Digital Scrapbooking and Photography

SIStv Online Slumber Party Goodie Bag Part Two

Use this 3x5 recipe card to keep your recipes from today's slumber party stylin!
Don't like to cook? Send 'em to your friends who do!

Download the printable version here:
Download KAT_SISTv_RECIPECARD_FREEBIE.pdf

Front:

Back:

SIStv Online Slumber Party Goodie Bag Part One

Download part one of your printable goodie bag here!
Download KAT_SISTV_3x5_CARDSET_CG_VL1.pdf

Use these 3x5 cards as greeting cards, gift cards, or as accents on your scrapbook page!
Check back throughout the day for additions to the goodie bag!

Subtle Glamour Photo Editing

I take a lot of photos.  Sometimes I am quite pleased with capturing the natural color and beauty and other times, I find it fun to tweak and play around with all the different effects that Photoshop and simple editing techniques can bring about.

Sometimes I want a photo to be a bit dreamy...sometimes I want the photo to be soft and light, casting a somewhat subtle and fantastical look.  In this tutorial, I will show you a very simple and easy way to create a softness to a subject in your photos.  This technique can be kicked up a couple of notches and create the 'dreamy, starry' look that you see so often of celebrities on the top fashion magazines as well.

We begin with the photo. My photo was quite grainy when it came to my son's skin.  I really wanted to fix that so the photo when printed would be high quality.

**Click the images to view them at a larger size**

After you have opened the photo, you just need to go the layers panel on the left and right click on the layer, choosing Duplicate.

Now, you have 2 layers in the layer panel.

Now, having the duplicate layer highlighted in the Layer Panel, go to Filter--Noise--Dust & Scratches

This will give you a pop up so that you can adjust the amount of Noise. I use a setting of 5.

After you have that set, you will notice, that the noise has been applied to that top layer of the photo.  It looks a bit like this:

Now, that we have the noise, let's bring on the Blur.  Go to Filter--Blur--Gaussian Blur

Another pop up and you can make the adjustments to how blurry you would like the photo to be.  5 seems good but anything above 7 would be setting it too high.

Notice how there is now an obvious blur on the photo.

Now, let's hide the blur and noise we added.  What we want to do, is hide it so that it is under the original photo.  Then we can 'paint' the parts of the photo which we want to be 'soft'.

Layer--Layer Mask--Hide All

Now that all that is out of the way, let's start to have fun.

Choose the Paint Brush tool and make sure the foreground is changed from Black to White.  Also, adjust the opacity to about 30-40...the higher the setting, the more softening it will do.  For this photo, which was a bit grainy, I just want to slightly soften it, so I choose a lower opacity.  For more dramatic results, like getting rid of creases in the skin wrinlkles, blemishes, you can go higher.

Now you can 'paint'.  Just go over the face, arms, body and paint.  You will notice how the skin will soften and smooth out.

Once you are done, you can see the difference.

Here is my before...

Remember to click the image to view it full sized.

And here is my after...

When viewing them at a larger size, you can noticeably tell the subtle softness and how I have smoothed out some of the grainy look of the original photo. 

With a higher opacity it really makes for dramatic photos on adults.  I have used it on some of my photos for a 'glamour shot' look and loved the results of that dreamy fantasy feel to the photo.

Here is a better example...notice the obvious grainy-ness.

Here is a light version of using the technique we just learned.

And here is a more dramatic, with higher opacity.

Hope this simple and easy technique helps you to fix up some minor imperfections on your photos, remember you can use it to get rid of blemishes, removed lines, or just like in this photo, get rid of grainy-ness!

Happy editing!

   

Bump It Up...30 Second Photo Fix

Bump It Up….Thirty Second Photo Fix

So you took a picture and despite your best attempts making sure your settings were correct you ended up with something that looks much different than what the human eye was seeing at the time of the photo was taken.

