Tutorials — Page 16

Tutorial Tuesday (Photoshop Elements)

April 5, 2022 by Jan

Importing a Tear

I’ve been eagerly waiting for an opportunity to share this little trick with you but certain aspects had to fall into place. And now they have. This technique is so easy and rewarding that I think you’ll use it right away…

Have you ever wanted to add a paper tear to your layout but felt overwhelmed by all the steps to get there? Then this one is for you. There’s a way to import a paper tear from a template into a layout-in-progress that only takes a few easy steps and very little time. However, you must have a template with a paper tear on its own layer, or a commercial-use paper tear template. They have their own limitations, and may not give you the look you’re after. So try this.

I started out with this template from Tinci Designs’ Second Chances V.2 collection. I resized all of the layers (except the background paper) to allow for adding a tear.

I was waiting to find a template like this one from CarolW Designs’ Spring Dawn. That tear is moveable!! But how can I move it onto Krizstina’s template?

There are a couple of steps that need doing first. But to start, I found the tear layer in Carol’s template, right-clicked on the layer and chose Duplicate Layer from the dropdown menu.

Now Elements needs to know where to put it. The new menu shows all the files currently open in the Photo Box, and offers the option of creating a New Document. That’s what I’m going to do.

This step is completely optional. I chose to give my new document file a name, Paper Tear Mask, for clarity.

And this is what happens.

But look at that Bounding Box! I was thrilled to see there’s more to the tear that can be used just by Resizing it.

Now to make it useful and not work too hard while I’m at it. I added a new blank layer underneath the tear layer. Just hold down the CTRL/CMD key and click the sheet-of-paper icon at the upper left of the Layers Panel.

Next, I used the Paint Bucket Tool to fill the whole of the blank layer I just created. Pick any colour you like (but not white) for this step.

To turn the coloured part into a Layer Mask so papers can be Clipped to it, I used a hard, round brush within the Eraser Tool to remove the coloured part above the tear. This can be done quickly because as long as I don’t cross over the tear into the lower part of the coloured area, I can just scrub it away.

And that’s it for creating the tear mask! To move it over onto Krizstina’s template, I’m going to Activate both layers by click-shift-clicking on each of them, then right-click to open the dropdown menu to Duplicate Layers…

This time, I’m going to send them onto the Tinci template.

‘MKay. there are the tear and the mask, placed on top of the background paper and underneath the rest of the layers.

I don’t like the tear up there, just to be a non-conformist. So I’ll move it.

And all that’s left is to add the papers. I’ve used North Meets South Studios’ March Daily Download kit, When Life Gives Lemons. (It’s not available in the store yet, but if you weren’t able to collect all of the files last month, don’t worry. It’ll be in the store soon.) I want the woodgrain paper to be my background and the yellow gingham to be a tablecloth, sort of – maybe one of those vinyl ones with the fuzzy background and now it’s torn 😉 . By Clipping the woodgrain paper to the coloured part I added to the tear, that’s what I get. Cool, right?

Now, if you’d like to do this technique again sometime, you can Save your work As a .psd or .tiff file and reuse it again and again. By having all that coloured area, you can pretty much put the tear anywhere!

This is my finished layout, photos courtesy of Pixabay.

Last week I forgot to mention that Ginger-the-Magnificent has created a special Gallery where layouts you’ve created with these tutorials can be shared. You asked, she answered!! I’ll be swinging by every so often to check it out and leave some love.

PDF Version : https://bit.ly/38jCIlt

Filed Under: Be Inspired, Behind the Scrapbook, Creative Style, Daily Download, Digital Scrapbooking, Digital Scrapbooking Freebies, Tutorials Tagged With: Tutorial Tuesday

Tutorial Tuesday (Photoshop Elements)

March 29, 2022 by Jan

A Simple Photo Border with Label

Whew. The last few tutorials have been challenging, haven’t they? Today I think we need a nice, easy, basic technique that even the least experienced scrapper can succeed in doing. (Or, you could say I lacked inspiration this week, and you wouldn’t be wrong.)

The first step, as always, is to open a new. blank canvas on the workspace. As you can see, I’m predictably going 12 x 12, with lots of room to work. If you’d rather use a smaller canvas, it’s still going to work perfectly fine. I’ve chosen the Rounded Rectangle Custom Shape tool, with a 150 pixel Radius for the rounded corners. I’ve also set a Fixed Size of 6 inches wide, 4 inches high – standard landscape print dimensions. I’ve ticked the From Center and Snap boxes as well. Some tools have a lot of options that make for fewer steps, so why not make use of them?

With a single click in the middle of my canvas, I’ve created a 4 x 6 rounded rectangle shape. Custom Shapes are always Smart Objects when they’re first created. That means the only alteration they’ll permit is to resize.

If you want to do anything else to a Custom Shape, the Smart Object needs to be rendered dumb, or Simplified. If you’ve got a newer version of Elements, you’ll have a Simplify button right there in the Tool Options.

If you’re working with an older version you’ll have to do it the old-school way. Right-click on the layer in the Layers panel and choose Simplify Layer from the drop-down menu.

To create a border/frame that follows the contours of your rounded rectangle CTRL/CMD>click on the shape’s layer thumbnail in the Layers panel. That will Select the edge of the rectangle. Then click Select>Modify>Contract… to shift the marching ants inside the rectangle.

You might want to experiment a bit with this step. I tried a few possibilities for how far over I wanted the edge to move. I want a gap between the Selection and the edge of the rectangle deep enough to add some text in a large enough font that it’s easily read. I settled on 65 pixels.

The marching ants can be hard to see on these screenshots. Trust me when I say they round the corners cleanly.

Now to create the border. It needs to go on its own layer, so add a blank layer to the top of the stack in the Layers panel by clicking on the sheet-of-paper icon at the upper left corner of the panel. Then click Edit>Stroke (Outline) Selection…

Again, this step might take some trial-and-error. I opted to go with a 25 pixel Stroke applied on Center of the Selection.

Here’s a close-up of my 25 pixel Stroke inside my 65 pixel gap. To eliminate the marching ants that outline the Selection, click Select>Deselect, or CTRL/CMD>D.

Now to add the label. I chose a clean, sans-serif (no ‘extra’ extending features) font, but you can choose any font you like. I wanted simple but eye-catching so I went with Caneletter Sans for my label.

It was a bit insipid, so I highlighted the text and clicked the B for faux bold and made it a bit more meaty.

Then I moved the text to a spot on the border/frame. Where your label goes will depend on the photo you’re using. You’ll want it to go somewhere that won’t obscure any focal point, and where it won’t get lost in the photo itself.

I’m going to cut an opening in the border to sandwich the label, so I used the Rectangle Marquee tool to drag out a box around the text as shown. The active layer is the one with the border on it.

Edit>Cut or CTRL/CMD>X will take that chunk out of the border.

Because the label is on a separate layer, if it doesn’t look centered in the opening, it’s easy enough to nudge it so it does look right.

