!!

The second photo, I eased back and let the camera lens do the work. I got a much more crisp detailed shot.

I will also tell you that I have a macro lens and I choose not to use it for photographing my layouts, it's just too detailed and can leave the viewer wondering what exactly they are looking at.

4. Lastly, know how to adjust your WHITE BALANCE. Most camera now have a way to adjust the white balance even the simpler point-n-shoots. When you look at these two photos compare the color. The first has the WRONG white balance, it's too blue and not very appealing.

But, the second has the correct white balance and the result is an eye pleasing color combination. The reds are RED, pinks are PINK and so on...

The most important thing I could ever say about photographing ANYTHING is just practice! Take photos of everything in your house at different times of the day and from different angles, you'll really get to know your camera and you'll be a pro at photographing any layout or project.

xo
sar

Easy Interweaving Layering

Hi there! Divian here with a really quick, easy and simple digital scrapbooking tutorial.

In this post you will learn how to realistically use all of those fabulous wrapping ribbons, twines and other elements that you sometimes may want to 'weave' onto your layout.  Although I am using a ribbon in this tutorial, you can easily use this technique with little thin strips of paper.

You begin by adding each layer to your layout.  Just standard piling it on in the places you would like.

I started with this.

I am finished except I would love to have something weaving in and out of the letters in 'Create'.

So after selecting the ribbon/element you would like, simply place it on top of the letters.

 

Now, you want to duplicate the element you just added.  You do this by going over the the layer in the layers pallete and right clicking and choosing 'Duplicate Layer'.  Now you have 2 layers of the same thing.

You want to click and hold the duplicate layer in the layer's panel and drag it underneath the letters.

You now have one of the elements on top of the letters and one underneath it.

After this, select the layer that is on top of the letters.

Use your erase tool and erase the parts that would not be showing if under the letters.

   

Super easy right!  It may take adjusting the erase tool size, and carefully going in and erasing parts of the top layer that would normally be underneath the object.  But once it is done you have the perfect digi-interweaving that is very simple and easy to achieve!

Hope you have fun trying this out! If you do, please link me here so I can see how you used it! Be creative, this is not just for ribbons, it can apply to so much more!

What's New This Week at the SIStv Digi Boutique?

There's so much fun new stuff at the SIStv Digital Boutique! Whether you're a full-on digital scrapbooker, or you just want some quick printables, the boutique has something for you. From blog banners to word art to ATC printables to full digital collections, check it out:

Are you itching to make a summer-y banner for your blog, but just don't know how or don't have the time? Our own Bre Wiebe has designed this cute Summer Blog Banner. She's designed the banner in several different sizes, so one will be sure to fit your blog:

        

Even if you didn't purchase SIStv's recent Girly Girl off the runway collection you'll want to get these adorable Girlie Girl Word Art creations by Michelle Clement. Add to your digi page or go hybrid by printing on a transparency or paper to add to your paper layout:

      

Michelle has also designed, exclusively for SIStv, this whimsical and funky digital collection called Grow, Forest Grow. I just took a photo of an amazing toadstool this morning and I KNOW I'm going to have to use this fun collection to scrap that photo! This is a big collection with lots of goodies! I especially love the trees and the small bracket papers:

      

Fashionista extraordinaire, Kayla Aimee Terrell has created two bright and useful printable pages in pdf format for SIStv. The first is a set of calling cards - "Call Me" - that you can personalize as desired. These can be printed on your choice of paper and cut out or they can be printed on purchased business card sheets that can be run through your printer. SO cute!:

    

   

Kayla Aimee has also created these fabulous and useful ATC backs called "Trade Me" in both color and black/white. I printed the colored set out on a sheet of marbelized paper, cut them to size and adhered them to the back of my 7 gypsies ATC cards:

    

   

(And, yes, I'm just now getting caught up on my April weekly ATC's! Am I the only one behind on everything?): 

Finally, Melanie Moor has created for us two gorgeous collections. The first is called Romance and will make you want to get out all your girly and/or romantic photos:

    

Melanie also offers a beautiful collection of digital patterned papers called Shabby Girl. The colors remind me of summer and a freshly cut watermelon, with a touch of shabby chic. YUM!:

    

For just a few dollars all of these recent offerings can be yours! Visit the SIStv Digital Boutique and get your digi scrap on!

Wish You Were Here: Hybrid Postcard Challenge

By Cathy Pascual, Digi/Hybrid Fashionista

With the price of gas skyrocketing, I bet lots of SISters are staying at home this summer. I for one have no tropical getaways planned any time soon. Hawaii will have to wait another year :(

But that doesn't mean I have to give up one of my favorite vacation pastimes. You know the one. Lazily sipping a tropical drink or iced coffee or [insert your favorite summer drink here] in a cafe or bar or sandy beach and scribbling a few postcards to family and friends....telling them all the fun things you are seeing and doing....wishing they were "here."

On occasion, I would even write postcards to myself. As a travel journal. When I was in Australia a few years ago, I wrote one every few days, addressing them to myself. And when I got home, I had a succinct account of my trip without lugging around a journal. Plus the postcard itself (postmarked stamp and all) was a unique souvenir of every city I visited.

