Tutorial Tuesday (Individual Style)

Challenge Spotlight: Scraplift

There are several great things about GingerScraps Challenges. They can provide inspiration when we might think we have no gas in our scrapping tanks. (That’s me right now.) They can get us out of our comfort zones. They can teach us new tricks or techniques. They can help us through tough times, through distraction or through acknowledging them. Some of the Challenge hosts provide us with free templates or minikits to use for our layouts. Other hosts offer participation prizes or coupons for their stores. (Were you expecting me to tell you which ones? Not today, Ray! I want you to go look at the Challenges!) Last, but definitely not least, there’s the monthly Challenge Reward kit, a collaboration between several of the GS Designers, that is completely free for simply completing 10 layouts. More about that later. This month’s Reward is this one:

My purpose behind the Challenge Spotlight is to let YOU, the lifeblood of GingerScraps, shine. This month I’m showcasing the Scraplift Challenge, hosted by Lena, aka LDragDesigns. This Challenge asks you to look at a layout created by a member of our Community, chosen by the host, and create your layout using the chosen layout as your inspiration. When I participate, I tend to be about 95% faithful to the exemplar layout, because why not? Others will be inspired by the colour palette, others by the way the clusters are arranged, still others by the subject matter. That’s what makes this such a great Challenge – we all have our own perspectives. So let’s look at how differently each Scrapper has interpreted the Challenge, shall we? [As usual, each of the layouts to follow is linked to the Gallery so that you can get a better look, and so you can offer some praise to the Scrapper. Just click on their user name and it’ll take you right there! Your layouts appear in the order they were uploaded to the Gallery.]

First, though we should look at the layout Lena chose as her exemplar. It’s from Cinna.

Firstoscartgrouch has the basic structure of the exemplar here, but she’s substituted 4 photos for the 2 Cinna used. Her clusters are larger but no less beautiful! She’s added texture to the background with brushes, a technique I love.

B2N2Scraps has the basic structure as well, but she’s used a journal card where the original has journaling; to make that work so well, her photos and journal card space are all the same size. I don’t think it would look as balanced had she made the journal card smaller to fit into the dimensions of the original. Another unique touch is the reversal of the colour palette. Well played!

GrannyNKy too has kept to the basic structure but has gone more minimalist. She’s used some confetti to add dimension without taking the attention away from her photos.

Grace. has the structure, and she’s replaced the journaling with a transfer (which I LOVE!) and embellished her title to emphasize her theme. I see she’s substituted a doily for the paper circle – I approve!

The bones are easily visible in chigirl‘s layout. She’s added some torn paper in the upper left corner, which coordinates well with her photos’ palette. Her title treatment sets her work apart as well.

This stripped-down layout by zanthia keeps the framework intact. Rather than complex clusters, she’s chosen themed elements to complement her photos.

Pups_r_Paps is one of only a handful of non-12×12 Scrappers. Her sense of humour is front-and centre here!

Jill has such vision! She has the basic blueprint here, but has really taken the Challenge seriously. Those paint splatters ground all the various elements of her work. This layout just bursts out of the Gallery… I think it’s the contrast between the blues, yellows and blacks, which draw from her photos. Love it!

For her layout, dhariana has gone stripped-down too. The muted colours of her papers and embellishments draw the eye to the bright kingfisher in her photo. There’s a lot of movement there too.

AJsRandom pulled the bones and the wooden background from the original, but chose a softer palette for her papers. The pops of yellow are very eye-catching. And of course, her heritage photos steal the show.

If you don’t smile when you see breoni‘s layout, you’re broken. Sorry. It’s true. She’s kept to the overall design of the layout, but those photos. Oh. My. Heart. The soft blues and golds are the perfect foil for them.

I’ve mentioned how much I admire KatherineWoodin‘s dedication to her daily layouts before. She always finds a way to create a layout that meets the Challenge criteria AND diarizes her day. She’s the only one to have made her journaling spot larger than her photos!

Our last entry is from 01lousmith. She really made the layout her own. She’s got the same number of different papers – 6 – and the same number of clusters – 3 – as the original and used a shabby painted wooden paper for her background. Double the photos. At first, I didn’t see that she’d also flipped the arrangement horizontally. Fabulous!

As I mentioned above, I want to talk about the Challenge Reward, because it can be confusing. Missi keeps a running total each month for each participant and she follows the rules. First of all, you earn the Reward in the month during which you reach 10 completed Challenge layouts, properly posted, since the LAST time you received a Reward. For example, if you completed 10 layouts in the month of September because you had some extra free time and lots of mojo, you’d qualify for the September Reward. Then October rolls around and you get really busy, so you only manage 4 layouts. That’s cool. It’s not a competition. In November, you’re pretty busy again so you get 4 more layouts done. Now you’re at 8 layouts toward your next Reward. December arrives and you’ve once again got some extra time (yeah, I know, right?!) and you’re super-productive, participating in 7 Challenges. Eeeerchhhhhhh! Only TWO will count. The other 5 don’t get carried over. Your counter starts over at zero on January 1st. I know I can’t be the only one who got caught by that, right? Right? Anyway, I highly recommend keeping track of your own count, and strategize your Rewards. Let’s face it, the Rewards kits aren’t ALL going to be attractive to you. If you don’t like the kit for a given month, don’t feel any pressure to hit your 10 layouts in that month. Simple!

Now… I haven’t created a single layout this month and it’s already the 21st. I have 6 in the can from October, so if I want this month’s Reward, I have 9 days to crank out 4 layouts. I should get to work!