Once I was happy with the border and label, I activated both layers by click>SHIFT>clicking on them, then right-clicked and chose Merge Layers. Shortcut: CTRL/CMD>E.

Now to fine-tune. I dragged my photo onto the workspace, positioning it between the rounded rectangle shape and the border/label layers.

But first, I’m going to Clip the photo to the shape, by right-clicking and choosing Create Clipping Mask. Shortcut: for versions 15 and up, CTRL>ALT>G. For earlier versions, CTRL/CMD>G.

Elements indents the layer once it has been Clipped to the layer below it, as shown.

The black border/label gets lost a bit against the photo. So I’m going to change the color to something more visible. The cleanest way to do that is to add a Solid Color Fill Layer. Click Layer>New Fill Layer>Solid Color…

Make sure the box is ticked to Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask to save yourself some steps.

For the most flexibility I Merge the two layers together.

Elements will use the foreground color in the Color Picker, but you can always choose to pull a color from your photo. Activate the Eye Dropper tool and click it on any color you like. You can see the changes happening in real time, and that guarantees you’ll find the look you like best.

What color would you go with?

I can’t believe I managed to create 20 new layouts this month. I’m greedy… I want both the Challenge Reward kit AND the Shine Your Light mega-collab. (That might mean our next tutorial is about moving kits and layouts onto an external hard drive and changing some workflow but it’ll be worth it…) March is almost gone, it’s 61°F outside and the orchards are greening up. Makes me feel like I can do anything!

PDF Version: https://bit.ly/3qOm97N

Filed Under: Be Inspired, Behind the Scrapbook, Creative Style, Digital Scrapbooking, Tutorials Tagged With: Tutorial Tuesday

Tutorial Tuesday (Photoshop Elements)

March 22, 2022 by Jan

Creating Art with a Photo

I’ve been procrastinating over this tutorial for awhile… because A) I wasn’t sure I could articulate how I do this and B) other, quicker techniques kept presenting themselves. 😉 But I bit the bullet. Today’s the day! I want to show you how to turn a photo into a watercolor work of art, and it started when Karen asked how the scrapper got the paint effect on this layout, shown below. (Sorry, I’m not sure where the original is posted or who the scrapper is to give them credit… if it’s yours, you did a fantastic job!) Anyway, I want to make one thing clear before we start: this is a labour-intensive technique, and much will depend on your choice of photo how much work will be involved. But your skills will get a good workout!

I chose this photo from Pixabay as my canvas. It already has a bit of an arty look to it, but when I’m done with it, it’ll be very different. It was already a square so that helped, although you can do this technique on any photo.

First, I’m going to use a Guided Edit. This one was introduced with Elements 2019. If you’re working with an earlier version, you can follow this tutorial, or this tutorial for the sketchy part. I’ve also used the Guided Edit we’ll be working with for a previous tutorial back in July 2019, so if it looks familiar that’s why. The outcome today will be very different from that other though.

Choose Pencil Sketch from the options in this menu, the one in the upper left corner there. Then drag your cursor over the parts of your photo you want to be sketchy. The cursor can be sized to fit the area you’re including, and you’ll have the ability to “unsketch” parts if you go too far.

I decided I wanted the WHOLE photo to be sketchy, so I made my cursor brush huge and rolled it over everything. But let’s say you only want part of your photo sketched. In my experience, it’s easier to ADD an area to my selection then SUBTRACT with a smaller brush where the details are. You’ll see what I mean a bit later. In this step, it’s also possible to decrease the Opacity of the effect so more of the original shows through. But not today!

Once I had my sketch the way I wanted it, I went to the lower right corner of the workspace and clicked Next. (Be careful you don’t click Cancel, because that’ll undo everything you’ve done and take you back to the starting gate.) Then I chose Continue Editing In Expert.

Now it’s possible to see what Elements was doing in the background while we were busy and oblivious. Now I have 3 layers: the original, a sketch layer with a black Layer Mask and a sketch layer with a white Layer Mask. It’s possible to do the following steps using these two masked layers, but it’s a bit more challenging than my approach, so we’re not going to do that. The layer that I want to work with is the one with the white Layer Mask, but I need to Simplify it. Right-click on that layer – over on the left of the layer near but not ON the link icon – then choose Simplify Layer.

Then I Deleted the layer with the black Layer Mask.

You can turn visibility for the colour layer off if you like, or leave it be.

Next, I made a Copy Layer of the sketch. You can right-click on the layer then choose Duplicate Layer>OK. Or use the keyboard shortcut CTRL/CMD>J.

I put the Copy Layer in my back pocket for later and made the first sketch layer my active layer and added a Layer Mask to it… I know what you’re thinking – but I’m really not making work for myself. I tried it with the previously masked layers and it didn’t do what I needed it to do.

For those not familiar with Layer Masks, they allow removal of part of a layer in a “non-destructive” way, meaning that if I erase part of the image that I didn’t really want gone, I can just paint it back in. See the colour picker? The Eraser Tool is active with a white foreground and a black background. When white is the foreground colour, whatever the Eraser rolls over with be revealed – in this case it’s the transparent background. When black is the foreground colour, it conceals – the transparent background in this case. Toggling back and forth between removing and replacing parts of the image plays a big role in getting this technique nailed. I started by Erasing her face and neck as well as the green in the upper left corner. As I mentioned, I find it easier and quicker to Erase (white) past fine details like wispy hairs, and then paint them back (black).

I also discovered that toggling the colour layer on and off makes it easier to see edges of things better.

Aaaaaand toggling the sketch layer on and off helped me see where and what needed more help.

Her fringe didn’t seem too important when I first got going, but to be really successful, I figured I needed to make it as sharply detailed as possible. I work on a laptop with a trackpad, and lemme tell ya… it’s a SKILL!! I found I got better results when I started at the tip of a strand of hair and dragged the cursor back toward the fringe than when I tried to go from fringe to tip. Try it both ways and see which works best for you. This is where most of the time expenditure happens. If you’ve chosen a less detailed image to work with, it’ll go a lot quicker.

So, I’m happy with how I’ve isolated her hair. What do you think the next step will be?

Did you guess right? If you’ve read a lot of my meandering tutorials, you probably did!

And you probably knew this step was coming too. Make a Copy Layer of the hair. ALWAYS have a copy of something you’ve done a lot of work on, just in case you need it!! Now I have a Copy of the whole sketch and a Copy of just her hair.

It’s really hard to see the marching ants in this screenshot, but they are there. I activated the whole sketch layer then CTRL/CMD>clicked on one of the hair layers to Select the edges of the hair on the whole sketch.

I want everything BUT the hair so I clicked Select>Inverse. (In reality, I used the keyboard shortcut CTRL/CMD>SHIFT>I…)

Then I clicked Edit>Cut (CTRL/CMD>X).

At this point I have four layers, one colour, one just her face and the green in the corner and two hair layers.