In this tutorial we will take a basic & quick look at what you can do by bumping your Levels in Photoshop CS2 with the help of the Histogram. You can access the Histogram in your image editing software as well as on board your digital Point & Shoot camera as most digital cameras on the market now have built-in Histograms to help you see the Exposure/Tonal Range of the photo as the camera is reading it, thus giving you an edge to make some adjustments to correct for improper exposure before you take the photo. And, fear not if you don’t have PSCS2, pretty much every image editing software package offers the ability to tweak your Levels and access the Histogram for your Post Production Processing. So, let’s get this photo tweaking show on the road.

Saving The Overexposed:

OK, so, for this example you don’t need the Histogram to tell you this shot is Overexposed (OE). So OE there are areas that are “blown” which means the details are lost and can’t be recovered during Post Processing (PP). Luckily for me, the blown area of this shot doesn’t effect the outcome b/c it’s not the focal point of the picture and is just in the reflection of the cellophane wrapper towards the bottom of the photo.

Notice on the Histogram all the information is skewed heavily to the right which indicates OE. Or if you have a lot of whites/lights your Histogram will skew to the left. If the Histogram was in reverse & the info was skewed heavily to the right the photo would be Underexposed (which is sometimes a good thing) or contain a lot of darks or black.

Let’s do some tweaking……

In Photoshop we will be using “Adjustment Layers” so  we make all our adjustments to a separate layer above our original & don’t actually damage the original image. In your Layers Palette click on the Half White/Half Black circle to create a new Adjustment Layer. A pop-up menu will appear – click “Levels” and a window will open with a Histogram where we will do our tweaking.

In the Channel Drop Down box you’ll see a list of Options which are: RGB, Red, Green & Blue. First we will tweak our Reds.

Now onto the tweaking of our Green Channel.

Now let’s move to the Blue Channel.

I moved the Blues just a hair to give them a tiny bit more lightness. Also, take notice of the Histogram in the upper right corner and how it is slightly more evened out with each Channel we tweak. It will remain heavy on the right side because of the many light colors in the photo itself. Now we will just finish up with our RGB Channel for one last tweak.

And finally, the RGB Channel Tweak.

So with the above tweaks to Levels, this Overexposed photo has gone from blah to wow in less than 30 seconds thanks to our handy Histogram!

Before:

After:

If you go back and look at each screen shot as we bumped the Levels you will see the main Histogram window changing slightly to represent a more even photo & color information. By this happening our photo looks much better exposed and has much better color distribution through out.

Keep in mind that while my personal preferences lead me to like the end result of this photo tweak, there may be many who say it’s all wrong and not “correct”. Being the project I made at Silver Bella is at my house I know what the true in real life colors are and what the blues should look like to best represent the “real thing”. Also, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and depending on your personal style & tatstes you may like a very dark photo for added drama or a light photo to convey a happy & light feeling….it’s all up to you and your tastes. Now go get into your image editing software and start bumping those levels…you will be shocked at what you can do in less than a minute.

A little tip for using the Histogram on your camera. Having your photo slightly Underexposed is much better and forgiving than having it Overexposed as once those details are blown out you can not get them back. But, if your photo is Underexposed, more often than not that information & detail can be brought back to life by lightening the photo up a little….

Don’t be afraid of not doing it right, just get out there and create, it should be fun & reflect who you are, not what everyone else is doing.

You can download a PDF of this tutorial for easy reading and future reference right here:

Download jayner_61608sisbump_it_up.pdf .

Have fun and feel free to PM me with any questions you may have.

~jayne

a.k.a. NellieRose

Hybrid Tutorial: Dress Me Up/Creating Chipboard Girl Embellies from Digi Elements

By Cathy Pascual

A big trend in the design of digital scrapbook papers and embellishments is to make things look as “real” and three-dimensional as possible. For example, there are papers that look distressed or folded or inked. Embellishments that pop off the page. There are so many gorgeous digital scrapbook pages out there that could easily be mistaken for physical paper pages. (To see what I mean, check out Fashionista Divv's portfolio! Her pages never fail to astound me with their realism and overall amazing-ness!!)

