Tutorial Tuesday (Potpourri)

June 3, 2025 by Jan Leave a Comment

Greatest Hits: Let’s Talk About New Computers

This tutorial originally appeared in August, 2021. I’ve updated it to reflect more current conditions. 😉

Let me be a shining example of what NOT to do when setting up a new computer… I’ve learned a few things from previous debacles, and managed a much smoother transition this time.

First things first. Set up the basics. Get your email manager working. Import your address book. Send a test message. Then move on to the browser. If you have a Google account, your favorites and passwords can be automatically added. You’ll need the browser to get new downloads of your apps. Next you’ll want to install the software applications you use all the time to make sure you have space for them on your drive. A little caveat here: Some of the software you use may be quite out-of-date and might not run on your new machine. If you find this to be the case, you may just have to bite the bullet and upgrade your software and apps as well.

The biggest part of setting up a new system is copying all the important files from the old one and moving them into their new home. The easiest way is to copy the files onto a removeable storage device, such as a CD or DVD (for those who still have a drive for those!), a thumb drive or an external hard drive and then pasting them into the new device. I can’t stress enough the value of using a clean, empty device for this step. Last time I used an EHD that I’d already used to back up a bunch of files. But I wasn’t thinking about how the EHD has no ability to think for itself and I ended up with literally thousands of duplicate files. The EHD didn’t know I only need one copy of everything. I discovered my screw-up when I sent my digikits and digiscrapping folders to my new 1TB laptop and was told I didn’t have enough space for them! So I looked at the Properties of each folder and found out the folders on the EHD were more than twice the size of those on Crumbling Laptop. If I’d started with an empty drive, I could have avoided all that wasted time. Oh, and before I forget: If the new system asks you if you want to Compress your files to save disc space DON’T DO IT! Before I figured out that my EHD backups were duplicating everything, I made that mistake and had to figure out how to UNDO it before I added anything else to the chaos.

Another option for transferring files is to use an application, either purchased or free, that will do most of the work for you. Windows 10 has an option for Nearby Sharing over Bluetooth and/or WiFi. Cloud-sharing is possible through Dropbox, Google Drive or OneDrive if you’re so equipped. I tried it with one set of files and couldn’t make it work for me. So I did the EHD route last time. THIS time, I remembered I had a (very old) transfer cable in my collection box of now-what-was-this-cable-for-agains. When I say very old, in digital tech terms it might have come over on the Mayflower. I was very pleasantly surprised to find that it was still useable. I set up both laptops on my kitchen island and ran the file transfers overnight. (This isn’t best practice… if there’s an error or glitch early in the process, you’ll only find out in the morning and have to start all over again. Lucky for me, it didn’t crash, it just took HOURS.)

That leads into setting yourself up for success. Take the opportunity to clean up EVERYTHING before you do any copying! Find and eliminate as many duplicate files as you can. If you routinely rename files for ease of retrieval, make sure all like files have been appropriately renamed. For example, I have a large library of styles. The designer of the brush names the file according to what they prefer. I like to give them names that tell me what type of style – glitter, gloss, wood, shadow, water and such, who the designer is and what kit or other information I may have for it. A sample would look like this: Glitter Just So Scrappy Let Freedom Ring. I also changed the file names on my brushes to something that actually tells me about the brush set, like ADS Feb 21 Challenge heart. I went through my GingerScraps digikit folder and removed all the kits from designers no longer with the site, putting them into a new folder so I’ll still have them but won’t be tempted to use them for challenges. I went through all my photo folders and eliminated as many duplicates as possible. And I went through all my digiscrapping folders and deleted all the copies of templates and such to bring the size of each folder down to something reasonable. [I use a folder system for everything and copy the items I plan to use into them so it’s all together. And I save the finished layout as a PSD file in case I need to make changes. Those folders can be pretty hefty!]

Transferring files from one device to another takes time. A lot of time. Even if there are no hiccups. So plan ahead if you can. [Obviously, if your system fails altogether, that’s not an option, but maybe having a clean backup of all the good stuff isn’t a bad idea.] Make sure you have a protected spot where both old and new are close together just to reduce the amount of up-and-down-back-and-forth you have to do. You’re also going to need some time to learn how the new system does things. I’m moving from a Dell Windows 10 system to an ASUS Windows 11 system, and there’s definitely a learning curve. [One interesting difference is that I can pair my phone to send and receive texts through my laptop!] So if you have an option, don’t start the process if you have any kind of deadline looming. Just to be on the safe side!

I’m feeling pretty comfortable with the new system now, having figured out how to screenshot, which keys to use for “page up” and “page down“, where the calculator is hiding, how to find things I’ve downloaded, and a few other quirks. I’ll probably have some more tips and tricks for Windows 11 as time goes by, but I’ll likely never use it to its full potential. Meanwhile, I m just glad I don’t have to worry about burning my legs any more – the old laptop’s cooling system was failing.

Now, has anybody seen my mojo?

Filed Under: Be Inspired, Behind the Scrapbook, Digital Scrapbooking, Theres An App For That, Tutorials Tagged With: Tutorial Tuesday

Tutorial Tuesday (Windows 11)

May 27, 2025 by Jan 4 Comments

Three Things I LOVE about Windows 11

You may remember that I really dragged my heels about moving with the times and updating to Windows 11. As a tech early adopter, I’d usually be the first one through the door, but when it comes to operating system upgrades, I’ve had some not-so-fun experiences, so I often wait awhile so the developers can work the bugs out. The day finally came that I had little choice but to populate my “new” Windows 11 laptop (that I bought in November but left in the box until March) with my files and get on with it. Here are three things that make it worth the hassle.

This isn’t The First Thing™, just an observation. The Explorer screen is much brighter and cleaner, with a modified Task Bar. The left side panel has the shortcuts I use most often and shows the last 4 Folders I modified.