Now I took some time to experiment with my watercolor brush collection. The ones that worked best are the ones that are a square swatch, like the ones you can grab here for free. I resized the brush so it filled the whole photo so I could see where the colour was most opaque and how it looked overall. Because I was just looking at options. I didn’t create a new blank layer for the brush, although in retrospect I should have.

Did you know you can make lots of adjustments to your brushes? Click on Brush Settings and you’ll see this. I wasn’t happy that the brush I chose didn’t cover all of her hair, so I rotated the brush 90° to the right and fixed it.

The next two screenshots are still part of my experimentation, but the process you’ll follow after you’re settled on your brush and have it on its own layer is the same as I’m showing.

After the hair is Selected and Inverted, I’ll Cut it away to see what effect I have.

Alrighty! I’m ready to commit. I have a brush and a colour I like, it’s positioned well and I can go ahead with the brush on its own layer. I put the new, blank layer in between the hair layers by clicking on the sheet of paper icon at the upper left of the Layers Panel.

I really wanted the ability to manipulate her face separate from her hair, as you can see here. That’s why I went to all the work of Layer Masking her hair. I’ll change the Blend Mode on the FACE layer to Luminosity.

I’m almost happy now. But I’ll look at it for a bit to make sure.

So I played with some Blend Modes and decided all I needed to do was decrease the Opacity of the painted hair layer to 80%. It looks pretty good, even if I say so myself. The untouched hair layer adds some necessary detail back to the hair, and the effect can be enhanced with Blend Modes if desired.

Here’s what it looks like on a layout. I used a mask-and-frame combo in PSD form so that I could move the frame around. I’m really pleased.

Again, I apologize for the formatting mess I’ve made here. I haven’t figured out how to make spacing adjustments in WordPress when I’ve had to move an image around. Or when I’ve made a booboo after I’ve added the images. It’s a problem!

Sherri, I haven’t forgotten about your paper-punch-tear but haven’t figured it out yet. It’s a work in progress…

PDF Version : https://bit.ly/3wy8xkz

Filed Under: Be Inspired, Behind the Scrapbook, Creative Style, Digital Scrapbooking, Digital Scrapbooking Freebies, Tutorials Tagged With: Tutorial Tuesday

Tutorial Tuesday: Individual Style

March 15, 2022 by Jan

Making Magic with Brushes

Yes, it’s the third Tuesday of March already. It’s a sad day here, as our daughter said goodbye to her furbaby Lucy this morning. We knew this day was coming, and tried to prepare, but it’s not that simple, is it? I’ll be working on a tribute layout later as my therapy, and seeing all the amazing ways our GingerScrappers have created magic with this month’s Challenge Brush has given me some inspiration.

When I chose these layouts to show you, I was looking for uniqueness, and I had a lot to choose from. Each layout will be linked to the Gallery; the GingerScraps user names are your links so if you’re inclined, you can pop over and give them some praise. But first, let’s talk about the Challenge. This year, the host for our Brush Challenge is Alexis Design Studio. She’s brilliant with creating brushes, so we’re all very lucky she’s giving them away! The Challenge is to use the brush she provided (free) on a layout, and there are some very creative ways to use brushes. Let’s have a look.

This layout by wendeeds is filled with shamrocks. I had to look hard to see the brush – it’s behind the journaling! I thought she’d used patterned paper.

Here, pippin has turned the brush into confetti and it’s showering the couple with luck.

I love how Rhewko has blended the brush into her background and added a touch of gold leaf to it. It’s both subtle and obvious.

Here, jcfdelaware has overlaid the brush with her photo mask, blending them. The little boy blowing on the dandelions is blowing the brush’s shamrocks into the universe.

Look at the tone-on-tone beauty of this layout from ysgbo! The brushes are randomly positioned, with the layout divided diagonally. The upper right are embossed and the lower left are debossed. Brilliant!

Dannisa has the brush repeating and gradually shrinking, with the shamrock pouf overlapping and creating a cloud of parachutes.

My eyes went right to this layout in the album. The way Grace has turned one of her photos into a pencil sketch is lovely, and who isn’t drawn to sunflowers right now? But it’s the way the brush seems to mingle with the paper scatter that is the real genius here.

The way barbaraj has duplicated the brush is clever; it looks like she die-cut them from paper and carefully positioned each tiny piece.

Macsandy makes the brush an integral part of her background, and has pulled the green from other aspects of her background to create a seamless image. Using a black-and-white photo was a great idea.

For her layout, Effie4037 used the brush in a very subtle way. I like that she chose to echo the mint green from her border paper rather than the more traditional green of her title strip. The brush ties her photos together and grounds them to the background beautifully.

The way willow‘s brush explodes into the layout makes it so hard to know where the brush ends and her photo begins. Great choice to invert the colour where the brush extends into the central gray paper strip too!

To me, the brushwork on garrynkim‘s layout looks like a stencil applied with a very gentle hand.

At first, I thought Jill had put her layout into the wrong album. So I took a closer look. The brush is there… russet and blended into the old wood background and providing a landing pad for that gorgeous cluster.

At first glance, you might think this layout from PixyGirl has popcorn on it. But it’s the brush, in white and with a pearl glued to many of the shamrocks.

Tsubasa went to a lot of trouble to blend the brush into her photo. Look carefully at how she’s lightened the main part of the photo, framed that focal seedhead and then augmented the blowing seeds with the brush. Amazing!

By blending the brush into this dreamy, soft watercolour paper, wvwendy has really added oomph to her layout.

I saved this version from linweb for last. She used it very cleverly to create a St Patrick’s Day card and I LOVE it!!

I hope you’ve gotten some flashes of inspiration from this stroll through the Gallery. I know I did!

PDF Version: https://bit.ly/3KKY6Oz

Filed Under: Be Inspired, Behind the Scrapbook, Challenge Spotlight, Creative Style, Digital Scrapbooking, Digital Scrapbooking Freebies, Tutorials Tagged With: Tutorial Tuesday

Tutorial Tuesday (Photoshop Elements)

March 8, 2022 by Jan

Realistic Book Looks

If you’ve been waiting for today’s tutorial all day and were wondering if it would ever appear, I have an excuse… a MILLION interruptions! But fortunately it’s a short snapper this week, so I’m hoping it doesn’t break too late. Let’s get after it!

Jill sent me a request to help her figure something out. She’d done some layouts using Miss Fish’s Travellers’ Notebook V.9 templates and some spiral wire binding, and that was okay. But she also wanted to leave out the spiral binding and have more of a bound-book-laying-open-on-a-table look. She’d tried to achieve it but wasn’t satisfied with her efforts. So today, I’m tackling it for her.

I whipped up a travel-related layout using the same template she’d shown me as her example. As you can see, it looks like… a layout. Not much like a coffee table book.