This trend is a good thing for hybrid scrappers. A very good thing. Especially for those of us who like to print out digital elements to use on our pages. Much of the work to make the digital element realistic looking and dimensional has already been done for us. A perfect example of this is the adorable chipboard couple in Audrey Neal’s digital kit ICONIC (this kits coordinates with the May Style Phyle iCon). I love that it already looks like painted chipboard with distressed edges. One less step that I have to worry about.

For this tutorial I created a hybrid layout featuring the girl chipboard figure from Audrey’s kit. Using Photoshop, I will show you how to customize this digital element to create a unique hybrid embellishment. We will be dressing her up digitally (with photos, digital papers, etc.) and then adding the final touches with real ribbon, alphas and ink. You can add her to your hybrid scrapbook page, card or any other crafty project.

And here's a peek at the hybrid page I created. I will take you step by step on how to create this page as well as a bonus project for the kids!!! All you have to do is click here to download the PDF tutorial.

In addition to Audrey's kit, I used Bre Wiebe's Printable Alpha Bits and Stephanie Wheeler's (aka TheLivingRoomFloor) Woodgrain Love Paper Set to make my hybrid page.

Both of these digi products are so versatile and can be used again and again. Who wouldn't want an endless supply of mini alphas and woodgrain paper? So be to check them out at the SIStv Digital Boutique!

As always I would love to see your work! Please link me up here or PM me at sis (cayla73). And please let me know if you have any questions. I'll do my best to answer them!

Have a great Monday!

New Products in the Digital Boutique!

Check it out, SIStv now has FONTS!

And super cute new accessories:
 

Plus some fabulous new printable papers:

Some totally cute alphabets:

And some new digital collections!

Plus we have that awesome Flea Market Studio Collection by Shabby Miss Jenn. Did you know that it comes with three different printable quickpages to make a cool little bracket album?

I have to say, this is all way more fabulous than the fab life of Kimora Lee Simmons. Check it out over in the SIStv Digital Boutique!

using & creating clipping masks

Hi everyone, kl here! :D

Today i'm going to show you a quick and simple way to create and use clipping masks with your digital or scanned photos. It's an easy way to use shapes and digital brushes to add some extra dimension and it only takes a few minutes once you learn the basics.

For this tutorial i'll be using photoshop 7.0, a self created clipping mask, a picture of my little girl madison as well as a file folder element from Audrey Neal's file 13 digital kit available {{here}}.

step one : open a new document in photoshop and size accordingly. for this tutorial, i sized mine at 6x4 for a landscape view, but you can size larger or smaller depending on the size of your photo. i also set a resolution of 300 dpi as i prefer working with a larger resolution for photos and digital elements, which is standard for most digital work.

 

step two : dulpicate layer by right clicking in your layers tab {usually on the right of the ps desktop} and choosing duplicate. you can name this layer if desired, but i usually just click ok. then unclick the eye icon so this duplicate layer is invisible. this will help so you can move your layers around.

step three : fill your canvas with black color using the paint bucket tool.

step four : to create the pattern you can use two different techniques.

technique one : i used a simple dot brush to make a random pattern on my canvas. i used several different sizes so feel free to play and experiment.choose the magic wand tool and erase each dot so it becomes transparent in these areas. 