I confess, I did a ton of organizing and rearranging when I first started using this machine, but I totally did NOT notice that little button there on the Task Bar that says EXTRACT ALL. It only appears when a zipped Folder is clicked upon, and it eliminates the whole right-click>Extract All step. Just click the button and the process begins. The Command prompts are the same as with previous versions once you get there. You know, where you can decide whether you want to see the contents right away or not, and where you want the unzipped files to go.

See how the Explorer view here shows all the Folders in tiny size? Well, when you combine a floor-to-ceiling wall of windows (the ones with panes that let you see outdoors) with 67-year-old eyes and tiny print… it’s a problem. Of course, I can make the icons larger.

Every time I want to choose a Folder… View>Extra Large Icons.

But wait! What if… YEAH!! Click on the three dots on the Task Bar and choose Options. That very blurry box reads: “Change settings for opening items, file and folder views, and search.”

Ooh look, another blurry box. Click on the View tab. This menu opens. Inside the box it says, “Folder views. You can apply this view (such as Details or Icons) to all folders of this type. Apply to Folders. OK.”

“Do you want all folders of this type to match this folder’s view type? Yes” And it does exactly that… all folders of this type – meaning the subfolders – will have the same properties.

This is such a great Work Smart Not Hard* bonus, right here. When you click on the New button on the Task Bar, this menu opens. With just two clicks, I can create a new folder, or access many of the Microsoft suite of applications. (I don’t use them, I have a free suite of similar applications called Libre Office, and Windows 11 gives me a choice of how to open things like text documents and presentations.) Instead of having to find the application, open it, then tell it to open a new document, this does all that for me! Honestly, I’ve only used it to create new folders when I’m Extracting my kits, but it has a lot of potential! Now, if I could just remember where it puts things, that would be great.

Filed Under: Be Inspired, Behind the Scrapbook, Digital Scrapbooking, Theres An App For That, Tutorials Tagged With: Tutorial Tuesday

Tutorial Tuesday (Individual Style)

May 20, 2025 by Jan 2 Comments

Challenge Spotlight: Wild About Styles

Well, so far May has been… a lot. My son has been ill, needing a lot of attention, and I’m mentally exhausted. He went back to his day program today, and I was awake half the night worrying that it might be too soon. So far, so good – no calls from the coordinator. Fingers crossed.

At the beginning of the month, glee asked me if I could help her figure out how to use Wetfish Designs‘ Wild About Styles Challenge Styles, and I said I would. Then everything unravelled. Yesterday when I finally started to play with them, it dawned on me that I should let YOU be the tutors, and I’d offer some commentary. Brilliant, right? Why would I reinvent the wheel? So let’s have a look at how YOU’ve used them!

As always, the layouts to follow are linked to their spots in the Gallery so you can get a closer look, and maybe leave some praise. Just click on the Scrapper‘s user name and you’ll be transported. But before we get rolling, I should take a minute to discuss the Styles themselves. As you can see, some of them are heavily textured. They’re gorgeous as is, but aren’t scale-able – meaning the Style itself can’t be Resized. If you want the texture, but not the size, you’ll need to apply the Style to a paper or a solid Filled layer, Simplify the layer, THEN Resize. The Styles, when applied to objects, will not allow the contours of that object to be visible. They’re “flat”. This can be overcome by decreasing the Opacity of the Styled layer until the contours are revealed. And the third thing I want to mention is that what you see is what you get – solid, off-white texture. If you apply a Style from the set to a coloured paper, for example, the colour will be completely concealed. There are a couple of ways to colour the Styled layer. One is to drop a coloured (or patterned) paper on top of the Styled layer then decrease the Opacity of the paper layer until the texture appears. The second is to drop a coloured paper on top of the Styled layer then change the Blend Mode. Overlay works beautifully, but some of the others are also quite stunning. Color Burn, for example, gives a very sculpted look. So if you’re not seeing the look you want, don’t be afraid to experiment!

This is how the designer demonstrated her Styles.

Next up is this layout from VariaMoon. She chose the horizontal plank woodgrain Style, then added some paint splash and paw print Brushes to it, picking out the brick colour from her large photo.

For her layout, dhariana used a bunch! The vertical woodgrain is her base, and she’s used masks to add the floral and flourish-y textures to her background.

Here, lm44west took a similar approach. She’s added a semi-transparent lily overlay behind her photo.

01lousmith kept it simple; she used the vertical woodgrain coloured to look almost like pressure-treated lumber, and threw some paint at it. Very effective!

KatherineWoodin has recoloured the chrysanthemum Style yellow, likely by layering a solid yellow paper over the Style layer and using Overlay, to pick up her theme’s colour palette.

The chrysanthemum Style seems to be quite popular, used again here by greenfiend27. She created bilateral borders by layering lace over the Style but under her photo, all layers shadowed perfectly. The result is so pretty.

Pippin went with the flourish-y choice, creating a textured mat behind her framed photo. The original ivory colour of the Style works well with the elements she added.

FormbyGirl has a very subtle touch, using at least two Styles, blending them into the background. The result if soft and lovely.

Jill used the chrysanthemum Style and put it behind some very expertly shadowed cutouts. She also used the flourish-y Style to add dimension to her background.

The vertical woodgrain Style seems to be quite popular too; stater used it for her background with a dark blue paper blended into it, likely with the Multiply mode.

It looks like glee went ahead without me. 😀 She too went with the chrysanthemum, adding a blended deeply coloured paper border. Then she Clipped the flourish-y Style to her title. It took me quite some time to figure that darker border out.

5grand has created a sampler, with at least eight different Styles represented. She Clipped papers to some, left others as is and presented us with a visual feast!

For her layout, imafishtank kept it simple and just Clipped the flourish-y Style to her title. It gives the illusion of colour but I zoomed WAYYYY in, and it’s not!

RobynC is our last presenter. She used two of the Styles, one on her background and the other on her title.

Have you been inspired? I have!

