Tutorial Tuesday (Photoshop Elements)

Changing Direction: Expanding Your Stash

PDF Version : https://bit.ly/3zUjAJc

Have you ever been cruising along, scrapping a favourite memory and wanting to use a word strip, journal blank or tag like the one shown below, but it’s pointing the wrong direction? As in, if you use it as is, you’ll have to cover up something else, the staple or other attachment will mess with your cluster or you just can’t make it fit? With the arrow tag below, you could tuck the pointy end under something else and turn it into just a word strip. But what if you could have your cake and eat it too? Let me show you what I mean.

Let’s suppose you’re creating a white space layout for the Digital Scrapbooking Day challenge hosted this year by Buzzbee Scraps. You really want to include a word strip as one of your seven elements, but the one that you like best is pointing the wrong way to work with your photo. You could just go to all the trouble of creating your own, but what if you don’t have to reinvent the wheel?

So in our hypothetical scenario, the text on the tag is perfect for your purposes. So first thing to do is make a Duplicate of the tag. You can do that in one of three ways. The one way I typically ignore is to click Layer>Duplicate Layer, which opens a dialog box asking where you want to put your Duplicate Layer. Similarly, right-clicking on the layer then choosing Duplicate Layer from the dropdown menu follows the same path. If you’d rather just be quick the keyboard shortcut is CTRL/CMD>J. That automatically adds the Copy Layer into your Layers Panel directly above the original layer. Whichever way you choose, once you have that Copy Layer in place, close the eye on it to make it invisible for now.

Make sure the original layer is active. Then use the Rectangle Marquee tool to draw a box around the text. [This is called making a Selection.] You’ll see the marching ants as you drag your cursor over the text.

Now click Edit>Fill Selection. Some would say this step and the next are unnecessary, but I like to be positive of my results. If you’re into trial-and-error, you can jump down over them.

In the dialog box, make sure Content-Aware is selected, the Blend Mode is Normal and the Opacity is 100%.

You can still see the bounding box of the Selection, which will disappear by clicking CTRL/CMD>D. [editor’s note: What if you want to change the text? Now that you’ve done these steps, you can! Just use the Text Tool to type out your new words.]

If you skipped the previous two steps, come on back in. To change direction of the arrow click Image>Rotate>Flip Layer Horizontal.

Time to go back to the Copy Layer. Open the eye to return it to view and again, using the Rectangle Marquee Tool, draw a Selection box around the text.

Click Edit>Copy or CTRL/CMD>C to Copy the Selected text. Elements will put this Cut bit on its own layer.

Drop back to the original layer and click Edit>Paste or CTRL/CMD>V to Paste the text onto the flipped tag.

Um. Yeah. Elements just drops things wherever it wants. But that’s an easy fix. I’ll use the right arrow key on my keyboard to nudge it into place.

There! It Looks like it belongs.

All that’s left is to Merge the two layers: the original (now flipped) layer and the text layer. Activate the two layers then right-click>Merge Layers, OR CTRL/CMD>E. And you’ve got a brand-new word strip. Just delete the Copy Layer and you’re good to go.

I’m probably upgrading my laptop in the next little while, which means I’ll have to adapt to Windows 11. 🙁  But this one is slowing down, and the skin on many of the most used keys has peeled off. (I know, right?) Hubby wants a new CPU, sound card and graphics card for his desktop computer so a new laptop is my quid pro quo… I’ll have to be in the right headspace to transfer all my software and folders, so it might not be all that soon. 😉

 

Designer Spotlight October 2024

Cheré Kaye Designs

It’s still October, right? I can’t be the only one finding that time is compressing, am I? Before any more of this month disappears on me, let’s get to know Cheré Kaye!

We had a chance to chat last week. I’ll paraphrase our get-acquainted session for you.

J: Thanks for being willing to let me pick your brain for awhile. I think this is your first Designer Spotlight, so most of our GingerScrappers won’t know you. Why don’t we do the obligatory “why did you decide to start designing” thing and get it out of the way.

C: I was a card maker and paper scrapbooker for a long time. When my daughter came home, I wanted different products that I could not find in my local store, and I discovered digital scrapbooking. THEN, I wanted to make things that fit what I was doing even more specifically, so I started designing so I could have exactly what I wanted. It snowballed from there, and I never looked back.

J: I hear something along those lines a lot. Necessity (or simple desire) is the mother of invention. “Nobody’s doing it: somebody’s gotta do it, and maybe I’m the somebody.” But not everybody will share their creations, so thank you! Now, what tools do you use to create your designs?