Tutorial Tuesday (Potpourri)

Two Minute Warning! Holidays Ahead!!

PDF Version : https://bit.ly/49DmZsQ

Hey y’all! Life’s about to get VERY hectic for a lot of you, am I right?? In the United States, Thanksgiving marks the run-up to Chanukah (it starts at sundown on December 7 this year), Christmas, Kwanzaa and then the New Year. Diwali was this past Sunday; I’m sorry I missed you! (But I did get to see the fireworks!) Thanksgiving’s only 9 days away, and if the TV news is to be believed, a LOT of Americans will be traveling – they’re saying record numbers! – so that means TONS of photos will be taken. I know most of you won’t be even thinking about scrapping layouts for the next few weeks, and that you’ll be making a bunch of new memories at the same time. But hear me out. Your memory-keeping can be made easier if you do some planning ahead of time. I’ve covered a lot of these handy tips before but an updated refresher is never a bad idea.

  1. Find your camera’s battery charger NOW and make sure you use it! If your camera uses disposable batteries, stock up NOW. I keep a basket filled with several sizes of battery so I have them handy when I need them. (Like Sunday at 5 am when the battery in the smoke detector in my bedroom announced it was quitting and moving to Arizona. Fun times!)
  2. Check that you have a fresh SD card in your camera and that it has a decent amount of memory available. If you’re into phonetography, you might want to trim your in-phone collection by saving them to your computer or the Cloud, then deleting them from your internal storage. I have a handy little PhotoStick where I’ve backed up my phone’s gallery. If you’re an Amazon Prime member, you also have unlimited Cloud storage as part of your membership perks.
  3. Think about how your typical holiday events usually evolve. There will be some traditions that are carried out no matter whose house you’re having the celebrations at, so plan ahead to capture those moments. Make a list, if you need to. I’d need to!
  4. If you haven’t done it lately, review the manual that came with your camera. Review the settings and modes you’re most likely to use for your shots and remind yourself what each is doing while you’re shooting. I use the metadata from my most successful bokeh and full moon shots to set my camera up ahead of time so I don’t miss the shot.
  5. Refamiliarize yourself with your tripod, if you use one. I have two – an aluminum ball-head one that allows infinite adjustments but takes a lot of room and needs to be set up ahead of time and a Platypod Max, which looks like a little travel iron but is actually a very clever and sturdy tripod that can be set up in minutes on any surface. Why use a tripod? It lets you take longer exposures while keeping the images tack-sharp and it lets you be in the photo! Use the built-in timer and get in FRONT of the lens for a change. You’ll like the results much better than those you get with a selfie-stick.
  6. Practice a few creative techniques that you can memorize so that when you’re ready to take photos of the candles on your dinner table or that gloriously brown turkey, you won’t have to fumble. Practice, practice, practice! The best thing about digital photography is that we don’t have to keep the duds!
  7. Do you go all out with a gorgeous table-scape for your guests? I’ve never done it, but I love seeing what others do. (Okay, so I HAVE done a couple of table-scapes in the home decorating game app on my phone. But not a REAL one.) If you’re hosting and have your table all set well in advance (like the experts recommend for sanity’s sake 😉 ) take a few minutes to look at it with your photographer’s eye. Take a shot of a single place setting. Try and get the whole table in a shot, easiest if you shoot from one end. Take a closeup of your crystal.
  8. Don’t forget to get some shots of the dinner prep. Be stealthy and get some candids of the main cook, or if that’s you, get some of your helpers. Look for interesting camera angles of your turkey, ham or standing rib roast. Ask someone to be the carver and get some action shots. And look for smiling faces as the meal commences. When taking photos of food, get in close and vary the angles. Show the flaky texture of that piecrust, the glisten of the done-to-perfection skin on your turkey, the creaminess of your mashed potatoes, the detail of the frosting on your cupcakes.
  9. Composition is key for any photo. Remember the rule of thirds, but don’t be a slave to it. Decide what your focal point will be and compose your photo to make it so – use leading lines where possible and don’t forget white space. Crop your photos in the viewfinder – so much less work later! And don’t forget the background. Is there anything growing out of someone’s head? Take a step to one side or the other and recompose.
  10. Get in close to your subject! Even more so when that subject is a child. Get down on their level whenever possible so you capture their best smiles. Shooting from above should be reserved for those special-effect shots, not photos of kids having fun. For the most natural photos of people though, you can use a telephoto lens and shoot them from some distance. (As long as the light is right!)
  11. Don’t insist on smiles. You know what I mean… those cheesy grins aren’t going to be your favourite images. Rather than having everybody say “cheese” for your group shots, have them say “family” or “money” or “gotcha”. You could go with a made-up phrase, such as “moldy mozzarella”. Another trick is to tell everyone you’re going to shoot on “3”, then count, “1… 2… (shoot) WHOOPS 3!” then shoot a second shot right after that. You’ll get some natural smiles that way.
  12. We’ve all got a folder full of group photos where everybody is stiffly lined up and fake-smiling at the camera. So how can we take better group shots? Having the subjects doing something together is a good start. If you have snow in your area, have the group build a snowman, or have a snowball fight. Or play football in the snow. Beach ball volleyball (in sand or snow) would make some entertaining shots. But if you just have to have a posed group shot, give some thought to who goes where. If you can arrange the people so that their faces form little triangles, you’ll have a nicer image. Have them turn their shoulders toward each other or the centre of the photo so they can get a bit closer together. Make sure you’ve chosen a landscape setting so everybody will be in focus. Think about trying not to cut people’s legs off. If you can, shoot everybody down front from the waist up. Your subjects will thank you.
  13. If you’re celebrating Chanukah, there are lots of great ways to take photos of your menorrah. A series, with each night’s new candle lighting, would make a lovely layout. Look at the angles. On the last night, when all the candles are burning, an angled shot from one end with each flame visible would be incredible. Some of my favourite photos of my grandsons are of them lighting a candle, with the soft glow of the flame on their cheeks and wonder in their eyes. (Their mom takes amazing photos.)
  14. When shooting your tree, look for a different approach than the typical 8-feet-away-so-the-whole-tree-and-gifts-are-in-the-shot. Maybe take some close-ups of your favourite ornaments. Use a portrait mode to soften the background and make the ornament totally the focal point. Get down on the floor and shoot up toward the topper, or shoot down through the branches and make the presents the subject. Turn off all the room lights and shoot the tree with just the tree lights. Experiment with shutter speed and aperture to create some lovely bokeh effects. Add a human or a pet to the frame. Or take a photo of the lights reflected in a window. (If you don’t want your reflection in your photo, stand at an angle to the window and look carefully at what’s in the viewfinder.) Or take a photo of the tree THROUGH the window! Turn off your flash though, so you don’t spoil the shot.
  15. What about gifts? Well, there’re lots of opportunities around gift opening. Get down on the floor with the kids. Try to capture the moment when they identify what’s in the package. If it’s your thing, you can take some of them channeling Vanna White, holding up a favourite gift. If there’s a very special gift being given, arrange for it to be delivered when you have a moment to frame your image. I really wish I had a photo of myself when I opened a gift from my sister quite a few years ago. It was a resin frame with dragonflies on it, but what made it truly special was that it held a photo of me with my grandfather, who died when I wasn’t yet 4 years old. If you know in advance, you can be ready to catch the emotion.
  16. After the dust settles, you can relax, but don’t forget there might still be some great photos yet to happen. Like when a child falls asleep in the middle of a game, or the dog takes off with a long piece of ribbon… they could be the best shots you get all day. But don’t concentrate so hard on getting good photos that you don’t have fun! At a family reunion, my niece made a point of taking a selfie with every single one of us, and they were all fantastic. If you have mad selfie skills, give it a whirl. You might surprise yourself!

