Scrapbooking - Garden Layout (2)

Digital Garden Layout

March 12, 2011

Digital scrapbooking does not need special programs although they do help.  One of my first digital layouts depicting scenes from my garden was done using Microsoft Word and the photo uploading software for my digital camera at that time.  Once an image is imported into the Word document, it can easily be resized by clicking the cursor on the corner of the image then moving the cursor as desired.  Word even has special text effects for titles and journaling.  I was pleasantly surprised at how nice the end result was. 

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

An Simple Stroke Frame for Pictures

We are back home at our primary residence after spending a month away mostly at our vacation home.  I took a lot of pictures while away so have been busy getting some of them ready for using on my blogs and digital scrapbooking.  I decided to use a unifying theme for the blog pictures that involved adding a rather simple stroke frame. 

The first thing I did was copy the picture from iPhoto to the desktop so I could open it in Photoshop.  Once opened in photo shop I did whatever editing I wanted on a duplicate layer.  In this case I used the unsharpen mask filter to crisp up the picture a little.  This filter has quickly become one of my favourite Photoshop tool.  From there I was ready to add my frame using the stroke tool but first I had to decide what colour to use for the matte colour.  This is the frame accent colour that picks up a coulour in the photo to draw your attention to that particular colour.  To do this:

• click on the eyedropper tool
• select any colour of interest from the picture usually from the subject of interest; I chose a reddish brown (A3521D) from the duck's chest
• selecting the colour will place that colour into the foreground colour box under the tools

To create the frame:

• working on the duplicate layer with the colour choice set to foreground, click on edit then stroke
• in the pop-up, set the stroke width to 140 px making sure the foreground colour appears in the box (it should automatically), location set to center, blending normal, opacity 100% then click ok - this will apply the stroke in the eyedropper colour (don't worry as it will look a little odd until you do the next step)
• working on the same layer change the foreground colour to black,  click on edit then stroke
• in the pop-up, set the stroke width to 100 px making sure the foreground colour is black, location set to center, blending normal, opacity 100% then click ok
• your frame is now complete with a narrow matte of the highlight colour
• resize your image if desired
• flatten you image and save as or save for web depending on your desired use.

Simple frames like this are not only very easy and quick to do they can be further customized to include bevel and embossing, textures and styles with only a few more steps.  I will go into greater detail with those over the next couple of days.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

How to Make a Simple Picture Mosaic for Scrapbooking

Mosaics and collages are two popular techniques for both paper and digital scrapbooking. I used Photoshop to create this simple picture mosaic. It could be used in digital form as is or could be added as a page element or it could be printed and trimmed to use as an element as desired. I think it would also be a lovely front for a homemade greeting card. Here are the steps I used to create the mosaic.

1. Open desired number of images to a maximum of 9 for this layout. I chose to use 7.
2. Create a new image 640 px x 480 px.
3. For each image, duplicate the layer then make any colour adjustments on the duplicated layer.
4. Add a stroke in colour of your choice. I used a 100 px stroke in black.
5. Go to the new image and duplicate the layer. Fill the duplicate with the same colour as your stroke colour. Click on the eye so the filled layer does not show. This is easier for the next steps.
6. Go to each individual image then Layer/Flatten Image.
7. Resize each image as desired. In this case I wanted a 3 x 3 mosaic layout so divided one of my new dimensions by three to get the value. This worked out to a width of 213 px. For each image go to Image/Image Size. Be sure Constrain Proportions is turned on then change the width to desired size. In this case it was 213 px which automatically changed the height to 160 px.
8. Using the move tool click on the resized image and drag it over to the new image. This will create a new layer. Position as desired. I started at the top right hand corner for the position of the first image added to the new image.
   