 

technique two : you could also use your eraser tool when using more complicated brushes, like flourishes and detailed images like the eiffel tower brush i created {{here}}. by layering the brushes you can create some amazing borders and effects.

step five : open your picture and size accordingly, again i'm using a landscape photo at 6x4 with a resolution of 300 dpi.

step six : we're going to drag our photo from it's canvas into our clipping mask canvas. choose the move tool and drag your photo by first left clicking onto the image and then hold the button down as you drag the image across and drop it into the clipping mask canvas. then unclick.

step seven : your canvas should now look similar to the picture below.

step eight : click on the photo and center it into your canvas as seen above. now check your layers palette on the right hand side {on the lower right in my screen shot} and make sure your image is the very top layer and that it is highlighted.

step nine : use the short cut key {{ctrl+g}} to clip the mask onto the image. this will create a cut out with whatever border and/or brushes you have used. you will also notice there is a little arrow  pointing down in the highlighted image layer on the right.

step ten : save your image. i always save my clipping mask images as .png files. this allows me to use them on my layouts and projects and keeps the transparent areas clear.

step eleven : your clipped image is complete as seen below.

you can also use a premade image, like this file folder element from audrey neal's file 13 digital kit. simply follow steps 5 - 11.

and again, a fun and simple way to alter your pictures for layouts, hybrid projects and even images you use in your blog posts.

you can also print out the full instructions in a pdf file {{here}}

feel free to post a comment here is you have any additional questions and i'll do my best to email you with any help i can offer.

Happy Monday!
xoxo
kl

 

Smash-Up Banner Tutorial with Digi Masking Technique

May 12, 2008
by Jan Barlow

I just love those little banners I've been seeing on layouts and cards lately and I thought it would be fun to make some all “smashed up” (SIStv’s coined term for “hybrid” scrapping which is the mixing of digital and “real” scrapbooking papers and elements).

                   

(See more images here)

For this little project, I used Photoshop Elements 6.0. If you don’t have PSE, did you know that you can download a free 30-day trial (full program) from the Adobe website?

You may ask, "why smash this up, Jan? Wouldn’t it be easier to just cut a triangle out of my patterned paper?” My answer is, “sure, you can. But, do you really want to cut up a whole beautiful sheet of paper for a few diamond or triangle shapes when you can just draw a PERFECT diamond shape in PSE, mask it with your choice of digi paper, and make as many copies, with as many papers, as you’d like?” I’m gonna stop with the quote marks now since it’s me that’s going to be ‘talking” to you the rest of the time anyway.

                  

(See more images here)

Okay - in ADDITION to showing you how to make a cute embellie for your projects, I do have an ulterior motive here, and that is to show you how to digitally "mask" any solid shape that you either brush or draw or type with a digi patterned paper. It's fun. It's magical. It's addicting!

For your convenience, I've created a pdf file containing all these instructions which you can download and print out:
Download JBarlow_Banner-MaskingTut_05-12-08.pdf

For this project you will need:

Photo editing software (I used PSE6)
Digital papers (I chose Audrey Neal's "bluegrid", "greengrid" and "kraftblue" papers from her
     "File 13" Collection)
White cardstock (I used textured for a nice, um, textured effect)
Adhesive (I used a Zig 2-Way glue pen, Tacky glue and Xyron machine)
Ink pad (for distressing edges)
Sandpaper
Scissors
Hole punch
Fiber - ribbon, cord, twine, etc.

For those of you with some knowledge of digi scrapping, you can just follow the bold instructions. Additional instructions are underlined. And, for the most detail, just continue reading.

Let's get started!

Step 1 - Create a blank canvas

(All shortcuts are Photoshop Elements, i.e. PSE). Open your photo editing program and create a new blank document by clicking on the "Ctrl" key and the "N" (for "new"). Specify a size of 8.5 inches width and 11 inches height, a resolution of 300, RGB color and a white background. This will give you a white "canvas" so to speak, to drop your artwork onto and later print out.

         

Step 2 - Drawing Diamonds on a Grid

Turn on the grid by going to "view" in the top toolbar and checking "grid". Each large square on the grid equals one inch and the smaller squares equal a quarter inch.

Before drawing, hit "Ctrl D" (for default) to make sure your foreground/background colors are black/white.