It’s actually an easy thing to make a flat layout look more like a book. It involves the Burn Tool (the one that looks like the “OK” hand gesture). I chose one of the round Drop Shadow brushes that are included with the software. These are my settings, which I’m providing as a guide. You may like more or less! I also turned on the Grid (View>Grid or CTRL/CMD>’) to give me more control over what I’m going to do. Things to keep in mind: Burn the layers that are going to follow the contour of the curved part of the page. Anything that might lift away, like the tag and the journal card, won’t be part of this process. Choose the proper layer(s). I’ll be starting on the left side of the layout, so will have to Burn the background cream-coloured paper, the orange paper layer, the striped paper layer and the photo layer. When I do the right side of the layout, I’ll only need to Burn the background cream-coloured paper.

Making a straight line in Elements is super-duper easy when you know how. Using the Grid as a guide, I positioned my Brush as shown, 1/4 inch off the paper on its right side and so that the widest part of the Brush was over the bottom. I Clicked to start the Burn, then held down the SHIFT key and Clicked again at the top of the visible part of the cream paper. See how the paper is darker there now, but not gray? I repeated this process for each of the paper layers on the left side, then did the same to the background paper on the right.

It looks better already! But I’m going to make it even more real-looking.

This time I’m going to add an actual shadow, using a big square Drop Shadow Brush and my shadow colour. These are the settings I used. I’m going to start on the right side this time, and you’ll see why in a sec. I’ve got the cream-coloured background paper layer active.

I ALWAYS put my brushes on their own layer. Then I can adjust them in so many different ways. If I actually put the brush on a paper layer, it’s part of the paper layer and thus not tweakable at all. So I added a new blank layer above the cream paper layer.

I used the same steps to add the shadow. BUT. Using the Brush Tool in this way doubles up the effect where the first Click is done. That’ll look bad. So I did my first Click OFF the paper I’m shadowing. I centered the brush but in hindsight, I could have just aligned the left side of the brush with the center of the book and skipped some steps. Oh well. Click>SHIFT>Click top and bottom, off the paper.

Next, I used the Rectangle Marquee Tool to outline the overly dark bit at the top of the layout, then Edit>Cut (CTRL/CMD>X) that bit away.

To further blend and soften the shadow, I added a Blur>Gaussian Blur.

It looked just about perfect with a 4.5 pixel Blur.

Rather than Shadow all the various layers on the left side, I instead made a Copy Layer of the shadow and moved it up the Layers Panel so it was above the photo layer. Then I nudged it over so it was balanced with the right side. Of course, it overlaps the right side. Darn! Rectangle Marquee Tool CTRL/CMD>X to the rescue.

There! It looks a lot more 3D now, and I really like it! I hope Jill does too.

Well ladies, spring is in the air here and it’s time for supper! (And I’m only 10 minutes late.) See you next week, when we’ll check out a Challenge.

PFD Version : https://bit.ly/3MG9bSE

Filed Under: Be Inspired, Behind the Scrapbook, Digital Scrapbooking, Tutorials Tagged With: Tutorial Tuesday

Tutorial Tuesday (Photoshop Elements)

March 1, 2022 by Jan

Taking Those Shapes to the Next Level

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been doom-scrolling Twitter, with MSNBC on in the background, continually since the Russians invaded Ukraine. As if things weren’t already awful enough… Two of my mom’s sisters and one of her cousins married three Ukrainian-Canadian young men back in the 50s. My dad’s mom was Polish. This invasion feels personal to me and it’s hard to shift gears. But I’ve succeeded – I have a tutorial for you that builds on last week’s Custom Shapes clipping masks. This time I’m going to show you some ways of turning those shapes into 3-D frames – it’s simple and so much fun! Rather than reinvent the wheel and go into obsessive detail with every step, I’m going to assume you’ve got some Elements chops and sort of start in the middle.

Each of these Shape frames will start out the same way, with choosing the Custom Shape and dragging it out on the canvas. As usual, I’m working on a 12×12 canvas so I have lots of room. I started with a hexagon.

I’ll always remind you that Custom Shapes begin life as Smart Objects and don’t have a lot of flexibility. So before you can manipulate them, you’ll need to Simplify them… dumb them down, so to speak. If your version of Elements has the Simplify button in the Tool Options panel, just click it. If you DON’T have that button, you’ll need to right-click on the layer then choose Simplify Layer from the dropdown menu.

To create the frame’s opening, first we need a Copy layer. Either right-click on the layer and choose Duplicate Layer>OK or use the keyboard shortcut CTRL/CMD>J to quickly make that Copy. (I LOVE Copy layers and recommend you come to love them too. When you play with a Copy, you’ll still have the original if you make a booboo.) (Second editorial comment: CTRL refers to Windows-based systems, CMD to Macs.)

Obviously, a Copy is identical to the original and that’s not going to work to make a hole. So the Copy layer will need to be Resized. The easiest way to do that in this context is to click on one of the handles on the Bounding Box, which opens up the Move tool‘s Tool Options menu. Then, with the Constrain Proportions box ticked and the centre of the layer as the reference point, type a numeric value into one of the boxes as shown. I went with 85%, which will give a nicely solid frame.

In this screenshot you can see the outline of the smaller hexagon. Now it can be used to remove the middle of the frame.

Ensure your large hexagon layer is active and then click Edit>Cut, or use the keyboard shortcut CTRL/CMD>X. We’ll come back to the hexagon in a minute. What if you chose a more complicated shape, like this seal? You can use all the controls in the Tool Options, like using Defined Size, and if you tick the From Center box, Elements will put the shape right in the centre of the canvas. Here, I’ve shown the Simplify button (the one you may not have). Experiment with your software; the more you play with it, the better you’ll understand what it can do and what it can’t. (And these tutorials will make more sense…) You’ll find a system and a rhythm that works for you.

So. What if you didn’t tick the From Center box and now your two shapes aren’t positioned precisely like you want them to be? Elements has a fix for that! Activate both layers by clicking>Shift>clicking on them in the Layers Panel. You’ll see the Move tool Tool Options menu over on the left. Where it says Align, click on the Center button – Elements will move both layers so their centres are aligned. Then right away click the Middle button, and Elements moves both layers so the middles are aligned. Easy peasy!

CTRL/CMD>X and now I’ve got a nice starburst frame.

Okay, back to the hexagon! When I was thinking about this technique, my mind’s eye saw a shiny green frame with glittery gold edges. Making that a reality will take a couple of additional steps. I’ll need to create the border first, because once I alter the frame itself it’ll be harder. The border needs to be completely separate from the frame so I can jazz them up in different ways. That means it goes on its own layer. (Of course!!) So I added a new blank layer to the Layers Panel by clicking on the sheet-of-paper icon in the strip across the top of the Panel.

Quick-and-easy border making uses the Stroke Edit. CTRL/CMD>click on the Layer Thumbnail to “Select” the edges of the hexagon, inside and out. Make sure you’re on the blank layer, then Edit>Stroke (Outline) Selection.