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

Tutorial Tuesday (Photoshop Elements)

May 13, 2025 by Jan 1 Comment

Greatest Hits: Weaving – the Digital Way

Ginger recently sent me request for a topic I’d already covered; this time the request came from Lavonne. Her request again resulted in Ginger sending me a link to this layout by trinanne; she used the March 2023 Challenge Brush and clipped her papers to it over and over. Of course, I had to take the long walk down the garden path instead… I had no idea it would end up being much more complex than at first glance. I tossed the first two attempts at making this a coherent process and I think you’ll find it’s not as bad as all the screenshots – and your faithful demonstrator – make it look. (However, this tutorial will require intermediate-to-expert familiarity with the Elements software.)

Now, obviously, if we’re weaving a bunch of papers or ribbons together, they’ll look best against a neutral solid background. I’m using 10 different patterned papers and a solid cardstock from the February 2023 Daily Download Noteworthy, from Miss Fish.

I decided it would work best for the way I was seeing this in my head if I created a bunch of paper strip Clipping Masks. If you’d rather use the Rectangular Marquee Tool to cut strips, that’s up to you. I want to have some variations in width, some crooked and torn edges, and one strip will have a deckle edge. (Instructions not included.) To make those individual features work best, the adjustments are made to the Mask to ensure the patterns on the papers aren’t distorted. I’ll be making a roughly 8 inch by 8 inch square, 10 strips in all. Here’s a tip: When using the Custom Shapes Tool you can specify dimensions and with only one click, you’ve got the desired shape in the desired size. I’m using a Width 8 inches, Height 1.5 inches for my first strip Mask.

Don’t forget that when using the Custom Shape Tool, the resulting shape is a Smart Object – it’s locked and can’t be altered unless you Simplify it. More recent versions of Elements includes a Simplify button bar in the Tool Options. If your version doesn’t show it there, right-click on the layer and choose Simplify Layer from the drop-down menu that appears.

Here I’ve created all 5 of my horizontal Clipping Mask layers. I’ve changed the foreground colour a bit for each to help keep them separate in my mind. You can see there are some thinner and some thicker strips. Next I’ll make 5 vertical strips the same way.

All 10 strips are there now. Let’s Clip some papers to them!

I know you all already know how to Clip papers to template spots but I’ll review anyway. With your paper right above the object you’re Clipping to, right-click on the paper layer and choose Create Clipping Mask. Alternately, you can use a keyboard shortcut. For versions 14 and earlier, CTRL/CMD>G will do it. For versions 15 and later, CTRL/CMD>ALT/OPT>G. My fingers just go there almost automatically now, I’ve used that shortcut so often.

Here are the 5 horizontal strips with their papers Clipped in place. The process is identical for the vertical strips.

Just like that.

I’ll show you how to make them look a little less deliberate in the next few screenshots. Here’s why I opted for Clipping Masks and not just Marqueeing out a bunch of strips. If I decided to Image>Transform>Skew a paper strip, the pattern would also Skew and it would look awful. So instead, I’ll Skew the Mask, giving it crooked ends, and the paper will stay unblemished. Skew only allows the corners to move in a single direction.

To make each paper strip more manageable, after I make my tweaks to the Mask, I’ll right-click>Merge the paper and Mask layers into a single layer. The shortcut is CTRL/CMD>E.

Here I’ve made a bit of a curved cut into the end of the Mask. The Smudge Tool will give that effect, or you could use the Elliptical Marquee Tool to Cut (CTRL/CMD>X) away a thin curved sliver. That method will give you a cleaner Cut.

Why not, indeed?

For this strip I used Image>Transform>Distort. With that command, each of the corners moves independently in all directions.

Another variation on the Smudge Tool.

Now let’s get to the WEAVE. First you’ll need to decide which strip to start with. I’m going to skip the first vertical strip and pass the pink striped strip then the multi-striped strip underneath my red-and-white horizontal strip. I Selected the edges of the first horizontal strip by CTRL/CMD>clicking on the layer thumbnail in the Layers Panel. Then I made the pink striped layer my active layer. To make it look like it passed behind the horizontal strip, Edit>Cut or CTRL/CMD>X removes that Selection from the pink striped paper.

Alternate this process for each of the horizontal layers.

Here is what it looks like before the dimension of shadowing is added.

Add a new, blank layer at the top of the stack of layers. This is where you’ll put your shadows. Decide where your light source is. That will determine where your shadows will lie. I like my light to come from the upper left, at 120°. Because some of my paper strips don’t have sharp, straight edges, I created custom shadows for those layers. (Custom Shadows – Jan’s Method) If you’re going with straight edges you can ignore that. Instead, use the Pencil Tool. For the horizontal strips, you’ll be drawing in your shadows inside the edges of the paper horizontally. For the vertical layers, you’ll be drawing your shadows inside the edges of those papers vertically. The Radius for your Pencil lines can be fairly small, since the papers will be laying tightly together. I used 4 pixels but 5 or even 8 won’t be too big. Set your Foreground Colour to black (000000) Click the cursor right inside the corner of the paper square you’re working with.

Then hold down the SHIFT key and click the cursor in the opposite corner. Here I’ve made a horizontal line. Don’t be too fussy about making it perfectly straight, because it’s not going to be noticeable later.

After you’ve got all your paper rectangles outlined in black, add a Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur to that layer.

Don’t go overboard here. The Blur is to soften the lines, not make them blend right into the paper! If you can’t see anything in the Preview Pane, click your cursor in a spot where you know there’s a line. It’ll pop up in the Preview Pane and you can gauge how far to Blur. 2.3 pixels worked well for me.

Last thing to do is to change the Blend Mode to Linear Burn and drop the Opacity to about 60% and it’s done! Now to decide how to use the weave…

You can Save this weave as a PSD to allow for alterations later, or as a PNG to preserve the transparent layer behind. Or you can just go ahead and scrap on top and around it. To add the Brushes as described below, Link all the layers of the weave to each other by highlighting all the layers (click on the first layer>hold down Shift>click on the last layer in the weave then click on the Link icon at the left of any of those layers) so they’re separate but connected.

