LESSON TWO ...

Okay now onto the fun stuff ….. In this lesson we will learn the basics on how to get your digital scrapboooking pages started.


Today we will learn how to:


Add an element or paper to your page
Adding a photo
Cropping a photo
Adding a drop shadow


These are a few of the basic things to help get you started. Later on we’ll learn how to do a lot of other fun stuff like resizing ….. But for now these few simple things will help get you familiar with your program.


You should already have your template opened ….. In your layers palette click and highlight the layer that says black bkg in one of the programs (GIMP, PHOTOSHOP, or PAINT SHOP PRO).


Now before we lay out that first paper on our page … let me say that kits for digi scrapping have papers that are 3600 x 3600 pixels or 12 x 12 inches …. So you will be able to just copy and paste your papers right in your layers as is. You will, or might come across some kits that say “tagging size”; these are smaller size kits. You’ll know once you post them into your page and you have one small block in the middle of your palette. But for now these two kits are 12 x 12 so we won’t have to worry about that. I’ll post something down the line later on how to select all on a layer and paste in …. it is pretty self-explanatory but I will still post it if someone needs reference to it. Or someone who is just starting out … this would be a good tip for them to learn as well.


SCROLL DOWN TO YOUR PROGRAM OF CHOICE FOR YOUR INSTRUCTIONS.
A few of the programs vary on how to do these steps. So I have written step-by-step instructions for ALL three programs.


PAINT SHOP PRO:
Pasting a paper:
FILE/OPEN/select one of your papers and click OPEN/then hit EDIT/COPY/ and now hit on your template on the black bkg layer EDIT/PASTE AS A NEW LAYER


Add a photo:
Highlight your block1toplayer in your template
FILE/OPEN/find your folder where your picture is you want to use/click OK or OPEN
EDIT/COPY/close the photo or minimize it/ you should be back on your template layer/
EDIT/PASTE AS A NEW LAYER


Place it over the top gray box making sure that none of the gray edges of the box below show through. Click on the block1toplayer box and do the following:
SELECTIONS/SELECT ALL/SELECTIONS/FLOAT/SELECTIONS/DEFLOAT/SELECTIONS/INVERT
Now take your cursor or arrow and click on the picture layer to select it.
Hit the DELETE key on your keyboard to get rid of all the picture hanging over the box.
SELECTIONS/NONE/ gets rid of the marching ants around your photo.


Adding an element: (similar as adding a photo)
Go to the layer COPYRIGHT--DELETE LAYER and click on it highlighting it on the layer palette.
Now go to FILE/OPEN/find an element in your digital scrapping folder under scrap kits that you like and hit OPEN.
On that element go to EDIT/COPY/and then close that layer or minimize it.
Back on your template hit EDIT/PASTE AS A NEW LAYER


Drop Shadow:
On your element layer go to EFFECTS/3D EFFECTS/DROP SHADOW
(make sure both boxes to the left of the box at the right with the dice on it are clicked so you can see a preview of the shadow you are applying)
Mess around with the numbers and opacity and blur to get the effect you want …and then hit OK.


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GIMP:


Adding a background:
FILE/OPEN/go to your scrap kits folder and pick out a paper and hit OPEN
On the box where the paper opens (it may be minimized in your below toolbar click it to open it) then on top of the photo click EDIT/COPY/and then close it or minimize that paper.
Back on your template click and highlight the black bkg layer and go up to SELECT/ALL/EDIT/PASTE


Adding a photo:
Click and highlight block1 top layer in your layer palette
FILE/OPEN/find photo on your computer you want to use and hit OPEN
Your photo will come up in a separate window, you may have to click on it as it will be minimized in your bottom tool bar on your computer.
On that photo there is options on it.
Hit EDIT/COPY/and then close that photo or minimize it
On your template layer hit EDIT/PASTE
Now click on that little folded paper icon at the bottom of your layers box on the far left side. That will make your floating layer an actual layer. Now you will have to move the photo under the block1 border layer.


Crop:
Let’s just learn to crop a photo … we’ll learn resize later. Make sure you are on your photo layer.


In your toolbox layer to the left at the top is the rectangle select tool … click it to select it.


Place your cursor on your photo and put it a little over the white frame -- hold down your left click on your mouse and drag it over the white frame. There will be marching ants around the white frame where you selected it when you let go of your mouse.


Now go to SELECT/INVERT and click the delete button on your keyboard then SELECT/NONE … you just cropped a photo.


Adding an element:
FILE/OPEN/find the element you want to use in your scrap kits folder and click on that element and hit OPEN.
You will have to click on the image in your bottom toolbar to open it in your palette.
In the window of your element click EDIT/COPY/minimize this layer or close it.
Now back on your template click EDIT/PASTE
Click the new layer button (paper with folded corner icon) in the layer window to make it no longer be a floating layer. Move it around wherever you want to place it.


Drop Shadow:
On whatever element layer or photo layer you want go to
FILTERS/LIGHT AND SHADOW/DROP SHADOW
There is no preview with this program .. You just have to mess with it to get the effect you want. If you don’t like what you chose you can always hold down the CTRL key and hit Z which is a keyboard shortcut for the undo function on your computer. And you can go back and retry the above instructions to get the effect you want.