C: Everything always ends up in Photoshop eventually, but my favorite program to start in is Procreate on my iPad. It just gives me so much freedom and it feels like ‘real’ art supplies without the mess. I love it.

J: I’m not an Apple person, so I know almost nothing about Procreate. It’s great that you’re able to move your work between platforms. One of the best things I learned was about hex codes, so I could coordinate colours. Do you have any favourite colours, or ones that you really hate?

C: I love jewel tones, like teal and coral and navy. I love the LOOK of yellow, but I have a difficult time with it, because it always ends up looking muddy if I’m not careful.

J: I like jewel tones myself. But yellow always makes me think of isolation gowns and that’s not a pleasant connotation! Had I known I’d spend so much time wearing them, I might have changed my mind about having a nursing career. <winks> What did you want to be when you grew up?

C:  I wanted to be a musician and an artist. I’ve had the opportunity to be both, so I know I’m really lucky.

J: Ooh, can you play a musical instrument?

C: I can play several, although I’m probably most proficient at the piano. I can also fiddle around with guitar, trombone, flute, and a few others. I also love to sing.

J: Wow! That’s awesome! My oldest grandson is learning to play the cello. I like to sing, but only for my own consumption. I do sound pretty decent when I sing in the garage – I’m refinishing some furniture to a 60s and 70s soundtrack. I seem to bite off more than I can chew, and wish I didn’t. Is there anything about yourself you’d like to change?

C: People pleasing. I worry so much about what other people think that it drags me down and I seldom do what *I* want to do. I would love to be able to still be kind to everyone else but have my spine firmly in place.

J: Mmm. Saying no can be really hard when that’s not how you’re wired. I know there are more than a few things I’d never do if I had the chance to go back and undo them. If you could time travel, would you go ahead, or back?

C: I’d go back just a few months and meet my granddaughter a little sooner. 🙂

J: <big smile> I hear you! I’d love to spend more time with my own three, but international travel is so expensive and unpredictable. What would you do if money was no object – a lottery win paid off all your bills and you can do anything?

C: Honestly, pretty much the same things I do now, but without the worry about our day to day needs. I’d pay all our bills, get us some reliable things that we need, give to people and organizations we know that need, and bank the rest.

J: There’s that people-pleaser again. So that opens the door for this: Aside from necessities, what’s the one thing you could never live without?

C: Probably my iPad. I use it for everything. My business, watching movies, exploring new ways to be creative, playing games, all sorts of stuff. I love that thing.

J: Technology. Our double-edged sword. It’s made our world so much smaller. I use it for so many things, but one constant is looking up recipes for foods I’d like to try. One of these days I’m going to make some runzas, after seeing Tim Walz talk about how good they are. Is there one food above all others that you could eat everyday?

C: For sure, sushi. I love it.

J: I’m more of a katsu/donburi fan if we’re having Japanese. Now I’m hungry. And I just realized I didn’t take anything out for supper. So I’ll have to run!! Thank you again for chatting with me!

Before I jet, I want to make sure I’ve done Cheré justice with this post. Make sure you check out her Daily Download, AND her Designer Spotlight Challenge. Cheré is generously offering a 40% off coupon for the whole month, with the coupon code Spot40CKD. And don’t forget she also hosts the monthly Word Art Challenge. I know there’s a lot going on right now in the store and the Forum, so I’ve linked stuff up for you. Wherever you see some bold, underlined text, that’s your link. Make sure you give it all a look!

October 4 2024: Fresh Baked and DSD Sales, Fun and Games

Are you ready? It’s DSD time again. I hope you are ready for a week of sales, fun and games, and more!

Remember if you spend $10 in the store, you’ll get this great collab free.

Let’s see what wse have this week. There are a lot of Grab Bag and Build Your Own Bundle opportunities for DSD.

If you complete any 10 challenges, you get this gorgeous collab as a reward! (Or a variety of other choices, visit the forum for all the details).

Tutorial Tuesday (Photoshop Elements)

Paper-to-Digi Tone-on-Tone “Heat Embossing”

PDF Version : https://bit.ly/3Y74JUO

Faithful readers, I have to thank you once again for your tolerance! So much has happened in the last 6 weeks, my head is still spinning. But I’m ready to get back to normal now.