Right-click on the shape tool in the tools section on the left of the page and select "custom shape tool" (heart). (If you hover over each tool with your mouse, the tool's name will pop up.) In the "shape" box at the top (to the right of the heart), click the little arrow to open the fly-out box and then click on the double arrows on the top right edge to open another fly-out box where you can detail the image you're looking for. Choose "shapes" in the alphabetical listing.

    
                       turn on grid                                                custom shape selection tool

In the shapes box, select the filled diamond shape by double-clicking on it. Draw your diamond to about 3 inches long and 1-1/2 inches wide. Of course, the size of the diamond should be relative to the size of the project you're putting the banner on.

                               

Before we go any further, since we will be using these shapes for clipping masks, we will need to simplify this layer that we've just created. This will take the diamond from a shape drawn on a sheet of paper, to a moveable object with a transparent background. Kind of the difference between a drawing and a cut-out.

To simplify the layer, right-click on the diamond layer in your layers palette and choose "simplify layer" from the drop-down menu. You will see the background of the diamond thumbnail go from solid to "checkered". The checkered background indicates transparency in PSE.

Now let's turn off the grid by going to "view" again and checking "grid" again. When the grid is showing, anything that you place on your canvas will "snap to" the guide lines. This is great for aligning photos and objects, but not so much when you just want to nudge things into place, as we will with our next diamond shape.

We're now going to duplicate our diamond shape. Select your "move" tool (see red arrow, below) and with your mouse on the diamond shape, hold down your "alt" key and you will then see a shadowed cursor appear. This means you are about to make a copy onto a new layer. Before you move the cursor, and while you are still holding down the "alt" key, also hold down the "shift" key. Keeping these two keys held down, click and drag your mouse to the right and you will see a new diamond shape. Holding down the "shift" key during the copying process enables you to move the duplicated object in a perfectly straight line up or down from the original. Adjust your new diamond so that it is next to the old one with a little space between. You'll notice in your layers palette on the right that PSE has made a new layer for the new diamond. Now, go ahead and make two more diamonds the same way so that you have four diamonds in a row.

Step 3 - Make a Clipping Mask

With our diamonds on a transparent (or simplified) background, we have now made shapes that we can use as clipping masks. In PSE lingo, this pretty much means that you can clip another digital element, usually a pp or a photo, to this shape.

To continue, we will open up 3 patterned papers (pp's). Because of the small shapes that we are using, I suggest a pp with a small scale pattern, or else you won't be able to detect the pattern. I chose Audrey Neal's "bluegrid", "greengrid" and "kraftblue" pp's from her "File 13" collection. I will be using the papers in the same order as just mentioned.

You can open your papers by clicking "ctrl" plus "O" (for open) and browsing to the file where your digi pp's have been stored. Choose your 3 pp's and click "open". (If you hold the "ctrl" key, you can make a multiple selection.) You will see the pp's appear in the project bin underneath the main screen, as well as in the main screen.

My blue pp is on the top of the stack that I just loaded, so I will move the blue pp to the background canvas. In your layers palette, click on your first diamond layer. Now, when we pull in the pp, it will come in just on top of the first diamond shape. Go back to the main screen and, with your "move" tool still selected, click and drag the blue pp down onto the "untitled" document in your project bin at the bottom of your page, under the main screen, as shown below, left.

 

You will notice that the edge of the blue pp extends outside of the background canvas. Let's resize the blue pp, so that the pattern is smaller for our diamond. Drag the paper so that the top left corner aligns with the top left corner of the background canvas. Then click on the bottom right little square of the bounding box and drag the paper up so it fits just at the right edge of the background canvas, as shown above, right. It will be shorter than the background, but that's okay - it won't show. Click the green arrow to commit the size change. Now we're ready to clip the blue paper on the 1st diamond shape in one easy move.

In the layers palette, you will see the blue pp above the 1st diamond layer. Place your mouse cursor at the border right in between the pp and the diamond layers and then hit the "alt" key. You will see a symbol that looks kind of like an "8" with an arrow to the left. That means you are about to clip the top layer onto the bottom layer.

