Digital Zen Doodling (Part 3 of maybe 5)

I’m thinking maybe nobody’s really gung-ho about digital Zen doodling, but I’m going to press on. Can’t possibly just leave it unfinished, right? I didn’t get any guidance on which space to fill next so I made an executive decision.

Many of the steps for this shape are the same as for the others, so I probably won’t be as wordy as I can be. 😉 The Magic Wand Tool option I used here is the one that has the fairy-princess-looking icon with the yellow six-pointed star at the tip. I just clicked inside the desired target on the main Mandala layer with it to Select the edges of it. (I’ve outlined it in red just for visibility – the marching ants are hard to see.)

Yep, you guessed it. I popped a New Layer above the Mandala layer for the changes I want to make on this shape.

By using Edit>Copy (CTRL/CMD>C) I can Duplicate only the shape inside the marching ants. The active layer for this step must be the Mandala layer.

With the New Layer active Edit>Paste (CTRL/CMD>V) will drop a perfect Copy of the shape right there.

I’m going to make some um… concentric isn’t quite the right word, but let’s go with it… lines inside the shape. So again, I CTRL/CMD>Clicked on the Layer Thumbnail to Select the edges of the shape (in red for visibility only).

For ultimate Editability (did I make up a new word?) the Stroke (Outline Selection) should be on its own Layer.

Let’s use Black (hex code 000000), 10 pixels for the Width and put it Inside the Selection at 100% Opacity.

This may seem repetitious (duh!) but you really can’t do anything else unless you Select>Deselect (CTRL/CMD>D) whatever is surrounded by marching ants.

Yeah, you guessed it. I’m just going to Select those edges again… so that I can make more outlines. CTRL/CMD>Click the Thumbnail, then Select>Modify…>Contract to make the Selection smaller.

I want the new outline to be smaller, but still leave room for at least one more decrease, so I had to try a couple of numbers in the box before I settled on 30 pixels. (Remember, CTRL/CMD>Z is always there to Undo whatever isn’t working.)

I’m keeping all these outline Strokes on the same layer. Elements has remembered my settings so I can just Edit>Stroke (Outline Selection…)

… and click OK.

I repeated those steps one more time.

Let’s add some colour. I tried with the Paint Bucket, filling in the gaps between the black outlines, and it was UGLY. So I went down to the white shape Layer and tried again. Fail.

This method has never let me down. 😉 Layer>New Fill Layer>Solid Color…

This menu opens. I know from previous fails that I have to tick the Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask box, otherwise I’ll just have a solid colour fill the whole screen.

When the Color Picker opened I chose a bright orange.

To solidify everything I Activated both the orange and the striped layers and Merged them.

Then I decided I should connect up the corners. I used the Pencil Tool the same way as in the last installment. Click the Tool at the starting point, hold down the SHIFT key then click at the end point.

Last steps were to make 7 Copies of the orange stripy shape, Move and position them into their assigned spots and Merge the whole kit and caboodle.

Progress to this point. I like it a lot! I’m thinking hard about how to fill the large centre circle. Could be fun!

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from this experiment, it’s that my vision is really not what it used to be, even with appropriate correction. The cursor is getting harder and harder to see… and giving me mild headaches. There may be some hard choices coming for me. 🙁 But I can absolutely see well enough for a Challenge Spotlight next week! Will one of your layouts be given a starring role?

Digital Zen Doodling (Part 3 of ???)

Have you processed everything from Parts 1 and 2 yet? Today’s edition will be using a lot of the same processes as the others did. Many of the steps will be familiar for more experienced PSE users. As I mentioned at the end of Part 2, today I’ll be filling in the diamond-shaped (or is it kite-shaped?) spaces. As you can see in the screenshot below, I have the Composite Layer active – the layer with all the various shaped spaces where I put the Copies of the petal shapes. I’ve Zoomed in (using the CTRL/CMD>+ shortcut) on one of the diamonds. Using the Magic Wand Tool (set to Magic Wand and not to any of the other Tool Options) I clicked in the middle of that shape.