I would be remiss if I ignored those for whom the holidays are NOT the thing of loving memories and happiness. If that’s you, think about what DOES give you joy and take photos of that. Many of the above tips apply equally to photos of more ordinary events; sometimes getting out of our own heads and letting distraction help with that can be really therapeutic. Remember, if it’s something you feel, it’s perfectly okay to document it, even if it’s painful. Reality bites a lot of us, and the holidays can be really awful. Just know that I see you.

On that note. I’m going to land. Next week is Challenge Spotlight Tuesday, which is perfect timing… something that won’t require any effort from my readers. 😉

Tutorial Tuesday (Potpourri)

Yes! You Can Add a QR Code to Tour Layouts!

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

And omigosh, you won’t believe how easy it is!! Last month the Journaling Challenge had two options for topics: Where do you see yourself in 5 years? Or tell us about the last time you cried. I chose the latter and created my layout, as shown below.

I ugly-cried when, while watching a country music awards show with my son, I heard Toby Keith sing Don’t Let the Old Man In, looking gaunt and pale from his battle with stomach cancer. I lost a close friend 5 years ago to the same cruel disease and I found myself sobbing. I used the lyrics as my journaling but never even thought to include a QR code linked to the video of his performance until much later. Let me tell you how I did it.

First, I did some Googling to find the safest, most reliable, completely free converter out there. The one I chose to use is found here. (Click on “here”.) Or type in the URL from the screenshot below. Look at all the options for file source you can use for your code! And it’s completely customizable.

I’m linking to a YouTube video, so I clicked the YouTube icon and Copy-Pasted the URL (Universal Resource Locator, or web address) into the source bar. For this step you need two tabs open, one with your source and one with the QR code generator website. Highlight the URL on your computer screen by click-dragging your cursor over it. Right-click and choose Copy, or CTRL/CMD>C. Then go to the QR generator and put your cursor in the source box. Right-click and choose Paste, or CTRL/CMD>V. Last, click on the green bar to Generate QR Code.

Your QR code appears instantly as shown. Before you go any further, get your phone and test the code to make sure it works. Most phones these days don’t need a separate QR code scanner app, just the camera. Try mine!

There are so many options for customizing your code. I don’t want to add a logo, but the instructions are very straight-forward if you choose to add one. I DO want to make the colour fit into my layout better, so I’ll show you how I did that. Click Set Colors.

I had my layout’s PSD file open in Elements so I used the Eye Dropper Color Picker to choose a russet-brown shade from one of the flowers. Keep the Color Picker dialog box open, you’ll need it! I tried to Copy the hex code for the colour – the one with the # symbol in front of it in the blue box – into the code generator but it wouldn’t let me do it.

So I tried typing the numbers shown in the R, G and B boxes on the Color Picker into the R, G and B boxes on the code generator. It worked. Here’s a closer look at the Color Picker so you can see what I mean.

The colour of the QR code changed automatically. I verified that the hex code matches with the Elements Color Picker. It does!

I could use the code as is, but decided to add a border.

I changed the default colour to one from my layout in the same way. There’s even an option to change the text inside the border, and the font too. To save it so I can add it to my layout, I chose to go with a PNG file so it would have a transparent background.

Here it is, added to my layout next to the lyrics. I’ve tested it in its location and at this size, as shown on my computer screen and it works perfectly! I may have to do this again (a few times) for other layouts.