     

Go ahead and click with your mouse while that symbol is showing and - to da! - your pp is now clipped to the diamond shape. See it up in the main screen? Cool, huh?

             

Let's go ahead and duplicate your pp layer in the layers palette and clip that same pp to the 2nd diamond. Target the pp layer by clicking on it. Then, right-click and select "duplicate layer". Another blue clipped layer will appear just above the 1st blue layer. Click on the new copy and simply drag it to just above the 2nd diamond layer. Again, place your mouse cursor at the border right in between the pp and the diamond layers and then hit the "alt" key. Click with your mouse to clip the duplicated pp to the 2nd diamond. You should now have the blue pp clipped onto the 1st 2 diamonds, as shown below, left:

 

Now we will mask each of the remaining diamonds with each of the remaining papers following the exact same steps:

Click on the 3rd diamond in the layers palette. Double-click on green pp. Make sure move tool is selected. Drag green paper down onto the background canvas in the project bin. Resize the pp. Place your mouse between the green pp and 3rd diamond layers in the layers palette. Click "alt" and then click your mouse. Repeat steps for the kraft pp and 4th diamond. You will then have 4 masked diamonds as shown above, right. If you would like to further resize your pp's to get more detail of pattern, just click on the pp layer in the layers palette with the move tool selected and simply drag the corners of the pp until it's as small as you'd like. (You'll have to click the green checkmark to commit in order to see the change.)

Now you know how to mask a pp onto any shape! You can use your shape tool to draw a shape, as we did, or you can use a shape that you "brush" onto a layer, or you can even use an alphabet letter as a mask. I recommend shapes and alphies that have enough "area" to really show the clipped pp. Have FUN playing with that. And, of course, anything that you mask, if you do it on a simplified layer with a transparent background, it can just be printed out onto a white paper (as we will do) and then cut out for use on a "real" paper layout. That's what "smashing up" is all about!

Step 4 - Making Some Small Diamonds

Now we're going to make three smaller diamonds for variety in our banner. Since our diamonds are already masked with paper, this will be an easy-peasy process.

In the layers palette, click on the first blue pp layer. Now, holding the "shift" key, also click on the diamond layer below it. Make sure you have the move tool selected. On the main screen, put your mouse on the selected diamond, hit the "alt" key and drag a new masked diamond into place as you see below.

                  

Now we'll make this new diamond a little smaller. After you drag the new diamond into place, click on it and you will see the bounding box appear. Grab the corner of the bounding box and simply drag the box to a slightly smaller size. Click the green checkmark to commit the change.

Now let's make a copy of the green masked diamond and the kraft masked diamond. (Remember to select BOTH the pp and diamond layers in the layers palette at once by holding down the "shift" key.) Resize each one. They don't need to be exactly the same size. Variety is good. You should now have a row of 4 larger diamonds and a row of 3 smaller diamonds.

Step 5 - Make a Duplicate Set

I want to make some more diamonds while I'm at it and fill up our background. There's a super easy way to do this without moving each layer individually. Select your move tool. In your layers palette click on the very bottom diamond layer, hold the "shift" key, and also select the very top layer of all in the layers palette. (All but the bottom background layer.) Now ALL of the masked diamonds should be selected. You can take your cursor and move them around as a group now. Place them on the page so that there's an equal border at the top and on both sides.

Now, let's duplicate this whole top half! While pointing to the selected top half, hold down your "alt" key and "shift" key together. Then click and drag the duplicated copy down so that it fits underneath the top setion with an equal boundary on the bottom and sides. Let go and, voila, you now have 14 masked diamonds. You can click on any of the layers in the layers palette now and you'll see the individual layer become highlighted as you click on it. Wasnt that SO much easier than measuring and drawing each one individually?