I want the glittery border to be visible but not overpowering so I went with 35 pixels for my width. The colour can be anything – the glitter will hide it anyway. I chose the Outside setting; it’s not going to round the hexagon’s corners enough to worry about.

This is something I sometimes forget when I’m doing something on the fly. If there are marching ants – something has been Selected – none of the things I try to do that don’t involve the Selected area will actually happen. They need to go away. Select>Deselect or CTRL/CMD>D will do that.

I’m going to use some Styles now. Have you bought some Styles – .ASL files – but don’t know how to get them into Elements so you can use them? Some of the GingerBread Ladies collaborations include Styles (usually glitter, but not always; Craft Fair is a good example) so you could have some and not even know! I’m going to show you quickly how to access them.

I’ve renamed all my Styles files and Copied them into the Elements Program Files for easy retrieval but you don’t have to worry about that, you can grab them from anywhere. If you don’t know where they are, run a Search using .asl as your search term, then let your computer do the work.

I chose a green acrylic gel Style from Just So Scrappy‘s Lucky Me… seemed appropriate for March, however cheesy. The Style added colour, a bevel and highlights all in one move! If the one you choose doesn’t look like you want it to, CTRL/CMD>Z it and try again.

I like this darker gold glitter Style from the same collection. (I’ve gotta say, Katie [Just So Scrappy and Ooh La La Scraps] makes perfect Styles of all descriptions. Check them out! I’ve linked to her shop for you.)

I didn’t do a step-by-step for the star in this image, since it’s done exactly the same way as the others. Stars offer a masculine option so I’m going to give this frame a leather look. Snake skin, to be exact. I made some Copy layers so I’d have back-up and this time I’m going to use a Filter. From the Filters menu I chose Artistic>Textures. I’ll be using Mosaic Tile.

Here are the default settings for Mosaic Tile. I think the “scales” are a bit to insignificant for a manly frame though.

You can see what’s happening with your Filters as you make your adjustments, so it’s not too hard to find the right combo.

I think it needs a touch of colour and a bit of sheen too, so I’ll use a Chrome Style on a Copy layer – flexibility!

When I was a kid, I had one pair of leather shoes. My mom said they weren’t brown, they were “ox-blood”. This reminds me of them. So I’ll use this dark red one.

The Chrome Style will be opaque, so the mosaic tile texture won’t be visible unless I decrease the Opacity of the Chrome layer. 50% looks good.

I wanted to make a few more tweaks so I double-clicked on the fx icon on the Chrome layer and played with this menu.

Were you wondering what I had planned for the sunburst? I made some Copy layers and added a Wood Style to one of them. I’d like a gold edge on it, but not on the inside. So I Resized the bottom original layer by going to 105%. See the gray border there now? It’s just enough.

So far, I’ve only shown you Styles that are purchased. But Elements has some basic Styles included that most of us never even look at. I like this Molten Gold one, I think? It’s in the Complex folder along with a bunch of very intriguing others.

So this is what it looks like before I bend it to my will. It’s pretty in-your-face!

I toned it down a bit.

What do you think? I love it!!

I popped a photo into the hexagon frame. But first I added a bit of a shadow to the green section then Merged the glitter border with the acrylic gel centre so it’s all one piece. (Looks like I forgot to turn the underline off! Oh well. Not a disaster. I apologize for the formatting issues; when I was editing the screenshots I forgot to crop some of them until after I’d already inserted them into the post. Fixing that made the gaps. Sorry!)

I’ve got some great ideas for tutorials in my pocket and will need the distraction this month. Слава Україні!
PDF Version : https://bit.ly/3tn2goD

Filed Under: Be Inspired, Behind the Scrapbook, Creative Style, Digital Scrapbooking, Tutorials Tagged With: Tutorial Tuesday

Tutorial Twos-Day (Photoshop Elements)

February 22, 2022 by Jan

Two Mini-Tuts! Parallelograms and Hanging Chads

Reader beware: This tutorial will be strong on bad puns and corny jokes… ICYMI in the header.

After last week’s tutorial covering the February Inspiration Challenge and shapes, Karen left a comment asking where she could get the template mdusell used for her Bodega Sunsets layout because she really liked the parallelogram. I took a look at the credits for the layout where the template was listed, then went through (all 38 pages) the designer’s store to see if I could find it. [She used a Connie Prince template, if you’re curious.] Alas, the template set has been retired. So the next best thing I could think of is to show her, and all of you too, how to create a parallelogram photo spot complete with white border, like the one from Connie‘s template, that can be saved and used ad infinitum. Then to finish off this week’s post, I’m responding to granny5pics [Kathi] who sent me this message: “I thought I saw some place how to trim/crop a layout so any overhanging picture areas get cropped off and the layout fits in the given size. I thought I had done so successfully myself recently, but I can’t get my current layout to cooperate!” Let’s get started.

Karen‘s parallelogram starts life as a rectangle that is led astray. I’ve activated the Rectangle Custom Shape Tool as you can see below. I’ll start with a square. Then we’ll see how it looks and make any adjustments it may demand. You can see that there are two rectangular options in this toolkit; don’t pick the rounded one!

Here’s my one-step square. I just clicked at the centre of my workspace and it appeared. Remember, all Custom Shapes start out as Smart Objects and can’t be manipulated as is.

Newer versions of Photoshop Elements have a Simplify button right there in the Tool Options. If you don’t see one, you’ll need to Right-Click on the layer in the Layers Panel and choose Simplify from the pop-up menu.

Here’s a Work Smart Not Hard tip. Use your tools! I’m going to turn on the Grid to help me with my shape-shifting. If you don’t regularly use the Grid, I hope I can change your mind about it. But it’s only useful if it’s set up to be useful. Although I live in Canada and the metric system has been our method of measurement since 1979, I still think in inches so my Preferences for the Grid are set so I have a Gridline (heavier) every inch and 4 Division (lighter) lines per inch… i/e I have reference lines every 1/4 inch. Now, to turn the Grid on, View>Grid, or CTRL/CMD>’ will get you there.

Once I had that Grid for reference, I moved the square over to the right an inch to give me lots of room to manoeuver.

Going from square (which is a parallelogram already, but…) to a more diamond-shaped parallelogram requires the use of the Image>Transform>Skew command.

Grab one of the upper corner handles and pull it out to the side. I went left. You do you! Then grab the other upper handle and move it the same amount.

My finished shape didn’t look enough like the one from the template, so I pushed the top edge down a couple inches and like it much better.

The grid isn’t necessary any more so it can go away.

On mdusell‘s layout the parallelogram shape had a white border. The easiest way to do that and have a save-able, reusable clipping mask is to use a Layer Style. There are some basic Strokes in the Layer Style palette, and although there isn’t a white option, that’s a simple fix. Why not just add a Stroke through the Edit menu, you wonder. Well, it’ll be part of the shape, not sitting on top of the shape; it won’t be visible when something is clipped to the shape, and that defeats the purpose.