Does this look like something you’ll try? It can add so much context to our layouts that just won’t fit into a journal box. And it’s easy-peasy-free!

Tutorial Tuesday (Photoshop Elements)

Quick Trick – Hiding Multiple Layers

PDF Version : https://bit.ly/40foM33

Have you ever been working with a template and found yourself struggling with placement of elements because there are SO MANY LAYERS in the way and you wish they would just disappear? This happens to me a lot when I’m trying to adjust photos for size. I don’t want the clipping mat to be visible, but sometimes one or more edges is invisible because they’re underneath a cluster or another photo spot. If this sounds like you, read on! I JUST learned this trick and I can’t believe it took me this long!! I’m using a template from Miss Fish‘s Just the Basics (retired) collection. Look at all those layers…

I want to isolate the layer this bow is on. I right-clicked on the eyeball (visibility icon) and this menu appeared. So I chose Show/Hide all other layers.

And POOF! All the other layers are sleeping. It’s magic. It has to be! But this is one situation where Undo [CTRL/CMD>Z] won’t work. To turn on visibility for all the sleeping layers, just reverse the process… Right-click>Show/Hide all other layers. Of course, you know there HAS to be a keyboard shortcut, right? For the Work Smart Not Hard crowd, it’s just ALT/OPT>eyeball.

How’s that for QUICK??

It looks like autumn is here to stay. Yesterday I was doing yard work in shorts and a t-shirt, this morning we woke up to snow on the mountains (none at our altitude… yet) and the mercury is struggling to stay at 6°C (43°F). There are still lots of leaves on the trees, even though we had gale-force winds yesterday, but winter is definitely on its way. What’s it like where you are?

Tutorial Tuesday (Individual Style)

Challenge Spotlight: Pinterest

This month, Lisa Minor chose this fall wedding photo as her Pinterest Challenge inspiration.

Her description of the photo is “it’s all about the colors!”, “floral fall colors” and her Challenge is to use the photo to scrap what the Pin says to you. So far, eleven scrappers have taken her up on it. They mostly seem to have chosen the same theme for their layouts, as you’ll see. As with each month’s Challenge Spotlight, these layouts appear in the order they were uploaded. I’ll point out the aspects that caught my eye, and each layout is linked to the Gallery so you can pop over and offer some praise. Just click on the scrapper’s user name and you’ll fly over to the Gallery.

First up is B2N2Scraps. She’s got the fall theme, the colours from the photo and the flowers. She didn’t miss a trick! Her simple layout puts the focus on the smiles in her photo.

KarenDiamond has the fall theme as well, with a bit more of the blue from the Pin. I see she’s anonymized the child in the circular photo as a silhouette. This technique works perfectly in a backlit photo, instead of just blurring features.

DianeInOz went for the colour palette, creating a whimsical layout with a clever nod to autumn. I love that wood-look cow cutout!

This stunning layout is from greenfiend27. Her choice of soft oranges and corals against a gray, dusty background, with ample floral elements, provides the perfect foil for that beautiful photo. The result is elegantly grungy. I think this is my favourite of the bunch.

Windswept has all the colours in there, and chose our major autumn celebration as her theme. Her focal photo is so cute!

The pocket style of zippyoh‘s layout works so well with all those pumpkin photos. The harvest/autumn theme is obvious but not in-your-face. She accents all the orange in the photos very nicely with touches of purple, gold and white. Aren’t those little foxes just too sweet?

For her layout, pinklily chose to document a week of her late fall activities from last year. (I’ve been to that mall… just sayin’. Winkwink!) The colour palette was what inspired her here.

Route66 pulled only 4 of the dozen colours in the Pin for her layout. Looks like somebody’s been playing with title tuts. 😉

The subject of this layout from gmae is a somber one. It could be seen as a play on “fall”, and a clever one at that. She has pulled a few of the fall colours from the Pin, and added some floral elements. Possibly the only flowers these resting places see these days…

Pippin went all in on individual style here. Her sole connections to Lisa‘s comments are her floral clusters and the pinks and blues from the Pin photo. This is a layout after my own heart.

 

Last up is this very autumnal layout from snojewel. She has some subtle hints of gorgeous teal stamped in her background. The oranges, browns, golds and burgundies complement her photos of Ben very well.

Next week I’ll have a Quick Trick for you. I haven’t decided which one from my little list of topics… we’ll all find out together!

Given what’s happening around the world these days, I hope this has given you a brief break from fear and worry. I also hope the people you love are safe and healthy. And that we all stay out of harm’s way.

Tutorial Tuesday (Dingbats)

Four Ways to Use Dingbat Fonts

PDF Version : https://bit.ly/3PVn7eh

After last week’s tutorial, Lisa commented, “now that you bring up dingbats I’d love a tutorial on how to really use them in a layout!” So today, I have four techniques to share. There are many more than four, but for now we’re just looking at four. These are all relatively simple techniques we’ve used before so I’m not going deep into the weeds with step-by-steps. If you think of other ways to use dingbats, I’d love to try them!

First, if you’re not using a font manager like High Logic MainType, and aren’t familiar with Wordmark It, figuring out which characters will give you the image you want means either searching your computer for “character map” or trying one character at a time. If you look at the screenshot, I’ve enlarged the character V for this spider from Witch Night Dingbat as shown on the Type Layer.

I think this spider would look a lot more scary with some glowing red eyes. So I added a New Layer to put the eyes on, then using the Elliptical Marquee Tool, set on Fixed Ratio 1:1, I dragged out a circle just slightly bigger than the eye hole.

Then using the Paint Bucket Tool, I filled the circle with red.