I made a Copy (CTRL/CMD>J) of the diamond shape, which lives alone on its Layer; Then I added a New blank Layer above it where I created the “veins”. By putting the veins on their own Layer, I can later make changes to JUST the veins without messing anything else up. Do you remember how to make lines in PSE? Using the Pencil Tool set to oh, about 8 pixels, and the colour of your choice, click your starting point. Then hold down the SHIFT key and click your end point. Voilà! a straight(ish) line! Now, you might be able to see that there are some marching ants visible in the screenshot, and you might be wondering why… Well, that’s to make sure the lines I’m creating don’t stray outside of the shape I’m filling. See how the top is pointed and the sides are curved? I got the marching ants going by CTRL/CMD>clicking on that white diamond shape while the new Layer was the active one. The Pencil won’t draw outside the shape!

With the marching ants still working, I used the Paint Bucket and a medium blue to Color Fill in some of the spaces created by the veins. Then I went a bit darker with the blue and Color Filled closer to the centre.

Next I want to add a line of white dots on the inside edge of the diamond. To do that, I again dropped a New Layer on top of the veined, blue diamond, then Selected the outside edge of the white diamond Layer  by CTRL/CMD>clicking on it. Select>Modify>Contract will make the Selected edge smaller.

This pop-up let me choose how much I wanted to shift that edge. I chose 8 pixels.

It’s hard to see the new edge in the screenshot, but it’ll be easily spotted after the next step. You might have figured out that I’m creating a Guideline…

I verified that I’m indeed working on a BLANK layer here.

Do you remember this part? I’ll add a Stroke to the Selection to create that Guideline. Edit>Stroke (Outline) Selection

This Stroke can be pretty much any colour I want. It just has to be visible so I can put my dotted trim on it. I’ll be Deleting the Guideline Layer later. The settings are 2 pixels, Color is a turquoise, and the Location is Outside.

ALWAYS remember to Deselect! Elements won’t let you do anything until you do! You can either use Select>Deselect or CTRL/CMD>D to do it, but make sure it gets done!!

You’ve probably predicted that I’ll put my dotted outline on its own Layer, and you’d be correct. I used a small (3-4 pixel), hard (meaning sharp not fuzzy edges), round Brush and white to dot my way around the Guideline. Then I Merged (CTRL/CMD>E) all the diamond Layers together.

This part makes digital Zen doodling so much easier than the paper-and-marker version. I made a total of 8 diamond Layers (CTRL/CMD>J), then Moved and Rotated into position each one over a diamond shape on my Composite Layer. Then I activated all of the diamond Layers and the Composite Layer so I could Merge (CTRL/CMD>E) them all.

Here’s a close-up. Now I’m going to ask YOU to decide which shape I should fill next – the heart or the smaller petal. AND… what colours should I use?

Many of the concepts I’m using for this massive project can be used when creating any layout. Selections, Strokes, Filters, Brushes, they’re all basic tools!

I finally have my *new* new glasses and they’re great! Good-ish vision at all distances is something I took for granted, but no more!! Of course, life chez ObiJan is never dull. We had a catastrophic washing machine failure last week… one of the springs supporting the drum (front-loader) snapped. It sounded like a truck had driven into the garage door! The drum landed on top of the drain pump and hose. Fortunately, it didn’t create a leak, but the repairman (Daniel, he’s been her before 🙁 ) couldn’t guarantee that the pump wouldn’t fail too. So. New washer arriving tomorrow. Now I must find the source of the funk that has been assailing my nostrils all morning…

Digital Zen Doodling (Part 2 of ???)

Okay… has your brain had time to process Part 1? I hope so, because Part 2 is on its way! Now, where did we leave off? Oh, right… we were getting ready to make those white dotted rings around our big coloured dots. Onward!