So I’ve added a Stroke Style. It’s 20 pixels according to the menu, but shows as 26 pixels later. Regardless, it’s all completely adjustable! And that’s a good thing, because I don’t like the rounded corners much.

By double-clicking on the fx icon on the layer, I can fix all the things I don’t like about the stroke. I can make the stroke wider or narrower, I can change the colour and I can move the Position from Outside to Inside and get those sharp corners.

Here’s the easiest way to turn black to white. Just click on the colour swatch then type ffffff into the # box! If you think you’ll want to reuse this photo clipping mask again Save As a PNG and call it something you’ll remember.

Meet my new neighbour.

Now, for Kathi‘s question… I figured the easiest way to help her with her problem is to show her.

I have a lot of paper outside the boundaries of my signature canvas.

Enter the Crop tool. You can use this to remove the overhang at any point while you’re creating. Here, I’ve waited until the whole thing is done and Cropped all the overhanging stuff away at one time. I hope this is what Kathi needs for her issue…

I’ve been helping my daughter with a top-secret project that I hope we can share with the world soon. It’s eaten up quite a bit of time over the last week, so I’m behind………………… and next Tuesday it’ll be March. Gah.

PDF Version : https://bit.ly/3vvZXm3

Filed Under: Be Inspired, Behind the Scrapbook, Creative Style, Digital Scrapbooking, Tutorials Tagged With: Tutorial Tuesday

Tutorial Tuesday (Individual Style)

February 15, 2022 by Jan

Challenge Spotlight: INSPIRATION

Yes, it’s the third Tuesday of February already! This month and next start on a Tuesday, so here we are… looking at a Challenge and the Individual Style each of us brings to a common goal. With the month really only halfway over – and both the Olympics and the Super Bowl squeezed in there, it was a challenge in itself to find one with enough examples to make a good post. But not to worry, the Inspiration Challenge, with Memory Mosaic, fills the bill. Before I go on, these Challenge Spotlights aren’t only meant to encourage you to give them a try, but also to help with the logistics. There are several layouts displayed in the thread that aren’t found in the Challenge Gallery. Posting your layouts to the Challenge Gallery is a required element for proper credit toward Challenge Rewards. So don’t forget that step! Now, let’s talk Inspiration…

Joy’s theme for this month’s challenge is SHAPES. But she also wants a brief explanation of how the participants decided which shapes to include. There are some unique takes on this one, and my descriptions aren’t going to replace the scrappers’ own words. You’ll have to check out the layouts in the Gallery to see those. Each layout is linked to the Gallery through the scrappers’ names, so please do drop by and leave them some praise.

First up is this one by B2N2Scraps. She has a variety of geometric shapes here: circles, rectangles and parallelograms. (Thank you, Google, for helping me out with the names of some shapes that I’ve forgotten.)

What has Pippin got going on here? I see hexagons, triangles, trapezoids, pentagons, circles and rectangles. Oh, and some square gems too!

In SusanSays‘ layout the predominant shape is the triangle, but it isn’t the only one. I see squares, rectangles, circles, trapezoids, a couple of ellipses and a star.

Tbear has used lots of circles, but she’s also got some pyramids there, some trapezoids and rectangles too.

This layout by greenfiend27 is too clever by far! There are a plethora of trapezoids, triangles, rectangles, squares and at least one pentagon in there. I almost overlooked the tiny circles!

I like how simple mdusell’s layout is, but still contains a number of shapes: triangles, a parallelogram, rectangles, circles and two overlapping trapezoids.

Trapezoids seem to be a very popular shape! pjm117 has included some circles and triangles, as well as a couple of rectangles too.

There’s a lot going on in Lisa Campbell’s layout, but a close look shows triangles, parallelograms, circles, rectangles and some overlapping trapezoids.

Dovedesign made it easy. Circles and rectangles are obvious; ellipses are less-so… they’re the beads!

Basketladyaudrey made it easy too, big squares, rectangles, a big circle and two overlapping trapezoids are there.

Here, lousmith went with just the square of her background and LOTS of circles.

Last but not least, princess-scrap has circles and rectangles and one solitary square photo.

Great layouts, ladies!!

PDF Version : https://bit.ly/351E7f8

Filed Under: Be Inspired, Behind the Scrapbook, Challenge Spotlight, Creative Style, Digital Scrapbooking, Tutorials Tagged With: Tutorial Tuesday

Tutorial Tuesday (Mixing It Up)

February 8, 2022 by Jan

Perfectly Paired, with Diamond Dust Designs

After last week’s marathon tutorial I needed some downtime, so I took a look at the February Challenges. (I know, it sounds like the opposite of relaxing, right?) But to me, Challenges are a way of turning off and tuning out a bit. I mean, come on… they tell you what to do, all you have to do is do it! Lots of room for creativity, but less thought required. Ha!! Did you look at the Perfectly Paired Challenge?

“…you must use two different kits from two different GS Designers and select an equal number of papers and an equal number of elements from each kit that go well together. Then pick a favorite template from a GS Designer and create your LO, showing how you perfectly paired the two kits together. List both kits and their designer and the template designer in your credits.”

Sure, Ginger laid it all out about how to meet the requirements of the Challenge, but many of us are single-kit scrappers. So that got me thinking about a tutorial I wrote quite some time back about how to use multiple kits without losing our minds, and it seemed a good idea to replay it this week so more of you might be tempted to give it a try. The original tutorial is Windows-based, so if you’re using a different operating system there will be some adjustments to the search piece needed. Let’s have a look.

Caveat: This is my workflow and you might have a method that will work better for you.

I like to use templates, not gonna lie. They make scrapping so much easier. And I like to use folders. For me, they too make scrapping easier. For mixing kits, folders are a HUGE help. I have folders for each store I frequent, each of the kits I’ve added to my stash and I have folders for every layout I’ve created. It helps keep me organized. I’ve read posts from people who go through all of their kits and individually tag EVERYTHING. That’s a ton of work, and for the most part, it’s unnecessary. Designers usually label everything in a kit in some way, so why duplicate their efforts? Work Smart, Not Hard!

So let’s talk about folders. At the beginning of every month, I create a Challenges folder. And in this folder I add subfolders for all my favourite challenges. Into those folders, I copy my photo(s), template, papers and elements. After I’m happy with the layout, have ensured I have no bloopers and the layout is posted, I empty the folder of everything but the PSD of the layout and 2 JPEGs. That keeps the space taken up by the layout to a minimum but lets me find them later. The image below shows some of my folders in the list to the left. My first step is to select a template to use. In the tutorial on organizing your stash, I talked about labeling template previews in some fashion so it’s easier to find what you’re looking for later. My system, borrowed from someone else but modified to suit my workflow, is to label with whether the template is for a single or double spread, the number of photo spots and sometimes the shape/mask/blend the photo spots assume. The screenshot below shows a Windows File Explorer search for a single spread with 1 photo. (The icon for this utility is the file folder… super simple!) I had chosen a cute photo to build my layout around, so I opened my GingerScraps digikit folder then in the search box shown on the upper right, I typed in “single1“. After a few minutes, Windows had found all the template previews so labeled and showed them to me. (The actual search time will depend on the size of the folder you’re searching and the number of like objects to be found. It may only take seconds.) Now I could look at them and pick a template that would work for my layout.