He’s got two eyes, so I Duplicated the red circle [CTRL/CMD>J], positioned the new circle over the other eye hole then Merged [CTRL/CMD>E] the two layers.

I intend to layer two Styles on the eyes, one a red acrylic Style that adds both a Bevel and a highlight, and a glass Style which will add some shine and a Drop Shadow. While it IS possible to layer Styles on a single layer, the two I plan to use won’t work that way. So I Duplicated [CTRL/CMD>J] my eyes layer.

The acrylic Style is opaque and changes the colour of what’s under it. The glass Style makes the layer it’s applied to transparent or translucent, depending on which glass Style you choose. This is why the acrylic was applied to the lower eye layer and the glass to the upper. I wasn’t totally jazzed by how the glass layer looked so I made some adjustments; I double-clicked on the fx symbol on the glass layer and moved the sliders until I liked the look. To put the highlight in the right spot, I changed the Lighting Angle. Once I was happy, I Merged [CTRL/CMD>E] the two layers and moved them under the spider body layer.

All that was left now was to add a Simple Scalloped Bevel to the spider’s body and it looks quite evil!

Dingbats are ideal for creating Brushes. The character for this black cat in Witch Night Dingbat is the letter O. Resize the image until it’s about 2500 pixels. Then click Edit>Define Brush.

My example is 1583 pixels, but can be enlarged when it’s used as a Brush. I gave it a name, Black Cat. A highly original name.

This part is just for fun. I want to add some dimension to the image, so I’m going to apply a Layer>New Fill Layer>Pattern Fill. Then I scrolled through the options in the Pattern Fill menu to Texture Fill and chose Denim. It’s the one that looks most like fur. Only problem is now the cat’s gray, not black. So…

I Merged [CTRL/CMD>E] the Fill Layer and the Brush Layer together. Then I adjusted Levels. [CTRL/CMD>L] I also filled the eyes with green and added a pupil, but that was for me! Now if I add a little Bevel, I’ve got a puffy sticker to add to my layout.

The third use I’ve got for you today is to use dingbats to create a border. I’m still using Witch Night, and the character that produces a pair of witchy shoes is either E or Y. All I did here was to type out a row of 13 pairs of shoes.

Don’t forget that dingbats are actually fonts where Elements is concerned. So they have to be treated like fonts. Before I can add Texture, Styles or do much of anything, the font has to be Simplified.

For the top of the border, I just Duplicated the base layer [CTRL/CMD>J] and moved it to the top of the canvas. Use your View>Grid (not shown)! It really helps with positioning and symmetry.

Now, I could have just Duplicated the base layer again and rotated it, but I decided I wanted to have the soles of the shoes all “touching the ground”. I knew there were individual shoe dingbats in the set, so I changed the Type Tool from Horizontal to Vertical then typed out a line of alternating Is and Rs. I ended up with one too many shoes, but that was easy to fix.

There. I have a border!

This last example is using both a traditional font and a dingbat. My favourite Bugs Bunny cartoons are the ones with the vampire, the witch, bats and the two-headed buzzards. In one, Bugs and the vampire have a spell-casting battle. So this just seemed to create itself. The traditional font is called Abracadabra (of course, what else could it be?) and the dingbat is from Alit Halloween. I typed out Abra ca dabra – with spaces for the bats, then Simplified the text. If I didn’t do that, when I switch to the dingbat, the font will change to it too. So nope!! I typed out the bats (character is b) on their own layers so I could tilt them. I wasn’t happy with the way everything aligned and fitted together so I Cut the “ca” out, Pasted it back onto the canvas then moved it into place a bit lower than the baseline. This could be used as a sticker by adding a white Stroke to it, or it could have a Style applied, or a paper clipped to it, or… whatever suits my fancy.

If you think you might want to reuse any of the things you’ve created from dingbats, make sure to Save As a PNG so the transparent background is preserved. I hope I’ve given you some ideas here. If the kit you’re working with doesn’t have that one special object in it that you’d really like to include, check out your dingbats!

 

 

Tutorial Tuesday (Fonts)

Autumn and Creepy Season Fonts

PDF Version : https://bit.ly/48Ay6lP

Have you chosen the font(s) for your October Signature Challenge siggy or Inspiration Challenge? Have I got some options for you! Now, Heather‘s instructions for the Signature call for a “beautiful font”, while Joy just wants 2 different fonts in the title. Since beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I think you’d be quite safe using a creepy/spooky font for the siggy, and anything goes for the other. I took a quick wander through the dafont.com collection of FREE fonts and found some I didn’t have but must… and I’m going to share them with you. Each font/dingbat’s name is linked to the site so you can quickly and easily download the ones you love.

I didn’t find any fonts that really proclaimed *AUTUMN*, but there are some lovely dingbats (little drawings). This one is called LCR Autumn Harvest Dings. The scarecrow sold me on it!

KR Fabulous Fall has some lovely leaves.

Next up is WM Leaves 1, which is literally all leaves, complete with the Canadian stylized maple leaf from our flag.

Autumn Days Clipart has a selection of solid symbols. Just look at that cute little fox.

I love the line drawings in Arboris Folium. They can be used like stamps or brushes and are filled with potential.

While we’re doing dingbats, let’s carry on into the Hallowe’en sets I found. Freaky Halloween has some classic images, like those creepy jack-o-lanterns.

I LOVE the frame in Alit Halloween. And the spiderweb, and the crow, and the haunted house… well ALL of them.

Look at the creepy witches’ hats here in Halloween Dreams Doodles!

This set, simply named Halloween, has more, very detailed line drawings.