                         

Step 6 - Adding Text to Masked Shapes

I want to spell out the word "romance" on 7 of the diamonds and I chose to do that on the top two rows. For the 7 diamonds I'm going to add text to, I want to first merge the 2 layers of each clipping mask together. That way I don't have to worry about accidentally moving the pp behind the mask. I do this by right-clicking on the paper layer in the layers palette and then I choose "merge down". Then click on the next pp layer, right-click and choose merge down and so forth until you have 7 patterned diamonds visible in both the layers palette and on the main screen.

Before adding the text, target (or select) the very top layer in the layers palette. This way you'll be able to see all the text, as it won't be hidden by layers over it.

It will be easier to add the text to a zoomed-in view of our main screen. Hold down the 'alt" key and roll your mouse scroller AWAY from you to zoom in. I want my text to be in white, so first, click "D" for default, which brings up the default colors of black/white for the background/foreground. Click now on "X" to switch the foreground color to white (and the background to black).

Select the "type" tool ("T") and place your cursor in about the middle of the bottom half of the 1st diamond. I chose a distressed font to give a "stamped" effect.

After you type the letter, click twice on the move tool and arrange the letter just where you would like it to be. Keep in mind that on your banner, you will only see the lower half of the diamond, as it will be folded over.

                     

Now let's put just a teeny drop shadow on that letter and it will look more like a rub-on or a sticker. In the palette bin at the top of the right side, click on "Effects", then the 2nd icon which is "Layer Styles". From the drop down box, choose drop shadows. Choose the last one in the top row - "low" (as seen below, left) and double click on it. Now scroll down to your letter in the layers palette and you will see a little "fx" on the layer.

   

Double click on the "fx" in the layer and you will get a "style settings" box, as shown, above, right. You can do quite a bit of adjustment to the drop shadow here and you can even save these settings and paste them into other layers. For the letter's drop shadow, we will key in the following 3 numbers: Size = 5, Distance = 5, Opacity = 40. That will give a nice, subtle and realistic looking shadow.

Next we'll make a copy of the letter. Select the move tool and, with the cursor on the letter, just as before, click the "alt" key and drag the letter to the next diamond. Release. Click again on "alt", drag, release. Repeat until each diamond has a letter on it for the word you want to make.

Now we will change the letters to spell the word "romance". First, make sure that in addition to the move tool being selected, you also check the "auto select layer" box (just on top of the move tool). This will help you to locate the layer your selected letter is on in the layers palette. On the main screen, click once on the letter you want to change and you will see the bounding box appear. Find the layer that has now been highlighted in the layers palette and double-click on the letter thumbnail in that layer (i.e. the actual little pictue of the "T" in the layer.) Now the letter on the main screen will be highlighted and you can simply type to change it to the appropriate letter.

Note: When I spelled out "romance", I didn't want the same colors and sizes next to each other so I mixed up the placement of the letters. Just be sure to double-check to make sure you get ALL the correct letters in the word placed where you want them. Since we copied each letter with the font, size, color and drop shadow choices already made, it was a simple matter to just change the letter.

Step 7 - Printing

       

Now, what you see on your main screen, as shown above, will be what gets printed.

Go ahead and choose print from the "file" menu. Hit print, and in preferences, select "best" for quality.

I used a textured cardstock which, of course, gave my little banner some texture.

Step 8 - Finishing Banner and Applying to Project

The letter diamonds will be folded over cording and adhered together in the finished state. For the remaining diamonds, you may choose to fold them in half as well, or you can cut each diamond in half to make two triangles that will actually be hanging freely from a cord or ribbon.

For the whole diamonds: cut each diamond out and crease in half "loosely", but don't make a hard crease at this point. If you have a Xyron machine, now is the time to send the diamonds through, re-flattened with the patterned side UP.

Choose and measure the twine or cording you want to use. (I made sure that my word would fit on an 8.5 x 11 layout way back when I sized my diamonds.) A rounded cording or twine works great with this method, but I think a thin ribbon would work as well. Remove the diamonds from the Xyron and place them on your work space with the sticky side up and be sure the letters are in the correct order. Carfully place the twine at the fold line of each diamond and then, one at a time, fold the diamonds over the twine so that the letter shows on the top and adhere.