I needed quite a few runs at this until I figured out the easiest, smartest way to accomplish it. Free-handing and eyeballing weren’t cutting it. Once I settled in with the method below, it really got a lot better. I created a guideline – a circular placeholder on which to apply my white dots. I started with the topmost pink dot, Selecting the edge by CTRL.CMD>clicking on it in the Layers Panel. The longer route would be to click Select>Subject with that layer active. You should see a line of “marching ants” around the outside of the dot. The screenshot isn’t good for that. 🙁

Now, that little path isn’t going to be useful in its current size, so next I went to Select>Modify>Expand then when the pop-up appeared, I typed in 15 px into the Expand by: box. Sorry, I don’t have a screenshot of that menu, I was on a tear and completely forgot! (Multiple times!)

I want the guideline to disappear and reappear at will, so it will have its own layer. Pop one of those in there above the pink dot by clicking on that sheet-of-paper icon at the upper left of your Layers Panel. Then click Edit>Stroke (Outline) Selection. Set the Stroke Width to 2 px, Color white and the Location to Outside.

With the Foreground Color still set to white (Hex Code ffffff), I went back to my Brush Tool and chose a small (5 px) hard, round Basic Brush. Each click of the mouse on the guideline gave me a dot; I pictured a clock face to space them, starting at 12, dropping to 6, back up to 3, over to 9. Then I split the spaces between those dots as evenly as I could until I got this lovely string of pearls around my pink dot. I turned Visibility for the guideline off so I could see if I needed to make any fixes. Remember CTRL.CMD>Z will Undo something you’re not happy with.

Now, this is where digital Zen Doodling really makes sense. I didn’t have to make a pearl necklace for each of the pink dots, like I would have to with paint. I could just make Copies!!  Six pink dots, six Copies. CTRL/CMD>J is that keyboard shortcut. Then I moved each one into position around its respective pink dot. Looks pretty cool already! To prevent any accidental mess-ups, I Activated each pink dot and each white dot ring layer, then right-click>Merge Layers (CTRL/CMD>E). That gave me a single white-encircled-pink-dot layer.

I didn’t want to be too uniform with the white accents so for the blue dots, I decided on more of a daisy look. I turned Visibility for the guideline back on, moved it over to a blue dot and Enlarged it as shown. Again, the accents will go on their own layer. To achieve a more elliptical shape with my Brush, I clicked the Brush Settings bar and typed in 70% into the Roundness box. You could instead push on one of the “handles” in the diagram box to achieve the same thing. Leave the Angle at 0°.

This time, I opted to Work Smart, Not Hard. I clicked a “ray” at 9 o’clock and another at 3 o’clock. (Somehow they ended up on separate layers. Yours shouldn’t. But if they do… Merge the two layers.) With both rays on the same layer, I can make a bunch of Copies!

I made 4 Copies, CTRL/CMD>J x 4, which gave me 4 separate layers. Again I used an imaginary clock face to arrange my Copies. I Rotated each one so that they were fairly evenly distributed around the dial. Then I Merged (CTRL/CMD>E) those 4 layers. That gave me a total of 8 rays on a single layer. Another 3 Copies of THAT layer, rotated into place and I had a complete ring around the blue dot. Then I Merged all those layers too. The advantages to doing it this way are that I didn’t have to change the Angle on every. single. ray. So, after you’ve read all the way through, if you choose to use this method for your pearl necklaces, I’ll cheer you on!

Back to good ol’ CTRL/CMD>J to make daisies for each of the blue dots. Slide ’em into position, Activate all the Layers and Merge. Easy peasy.

Are you tired of Merging? I’m not going to lie and say this is the last time, because it clearly isn’t! But let’s Merge the black layer with the Refined Edge, and all the pink and blue dot layers together. That affixes everything so nothing can be shifted unintentionally. Now we have a pretty “petal” that can be replicated as many times as necessary.

Did you catch that? I made 7 more Copies of the petal and arranged them as shown. I think it’s shaping up really nicely!