So if you are staying home this year ("staycation" seems to be this year's buzzword) or even if you forgot to send postcards while you were away, I have the perfect quick and easy hybrid challenge for you:

HYBRID POSTCARDS.

SUPPLIES:

All you need are:

• photos of your trip/staycation. If you are staying at home, take shots of the local beach, park, zoo or even your backyard. Pick your most picturesque photo(s). Something that will entice the recipient of your postcard to visit YOU. Or if you forgot to send postcards during your latest summer vacation, choose your best shots. It's not too late to send a postcard about your trip.
• photo editing software (if you would like to edit your photos or add text)
• printer (it's a hybrid challenge after all)
• adhesive
• photo paper
• cardstock (for writing message and address on the back)
• paper trimmer/scissors
• journaling pen

Before we start, there are a couple things you need to know.

If you plan on mailing your postcard, you need to know some measurements. According to the USPS, a postcard is: a rectangular cardstock mailpiece not contained in an envelope with a length: 5 - 6 inches and height: 3 1/2 - 4 1/4 inches. So you could get away with sending a regular 4" x 6" photo as long as you mounted it on cardstock first to make it sturdy enough to go through the mail.

If you intend to keep your postcards - which I am going to do - size isn't an issue. Go crazy :)

Here how I made mine.

1. Choose your photos. Although I've already been to the park countless of times, the beach, a strawberry festival and local art museum, I discovered that my most summery shots were captured right in my backyard. Just steps away from my house, a grassy green lawn and the cool shade of a tree was all I needed to relax. So, I chose photos of a cool glass of water, a colorful beach towel, the green canopy of a tree and my daughter Sofi dressed in a sundress. Edit  your photos as you normally would. Convert one to black and white for contrast.
2. Open a blank document in Photoshop (or other photo editing software). The size of your document should be a length of 5 - 6 inches and a height: 3 1/2 - 4 1/4 inches (the size of a standard postcard). Drag 2-3 photos onto blank document. NOTE: Instead of using ONE photo per card (which you could do to make it even simpler), I wanted to layer a few images together. So I paired a shot of a water glass on top of a rainbow towel with a black white close-up of the same towel. And a self-portrait of me lying on the towel with a shot of the tree shading me from the sun. And finally three photos of my daughter Sofi enjoying the shady refuge on the porch. I cropped and resized my photos as needed.
3. Add text. In keeping with the minimalist theme, I added a single word ("cool", "calm" and "collected" to each postcard in an understated font (Geosanlight). Of course you could add any message you would like - the name of your city, a personal message etc. For an airy look, reduce the opacity of your text (in the layers palette). Merge photo and text layers. (In Photoshop, select both layers and hit CTRL + E.)

   

4. Print your cards. To print mine, I dragged all three cards on to an 8.5" x 11" blank document. I had to move them around a bit to make them all fit. Then I printed on photo paper (glossy or matte). I used matte, but I recommend glossy if you plan to mail it.

   

5. Add a postcard back for message and address. Adding another piece of cardstock to the back of your photo will make your postcard sturdier. It will also give you a place for the mailing address and a short message. As a special gift, I created a simple "postcard back" for you! You can either download the PNG file - which will allow you to resize/recolor as you desire or the PDF  version which you can simply print out (it will fit standard postcard sizes.) Print on card stock or a heavier weight photo paper. Using your photo as a guide, cut the postcard backs to size and adhere to photo (back to back). Trim any excess.

   

Download PNG file here:

Download postcardbacksistvhybridchallenge7708_copy.png

Download printable PDF here:

Download CPascual_postcardBACK7708SIStvchal.pdf

And there you have it. A fun way to use some of your favorite summer shots!

And if you don't end up mailing these babies to your family or friends there are lots of things you could do with them:

• Mail them them to yourself. This will give it a nice aged look - LOL. You will also get a neat postmark!
• Make several and bind them into a mini book or journal. Use the backs to journal, add embellishments or other ephemera.
• Make a set of 10 or more, tie it with bow and give it away as a gift.
• Pin them to your bulletin board, refrigerator or wall for inspiration.

So I challenge you to make one (ore more) hybrid postcards. Link me up to your creations here at the digi blog  and I'll choose one winner to receive a $5 gift certificate from the SIStv Boutique!

Deadline: I will give you until Monday, July 21.

Have fun and please let me know if you have any questions: cayla73@yahoo.com.

xo Cathy

SIStv Online Slumber Party Goodie Bag Part Five

Another lovely recipe card! You simply print it out one one sheet of paper, fold it in half, and staple or glue the two sides together! Easy peasy!

Download your printable version here:
Download KAT_SISTv_RECIPECARD_FREEBIE2.pdf

SIStv Online Slumber Party Goodie Bag Part Four

Fruit Snacks!
Downloadable fruit snack circle tags to add a fresh feel to your pages, card, or kitchen!

Download your printable file here (this one has the cutting guides):
Download KAT_SIStv_circletags2_fruit.pdf

SIStv Online Slumber Party Goodie Bag Part Three

Printable Circle Tags! Use them on your scrapbook pages, or as gift tags, buttons, or even to cover up your bingo board later...

Download the printable set here:
Download KAT_SISTV_circletags_1.pdf