Where are my paper-scrappers? I’m always looking for ways to bring paper techniques to digital scrapbooking, with the goal of creating realistic dupes. When I was watching a video tutorial with the über-creative Gina K, it never even occurred to me that this particular technique would translate as well as it did, so hang on! I’m talking about tone-on-tone heat embossing, of course! For those who were never paper-creators, let’s explore. Heat embossing is a technique that uses slow-drying watermark or pigment ink, stamps and embossing powders to create slightly raised, slightly (or brilliantly – depending on the powder) shiny embossed looks on paper. The ink is applied to the paper with the stamp, then powder is poured over the ink. Yes… it’s messy! Then the embossing powder is carefully melted using a heat gun. Yes, fingers get singed… unless like Gina, one holds their paper in a clothespin. The look is beautiful, which is why people do it. But how does it work in the digi world, you ask? Let’s check it out.

Gina demonstrated with gold and silver paper, as well as a solid colour so let’s do just that. We’ll start with gold. The cardstock she used had a slight shimmer and this one doesn’t but it doesn’t matter.

The digital version of stamps are Brushes. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, please get in the habit of putting your Brushes on their own layers. First, and most important, by doing this, when you make changes to the Brush, you only change THE BRUSH. For example, I’ll be using Styles to dupe the ink-embossing powder combo; if the Brush is right on the paper layer, when I apply the Style, Elements is going to change the whole shebang, not just the Brush… and you’ll be mad. In addition, by isolating the Brush this way, you can Resize, Rotate and Flip your Brushes for the best effect.

Are you familiar with brusheezy.com? They have millions of FREE, no-pennies Brushes. The one I used comes in THIS set (which isn’t free any more, sorry!). As the screenshot says, you’ll get best results with a Brush with some solid areas and sharp details. THESE ones would be great, too, and it IS free.

There are 3 ways to find your Styles. The long way is to click Window>Styles. The keyboard shortcut is F6, and the quickest way is just to click on the Styles button at the bottom of the Layers Panel.

To see all the Styles that have been Loaded in Elements, click on the bar shown at the top of the Layers Panel. Scroll down the list and find the set you want. Or if the set you want isn’t there, Load it. [If you’re shaky on how to do that, The Style File: Where is It? can help.]

I tried this particular version with several different gold Styles and settled on this one. It came from a non-GS source, so I won’t link it here. I wasn’t able to find anything suitable in the GS shop, but maybe we could ask for one!

Wut?! Look at that! I think it’s just a bit too thick – the paper method would need several coats of ink and embossing powder and nobody’s got time for that! But it definitely is pretty!

Shaving some of that Bevel is super-easy in Elements. Just double-click on the fx icon on the Brush layer and the Style dialog box will open. First thing I like to do is make sure the Lighting Angle is the same as the rest of my layout so it doesn’t make the brain scramble. Then I slide the Bevel slider to the left until I like the result. I went from the default 20 pixels to 6 and it’s a lot less in your face.

I followed all the same steps for this silver version, only this time I was able to use a GS product! It’s a Karen Schulz Style set. The result could use a little deflation… kinda chunky.

This time I did something a little different. I went literally tone-on-tone. You can see the red Brush against the red paper, and it’s a nice look. Changing Blend Modes might make it really spectacular, but that’s not what we’re doing today.

The closest to a heat-embossed look for this example was to apply another Karen Schulz Style set, this time Glass. [We’ve used that set before.]

Just for kicks, I tried the gold Style on the red.

And the silver one too! I think I like it better than the gold.

Really, the possibilities here are endless.

 

GingerScraps: New FREE with Purchase Collab, New Monthly Mix, New Challenge Reward & More!!

It is the 1st of the month and you know what that means; a huge, exciting newsletter! We have a New Buffet, New Monthly Mix, New Free With Purchase Collab, New Challenge Reward, and a New Daily Download on the GingerScraps Blog! We also have new member of our GingerScraps designer family!

Don’t forget to check out the Buffet Bundles. One easy click to add bundles of Buffet goodies to your cart.

This month’s colors reminds me so much of fall and Halloween and there are a lot of those kits in the Buffet. Remember that you can mix and match these kits to get just what you need.

Remember any $10 spent in the store gets you this great collab.

This Free With Purchase was created by Craft-tastrophic, Dear Friends Designs, Designs by Lisa Minor, Ilonkas Designs, and Moore Blessings Digital Design.

Capture the essence of autumn with “Harvest Of Memories” by The GingerBread Ladies, a delightful fall-themed kit. Filled with leaves, pumpkins, sunflowers, and cozy accents in warm shades of orange, brown, and gold, this kit is perfect for documenting your favorite fall moments. Create beautiful layouts that celebrate the season’s charm!

This collab includes: 1 Alpha {Uppercase, Lowercase, Numbers & Punctuation}, 50 Papers, 81Elements, and 4 12×12 Templates {png, psd, tif file formats}.