We’ll stop here. The next set of screenshots will involve the diamond-shaped openings snugged up to the notches in our petal shapes. We’ll be making lines inside them, and doing a bunch more Copy-Pasting. Next week is Challenge Spotlight Tuesday, so the next part of this odyssey will have to wait a week. 😉 I personally have done ZERO Challenges so far this month… too many other things going on. But maybe, if I squeeze out an hour or so, I can at least update my Signature. 😀

Greatest Hits: A Whole New Meaning to Copy and Paste

Have you ever put your heart and soul into a layout, then spent forever coming up with the perfect journaling – only to hate the way the journaling looks, or worse… see a glaring typo? Have you ever wished PSE came with a spell-check? Or that you could copy-and-paste something from a website? Well, have I got the trick for you! Word and PSE work together! And even better… all your fonts are there in Word too! (Update: I’ve discovered that any note-keeping app on your computer will work for this! I’ve used Notepad a lot lately and was so glad I didn’t have to jump through all the Word hoops.)

Your Word version may be different from mine; the interface might look different but this is pretty basic, and all the things I’m going to show you will work with any version. I opened a new blank document in Word, chose a font and set my formatting so that my text would fit inside a border on a beautiful journaling blank I pulled from Ooh La La Scraps‘ Shabby Chic collection. (Update: Don’t worry too much about formatting. You can adjust it within your PSE text box. Same for font selection.)

I love using quotations for a variety of reasons. Like not having to think too hard! I typed out this one in a matter of a few seconds. I changed the size of the font for Mr Bergen’s name.

I just spotted a typo on my screenshot below. RATS! Word’s spell-check wouldn’t have caught it either, but it DOES catch those transposed letters, “e”s that should be “a”s and that kind of thing. It also capitalizes the first word of each sentence for you if you forget.

Then I opened up Elements on my desktop, dropped my journal blank onto a new document and set up the Text tool with the same font settings that I chose in Word. If I skipped this step now, Elements would default to the last settings I used.

Back to Word… I selected the text then right-clicked to open up a dialogue box. It looks like this. I want to Copy the text. (WSNH tip: the same keyboard shortcuts I’ve shown you in previous tuts also work exactly the same in Word, so CTRL/CMD>C will work to copy the text.)

I flipped back to Elements and Pasted my text into the journaling space. That can be done by right-clicking then choosing Paste from the dialogue box, or CTRL/CMD>V. Did you notice that Elements ignored the different text sizes?

Now I have the ability to change it up to suit my layout. I changed the text colour first by pulling the gray from the border.

Then I changed the font size on Mr Bergen’s name again. Now that I know the font size changes made in Word don’t move over to Elements, I can skip that step in the future.

Even better, it’s totally possible to Copy whole sections of text from a web site or other document on your computer and Paste it into Word. As you can see in the screenshot below, I’ve selected a new quote from my favourite quotations site.

Then I Pasted it into Word with a couple of clicks! Yeah. I wasted time resizing Ellen’s name. (Did you catch the typo in this screenshot too?)

Here you can see that I’ve got Elements open and it’s just waiting for me to Copy-Paste Ellen’s words of wisdom over.

Oh, right… I didn’t go to Elements and set up the font. So this is the font, size and colour I used for the last layout I created.

So I just Undid that step and started over. But this time I decided to use a Text Box. This handy tool helps to constrain the text so it doesn’t bleed out into areas where I don’t want it. To create a Text Box, with the Type tool click-and-drag from one corner diagonally to the opposite corner of the area you want to cover with text. This journal blank made it easy by having reference points in the border.

And then I pasted Ellen’s quote into my text box. Notice that it’s now centre-justified, rather than left-justified as it was in Word. I had “Center” selected in the Text tool settings and Elements over-rode Word.

This time I didn’t have too many changes I needed to make, other than shrinking Ellen.

But to show you how easy it is to change it to suit your purposes, I switched the angle from upright to right-italic and changed the text colour. I want to try this trick with texting on a path, but wanted to get you the basics now. Stay tuned!

I’m kicking around a couple of fun ideas for new ways to play with our stashes. Digital zen-doodles, anyone?