If you really want the Challenge Brush look, create a horizontal stack of varied widths and lengths of the Brush on a new workspace with each Brush on its own layer so you can adjust them one at a time. Adjust them to suit your desired look; you can flip them, widen or narrow them, overlap them, whatever your mind’s eye desires. Create a second stack of vertical Brushes (you can change the angle of the Brush in the Tool Options to 90°) and adjust those. When you’ve got what you like, Merge (CTRL/CMD>E) the layers. This is your Clipping Mask.

Then Merge (CTRL/CMD>E) all the Brush layers. Move this newly created Clipping Mask onto your layout and position it underneath your weave. Then Clip to your weave. Ta DA! My screenshot shows just a plain paper Clipped to it and is only an example. All the adjustments you’ve made to your weave and the shadowing you’ve created will be preserved when you’ve Linked then Clipped.

If you have requests or ideas for future tutorials, you can contact me by Direct Message. In the Forum look for the envelope icon on the right, just above the blue band, then click on it. Down at the very bottom of the dropdown it’ll say Send Direct Message. My handle is ObiJanKenobi. Then if I have anything I need to clarify, we can chat!

Til next Tuesday!

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

Tutorial Tuesday (Photoshop Elements)

April 29, 2025 by Jan Leave a Comment

Remember that Pattern Brush?

[Link to PDF goes here when Ginger has time to convert}

A few weeks ago I showed you how to use the Pattern Brush Guided Edit to create your own scatters. And I might have mentioned I’d do another quick tutorial on adding Styles to them for an even more interesting look. Today’s the day! To make it easier for me (you… us) to see what I’m doing, I’ve dropped a piece of neutral solid paper on my workspace. There will be lots of review in this one, so you shouldn’t have to hunt down the original tut.

Click on the Guided button on the gray bar at the top of the workspace, then click on Fun Edits, then choose Pattern Brush.

Now to choose a Pattern. I went with the hearts in the upper left corner of the menu. We’ll use another one later.

Make sure the Action is set to Paint. (If we were making randomly patterned paper we could use the Fill Action.) Set the Size to about 125 pixels, which is halfway on the slider. This particular Brush changes the size and angle of each grouping. In playing with this Edit, I discovered the best way to have the Brush go where I want it, the Scatter setting must be as close to zero as possible. Otherwise there’s a REAL randomness and a lot of overlap. Keep Opacity at 100%. When you use the Paint setting, you’ll see a “ghost” outline of the Brush close to the actual size of the image it’ll create.

When you have a cluster you like, click the Continue Editing button then the In Expert button, then go down to the bottom of the screen and click Done.

Elements has created a Layer Mask with your scatter on it, plus another layer with a Layer Mask that seems to have no role in the task at hand. Feel free to bin it.

On to the fun part! Elements usually has more than one way to access a feature or a command; for Styles, you can click on the Window tab at the top of the workspace then click Styles. OR you can go to the bottom of the Layers Panel and click on the dedicated Styles button. You can see which way I do it. 😀 There’s a dropdown Styles menu attached to the button at the top of the Layers Panel once you’ve activated the Styles, so click it and start looking for the ones you want to try. I went with the GingerBread Ladies’ Indian Summer glitter gloss.

I tried all the reds and pinks, settling on this one. It’s nice, but still a little bleh. So I’m going to tweak the settings.

But before I can do that, I’ll need to Apply the Layer Mask to get to the adjustments.

There it is! Double-click on the fx there on the right edge of the layer.

These are the default settings for the Style I used. Any or all of them can be adjusted, with what’s happening visible on the screen in real time.

I changed the Lighting Angle to 120° (make sure this setting matches the rest of your layout!), added a little Drop Shadow close to the hearts and decreased the Bevel. The difference is subtle, but now the hearts look rounded, shiny and have good dimension. The littlest, outline-only hearts look like they’re glittery.

Next I played with the Star Brush. It only varies the size of the cluster, so all the stars will be in the same orientation. [There’s a way to change the angles, but it’s a multi-step process involving a lot of Cutting and Pasting, and we’re not going there.] If you’re wanting to keep your scatter on the smaller scale, you can stamp your larger “ghost” Brush on another part of your canvas like I have here.

Then I used the Pattern Eraser Tool to make the bigger starts go away. 😉

Katy, the designer Just So Scrappy/Ooh La LaScraps usually creates an array of Styles for her collections. Aimee Harrison always has matching Glitters; LDrag Designs, Wetfish Designs, Karen Schulz and Cindy Ritter too may have some Styles you like. The one I used is Just So Scrappy Lucky Me acrylic gel. Defaults as shown.

I want a bit more of a defined shine to them, so I’ll Apply the Layer Mask.

Once again I changed the Lighting Angle to 120°, added a Drop Shadow, decreased the Opacity of the Inner Glow and dropped the Bevel by 2/3. Now the stars look like they’ve been molded out of acrylic.

You can have a lot of fun experimenting with this Edit and with your Styles. Now, go get ready for [inter]National Scrapbooking Day… it’s coming up fast! Who knows, there might be some Styles up for grabs!

P.S. Thank you all for being so patient with the PDF versions… Ginger‘s been run off her feet with the server change and all the issues that cropped up for that, but she promises to get the conversions done as soon as she can.

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

Tutorial Tuesday (Individual Style)

April 15, 2025 by Jan Leave a Comment

Challenge Spotlight: Inspiration

It’s spring in the northern hemisphere and the prompt for this month’s Inspiration Challenge is “full of life“, easily fulfilled with all the spring photos that are popping up like wildflowers everywhere. But for those in the tropics and the southern hemisphere, there are lots of ways to hit the mark too! The Challenge is hosted each month by Carol Wen Xin, aka CarolW Designs. If you click on the name of the Challenge at the beginning of this paragraph, you can see all the inspiring images Carol has provided to stimulate your creativity. Below are some layouts built on the prompt; let’s have a look at how each Scrapper has interpreted the Challenge. [If you’ve participated and your layout isn’t here, it’s because it hasn’t been posted to the Challenge Gallery yet.] Each layout is linked to its spot in the Gallery so if you want a closer look, click on the Scrapper‘s name and you’ll be magically transported right to it.