Now, how did I find the actual template, you ask, since all that’s displayed are the preview thumbnails? I right-clicked on the preview and selected Open file location from the menu window. That takes me right to the folder that holds the template. Then I copied the template file into my challenge folder. For other searches this step won’t be necessary, because you can just copy the objects right from the search pane.

Next, I opened the template preview thumbnail in a photo viewer so I could see what supplies I needed to find next. I counted up the different papers the template employs and went on to my next search.

For this search, I put “paper blue” in the search box, as I’ve shown below. And Windows found all the papers labeled with those two words. Results will show both folders and individual images, which makes it easy to see just what you’re looking for.

I copied each of the blue papers I might want to use into my GingerScraps Challenges> September 2017>Colour SHADES OF BLUE folder so I could see them all in one place. That helped me determine if they’d work together or not. They look pretty good!

I worked my way through the different items used for the template one at a time to find things I wanted to include. There was a circular element I decided must be a flair, so I did a “flair” search.

Remembering that templates don’t necessarily have to be duplicated exactly, I chose to add some string to it. The search showed me a blue string right near the top that would work beautifully!

Once I had chosen all the things I thought I might use (substituting flowers for the stars) I could see everything in one place and knew they’d all work well together. I had pieces from FOURTEEN kits!

Once I was ready to build my layout, I opened Photoshop Elements and went to the Colour SHADES OF BLUE folder and opened all the items onto my workspace. From there it was zip, zip, zip!

And this is where I ended up. (Once I post my challenge layout, I add a hyphen to the beginning of the folder name so I know it’s done.)

Another way this method is useful is for speed scraps. You can have Windows searching for things while you work on the previous steps. That’s sort of where I came up with my system. I used to partake of monthly speed scraps at another site that is no longer around and I wanted to be sure I was finished my layout with time to spare in order to win the prize.

This screenshot shows how CathyK has labelled the items in her kit Aviator. This is for GingerScrapper Karen who had some questions about metadata.

Please feel free to adapt this however it will work for you! Now I’m going to collect my papers and elements to take on this Challenge. See you next wee, when we’ll be looking at Individual Style – Challenge Spotlight time! (It might even be this one…)

PDF Version : https://bit.ly/3t0uMfT

Filed Under: Be Inspired, Behind the Scrapbook, Creative Style, Digital Scrapbooking, Tutorials Tagged With: Tutorial Tuesday

Tutorial Tuesday (Photoshop Elements)

February 1, 2022 by Jan

Another Paper-to-Digi Technique: Partial Cutouts

Anybody own a Cricut? This tutorial is based on a Cricut Joy video sent to me by CalGirl (aka Steph). She asked if I could see a way to make a similar version using only digi-supplies. I’m not going to minimize the amount of work involved in recreating the folded hearts using Elements – my first attempt was so complicated that I couldn’t possibly turn it into a tutorial. CONTENT WARNING!! There are many steps to this, and it’s definitely not as quick or easy as a Cricut technique where somebody else has done the heavy lifting and all you have to do is push a button. But if you’re intrigued and think you might want to try it, read on! [Editor’s note: Read all the way through before you attempt this stunt. You’ll Work Smarter than Jan did!]

I like to start big and resize later. I want to be able to see what I’m doing and work as smartly as I can. Having said that, there are LOTS of things inside the Photoshop Elements Toolbox that I haven’t explored yet, and there are probably much better and easier ways to accomplish a lot of things. Today isn’t the day for experimenting with that, so we’ll start with a 12×12 canvas with a transparent background.

Some of these steps can be rearranged; I’m showing them to you as I figured them out so please bear with me. 😉 This is one that could wait but that isn’t how I worked it through. I chose the Custom Shape Tool (aka “cookie cutter”) and looked at All Elements Shapes to decide which shape I’d use for my demo.

I was thrilled to see this outlined heart, so similar to the shape used in the Cricut video. Remember that when working with Custom Shapes, they will need to be Simplified before you can manipulate them. Later versions of Elements include a button in the Tool Options to make it quicker. If your version doesn’t have it, then you’ll need to right-click on the layer in the Layers Palette and choose Simplify Layer.

The next seven (yes, SEVEN) steps are optional, but they will make the rest of the technique go more smoothly by providing placement assistance. On a new blank layer I dragged out a 6 inch circle using the Elliptical Marquee Tool and centred it on the canvas.

Next I added a black Stroke to outline the circle. Edit>Stroke (Outline) Selection.

To make sure it’s visible, I used 10 pixels and put it on the Outside of the Selection.

I want to turn it into a wagon wheel. The Cricut version has eight hearts, so I’ll make my wheel with eight spokes. Adding in the spokes is easier when I have the Grid visible. View>Grid or CTRL/CMD>’

Drawing straight lines is easy when you know how.

Click on the starting point. Hold down the SHIFT key and click on the end point. Easy-peasy!

Then the Grid can go away. (Pssst… this is also how you can turn on and off the Guides : CTRL/CMD>; ) If you think there might be a time when this wheel could come in handy later, Save it right now as a PNG. That’ll preserve the transparent background for you.

Now I made my first outlined heart shape. I made it symmetrical by setting Fixed Size>3 in by 3 in. It can go anywhere on the canvas to start out, then moved into position once it’s been Simplified.

Then I used the wheel to position. In retrospect, I’d put the first heart on the vertical axis and save some steps later. I always figure these things out AFTER the fact. <sigh> I made some Copy Layers. Right-click>Duplicate Layer>OK will drop the Copy right on the canvas. Or use the keyboard shortcut CTRL/CMD>J.

Because this is a demo and I didn’t want it to be too complicated, I decided I’d put four hearts in my circle, not eight. And then there’s my first stab at this, where I had eight, but it was a dumpster fire!

This is something I hope you’ll internalize, because it can really be a big time saver. Whenever I’m making something up as I go along, I make Copy layers so that if I mess up later, I’ll still have the steps that worked properly somewhere in my stack. I just tuck it away by turning Visibility off.

I chose two pink papers from Ooh La La Scraps Birthday Wishes Girl for my demo. I dragged the lighter pink on top of the hearts layers. You can see the darker one at the bottom of the stack, tucked away for later. I also CTRL/CMD>Clicked on the hearts Layer Thumbnail to Select the edges of the hearts.