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PHOTOSHOP:
Adding a paper:
FILE/OPEN/find the paper you want to use and hit OKAY or OPEN.
SELECT/ALL/EDIT/COPY/then close the paper
On your template layer go to EDIT/PASTE and photoshop will put it in a new layer.
Depending on what layer you were on when you did this (you should be on the black bkg layer) you might have to move the layer where you want it on the layers box at the right.


Adding an element:
FILE/OPEN/find the element in your scrap kits folder
SELECT/ALL/EDIT/COPY/close your element
Go to the top layer on your layers box above the copyright layer and hit EDIT/PASTE


Add a drop Shadow:
At the bottom of your layers box on the right you will see a circle at the bottom with an f on it at the far left side of it. Click it and scroll up to the DROP SHADOW selection.


Make sure the preview box is checked so you can see the effect on the shadowing before you hit OKAY. When you like it click okay … your done with that step.


Adding a photo:
Highlight your block1top layer in your layer palette at the right.
FILE/OPEN/find your photo you want to use and hit OPEN
SELECT/ALL/EDIT/COPY/close that photo
Back on your template hit EDIT/PASTE.
(move the photo under the block 1 border)


Cropping a photo:
On your photo layer that you just posted
Take your cursor and click on the top left button on your toolbar (this is the rectangle marquee tool)
Put your cursor (which now looks like a cross) over your white frame.
Left click your mouse holding it down and dragging it from the top left corner of the white frame to the bottom right corner of the frame. (try and get your marching ants after you let go of your mouse to be marching as close to the middle of the white frame border as possible)
Now go to SELECT/INVERSE and hit delete on your keyboard then hit SELECT/DESLECT.

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Okay mess with the program(s) and familiarize yourself with these basic steps. We'll learn different ways to resize photos and elements in the next lesson.

If you have any problems leave me a comment at the bottom of this post .. or if you follow DIGI scribbles on Facebook as well ... send me a message there. Either on the page or a private message.

ENJOY !!!!!!

LESSON ONE -- GETTING STARTED !!!!!

Okay so I am going to attempt to write my FIRST EVER digital scrap booking tutorial. With so many of my friends and family wanting to learn ….
Who better to teach them than me!!


But before we get started with the fun stuff ….. You need to learn a few things first. And this is only my personal tips knowing how addicting Digital Scrapbooking can be … and how involved you can find yourself getting into it. It’s boring, but trust me you’ll be thanking me later for some of these little tips and tricks.


MAKE FOLDERS: Be sure and create a folder in the MY DOCUMENTS folder of your computer labeled DIGITAL SCRAPBOOKING. Inside that folder make separate folders for things like digital scrap kits that you will be downloading off the internet, the word art you may find yourself using, the templates that I think are an absolute godsend for people like me (yes, even I struggle) with where to place pictures and elements. You will also find yourself making folders later on for Alpha’s which really add something special to your pages. But we won’t be dealing with Alpha’s or word art or Fonts right off the bat here. We’ll stick to basic pages … and just use basic fonts on your computer just to get you started.


So just a basic run down … in MY DOCUMENTS you have your folder DIGITAL SCRAPBOOKING … now inside that folder make the following separate folders:


Scrap Kits
Templates
Word Art
Alphas
Fonts
Layered pages
Finished pages

(It is important to have a file for your layers as well as your finished pages. I have found many times after finishing a layout that I misspelled a word … and want to go back and fix it.)


Keep your layered files for that particular reason. At the end of each month if you feel you are putting way too much onto your hard drive you can burn each months Digital Scrapbooking things onto a disc and put it away for safe keeping. And then are able to delete that months items from your hard drive and then start over giving you a clean slate.


I will make a tutorial for that later on after we complete our FIRST PAGE … but we still have a lot more to learn before we even get started creating a page.



WHERE DO I FIND FREE KITS AND OTHER GOODIES FOR MY PAGES?


EASY ANSWER!!! Here are a few links to places that I deal with a lot and frequent a lot to find the best of the best out there in the digi world:


http://www.digiscrapdepot.com/freebies/
http://scrapbook.creativebusyhands.com/
http://www.craftcrave.com/ (click blog link beside digital scrap booking freebies category)


I’ll give you more links later on ….. I’ll link up a kit for free for you to download and use with this first page tutorial we are going to create.


Let’s do that now!!!


OFF TO FIND A KIT … you can do this step ahead of time … most of the time you will already know what kind of kit you want to use with certain pictures. But just for this first tutorial just to teach you the basic steps we’re going to use a free Disney-inspired kit offered by the wonderful Jamie Dell Scraps called Ever Ever After Kit …. Jamie also has a lot of other free kits on her page too .. So if you aren’t using any Disney-type photos you can use one of her other free kits for just general pictures you may have that you want to scrap a page with.


Her “Imaginary Day” kit is a really cute free general scrap booking kit as well. It is your choice what one you want to use.


You’ll have to download the elements and the papers separately … click each link and then it will redirect you to her 4shared page for downloading.


