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 !!!
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 !!!
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