Our first look is from BriannaScrapper. Her banana plant is absolutely FULL of life! She’s used the same palette you can see in her photos to tie the layout together.

For her layout, lm77west chose some photos of bunnies, a definite sign of spring, to represent life, with a beautiful pastel palette. One thing that caught my eye is how the soft melon colour of her elements replicates the bunnies’ ears wit the sun shining through them. Brilliant!

VariaMoon has tied sunshine and grinning pups with palm trees and warm colours to represent warmth and growth.

More bunnies! Er… children. The nods to the theme dkane included are found in the eggs… and the children. (What’s more full of life than kids?) I like how she’s pulled the turquoise background from her photos into the palette for the whole layout.

Here, echoes77 has pulled her palette from the watercolour bird in the top left corner. The yellow of the narcissus really pops! Signs of spring reflect new life, and the reawakening of what has been sleeping.

ScrappyMara used a very spring-y palette for her returning, reawakening, refreshing nature layout. One sign of spring that always makes me really happy is hearing the frogs singing in the pond behind our house. That’s when I know winter is really over.

I have such a weakness for spring-flowering bulbs. They’re a miracle of engineering! KatL has created a really eye-catching showcase for her photos, pulling colour from them and standing out from the crowd, much like the burst of new growth she’s documenting.

MemmieNelleke has provided us with another example of a natural full-of-life miracle, this pair of mating sooty copper butterflies. By using soft pastel colours and repeating patterns, she send our eyes right to the photo.

Branma has captured the Easter-resurrection-rejuvenation vibe really well here. Wait while I dig out some Cadbury Mini-Eggs… Her photo subject is full of life and it shows in her eyes!

I hope you’ve been refreshed and inspired by this week’s stroll through the Gallery. I know I have. (And I really needed it!)

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

Tutorial Tuesday (Potpourri)

April 8, 2025 by Jan 1 Comment

Greatest Hits: What’s Your Digital Style?

Can we talk about style for a minute? I’ve been giving this a lot of thought lately, as I think my personal style is evolving somewhat. This tutorial originally appeared in October 2019 (as you’ll see as we move through it) and I’ll bet many of you are also seeing a gradual shift in your individual style. Perhaps it’s a function of expanding skills, or maybe an expanding stash ( 😉 ) or even something as simple as maturing. There’s no right or wrong in creating art, so don’t feel like you need to find a niche to be shoe-horned into, do what makes you happy. And if you’re feeling really adventurous, step outside your box and try something new!

We all have a certain style, a concept of ourselves and our environment; that style is reflected in the way we dress, the way we decorate our homes, the way we interact with others… and how we scrap our memories. If you spend any time wandering through the Gallery you’ll know exactly what I mean. There are scrappers whose style is instantly recognizable – you don’t even need to look for the scrapper’s name. But have you ever thought about the basic underpinnings of style? Let’s discuss!

First let’s look at the very popular Pocket Scrapper style. This layout from the GingerScraps Gallery is by ngocNTTD. Pocket scrapping is organized and photo-oriented. It’s one of the most basic of paper-to-digital styles out there, having emerged from Project Life and the various other daily, weekly and monthly project formats. Pages in this style document day-to-day and special events in a clean, grid-based arrangement. Any embellishment will be limited so as not to obscure the all-important photos. As you can see, ngoc has included 10 photos in her layout.

Heritage scrapping is a very popular style, especially for those of us interested in genealogy. Who doesn’t love vintage photos of our ancestors? There’s something very powerful in documenting our past in this way, as craftytam has done in her layout below. These layouts focus on history through the use of muted colours, with a slightly distressed look. Information relating to the life of the subject is a must for these pages, which may be as simple as vital statistics or as detailed as a complete life story. Journaling in hand-written fonts is characteristic.

A combination of these two is the Storyteller style. KatherineWoodin‘s layouts are such perfect examples of this style. Each page tells of a specific event; photos aren’t a requirement but if they’re used, they’re integral to the story being told. There’s a heavy emphasis on journaling, as you can see below. The use of embellishments is dictated by the feeling the scrapper wants to convey.

Classic scrappers rely on clean lines, limited embellishment, precise placement and precise use of words. Layouts are conservative, in several senses – paper scrappers might default to this style because it doesn’t use a lot of “stuff”. In this layout by gethane, the classic style is obvious.

And that leads us to the Modern style. Glori2 has solidly incorporated this style as her own. Modern layouts are the ultimate in clean and simple, which refers to minimalism and not the use of texture and grunge. Embellishments are few, and very carefully chosen. White space is vital to this style, giving the eye many options to rest.

I suppose the opposite of Modern is the Shabby Chic layout. This layout by kabrak1207 is a stellar example of Shabby Chic… muted pastels, vintage elements and ephemera, brushes and worn paper come together to create a visually appealing whole.

The Artist scrapper focuses on the overall image, using paints, brushes, blending and a multi-media approach. Kythe uses a deft hand here, blending not only the photo but also the leaves into her background. Those little ghosts look ethereal and are grounded by the vignette in the foreground. Artist-style layouts don’t rely on journaling to tell a story, and may not include a title either.

The last style is an art-form all on its own. Art Journaling conveys emotion through imagery. There really are no rules in Art Journaling, other than to use it as a way to express things we might not be comfortable expressing in any other form. Rather than putting a feeling into words, the use of word art, word strips, doodles, brushes, paint and textiles are used to tell the story. Intensely personal, this might be the most difficult of all styles to integrate into one’s repertoire, but cinderella has no problem!