9. Repeat step 8 until all images have been added. Note that each image added creates a new layer. In total there were 9 layers for the image I created before moving on - 2 background layers, 7 flower layers.
10. If you are adding text, click on the text tool then on the image where you want the text. Write the desired text in desired font and size. Use move tool to position text if necessary. Here I used 2 image spaces left blank for text. Text is Brush Stroke std with Yellow Glass style applied.
11. Turn on the black filled layer and the transparent layer.
12. Go to Layer/Flatten Image. This will flatten the image to one locked layer.
13. Duplicate the layer. Working on the duplicate layer go to Edit/Stroke and add a stroke in the same colour as the previous background and strokes in the desired size. I used 15 px in black.
14. If desired for web use, add a new layer and your copyright notice.
15. Go to Layer/Flatten Image to flatten all layers.
16. Go to File/Save As for scrapbooking purposes or File/Save For Web for web use.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2010

Selectively Texturizing Clip Art

A few days ago I showed a simple way of taking a free black and white clip art image and selectively colourizing it. This is a method to further customize clip art to your digital scrapbooking layout or you can print out the completed graphic then use a Xylon machine to turn the graphic into a custom made sticker.

Colourized

Pictured is the selectively coloured clip art I showed how to do. I started with a simple free black and white clip art found online. After downloading the image I opened it in Photoshop®. The image was in .gif format so I clicked select all the copied and pasted into a new image to colourize. This kept the original file as a .gif for later use and created the new colourized ,jpg file. The tools I used to selectively colour the image were the eyedropper to select colours from the colour palette and the magic wand to select the area I wanted to fill with the colour. It was a simple as colouring with pencil crayons except I was using a digital medium. The end result was a customized graphic suitable for on this blog and digital scrapbooking.

Texturized

I admit to often having several images open in Photoshop at any given time. As I looked at the colourized image fully intending to close it I thought I could make this image a bit more interesting by texturizing it. I used the magic wand to highlight the area I wanted to apply a filter from the filter gallery. Essential this method is the same as colourizing except using filters rather than colour. The filter gallery contains several filters to give various effects from simple texturizing as in the pale green and darker green to shading techniques and everything in between. The best way to decide on the look you want is to open filter gallery and play with the various options. I used sketch/water paper for the box in the can, label, small grey tin and red tin, artistic/underpainting for most of the other items, and artistic/rough pastels for the pail and box outside of the pail. It's surprising how a little tweaking with texture can give a more interesting effect. This is a method you can use with any image you want to add a bit more interest to.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2010

Selectively Colourizing Clip Art

Free clip art can be a wonderful resource for anyone needing images for online use or scrapbooking. These are images that are free for your non-profit usage. The easiest way to find such images is to do a simple Google search for 'free clip art'. Once you find the image you would like to use, right click on the image and download it. The following instructions are for using Photoshop®.

Black & White

In some cases the clip art is presented as simply being a black and white image in either gif or jpeg/jpg format. What is important when choosing an image that you would like to colourize is to look for strong outlines. The strong outline is what will help with the later colourization by forming clear boundaries for each colour.

The format will depend on how you proceed with the colourization. If the file is .gif, open the file then click select all to duplicate. Click create new in the same size as the original image. Use the move tool to drag the original selected image to the new image. This creates an unlocked layer you can now work on. Close the original image in case you would like to use the black and white version in the future. You are now ready to colourize your image.

Colourized

Think of selective colourization as a digital paint-by-number. You will be using two tools - the eyedropper to choose a colour and the magic wand to choose where you want that colour. Set your pallet to swatch that will show a range of various colours in neat, little squares. Clicking on any of these squares with the eyedropper will change the foreground to that colour. Once you have the colour you want, click magic wand to highlight what area you want to change. You will see the dancing ants indicating the area is selected. Go to edit/fill then click on colour. The last colour you used will show in the new pallet window. Double click your foreground colour where your new colour will appear in the top half of the small colour preview window with the old colour on the bottom. Click ok. You selection will now be filled with the colour of your choice.

