Posted by karooch on
September 20, 2008
Saturday Scrapbooking Ideas
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Saturday Scrapbooking Ideas #23
Repetition is a great technique in scrapbook layout design. Try making duplicates of a favourite photo and creating a scrapbook layout using this photo multiple times.
This can look particularly effective if you print each one in a different monochrome colour. This is easy to do if you have a good graphics editing program (such as Photoshop Elements, Paintshop Pro or Photoshop) and a digital camera.
And the same photo repeated multiple times can have a powerful effect on your layout.
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Learn how at Step by Step Digital Scrapbook
Posted by karooch on
September 13, 2008
Saturday Scrapbooking Ideas
Saturday Scrapbooking Ideas #22
A sequence of photos is a great way to tell a story.
An action sequence can be really effective to convey the feeling of movement. or a sequence of baby expressions will be a perfect way to give your scrapbook layout just the right mood.
Position your sequence in a row, either vertically or horizontally and overlap them as well as varying the angle of them to give them a more casual look.
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Learn digital scrapbooking now!
And take your scrapbooking to the next level.
Learn how at Step by Step Digital Scrapbook
Posted by karooch on
September 10, 2008
Do you Customize your Drop Shadows?
…or do you just leave them as the default?
Did you know that you can change the look of your drop shadows in your graphics editing program?
It’s very simple and frankly, I think it makes all the difference to your digital scrapbook layout. Anyone who is part of my Step by Step Digital Scrapbook Mentoring Program will know how much I love to customize my shadows. I think it makes for a more authentic look for the shadows. And sometimes (especially for titles) it can be a funky way of giving the text and extra color boost.
What do I mean?
Well when you click on any drop shadow in your Styles Pallet your graphics editing program will apply a shadow that’s a standard size and distance from your element and is black with a level of opacity reduction to make it look gray.
But in real life, shadows are not all gray. they take on the tone of the item that they are shadowing. And by the way, I’m not talking about the shadows thrown by the sun on the ground. I’m talking about the small shadows that surround an object if you put it on a surface. Look at the shadow of an object sitting on a table and you’ll see what I mean. I’m looking at an envelope sitting on my desk as I write this, and the shadow thrown on the desk is brown, not black or gray.
If you click on the layout above, you’ll see what I mean.
And the good news is that in most good editing programs you can control the parameters of your drop shadow.
So how do I do it?
I use Photoshop Elements 5 but the principles for doing this will remain true for PSP or CS I would think, although the terminology might be different. So here’s how you can customize the drop shadows in your own layouts.
- First activate your element layer in the Layers Pallet and then select a shadow from your Styles Pallet and click to apply it to your element.
- Now double click on the little ’sun’ or circle’ icon at the right of its layer in the Layers Pallet.
- You are presented with a Style Settings dialog box that allows you to play with the size of the shadow, the distance it sits away from your element and it’s opacity. You can vary these parameters by using the slider bars or by typing pixel sizes directly into the appropriate fields in the dialog box.
- You can also customize the colors of your shadows to match the color of your element or to create a funky effect. To customize the color of your shadow do this (note: this feature is not available in PSE4.
- Click on the small color swatch box to the right of the size parameter in your Style Settings box.
- The color picker box will open and you can move your mouse over your layout (it will turn into an eyedropper) and click on an area of your element which is the colour you want for your shadow.
- You can click in the Color Picker to choose variations on this if you like and when you’re satisfied, click OK.
- Note: For the most authentic look, always choose a darker tone of the color for your shadows.
- By playing with the Opacity slider in the Style Settings box you can make the shadow lighter or darker.
- When you have the shadow look you want click OK.
It’s as easy as that. And your shadows will look a lot more realistic.
A note to users of PSE versions earlier than 5. You don’t have the ability ot change the color of your drop shadows in these earlier versions. When I used PSE4 I used to make a duplicate of the element and apply the shadow to the lower layer. Then I reduced the opacity of that layer so that shadow would look softer.