I’m still working the kinks out with the new laptop, finding out which files I haven’t transferred when I go to use them and I’m having some trouble getting comfortable with it… and Windows 11. It can only get better, right? But at least my finger works again!

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

Tutorial Tuesday (Individual Style)

March 25, 2025 by Jan Leave a Comment

Challenge Spotlight: Everyday Memories

I seem to have an injured tendon in that finger I sprained, so it’s back in the splint for the foreseeable future. If you spot a typo (or ten), please just ignore them. 🙂 But enough of that! This month I’d like to showcase the Everyday Memories Challenge, sponsored by Miss Fish. Here is her prompt: “Manifesting your dreams in 2025 “You are a masterpiece of your own life, make sure to paint yourself in the colors you love.” (Unknown) This month your challenge is to create a vision board, sometimes known as a dream, motivation, inspiration, manifestation, or goal board.”

The layouts that follow are the ones that have been posted to the Challenge Gallery. There are others that have been posted to the thread that I haven’t included. The images are in the order they were posted, and they’re linked to the Gallery via the Scrapper‘s user name. Just click on it for a closer look.

First up is this vision board by FormbyGirl. She’s chosen to go with a Top 10 list of the things she plans to focus on, and it’s obvious the main one is FAMILY. I love everything about her layout, which has a definitely cheerful and optimistic look to it. The word strips she chose act as captions for her photos, and that sweet element of the woman in tree pose made me smile.

For her vision board, carla has included some goals and some leisure objectives. Her photos frame her clusters and the layout as a whole has a serenity to it.

Guess what demma_b13 has her sites set on. 😀 I like how she’s run the photos for each of her travel goals down opposite sides of the page. Let’s all hope she gets her wish, the one in the lower left corner.

I think scrapmevrouw would get along really well with carla! I like how she’s created a grid-styled layout and the bright colour palette that really draws the viewer in.

VariaMoon is manifesting some personal goals with such confidence! I like the little map fragments used as mats behind her photos.

Ooh, I’m sensing a theme… vacations! It looks like larkd is planning three cruises for this year. The background paper waves, maps and timetables relate to the theme so well. Have fun!

I think we can all guess what msbrad has chosen as her main vision for 2025. What great action photos. I can’t believe David is so grown up!

5grand really took the notion of a vision board to heart and has created an actual clip board! The elements she selected reflect the various goals she has identified via her photos. I can relate to the social media “diet”, I need one too!

It seems memmienelleke took the prompt quite literally. Her passion is scrapping and she painted a portrait of herself. She shares a birthday with my middle child. 🙂

Several of the things I hoped to see in 2025 have already come to pass. My son’s new wheelchair arrived and he has started using public transit to go to his day program! My friend Jenn came to visit with her 8-year-old daughter. And I attended the Peach City Feis – an Irish dance competition. It was amazing, the talent those dancers have. Expect to see some Feis layouts once my finger heals. I guess I should make it a goal to be less accident-prone for the rest of the year.

Filed Under: Be Inspired, Behind the Scrapbook, Challenge Spotlight, Creative Style, Digital Scrapbooking, March 2025 Challenges, Spotlight Challenge, Tutorials Tagged With: Tutorial Tuesday

Tutorial Tuesday (GingerScraps)

March 18, 2025 by Jan 2 Comments

Users’ Guide to the New Forum and Gallery

[Link to PDF version will go here when Ginger has time to convert.]

Have you had a chance to take the new Forum and Gallery for a spin yet? The Store and the Blog are unchanged, so they should feel pretty comfortable. But the new Forum and Gallery are REALLY awesome! The look is so clean and shiny! But some things have different names and some processes are a little different, so here’s a quick User’s Guide.

Let’s start with the Forum‘s home page. This screenshot is pretty busy, but it needed to be. Across the upper right side of the screen there are 7 icons that are direct links; I’ve labeled them in case they’re not familiar to you. From left to right, the link to the GingerScraps Store, the GingerScraps Blog, GingerScraps on Facebook, Pinterest and YouTube, a Contact Us button and a link to the GingerScraps Newsletter.

Right below them at #1, there’s a box where your Forum user name will appear (so you’ll know you’re logged in), with a Direct Messages (renamed from Private Messages) button and a Notifications button so you can quickly check what’s specifically yours. Direct Messages are only viewable by you and the sender, and Notifications lets you know when someone has Liked, Thanked or replied/commented to something you posted.

At #2, you’ll find the Forum access buttons. The New Posts button takes you to all the most recent posts to any Thread; you can click on the thread to see the comments and to make your own. If you’re a self-starter, you can start a new Thread by clicking the red New Thread button and you’ll see a list of all the topic SubForums, which are unchanged from our old Forum.

Featured Content #3 shows the top 3 pinned posts – those our Admins want to make readily visible and available; click on the coloured text and you’ll zip into the Thread without having to look for it. This is where you’d look for info on special events, like the St Patrick’s Day contest.

#4 is where you’ll find all the SubForums. For example the Welcome Wagon Forum contains multiple threads started by our GingerBread Ladies where they share links to little freebies they’ve created for us. As you scroll down the home page, you’ll see all of the SubForums listed.

Just below the Featured Content you’ll find #5, Trending Content. Here’s where you can see at a glance what’s catching other GingerScrappers‘ eyes.

Right at the bottom of the screen you’ll see #6, a list of all members currently online. This might be helpful if you’re wanting to message somebody with a time-sensitive message, or if you just want to know who’s up as late as you are. 😀

I dipped into the Home>Forums>GingerScraps Cookbook>Tutorials just to see what’s been happening there and discovered Grace has whipped up a couple of tutorials: How to LINK products from the Gallery to the Store and…

How to LINK images from the Gallery to threads. These two quick tutorials are important, especially to Creative Team members, so if you need to know how to handle these tasks, they’re right there for you.