   

When folding, make sure that the point and sides meet up. Sand or ink the edges and then further distress with the edge of a scissors, if desired. Bend 'em up a little, too. This is just my preference, as I love the shabby chic look. Also this process makes the paper a little more like fabric. Add to your project.

            

Here, you see the banner with the word "romance" along the side of the page. I wrapped the twine around to the back.

For half-diamonds: I found it easiest to start by cutting my row of diamonds in half, across, at the midpoint, giving me a block with the triangle tops at each end (shown below, left). We will be "stringing" these triangles to make the banners, so I flipped this block over and drew a pencil line where I thought I would want the holes to be punched. After drawing the line, I then finished cutting out the triangles, punched 2 holes for my ribbon or fiber, one at either end of the top of the triangle, and then distressed them, as above. You could also sew on them, stamp on them, place rubs on them - whatever your creative mind can think up.

 

Then, thread your ribbon, cord, fiber or whatever, through the holes. I find that a dental floss threader is the best as it's flexible and will fit through most holes easily. You can either wrap your ribbon around to the back of the project, or leaving a little extra, knot the end and let it hang loosely. Again, bend up your little banner to give it added dimension.

   

Then, finally, add the banner to your project! You can either keep your banner straight, like I did in the "Romance" layout, or as in the card below, let it twist and turn a little for a more whimsical effect.

       

This is SUCH a fun little project. The variations and possibilities are endless. I hope you've enjoyed learning the clipping mask technique and I hope you'll take the time to play around with adding a banner to some of your projects. I'd love to see your creations - please share them with me by emailing me at janlbinpa@hotmail.com. If you have any questions or comments, don't hesitate to pm me (pascrapgal) or email me!

xoxoxo
Jan   

Fashion (tem)'plates Tutorial

Cathy here! I hope you enjoyed all the wonderful challenges and games at SIStv this weekend! It was so much fun, wasn't it? I even hosted a SMASH-UP (hybrid) challenge. Thanks everyone for playing!

So today I'm going to share the tutorial I created for the Fashionista try-outs back in February. I created a digital layered template (aka fashion 'plates) based on one of my favorite paper layouts. Then I created a DIGITAL page and a HYBRID page using the same template.

If you are already familiar with templates, you can simply download the free template here.

If you need some tips on how to use a template, read on!

First, let’s talk about why you would want to use a layered digital template in the first place. Layered digital templates allow you to “cut” or "clip" your digital papers into the exact shapes in the template with the press of a few keys. Making it that much easier to scrapbook digitally. Think of each layer as a big die-cut that cuts your digital paper into the shape of that layer. It is a great tool for scrappers just starting out as well as more advanced ones who want to make a page quickly. And just like "sketches" made for paper scrappers you can totally change up the template to make it your own. (but I'll save that for a future tutorial).

Here's the digi page I created using Audrey Neal's Git R Done kit available (soon) in the Boutique.

Download the complete instructions to make this digital page here:
Download Page 1.
Download Page 2.
Download Page 3.

As I mentioned earlier, you can also use a digital layered template to make a HYBRID layout. It takes a bit of printing and cutting and pasting, but the pay-off is a dimensional page that you can slip into your scrapbook album along with other paper pages.

And here's the hybrid page I made:

You can download the instructions to make this hybrid page here:
Download page 4.
Download page 5.
Download page 6.

You can see how the use of physical embellishment like thickers, hand-stitching, metal clips and even a hidden journaling spot add some life to an otherwise flat digital page that you might print out.

So I hope you enjoyed the tutorial and template. Please link me up to any pages you create. I'd love to see them!

xo Cathy

Freebie for NSD!

Use this cute little birdie for Fashionista Lucy's hour!

Download it free here!

Download birdy_1_copy.png