Ooh, Vintage Halloween is really creepy.

Now on to some actual fonts. I’ve never seen this one before. Gnarly Skeleton has both an outlined alphabet and a bold version. That skull is in the glyphs section, along with an assortment of symbols and accented letters. No numbers though.

Halloween Guises is a bubble font with more of a cute look to it. There are numerals and a bunch of glyphs too.

Spoky Spider (not a typo) is both cute and creepy.

Halloween Party 3 has elements of both font and dingbat. There are numerals and glyphs galore here.

I feel like Spooky Halloween is my favourite of all today. It has upper and lower case alphabets and numerals but no glyphs.

Nightside is a bold, Gothic font that made me think of Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas. It’s a demo font, meaning only upper case alphabet, no numerals or glyphs.

Then I found Nightmare 5… which also made me think of Tim Burton, or maybe the Addams Family. It has no numerals or clyphs; to achieve the look in the sample, use alternating upper and lower case letters.

And THEN… I found Burton’s Nightmare! It’s not really scary or creepy, but definitely has a vibe. There are numerals, some accented letters and some punctuation.

Okay, so maybe Single Ghost is my actual favourite! It’s got it all, wrapped up in a very elegant package.

Last, I have Dracolas for you. It’s Goth, it’s vintage and elegant. It’s a bold, all-caps font with the lower case characters smaller and less fancy. And there are glyphs!

Did you see anything you like? Did you find Inspiration for Joy‘s Challenge? I think I might pair Nightmare with Single Ghost. I’ll have to go back and make sure I’ve downloaded all the ones I love.

Tutorial Tuesday (Photoshop Elements)

Quick Trick: Special Effects Brushes

PDF Version : https://bit.ly/45anqqZ

I was yesterday-years-old when I learned that Special Effects Brushes are well… special. Some of them don’t behave the way most brushes do. For example, the butterfly Special Effects Brush doesn’t use the foreground colour, it uses its’ complementary colours. It also gives you random sizes and rotates itself between clicks so you’re never exactly sure where it’s going to pop up on your canvas, or what colour it will be. That can be fun! If you want to click>hold the mouse button and draw a curlicue with the brush, it’ll give you a flight of multi-coloured butterflies in all sizes. Try it! It’s fun!!

What I learned while I was experimenting with these Brushes is that they can be really useful for adding some oomph to those reads-as-solid papers we were making a few weeks ago. Let me show you what I mean.

Start by creating your background paper using a colour from the kit you’re using, or from a photo you want to coordinate. Size is up to you; I scrap 12×12, so that’s what I’ve got. I just randomly picked a light green colour. I’ll go with a slightly darker, grungier avocado for the zhuzh. As I always say, put this zhuzh on its own layer so you have ALL the control.

Now grab your Brush Tool and look for Special Effects Brushes in the pull-out menu. These are brushes that you got with your software, like the Basic Brushes and the Drop Shadow Brushes. You may be able to see in the screenshot that I’ve gone into the Presets>Brushes folder and put a period in front of all the PSE preloaded brushes so it sorts them to the very top of the list. Advanced users might try that. Anyway. Let’s click on the Special Effects Brushes and take a look.

You can hover your cursor over the Brush thumbnails to see what they’re called. I’m going to use the one described as Scattered Flowers Mums. It doesn’t actually look like a chrysanthemum when used, so I’m a bit confused. Some of these brushes do have an identifiable shape, like the daisy, roses, rubber duck, leaf and butterfly. None of the Scattered Flowers do, they’re all variations on texture. I’ve set the Size to 2500 pixels (maximum) and the Opacity at 100%.

This is an entirely optional step. I decided, after playing with the various brushes in the set, that I’d use Guidelines to help with positioning of my brush clicks. To create a horizontal Guideline, click-and-hold your cursor somewhere inside the horizontal Ruler (if you’re using them) or the top edge of the canvas then pull the cursor down to the place where you want the Guide and let go. To create a vertical Guide, click-and-hold inside the left side Ruler or at the left edge of the canvas, drag the cursor laterally to the spot where you want the Guide and let go. I’ve made my Guidelines thicker for visibility, You’ll see in the next screenshot how skinny they really are.

If you don’t want to be precise, you can randomly click your brush over the background, or drag it in a pattern, change the size and orientation of the brush or pretty much whatever appeals to you. It’s 100% up to you!

The brush cursor is a large circle with crosshairs in the centre. I used this bounding box to position the brush in each of my squares: the bounding box intersected with the inside corners of each square, which gave a bit of overlap where the brush fades. I can’t show you an example – I didn’t think of it while I was working this all out, and now Elements is PMSing on me. Sorry. Suffice to say, I covered the whole canvas with this splattery texture.

To turn off the Guides, click View>Guides and they’ll vanish. Or if you’re a keyboard short-cutter, CTRL/CMD>; will take care of it.

You could stop here and be very happy with your work. Of you could play with Blend Modes to see what might look better for your purpose. This is the Dissolve version. Once you’ve moved off the Normal mode, you can scroll through the Blend Modes using the Up and Down arrows.

If the result is too bold, you can adjust Opacity. That might be all you need. Here I’ve left the Blend Mode on Dissolve but decreased the Opacity to 10%. Now it’s subtly textured.

The following screenshots are pretty self-explanatory. I’m not going to show you Modes that really didn’t change the background green – that would waste all our time! Here’s Darken.

Multiply. The only change I’ve made from my original sample is to a new Blend Mode. It’s fun to see what they do.

Color Burn is really subtle, so I felt I should Zoom in so you could see it. This might be my favourite.