Don’t forget, you can also use this technique to go to the other end of the scale and make your shadow totally unrealistic by picking a contrasting color, just to spice up your title a bit. This can be a very cool look for your title and I often use this technique in my Word Art for the Weekly Word Art Newsletter (see the top of this page to subscribe to this free newsletter).
I hope you find this scrapbooking tip useful. And if you did, why not share it with other scrapbookers by telling them about this article (you are very welcome to link to the article), or Stumbling it, bookmarking it in Delicious or giving it a vote on Kirtsy.
So back to the original question: do you customize you drop shadows? Leave a comment and let us know.
Posted by karooch on
August 30, 2008
Saturday Scrapbook Ideas
Saturday Scrapbooking Ideas #21
Add variety to your journaling by making your key words stand out. You can try changing them into upper case or bolding or italicising them. You can also vary the size of your important words as well as their font or color.
Not only will this make for a more interesting visual appearance but the reader will easily be able to pick out the key moods or feelings you are tryint to project in your layout.
Here’s a tip though. Don’t try too many different techniques in the same block of journaling. Less is more and just using a couple of these highlighting techniques at a time will give the best results.
Learn digital scrapbooking now!
And take your scrapbooking to the next level.
Learn how at Step by Step Digital Scrapbook
Posted by karooch on
August 27, 2008
Top 10 Scrapbooking Articles of All Time
…on Scraps of Mind
I was rummaging through the Scrap of Mind attics the other day and I came across a list of the most popular posts since this site has been in existence.
And by the way, the inspiration for the outrageous title to this article came from the Killer Titles Group Writing Project over at Problogger that Darren’s running
Given that many of you have probably started following the Scraps of Mind journey after some of these were published and may never have seen them, I thought I’d present this illustrious Top 10 here. So for your reading pleasure, here is the count-down.
10. How to Make Word Art - 2,204 views
The tenth most popular article on Scraps of Mind is actually a video. I made this video after I started the Scraps of Mind Weekly Word Art Newsletter. A lot of readers were fascinated by the Word Art I gave them in the newsletter so I made this to show them how to do it for themselves. The newsletter has forged ahead in popularity so I’m not sure if this video has actually inspired many people to make their own Word Art.
9. 50th Anniversary Card and Template - 2,324 views
And in ninth place we have this card and template. I made this 50th Anniversary Card for my Aunt and Uncle’s Golden Wedding Anniversary. And of course you can use the idea for a 50th birthday as well. The card and free template have attracted a lot of visitors over the months. So if you have a 50th something coming up, feel free to click over and pick it up.
8. Scrapbooking Your Recipes - 2,357 views
Just being edged out by our eighth place-getter. This post is actually a guest post by Monique from Monique’s Scrappin’ Blog. She wrote a great article on making scrapbook layouts for your favorite family recipes. And in fact, this article was what inspired me to create the Yummy Treats Scrapbook Recipe Book, which (at the time of writing this post) is still a freebie offered by Scraps of Mind.
7. Photoshop Elements 6, The Missing Manual - 2,474 views
Coming in at number seven is this review I wrote for ‘the book that should have come in the box’. If you’re a Photoshop Elements user then this book is a must-have resource. Here is my review of the book by Barbara Brundage, who has written a Missing Manual for each version of Photoshop Elements, as well as for other software programs.
6. Black and White Scrapbook Layouts - 2,479 views
I was surprised to see this article in sixth place. I seem to get so much traffic to it that I felt sure it would have been at the top of the heap. Still I feel sure it will improve in rankings over the next few months. It seems Black and White is a perennial favorite color scheme for scrapbookers. Let’s face it, it’s classic and you never have to worry about it clashing with your photos. But there’s more to a black and white layout than just slapping some black and white elements together. To get the best out of the black and white color scheme you really need to think about texture.