This Monthly Mix was created by Aimee Harrison, Cindy Ritter Designs, Scrapbookcrazy Creations by Robyn, and Buzzbee Scraps.

“I Put A Spell On You” by The GingerBread Ladies is a magical witchy Halloween kit perfect for your spooky projects. Featuring enchanted elements like potions, black cats, pumpkins, and more, all in a striking palette of purple, orange, teal, and black. This kit captures the essence of Halloween with a whimsical and fun twist, ideal for spellbinding layouts!

This kit includes: 1 Alphas {Uppercase, Lowercase, Numbers & Punctuation}, 59 Papers, and 99 Elements.

Now to the October Daily Download Sneak Peek. This month’s Daily Download is from Cheré Kay Designs! Make sure you are checking the blog every day to get all the pieces of this kit!

We are excited to announce that Angelle Designs is staying and becoming a permanent part of the GingerScraps Family!

Take a look at the new challenge reward kit. If you complete any 10 challenges this month, you get this gorgeous collab as a reward! (Or a variety of other choices, visit the forum for all the details).

This Challenge Reward was created by Cheré Kaye Designs, LDragDesigns, and Let Me Scrapbook.

This powerful and uplifting kit designed to celebrate women and their strength. “I Am Woman” by The GingerBread Ladies is a powerful is filled with empowering word art, bold patterns, and feminine accents, this kit is perfect for creating layouts that honor self-confidence, resilience, and the beauty of womanhood. Embrace your inner strength and tell your story with this inspiring collection!

This kit includes: 3 Alphas {Uppercase, Lowercase, Numbers & Punctuation}, 53 Papers, and 86 Elements.

Are you ready for National Scrapbooking Day? The GingerScraps NSD celebration starts on Friday! Set your reminder. You don’t want to miss this!

Fresh Baked: September 27, 2024

Welcome to another Friday. We’re almost at the end of the month. It’s hard to believe we are almost at the end of September. Make sure to watch the newsletter, we have fun stuff planned for next week.

Don’t forget this great Free With Purchase kit you get with any $10 spent in the store!

Let’s take a look at the new kits in the store this week.

Just a few more dats to get your challenges done and posted? If you complete any 10 challenges this month, you get this gorgeous collab as a reward! (Or a variety of other choices, visit the forum for all the details).

Tutorial Tuesday (Individual Style)

Challenge Spotlight: Real Moments

Yes, it’s me. I’m back. Dad’s celebration of life was on Saturday and life can go back to normal. Thank you all so much for you condolences and words of support. They really meant everything. So it’s quite fitting that today I shine the spotlight on you and your talents! (Must be the universe talking…)

This month’s Spotlight Challenge is Buzzbee Scraps‘s Real Moments. Here’s how she worded her Challenge: “This month I would love you to think about music. How does music feature in your day to day life? Do you listen daily? What motivates you musically? Or, is there a particular piece of music that always takes you back to a moment in time?” Music is as personal as fingerprints, so I think you’ll find these layouts, tied together by a theme, are revealing and moving. This month, rather than go to the Gallery and Save all the layouts there, I decided to instead pull only the ones that have also been added to the Forum thread. As alwaus, each layout will be linked to the Gallery so you can take a closer look and leave a comment, if you’re so inclined. Just click on the GingerScrapper‘s user name and you”ll be whisked right to it!

First up is this pretty, nostalgic layout by demma13. It’s clear that music soothes her, and the AI image she’s used, with that little flock of doves, certainly reflects that. How perfectly placed is that old-time radio!

Next up is zippyoh. She’s chosen to share her favourite Spotify playlist for 2023. I zoomed in to read it and it’s an eclectic mix of genres, tempos, topics and moods. The iPhone element and the speedwalking gnome are just right to accompany the list.

For her layout, lawyerlyn chose to journal the lyrics of Let the River Run, an incredibly beautiful Carly Simon song – one I have on my own playlist. The photos appear to be sharing her favourite river scenes with us in support of her theme.

CathyS is all of us! Who doesn’t listen to their favourite music while they’re driving their car? Yesterday when I was driving back from Kamloops, I had my SiriusXM set to The Highway and I was belting out all the tunes. Like Cathy said, music takes my mind off the traffic and the winding mountain road, without distracting enough to be dangerous. She listens to praise music, I listen to country. 😉

It looks to me like fontaine and her granddaughter use music as a falling-asleep routine away from home. (I can’t do that because the lyrics will run through my brain all night!) There’s that iPhone element again!