On to Linear Burn.

Darker Color seems softer, don’t you think?

Screen lightens and softens.

I didn’t expect Color Dodge to lighten and alter the colour this much.

Linear Dodge is just Color Dodge but MORE.

Vivid Light changes the avocado to more of a chartreuse. It’s hard to see in this image, because it’s so subtle.

Hard Mix is similar to Screen, but MORE.

Difference changes the colour completely and darkens it too. You can see the tic-tac-toe effect a lot more clearly here.

Exclusion has turned the avocado colour to a deep, almost purple blue.

Last is Luminosity. It’s more delicate. When you’ve found the look you like, you can adjust Opacity, enlarge the brush layer and rotate it, or any other thing you might want to try. CTRL/CMD>Z will Undo if you’re not happy. Don’t be afraid to experiment! Nothing is permanent in digital scrapbooking until you decide it is.

I couldn’t resist trying another of the Special Effects Brushes, this time Petal Crystals. I used an aqua colour and really like this one!

We’re getting some of the rain from the big storm coming up the west coast right now. Looks like it’s going to bring some snow to higher elevations, and will linger around for the next couple of days. Maybe the two fires close to us will finally be snuffed out. A girl can dream, right?

Tutorial Tuesday (Individual Style)

Challenge Spotlight: Minikit

September is surely flying by, isn’t it? It’s already almost the autumnal equinox and the slow slide into winter here in the Northern Hemisphere, while our GingerScrappers down under are looking toward spring. And life goes on…

This month’s Spotlight Challenge is the Minikit Challenge, hosted by Joy of Memory Mosaic. As the name implies, the Challenge is to use the pieces of a supplied (free) minikit to create a unique layout. This type of Challenge showcases individual style very well, since all participants are starting with the same tools. This month’s mini is shown below.

Now I’m going to share each of the layouts that have been posted to the Challenge Gallery as of noon today PDT. They’re in the order they were posted, and I’ve linked each to the Gallery so you can get a closer look and leave some praise for the Scrapper. Just click on their Forum handle.

KAPOH has created a calendar with the mini. I see today is Talk Like a Pirate Day. I guess we should brush up on our “arrrhs”.

Alasandra has blended the papers to give herself some more options and flexibility, and flanked the ornate frame with two simple clusters.

As most of you know, I’m a sucker for heritage photos. I LOVE how trinanne has adapted the frame to encompass each of the people in her photo. The emphemera she’s added are scans of her aunt’s actual teaching diploma and license… precious!

MarilynZ has used the frame very cleverly here, with one being lightened without losing detail. The diagonal placement of the ribbon, with the key centred and the repeating small paper squares, gives the layout balance.

Pippin chose the perfect photo to coordinate with this mini! The purple sunset behind the house is a very close match to the purple paper. Her simple cluster and all that white space are very effective at drawing the eye to her photo. Brava!

NHSoxGirl has reversed the order of Pippin‘s papers to create a minimalist layout where the photo is the star. Good choice to go with black and white. The white stroke around the purple paper is brilliant.

This is something I would do! Those old keys in the photo play with the key in the mini so well. I see angbrey has also recoloured a flower and has used the frames as mats. Creative!

AnnieA has used everything but the tape, and kept her layout minimalist, with strong diagonals. I like the rotated purple paper, it’s exquisitely shadowed. Very eye-catching!

What an interesting layout PixyGirl has created, with a very vintage feel. The patchwork effect with the papers is beautifully executed. The slight tilt to the frame mimics the slight tilt of her great-grandmother’s head for a very effective focal point.

It took me a few minutes to deconstruct kabrak1207‘s layout. She has used additional elements and papers from the coordinating Buffet bundle from Memory Mosaic – totally allowed! – and has created an outstanding piece. That centre cluster is perfection.

CathyS has also added some elements from other designers in the September Buffet. I like how she’s faded the papers together and mirrored the brick behind the flowers in her photo with arty paint.

Oh my! Look at that beautiful dissolve/fade effect lulumoon has created with the papers!! The clusters provide a pop of colour and the entire layout is a showstopper.

The mini is cleverly disguised in nimble4u‘s layout. The only element from the mini that I couldn’t find is the tape. She’s added some elements from other kits, which are included in her credits.

Lastly, this layout from hkeith87 has included the whole mini, pairing it with a stunning sunset photo. The purple clouds in the photo look like they just merge into the purple paper strip. Beautiful!

It’s always a learning experience to browse the Gallery. Next week it’s Quick Trick time again. I’ll have to see what I can pull out of the ether to share with you all. Have a great week!

Tutorial Tuesday (Photoshop Elements)

Using Alphas for Titles – a Technique Tweak

PDF Version : https://bit.ly/3LJ2wZo

A newish GingerScrapper whose user name is rmcd100 asked this question in the Forum

I am looking for a tutorial on how to easily add alphas to a layout. It seems really cumbersome inserting each letter individually and then trying to place them all on the page in a uniform manner. There has got to be an easier way than the way I am doing it.

I replied with some links to some tutorials I’ve already posted and gave her a brief description of my workflow. But then I got to thinking about it and recognized that my technique has been fine-tuned quite a bit since those tutorials were new. I also want to be sure she understood what I was saying, so today’s tutorial is an updated alphas-for-titles workflow breakdown.

I knew exactly what she meant by “cumbersome” and could feel her frustration, because I’ve been that person! Elements can make it so much harder, because it seems to drop objects where IT wants them and not where I want them, especially the newer versions. This title technique grew out of all of that.