I scrolled down to the Challenge Yourself SubForum and opened up the Cookie Jar. It’s laid out really nicely!

Go into the March 2025 Cookie Jar and read Missi‘s post about how the February Challenges will be managed. Right below it is information about Gallery posting to multiple albums, which isn’t currently possible.

While I was there, I figured I’d start my own Cookie Jar post so I could later add the layouts I (might) complete this month. I always Copy Missi‘s text and Paste it into my post. In the old Forum, the colours also Copied, but here they don’t so I changed the number in brackets to my usual red. Oh, and before I forget, look at all the places we can share our posts!! Facebook, X, Bluesky, LinkedIn, Reddit, Tumblr, WhatsApp, email and a direct link are all there.

These icons in the top centre of the post box are going to be crazy helpful! To add a LINK to your post, click the little side-lying figure 8. Ooh, and there’s a keyboard shortcut, as if they knew I was coming. [Another thing to note: This new laptop of mine doesn’t disappear the descriptors seen when the cursor is hovered over an icon when I make a screenshot! I did a Snoopy happy dance when I saw that!]

Add an IMAGE, click the photo icon.

There’s even a SMILIES button.

I didn’t expect to see this! Sometimes a GIF speaks far more eloquently than words do.

This is a formatting icon that sets your Quoted text apart from the rest of the text. It’s very handy.

Let’s take a quick peek at the What’s New tab. Clicking on the little upside down tent symbol opens a drop-down menu. This Forum server has multiple ways to do almost anything.

The Media tab is where you’ll find what we used to call the Gallery. The drop-down lets you access a variety of Media related options. We have our own ALBUMS now!!

Have you ever wondered who posts the most? Or who has the most layouts in the Gallery? Or just how active you are here? Members has got you!

So, back to the Media tab. If you click on the tab itself, rather than the upside-down tent, the left side of the screen will have a list of all the Albums there are in the Gallery. I clicked on Member Galleries, but could have chosen any of the Designers or Challenges just by clicking on the inverted triangle to the left of the album title. That makes navigation really easy.

I opened up the Challenge Layouts Album and you can see the list is right there. Clickclickclick!

If you click on the Add Media subtab on the blue strip at the top of the Media screen, this menu opens. You can scroll down through the Albums list until you find the one you’re looking for. Remember, for now, add your Challenge layouts ONLY in the Challenge Album. Don’t upload your layout more than once. Wait for the add-on extension that Ginger and the tech team are working on.

I’m going to add a layout to the Template #3 J Conlon and Sons Challenge Album for February.

This is the upload screen. I totally missed the change in allowable image size when I was doing this. I only saw it when I was editing my screenshots. We can go up to 1000×1000 pixels and 1MB now!!

Clicking on the Upload File box took me to the last folder of mine that I used. I found the correct folder and the version I saved for the Gallery. I could click on it then the Open button, or just double-click on the image. Notice all the ways I can verify I’m putting my layout where I want it to go.

When the Upload screen reappears, there’s a thumbnail of the layout but it shows the file name I gave it, which is a version of my title. I’ll change the entry so it’s exactly the title. Then I typed all my credits into the Description box. [Please don’t forget to include your credits. Our Designers deserve to be given credit for their work.] When everything I needed to include was there, I clicked Save.

And that’s it! My layout is posted. The title is correct, the credits are there. Fabulous!

There are still tasks I need to do before I’m finished. SO let’s update my Cookie Jar. I always have at least 2 GingerScraps tabs open on my desktop so I can move back and forth between them quickly and easily. I added the Challenge to my list on the Forum tab, then highlighted the name of my layout by click-dragging the cursor over it. I flipped back to the Media tab, Copied the Universal Resource Locator for my layout then back on the Forum tab, clicked on the Link icon as shown. Next, I Pasted the URL into the appropriately labeled box. Then I clicked Insert, and Save.

To add a Copy of my layout to the Challenge thread, I navigated my way to it in the Forum; the Media tab is still open to my layout. I right-clicked my mouse INSIDE the image in the Media tab and chose Copy Image Link from the pop-up menu. Next, I flipped back to the Forum tab, where I’ve got the correct Challenge thread open and waiting. This time I clicked on the photo icon as shown.

I usually don’t Drag and Drop, so I used the Link icon to add my Image Link URL. Feel free to do you, 😉

Once the URL appeared in the box, I clicked Insert then Post Reply.

And that’s how you add your Layouts to the new Gallery, top up your Cookie Jar and make sure your layout joins the proper thread.

I actually haven’t done any scrapping since I finished this layout back in February. I sprained the ring finger on my left hand… buddy-taped fingers really get in the way! Finger’s almost back to normal; although the knuckle is still swollen the pain is pretty much gone. As for the laptop setup, I still have a lot of MIA fonts, and I may end up not worrying about them. I’m finding out all the good things the machine does and getting comfortable with the keyboard. Those kinds of things I can do with just one hand! We have company coming for the weekend and I’m hoping to have a TON of great photos to work with afterward.

Next week, now that I know how the Media tab is laid out, I’ll bring you a Challenge Spotlight. Get ready to shine!!

Filed Under: Be Inspired, Behind the Scrapbook, Digital Scrapbooking, Theres An App For That, Tutorials Tagged With: Tutorial Tuesday

Tutorial Tuesday (Photoshop Elements)

March 11, 2025 by Jan 4 Comments

Greatest Hits: Faking it – Those Incredible Full Moon Photos…

How’s everybody doing on this first Tuesday of Daylight Savings Time? I’m not gonna lie, I’m riding the struggle bus right now. Between inadequate sleep, the gray, chilly weather and all the political nonsense going on, I’m exhausted. Oh, and I finally was forced to switch laptops, which ate up a ton of time and I still haven’t found all the 2500 fonts I have on my old one. Maybe that’s a good thing… remains to be seen. Anyway, we have an astronomical event this week, a lunar eclipse of a full moon – a Blood Moon. Thursday’s eclipse will replicate a sight not seen since 1504! It’s going to be visible across North America from 11:57 pm EDT on Wednesday until 6 am EDT on Thursday, with totality – the best part! – between 2:26 am EDT and 3:31 am EDT. Since I’m in the Pacific time zone, if the sky is clear I won’t even need to stay up late to see the beginning. So what has this to do with a tutorial? Well, let’s have a look!