Ooh, do I relate to this photo!! Windswept must be in the same demographic as I am; not too many people listen to music on vinyl any more. Her comment about good and bad is an astute one. I know you know what we mean, that some songs evoke very strong reactions based on memories and the emotions they elicit.

I love this layout so hard!! Margaritaville is part of the soundtrack of my teenage years and gadawg83 has really captured the whole vibe.

For linweb, music is like a touchstone she uses to inspire, to comfort and to praise God.

5grand hears the music of nature. Birds have songs that are identifiable to those who take the time to listen. I hear red-winged blackbirds and quail everyday. At night I hear a screech owl calling to his mate, crickets chirping and frogs croaking. Sometimes I hear coyotes yipping to each other. Soon the crickets and frogs will be replaced by ducks and geese as they make their way south. And indeed, that is the music of life.

Here, kabrak1207 is simply celebrating music. The fellow in the top hat seated at the piano gives a sense of a sweeping crescendo of notes.

Tbear and her grandchildren play the same game I play with my son. He LOVES made-up lyrics and sometimes forgets they’re made up. Don’t you adore the little girl, standing on the staff of music, smiling enthusiastically?

MarilynZ‘s playlist is filled with oldies from the 50s and 60s. Did you know that the music popular when you were 14 to 17 is the music that will always be the music you love most? For me, that’s 1972-1975. And it’s 100% accurate! What’s your heartsong playlist?

DiDi’s Mom‘s layout showcases her favourite hymn. It confuses me a bit, with its somber colour palette, when the lyrics are quite optimistic and joyful. That makes me want to know more…

This layout from granny5pics made me laugh out loud. Acoustics are everything when it comes to music and my singing voice always sounds a LOT better in the shower.

Musical theatre is another one of my loves. I related so strongly to the journaling Pups_r_Paps included here. I’ve been that person! Her focal photo really sets the mood, don’t you think?

Music often tells a story, as Pixel Palette does with her layout. Her simple background and minimal embellishment allows her journaling to be the focus.

I quite enjoy the tongue-in-cheek comment echoes77 made here, then expands in her journaling. I too am grateful for headphones.

Music is a great motivator when engaged in fitness activities. The right playlist can make a workout just fly, and pacing is automatic. Daydreamer is on the right track by incorporating music into her fitness goals.

Here, mdusell has hit on yet another truth about music. Our brains process various stimuli in different areas and in different ways. The music centre is incredibly durable, remaining active and intact for a long time after some other functions have faded. My son is a survivor of multiple childhood strokes that severely damaged the area of the brain in charge of speech. It took him a long time to learn how to communicate verbally again. But the part that’s in charge of music was left alone, so he has the ability to memorize lyrics after only a couple of listens. Music is a key to memory!

GrannyNKy has demonstrated that music can be the message.

And last, beccasue has created this mostly monochromatic layout that really brings all the foregoing bits together in one place. Music is powerful.

This little stroll through the Real Moments Challenge music theme has given me some inspiration but I haven’t figured out how I’ll execute yet. Stay tuned!

 

Fresh Baked: September 20, 2024

Happy Friday everyone. Are you ready for another batch of Fresh Baked goodness?

Don’t forget this great Free With Purchase kit you get with any $10 spent in the store!

Let’s see what we have new this week!

Are you working on your challenges? If you complete any 10 challenges this month, you get this gorgeous collab as a reward! (Or a variety of other choices, visit the forum for all the details).

Fresh Baked: September 13, 2024

We’ve made it to another Friday. I think we’re finally starting to cool off here. I’m ready for fall.

Don’t forget this great Free With Purchase kit you get with any $10 spent in the store!

Now for this week’s goodies. We’ve got some cute kits this week.

Are you working on your challenges? If you complete any 10 challenges this month, you get this gorgeous collab as a reward! (Or a variety of other choices, visit the forum for all the details).

September 6, 2024: HAPPY 16TH BIRTHDAY GINGERSCRAPS!

HAPPY 16TH BIRTHDAY GINGERSCRAPS!! 

And you know Ginger when it comes to celebrations. She doesn’t do them small. So we’re having a HUGE party!!

Have you participated in one of the Scavenger hunts? They are so much fun and I always find kits I “need” while I’m looking for that crazy Gingerbread Man (he’s a little sneaky).

And our designers have some fun games going on in the Forum as well!

Don’t forget this great Free With Purchase kit you get with any $10 spent in the store!

On top of all that fun, we have some great kits and other special sales and new releases!

Are you working on your challenges? If you complete any 10 challenges this month, you get this gorgeous collab as a reward! (Or a variety of other choices, visit the forum for all the details).