When I’m planning a title, I usually have an idea of what I’ll call my layout before I even choose photos, template or kit to work with. I choose the photos first, then a template that will work with the number, orientation and importance of my photos. Only then do I choose a kit. I love using alphas and have quite a stash of them so I can always count on having an appropriate one on hand. For my Back It Up Challenge layout, the prescribed theme is books/reading/library so that helped with making my choices. I opted for the GingerBread Ladies Must Love Books kit. I had 4 photos I wanted to use and chose a retired template from Connie Prince as my basic layout.

As you can see, the template’s title spot is a good-sized rectangular area, which makes the process a LOT easier! I like to work BIG, so I can see easily what’s going on; resizing later is a snap. I also like to reduce repetition if possible. So I’ve created a bunch of preset project formats: a 12×12″ Scrapbooking canvas, a 6×1.5″ Title Strip and a 6×3″ Large Title canvas are some of them. So when I click New>Document [CTRL/CMD>N] I can choose one of them. I’ve planned a two-word stacked title so I’m going to use the Large Title canvas. One important note: ALWAYS work on a TRANSPARENT BACKGROUND when creating titles with alphas using this technique.

So here’s the canvas. I’ve opened all the letters I’ll use for my title into the Photo Bin.

Then I started dragging and dropping the letters onto the canvas. Remember I mentioned that Elements does what Elements wants? Well, I can guarantee at least one letter will be out of order. It’s just a rule. 😉 Before you move on, check to see that the letters are all where they should be. Elements will stack from bottom up, and it’s easier to move one or two letters than rearrange all of them. Also take note that all the letters are aligned by the centre of the letter. That’s easy to address.

Before we continue, if you want your title to have a wandering baseline, you can skip a step – the one where we Align the letters’ bottoms. Also, if you want some letters to overlap others, you can adjust your workflow accordingly. For MY title, I want the baseline to be a single straight line. So I’ve activated all the letter layers except the “g” – it extends below the baseline and will need special attention. To quickly activate multiple layers, click on either the top layer or the bottom. Then hold down the SHIFT key and click on the layer at the other end of the stack. BINGO!

Using the Move Tool, Align the letters at their bottoms. If you don’t see the Arrange, Align and Distribute menu, click on Tool Options at the lower left of your workspace.

Now the “g” can be nudged into place. I use the top edge of another lower case letter as my guide for this part. Nudging with the up and down arrow keys is the most accurate method for this.

This is a step I’ve recently added to my technique, and it’s made a big difference. Activate all letter layers again – click>SHIFT>click – and move the whole bloc of letters all the way over to the left. The first letter of your word will be along the left border. Don’t worry about the size of the letters just yet.

Activate the very top letter layer (or the last letter in your word, if you’ve rearranged them) and using the left and right arrow keys, move it to the right until you can see the entire edge of the letter right next to it. My word is Raising; see the “g” and the “n” are no longer overlapping. Decide how much of a gap you like between your letters.

To start moving the second-last letter along with the last one, hold down the CTRL/CMD key and click on the layer. Now both letters are active and can be moved to the right until the third letter from the end is entirely visible. Pick up the third letter, the fourth letter, then the fifth letter in the same way. Move the train of letters over as one piece until they’re all nicely separated. If you have room! 😀 Now I can see that the letters are indeed much too big.

To fix that, activate all the letter layers again then estimate how much to shrink them. Then using one of the corner handles on the Bounding Box, move the handle toward the letters until you’ve got the size close enough to fitting. I’ll just go with 75% for now, and ensure I’ve Constrained Proportions.

There! All my letters are neatly spaced. Since my title is going to be two stacked words, I’ll move them all to the top of the canvas and turn off Visibility to eliminate distractions. Click on the little eyeball icons.

I took a little detour here. My title is alliterative, so I want to see how I like it with just a single GIGANTIC “R” at the beginning of each word.

I’ll use the same drag-drop-align process for the second word. I’ve got “eaders” here to go with my giant R and have ensured the letters are in the correct order.

None of these letters extend past the baseline so I can Align all of them. Then, while they’re all still active, I Resized them to the same 75% I used before. They may need further adjustment later.

Hmm. Let me show you another way to make the title fit inside the canvas by Resizing the Canvas! Image>Resize>Canvas Size… or CTRL/CMD>ALT/OPT>C

The dialog box shows the Current Size, New Size, Anchor point and Canvas Extension Color. I want to make my canvas wider, but the height is fine. Remember, the background must be transparent here too.

I’ll just change that “6” to a “7” and make any tweaks as needed.

Alrighty. Everything fits on the canvas but it doesn’t look right yet.

So I activated all the letters for “aising” and moved them in a group to the left. That looks better.

***If you’ve chosen to have your letters overlap, you’ll need to add shadows to your individual letters at this point. You can later shadow the whole title on the layout but where those letters overlap, the shadow style isn’t going to get the overlapping areas and it’ll look funny.***

Now to get the title onto the layout! If you don’t think you’ll need to do anything other than some resizing, you can activate all the layers [click>SHIFT>click] right-click and choose Merge [CTRL/CMD>E]. Then the entire title is a single layer and can be dragged and dropped onto your template/layout.

Alternatively, you can choose instead to Link Layers… but you’ll still only be able to resize it on the layout.

All that’s left is to slide it into place, adjust the size to fit your chosen space and make any other minor adjustments you want. Add a shadow to your title layer and you’re done! It sounds like a long process but you’ll be surprised how well it flows and once you’ve done it this way a few times, you’ll never go back.

Next week is the Challenge Spotlight. Will you see YOUR layout here? Swing by and see!!