Notice that each time you make a selection the strong outlines will contain where you want the selective colourization. Continue on in this manner changing colours using the eyedropper, clicking on fill then colour and double clicking your new foreground colour for the fill until you have selectively coloured your image the way you would like. Once you are happy with the results, click save or save for web depending on the intended use and name your file. You now have a great colourized piece of clip art.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2010

Scrapbooking - Cooking Layout

Scrapbooking and family history just go hand in hand. Back in 2005 I started experimenting with digital scrapbooking as a way to extend my scrapbooking experience as well as document our life through both pictures and journaling. A contributing factor was not being able to find the right sticker or background mixed with wanting something unique. If you have been following this blog you will know that I love Photoshop® as my main graphic editing software but the following 2 page layout was created with Microsoft Word® for Mac. The layout is a combination of digital and paper scrapbooking using elements of each. It is part of 6 pages highlighting our culinary favourites from 2005.

Page 1

The first thing I did was determine the main colour theme as being an almost sky blue. What doesn't show well in either picture is the actual background. On this two page layout the background and title is printed on brilliant white cardstock. The background for this two page layout is multiple lines of canning in a light sky blue. I used the same colour to make the title a script font and highlighted that to use Word Art. Once I had the desired effect, I printed out two sheets, one with the title and one without.

Next I selected the photos I wanted to use and size then printed off all of my pictures on matte photo paper using iPhoto. At thirteen pictures I knew the layout would be rather graphic intensive so kept the images small. Once I had the two sheets of pictures printed I had to cut them out using my Fiskars® large flatbed rotary cutter. This really is a must have for anyone doing paper scrapbooking! Next I used scalloped decorative scissors to round the edges of the photos for the first page. I really like the look of rounded corners and I know there are punches for that but part of scrapbooking is using what you have on hand sometimes.

Journalling is very important in scrapbooking because it ads that personal touch. I wrote the recipe in a dark blue font in Word and printed it off on plain medium blue card stock. Then I cut it into a rectangle and positioned it using 2 sided tape on an angle to give movement to the page. Using movement is a big part of scrapbooking but basically it just means adding interest. With the journalling in place I snipped off the over hanging portions with the rotary cutter. The pictures were then positioned around the journalling and secured with 2 sided tape.

Page 2

The pictures on this page were left with sharp corners. The journalling used the same font and font colour to write a bit more personal touch to canning then printed on white card stock. I used a fancy corner punch to make a design in the upper corner the used a piece of scrap paper to form a stencil to colour in a mirror image of the punch in the lower corner with a gel pen. To give the journalling a bit more of an impact and tie it in with page 1 I used the same blue card stock cut into a square then used it as a partial matting.

Next I arranged the pictures then secured them to the page using 2 sided tape. Next I wanted something a little extra so chose a couple of stickers from my vast supply of stickers. These were stickers from Creative Memories®. Now, I do have a love/hate relationship with stickers. First you are really restricted to available stickers and second you can never just find the right sticker. At the same time, you end up with a lot of stickers you will never use. But there's a work-around by using a Xyron Create a Sticker gadgets of which I have the smaller X and the larger 500. Just about anything can be turned into a sticker using either.

Microsoft Word® also has a feature where you can import photos. You can resize and position alignment them as well as some basic photo adjustments. Simply import your image into the Word document then go to Edit > Edit Picture. I was surprised at some of the effects so this is a nice feature of Word without having to invest a lot of dollars.