I wanted to Cut out the hearts from the light pink paper, so first I had to tell Elements to Invert the Selection. Select>Inverse or CTRL/CMD>SHIFT>I

Then I could Edit>Cut [CTRL/CMD>X] the rest of the paper away. (Once you Cut paper with a Cricut, it’s too late to change your mind.)

Before I moved on and made a mistake I couldn’t Edit>Undo [CTRL/CMD>Z] I made a Copy of the pink heart layer and tucked it away. If I don’t end up needing it I can always Delete it later. Here’s where you see the results of NOT positioning the first heart on the vertical axis… I’m Rotating the whole set of four hearts so the first one is… on the vertical axis. 😮

If you’re wondering if the next few steps are necessary, I assure you… I tried NOT to have to do this, but it was an abject failure. Using the Rectangle Marquee Tool, I dragged out a rectangle over half the heart, with one edge exactly over the pointed parts and carefully avoiding the other heart near it. It means I’ll have to repeat this step to remove the rest of that half, but there isn’t a good way around that.

Next, I Cut that bit inside the box away. Edit>Cut [CTRL/CMD>X] then drew another box and Cut again to get the rest out of there.

I Cut away the same side of each of the hearts, leaving this. Make a Copy of this layer and tuck it away. You’ll thank me later!

Again, this step would have been unnecessary if I’d only put that first heart on the vertical axis, or if I Rotated and left everything that way. Hindsight, y’know!

Each pink half-heart needs to be on its own layer so they can be individually manipulated. So again, I used the Rectangle Marquee to Select one of the halves.

Only this time I Cut and Pasted the paper piece. First Edit>Cut [CTRL/CMD>X]

Then Edit>Paste [CTRL/CMD>V]

Elements will keep the Pasted piece in the same orientation but will drop it on the centre of the canvas. So it’ll need to be nudged back into its rightful place. Having that original layer tucked away helps a lot with this! Do these steps for each of the hearts.

Now to create the appearance of a folded-over, lifted half. I tried a few tricks for this and found using Image>Transform>Distort worked best.

Grab the handle on the Bounding Box that’s closest to the curved part of the image. Push it up a little and in toward the centre a little to create the illusion that it’s lifted off the page. Take care not to move the cut edges where the “fold” is happening. Work this magic on all the pieces.

How’s that? The original hearts layer really helps with visualizing the effect, don’t you think? It’s starting to take shape.

I tucked the original hearts layer away again and turned the visibility of the dark pink paper back on. Time to add some custom shadows. [Editor’s note: If you’re already comfortable with custom shadowing, feel free to skip ahead.] First step is to add a new blank layer UNDER the object you’re going to shadow. Hold down the CTRL/CMD key and click on the “blank page” icon at the top left of the Layers Panel. Then with that layer your active layer, CTRL/CMD>Click inside the Layer Thumbnail of the object to be shadowed to Select its shape. Then using the Paint Bucket Tool and a “shadowy” foreground colour, Fill the shape with the shadow colour. You can use black [000000] or something like an umber [2c1902] for your shadows.

Adjusting the shadow to help with the illusion the paper is lifted is easily accomplished with the Smudge Tool. The icon looks like a hand with a finger rubbing on the paper. More on using the Smudge Tool in a minute. When you’re creating shadows, think about where the light is coming from, how much light will get under the object, and how diffuse it might be.

Shadows that are too harsh will always look out-of-place, so adding a Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur… will soften the edges even more than Smudging does.

If the Preview box is empty when you get to this screen, click your cursor over the edge of your shadow layer somewhere and it’ll show up. Then you can watch the effect in action in both the Preview box and on your canvas. I decided this shadow needed a 12.5 pixel Radius Blur.

OMG. I shouldn’t have put the CNN documentary on Carole King and James Taylor on the TV. I’m so distracted, singing along! To make the shadow look most realistic the Blend Mode needs to be changed to either Multiply or Linear Burn. Those modes make the shadow layer more transparent so the colour underneath the shadow shows through. Last step is to decrease the Opacity of the shadow layer until it looks natural. I dropped it to 45%.

And it’ll look like this. Follow the shadowing steps for each of the half-hearts.

As promised, more info on using the Smudge Tool. This little thing is pretty powerful and it’s too easy to go overboard! I’ve found that using a large “fingertip” and gentle pushes gives me the best results. Sometimes there’s a lag between making an adjustment and it being visible, so try not to be in a rush or CTRL/CMD>Z will get a workout.

Once all the halves have been shadowed, on to the rest of the technique.

I dragged another light pink paper onto the canvas underneath all the heart layers. It looks interesting, but we’re not there yet.

I flouted my own rule and didn’t make a Copy of the unaltered half-hearts, so I had to go back and recreate that set of steps. Here’s where you’d want that Copy I mentioned back about 18 screenshots… CTRL/CMD>Click on the Layer Thumbnail of the unaltered halves, and with your uppermost light pink paper layer active, Edit>Cut [CTRL/CMD>X] the half-hearts out.

I decided I really needed to have the uncut halves to be recognized, and the best way I could think to make it visible but unobtrusive was to Emboss it. First, I had to show Elements what it was Embossing. I created a new blank layer on top of the pink layer from the last step – just Click on the blank sheet of paper icon at the top left of the Layers Panel. On this layer, I CTRL/CMD>Clicked on the original hearts Layer Thumbnail to Select the edges to which I’ll add a thin little Stroke.

It doesn’t have to be too obvious, so I went with a 2 pixel black Stroke Centered on the edges.

It was pretty in-my-face so I decreased the Opacity to 26%. See it?

I didn’t want the WHOLE outline to be Embossed so I used the Eraser to eliminate the line on the inside opposite the “folded” edge and all around the “folded” half’s edge, just leaving the line on the outside of the uncut side.

There’s a quick way to get to the Simple Emboss command. Click on More down in the bottom right under the Layers Panel, then choose the Favorites tab from the pop-up. Simple Emboss is right there.

The default settings aren’t going to be right for this, so I double-clicked on the fx icon to the right side of the Stroke layer to access the Command menu. Make sure the Lighting Angle matches your shadows, then adjust the amount of Bevel the effect gives. I decided 35 pixels Down looked right.

Alrighty! Now it’s looking like something. But it’s missing something.

The light pink paper needs a Drop Shadow! But I won’t make you do a custom job for this one. Styles>Drop Shadows>Soft will work.

It’s a little too harsh for me, so I double-clicked on the fx icon for that layer to access the Drop Shadow controls then moved the sliders until it looked right to me.

Last thing I did was to add some flourish-y brushes between the hearts. The finished product looks similar enough to the video for me!

I’ll be back in a day or so with the transcript of my chat with our two February Spotlight Designers. There’s too much going on here today and I don’t want our chat to be lost in the pile! Next week, I think I’ll have mercy on all of us and go for something simple, with only a few steps. Until then…

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

Filed Under: Be Inspired, Be Pinspired, Behind the Scrapbook, Creative Style, Digital Scrapbooking, Tutorials Tagged With: Tutorial Tuesday