*note-- you may want to open a new file in your scrap kits folder with the name of the kit and then download your zip files into it … it is up to you though. For now we‘ll just download the files separately into the scrap kits folder, you can always move and rearrange them later.*


DOWNLOADING FROM 4SHARED: This is a free hosted download site … perfectly safe, I’ve downloaded from it, and used it many times; and never had any problems with it. If you have problems with it, or have questions; please ask.


Click the blue-ish DOWNLOAD NOW box (not the green download the 4shared desktop button)


There will be a countdown while the kit is being uploaded …. When the counter reaches 0 there will be a link that comes up that says “DOWNLOAD FILE NOW”


(The Don’t like waiting .. Click here directs you to where you can open up a 4shared that is a paid version with shorter waiting times … not worth the money … skip it.)

When you click it a box will open up with an open with or save file option … make sure save file is checked and hit OK.


Now the MY DOCUMENTS or MY DOWNLOADS file will open … make sure you find your way to the MY DOCUMENTS FOLDER … and then go into the digital scrap booking and then scrap kits folder where you want to save your zip file in.


When you are in that folder hit SAVE and your file will download.
*note if you have a slow running computer I suggest you only save one file at a time to not crash your computer*

After that first file is done downloading … click the back button on your internet page twice to go back to the page with the link for the next file to be downloaded and do the same as above.


If some of you are using the Ever Ever After kit … there are three links. So you have to do the above three times in total. ;)



HOW DO I DOWNLOAD A TEMPLATE AND OPEN IT IN MY PROGRAM?


You download a template just like you do a scrap kit. I will give you the link to download one of my templates I created, for you to get started with.


Download from my 4Shared account here:

http://www.4shared.com/file/GIhkEMxJ/M2DD_-_Template_2.html


This is what I did with it:

(the kit I used for this page is "Where Dreams Set Sail by Kellybell Designs and is a paid kit, this ISN'T the kit(s) you downloaded above)
(can click images to see larger previews of them)


*make sure you download this template into your template folder NOT your scrap kit folder just to keep everything straight*


Now … how do I open this sucker and get started ………….. ?


OPENING YOUR TEMPLATE:


All templates are 12 x 12 inches (3600 x 3600 pixels).


After downloading the template into your folder … go into that folder and right click and unzip the folder. I always then put my zipped folder into the unzipped one. Just to keep things neat and tidy. ;)


OPENING the template in your program of choice is very simple. Once your program is open click the following:


FILE
OPEN (GIMP users will have to use the OPEN LAYERS function in their menu)
MY DOCUMENTS
DIGITAL SCRAPBOOKING
TEMPLATES

And then click open the folder of the template you want to use. Make sure to select the .psd file.


*PAINT SHOP PRO USERS NOTE -- many times there will be an error that comes up saying “This psd file contains unsupported features” … just click okay.*


So now you have your layers open ….. Wow … look at all this … what do we do with it?


We’ll learn that in our next lesson. But for now just start to think what kind of pictures you want to use with your page.


Feel free to mess with this template and kit … just save your layered file as “practicepage1” or something to that effect if your feeling brave … so when we get into the real page tutorial you will save it as something different so you don’t override your page and delete something you might like to keep.


GATHER UP THOSE 4 PICTURES … and get ready for LESSON # 2 tomorrow !!!

Step one -- Finding the right program.

Welcome to my brand new endeavor. I was asked to "teach" a class on how to do digital scrapbooking after a few other friends wanted to learn how. So here I am.

STEP ONE -- Find your program.

I personally use JASC Paint Shop Pro 9. Now this is an older program, but it is a program I have used for years. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!!!

I found a very neat program yesterday in my travels online that is called GIMP ... it is totally free for download. A lot of people use it ... and it has similarities to photoshop (and even paint shop pro). The programs are all pretty much the same, just some have different functions or ways to make a certain thing happen on your digi pages.

Here is the link to JASC and all their free trials of programs at the present moment:

http://www.corel.com

The only version that is offered now is PaintShop Photo Pro X3.

Oh, and also let me mention that version 9 is listed under JASC ... and the newer versions of PaintShop are under Corel. Corel bought JASC --- forgot to mention that.


The Photo Pro X3 is a trial version .... 30 days I believe. To buy ... $69.99



SO LET'S CHECK OUT THE FREE PROGRAM !!!!!!

I did download the GIMP software ... which is totally free. You can find the download link for that program here:

http://www.gimp.org

I've installed and dabbled with the program a little and it has a lot of similarities to paint shop pro. So for me working with the program wouldn't be that much of a stretch.

If the majority decide to use GIMP ... then that is what I will choose to write my tutorials in.

As a matter of fact ... just to appeal to the masses (because I know a lot of other PSP users might give this a stab); I will give instructions for both.


I also have Adobe Photoshop ... but don't use the program much for digital scrapbooking, only in helping resize my images for posting in online galleries.

I find scrapbooking in Photoshop a lot harder.

So GIMP (and Paint Shop Pro) it is !!!! LOL !!!!!!


I'll be writing up the first instructions on a simple template in both programs ... wish me luck.

At least with GIMP, we'll be learning together. LOL !!!!!