Scrapbooking remains to be a mixture of both paper and digital imaging for me although I am moving ever more to strictly digital. Digital scrapbooking expands your creativity. Basically any image can be used, adjusted or tweaked so you really are limited only by your imagination. You can add shadows for depth, rotate images for movement and the best part everything is done on the computer without any wastage. When you are finally finished you can print out the end result on brilliant white card stock. So a scrapbooking layout that would have taken several sheets of paper, cutting, trimming, stickers and other embellishments is now reduced to one sheet produced on the computer. In scrapbooking terms you are saving a lot of money! With experience you can get some very beautiful and very realistic results. At the same time digital keep your layouts flat so you don't have to worry about other layouts being damaged by raised elements on another. However, you will be missing some of the texture and textile feel of fully paper scrapped layouts. Combining the two techniques gives you the best of both worlds!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2009

Scrapbooking - Old World Map

Old World Map
June 28, 2009

There are so many free graphics and images available online that can be used for digital scrapbooking and web design. At some point especially with digital scrapbooking you will want to make your own unique images. I use Photoshop® CS as my main graphic editing software. There are many online sites dedicated to providing free Photoshop® tutorials. There are also many forums and groups for discussing Photoshop® and getting help with the various features of the program. Even with a program as powerful as Photoshop® by itself there are various add-ons, plugins, free brushes, free actions and etc that can be used to enhance the program. You can even make your own brushes as I did for my © brush. So within the program there is still more room for personal creativity. I try to work through one or two Photoshop® tutorials each week.

Pictured is my first attempt at the Old World Map tutorial from psd tuts+. This would be a cute digital scrapbooking image that can be used as an element or background or even a frame. This tutorial uses several techniques to create a fictional old world map. It was a rather easy tutorial to follow but there were a few important details left out of a couple of the steps that would make it difficult for a beginner to complete. Once I had worked through the tutorial I decided to tweak just a little. There were several layers to creating the image which is something I really like. What is nice about layers is you can easily go back and change one element of your image if you save it as a .psd file. The image is created by adding additional layers each with a technique. For example in this tutorial the landmass was created as a layer then a background layer was added and dragged below the landmass. Each time something new was added I used a new layer. To get the final ridging effect all the layers were merged then a texture filter was used. I added a page curl using AV Bros. Page Curl Pro 2.2. This is an additional filter I purchased for Photoshop® that makes customizable bends and curls on the image. That left a transparent background so I added another layer filled with white so the image would blend properly on this blog.

I like the resulting image but have a few ideas how to make it better and that's what tutorials really are all about. I'm not really happy with how the stripes turned out so would use the gradient tool instead. I definitely would keep the compass on a separate layer, turn off that layer, merge the other layers then add the texture and turn the compass layer back on. I think the map would look a bit more authentic with perhaps a burnt or ragged edging as well. There are a few suggestions in the comment section of the tutorial so I will be playing a bit more and post what I come up with!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2009

How to Make Your Own Scrolling Blog Background

Every blogger wants his or her blog to stand out from the crowd. This means stepping away from the generic blog templates that get you started. A couple of weeks ago I was surfing blogs and noticed a few scrolling type blog designs made by The Cutest Blog on the Block. The many designs were indeed cute and placing the backgrounds on the blog involved only the of a simple script. Adding the background in this method meant you would not lose any of your sidebar information which was a real plus. However, I saw two immediate problems for me. First I wanted to create and use my own designs and second by using one of their designs the script pointed to their Photobucket Album which meant if they closed that album the background would immediately disappear. So I wanted control of where the background was. With all this in mind I set about making new backgrounds for my blogs with the exception of my cooking blog that is using one of their designs temporarily [now my own © design].

I'm always looking for ways to use Photoshop® so as soon as I saw their backgrounds, I knew I could easily make my own. Making your own scrolling background and customized headers are easily done using Photoshop®, Photoshop Elements® or Paint Shop Pro®. This technique can also be used to create custom made backgrounds and elements for digital scrapbooking. I'm going to give you the basics of what I did so you can see how easy it is along with the script needed to install the background in Blogger. Their instructions said you set your template to Minima but I got my backgrounds to work using Rounders 2.

Background

Note: This background is © Garden Gnome and is for illustration purposes only. Please do not copy.