Have you ever looked at those totally amazing full moon photos where it looks like the moon is rising out of the ocean, or it’s rising behind a silhouetted city skyline and it’s huge and bright? And have you ever wondered how the photographer was able to capture that image? I know how they do it, and after this tutorial you will too. Because it’s all faked!

I have a crystal-clear photo I took of the June 2013 Super Moon and that’s what I’m going to use to show you how I can make it look like the moon was over the mountain when it was quite far away in reality. This photo of the mountain that our subdivision snugs up to has been edited a bit to make the sky a bit brighter and the details a bit sharper. If I’m lucky enough to get Blood Moon photos, I’ll give this another shot.

Tutorial Tuesday (Photoshop Elements)

Oct

2020

Edit

Faking It – Those Incredible Full Moon Photos…

I wasn’t planning to take photos of last weekend’s full moon so I didn’t prepare for it. But then I took the dog out for a potty break and saw it hanging so brightly in the sky with Mars at its shoulder. So I grabbed my pretty decent DSLR, my telephoto lens and my very sturdy tripod and set up on the driveway. Rushing never makes for good results though and every one of the 70 photos I took was out-of-focus. The shots I took of the mountain were better, but pretty grainy. Thankfully I have a crystal-clear photo I took of the June 2013 Super Moon and that’s what I’m going to use to show you how I can make it look like the moon was over the mountain when it was quite far away in reality. This photo of the mountain that our subdivision snugs up to has been edited a bit to make the sky a bit brighter and the details a bit sharper.

Here’s my 2013 moon shot. I used a long shutter, a tiny aperture and manual focus to get it this bright and clear.

To hang the moon over the mountain, I’m going to use a Guided Edit that first appeared in Elements 13. Guided>Photomerge>Photomerge Compose.

Once you’ve activated the Edit, this screen opens. The instructions are fairly clear, even for the uninitiated. It says to drag the photo I want to extract FROM onto the space, so the Moon is going here.

Okay, there it is. All I want from the photo is the Moon, which has a nice, clear, sharp edge, so selecting it from my photo will be easy. I can use the Quick Selection tool for this step. If my desired extraction had more detail, I could choose one of the other options. AND… there are further adjustments that can be made in later steps.

Once I clicked on the Quick button, this tool tip opened to Guide me through the next part. It says, “Create new selection by dragging over the area you need to include.”

It’s hard to see the marching ants in the screenshot but they are there. There’s even a little jaggy part that I’m going to adjust by switching from Add to Subtract and scrape it off.

Done! As I mentioned, there are more refinements you can make to extract your desired image using the Advanced Edge Refinement menu. It’s found just below the red circle.

But since I just basically have a circle, I can move on to the next step by clicking the Next arrow at the bottom of the screen. Elements always drops things right in the middle of the canvas, so it’s great that I can move my moon off the mountain and into the sky.

I decided to make it a bit bigger too, for dramatic effect. But I didn’t go too much bigger because I don’t want it to look completely phony.

Then I had second thoughts and decided to anchor it a bit by tucking it behind the mountain a smidge… after seeing that I had some Hide and Reveal options.

I started that process by Hiding the lower part of the Moon just roughly. I used a hard round brush at 100% Opacity to brush over the area that will end up being hidden by the mountain and trees. It takes several passes to completely hide the parts that I want hidden. Once I had an idea where the trees actually are, I could go back and Reveal the Moon where the trees don’t obstruct the sky. You can see in the screenshot that some of the moon looks more blue than gray – that’s where the sky hasn’t been completely Hidden. I also adjusted the size of my brush tip as needed to make the trees appear “normal”.

I switched back and forth between Hide and Reveal, adjusting the size of my brush tip until I had some natural-looking trees on my mountain. then I clicked on the Next arrow.

If your photos were taken at different times and in different lighting conditions, your composite might look pretty weird right now. Mine’s okay because night is night… But if you find your results aren’t making you happy, there’s still more in this Edit to help you get it right. The instructions say, “Click ‘Auto Match Color Tone’ to blend your extracted object with the background. You can fine tune the results with the sliders.” I highly recommend experimenting with this, because as you know, nothing is final in Elements until you say it is. If you click on the button and it does its thing but you hate the outcome, you can Undo it!! CTRL/CMD>Z should be an automatic movement. It sure is for me!

I didn’t like the results of the automatic process, so I made adjustments with the sliders. The image didn’t need a lot of adjusting to make it look more real. Then I clicked Next.

That’s the end of the Guided Edit. Now I can choose to Save, Continue Editing or Share my finished image. I want to clean up some of the noise by running the Haze Removal tool, so I’m going to click on In Expert and go there.

If you’re not familiar with the Haze Removal tool, I think you should give it a try! It sharpens your images and removes a lot of the graininess. You can get to it by Enhance>Haze Removal, or CTRL/CMD>ALT>Z works too.

It’s still an interactive process. This screen opens up and you can make adjustments to the amount of Haze Reduction it does, as well as the Sensitivity of the action. And if you’re not convinced it’s actually making a difference, you can flip between the Before and After images and see how it’s changed.

There! I think it looks pretty good, all things considered.

What do you think? Are you going to try this one? I think it would be good for adding a person who should have been in the photo but somehow wasn’t or to add someone who you only wished was there. Ooh, or maybe go right into fantasy and add a unicorn or a fairy to a photo of a baby. The sky’s the limit!

Next week, I’ll bring up a Guided Tour of all the changes here at GingerScraps, to help you navigate the new Forum and find the Gallery. See you then!