The first thing I did was to determine the necessary sizes by opening one of their backgrounds. After that I was on my own. Note that creating the background uses layers so when saving save as .psd file for later modification and as a .jpg for using as the background.

Create a new image 1450 x 1100 pixels. This will be your main background. Fill this layer with white. Create a new layer. Fill this layer with a pattern of your choice from the pattern selector. In this case I used a basket weave pattern. Create a new layer and fill this layer with the colour of your choice. I used a red that I liked using the colour picker. When you decide on the colour you want write the colour code down so you can co-ordinate other elements on your background, header and blog. Adjust the opacity on this layer to get the effect you want. Create a new layer and click on gradient overlay. Draw the gradient from top to bottom and adjust the opacity to get the effect you like. Leave the image open and create a second image 795 x 1100 pixels. This will be the panel where your header, posts and sidebar appear. Fill this layer with the colour or pattern of your choice. In this case I chose white and adjusted the opacity to the desired effect. Save this image as a .psd file for further modification. Merge the layers then use the move tool and drag the image onto the maid background. Centre the panel. Add a drop shadow to the centre panel adjusting as desired. Using the line tool create a line 20 pixels wide spanning the entire length of the centre panel. Fill with desired colour. Bevel and emboss as desired. Duplicate this layer. Use the move tool to move the duplicated layer to the other side of the panel. At this point you can now add any further embellishments you desire using additional layers. I chose not to add any but if you check out my personal blog you can see how I added a ribbon I made and use that as a guideline for placement. Other embellishments such as flowers, buttons and etc. can be found on a lot of scrapbooking websites or you can make your own using the shape tool.

Very important: Save your file as a .psd for Photoshop® and Photoshop Elements® or as a .psp for Paint Shop Pro®. This will preserve the layers so you can later modify any layer you choose to create a new background. Save the file again as a .jpg for uploading to a photo hosting website. If using Photobucket, upload the image at the 1 meg setting.

To install your background, upload it to a photo hosting site such as Photobucket. Copy the url location. Paste the location into the following script and save. Open the layout tab of your blog in Blogger. In the top header section, click on add a gadget. Click on html/javascript. Copy and paste the script into the box. Click save then preview to see your new, custom made background then click save.

Here's the code you need to install the background on Blogger:



Header

Now that you have made a custom background you can make a custom header. This is also very easy to do. Create a new image 700 x 300 pixels. You can leave this transparent if you want to use the background colour of your blog. If left transparent, the final header should be saved as a .gif and uploaded to a photo hosting site then placed on your blog using the header tool on your layout and the url. This will preserve the transparency on Blogger. In this case I used the colour of my blog background that came from the lightest pantone of the red. To get to the pantone I put the colour code of the red into the colour selector then clicked custom to bring up pantone. The border was created using stoke with the red I wanted. Then I duplicated the layer and used the marquee tool to outline the inner section and deleted that on one layer. This created the red frame. Then I inversed the selection to work on the frame and used the bevel and emboss style to create the raised effect. To get the vellum effect I created a new layer and used the marquee tool to create a smaller rectangle. I filled that with white. Then I used a fuzzball brush to go around the edges and added a drop shadow. I used the font brush script to write the title of my blog then beveled and embossed it and added a light drop shadow. Save the file as either a .psd or .psp as well as .jpg.

To install the header: Go to layouts, page elements for your blog and click on header. Click on add picture from your computer or you can choose from url if you uploaded to a photo hosting website. Click on your header file .jpg. In a couple of seconds you should see your header. Under placement click instead of title and description then click save. Hit preview to see how your new blog header looks. The blog header background will still be present around the image. There are three ways of dealing with this. The first is the easiest by just leaving as is. The second method is to go into layout then html and expand widgets. Change the background colour as desired. The third method is to delete the header background

I hope you found this method useful for creating your own uniquely designed backgrounds and headers for your blogs. If you use this method please leave a comment with your url so I can see what you came up with.


Garden Gnome
©2006-2008