Pixel Fairy Princess Productions

Tuesday Tip - Textures

2009-06-09T08:31:00.000-07:00

Have you seen the beautiful photo art that has been popping up all over lately? Have you ever wondered how to make photo textures work on your images? Well that is what today's Tuesday Tip is all about! I'm going to show you how in a few short steps you can start on the adventure to making your photos a work of art!

Step One - You need to select a photo...photos with with some background work the best. Edit your photo in either Lightroom or Photoshop. The photo below has been edited in Lightroom using a preset from the Pixel Fairy Princess Season's Collection Open your selected image in Photoshop or PSE.

Step Two - Select a texture you would like to overlay you photo with. This takes a lot of trial and error, every texture will not work for every photo. As you become more accustom to using textures you will get a feel for what will work. Just play! I have selected a texture from the Pixel Fairy Princess Original Eclectic Texture Collection. Place the texture in a layer above your photo.

Step Three - Using the blending modes experiment and see which mode blends the texture with your photo the best. At this point you might also want to add a layer mask to your texture and using a soft brush conceal the parts that cover the skin of the person in your portrait.

Using textures in this way is really only the first step in turning your precious photographs into works of art. If you are interested it taking your photo art to the next level and beyond, come join us in our Photo Art Class. Registration is open and the class also includes the materials we will be using!

Don't forget to join us every Tuesday for a new Tip....and check out the Pixel Fairy Princess Photography Blog for a Try It giveaway every Tuesday as well!

Great Question!

2008-09-20T05:50:00.001-07:00

Thank YOU JENNIFER!!!!
I need feedback and I love questions and this morning Jennifer had a great one - What is a brush?

I hope that she doesn't get mad - But I am just going to post a little bit from her e-mail.
I guess I'm still a little confused what brushes are to start. Is that flower thing is that an image you started with or is it a brush? Is a brush kind of like a stamp?

Yes - the flower is a brush.
I wanted to tell you that a brush is very similar to a stamp in traditional scrapbooking. You can "stamp" a brush or you can paint with a brush. In the technique that I did the tutorial for - we are "stamping" more than we are brushing. Brushes themselves come in many forms - flourishes, Alphas, Dingbats and traditional strokes.

Here is a link to Scrap Girls Brushes - you will find all sorts of goodies - like words and quotes too!

If we think of this type of BRUSH technique as STAMPING - we control the amount of INK we put on the brush by adjusting the Opacity and Flow(in CS3). For my additive technique - I set my brush to 100% opacity and for my subtractive technique - I adjusted the opacity. I stated arounf 65% and moved it down every few mouse clicks. Not being a traditional scrapper and NEVER having stamped - I think that the subtractive technique is one of the benefits of digital scrapping - but like I said - I really wouldn't know the traditional method for this.

When we talk about STAMPING in Photoshop - we are talking about using tools like the healing tool for retouching image or cloning to remove an unwanted object. We can discuss those too if anyone is interested?

Let me know if this helps :D

2008-09-19T06:19:00.000-07:00

Let’s Talk About Brushes

This is the first in a series that I want to do on brushes. I want to start very simple and progress.
I will be working in Photoshop CS3 - but I am also doing it in Elements at the same time so that I can alert Elements users to any differences.

As you see in Figure 1. I have opened a blank white sheet on which we are going to play with brushes. Today we are going to create a distressed accent. The reason I have chosen this is because I think that you should learn this technique first - add and subtract.

The first thing is to get your brush tool and select a brush. Today I am going to use Diane Miller’s Serene Brush Set. For learning this technique - I suggest starting with a large brush.

I simply left click the mouse one time and an imprint of the brush I want to use is applied to my paper. Notice that I created a new layer for my brush stroke in the layers palate. This is the additive concept that we will build on. Today, this will be the only thing we add to the layout.

Now - I want to give it a grunged look. For that I am going to use my eraser as a brush. Your erase can be used in three different mode - brush, pencil, and block. You will find the mode selection at the top of you window under you main tabs. This tool bar will show you the brush you have selected, the size, mode, and opacity. Get comfortable with these. Make sure that your eraser is in brush and for our subtractive technique I am going to use Brandy Valenzuela Grungelle for distressing.

I am going to turn the opacity down to about 50 -60% and start SLOWLY left clicking my mouse. DO not drag your mouse.

You will see how the top part has a worn and faded look. I am going to switch brushes and subtract some more from the leaves. I like to switch brushes during the subtractive portion because it geive an more realistic effect.

Here is my almost finished product. I used 3 different brushes to subtract from the original. I stayed on Layer on for the entire technique. I used large sized brushes very few strokes. This technique take some practice - but it is very important.

Now - to finish it off I add a sheet of paper from Thao Cosgrove’s Life’s Canvas Collection and use the clipping mask feature to “glue” them together!

Please post some of what you do in the Pixel Fairy Princess Flickr group :D

Brushes -

2008-09-06T18:22:00.000-07:00

I am working on a new tutorial. Thanks for all the comments about wanting to know more about brushes. I am going to do this a little different - and just need to take a little survey from those folk who actual come to this site. I don't know where followers of the blog are - so please take a minute and answer the two poll questions.

Text on a Path

2008-08-15T09:49:00.000-07:00

As many of you have noticed – I have really been playing with my type lately. There are several ways to do this – the easiest is being to buy a collection like Valarie Randell's Collection Text on a Path. In a recent LO called Together I used Syndee’s Nuckles new Borderline2 Template and had my text follow the curves. Here is how I did it. You must have Photoshop CS3 to do this as Photoshop Elements does not have vector features like this – Sorry.

So lets look at the LO I am creating today of Princess-in-Training – my little trooper! I am going to use Thao Cosgrove's Ornamental Ink Brush Set right on my image. Here is where I am in the Layout.

BTW - you can click on the images to enlarge them.

Fig 1

I am going to select my freeform pen and draw a line that follows the curve of the swirl. I like to make sure that I have the rest of my LO pretty much set so that I don’t have to move the text once I do it.

Fig 2

Here is what it looks like after I draw the path I want to follow.

Fig 3.

I am now going to get my type tool and line it up with the path I just drew. I left click with my mouse and a text box appears with my cursor ready to go. One trick is to make sure that you have left justification checked - otherwise you might get frustrated.

Fig 4

Now I type some text.

Fig 5

See how easy that was – and fun :D

I will let you in on another secret – to draw my line, I use a Wascom Bamboo tablet and pen. They are a ton of fun and so addictive.

Hilton Head Island

2008-08-10T16:53:00.000-07:00

I thought that I would go head and share this with you - I know - I normally don't do and I will try not to make it a habit.

This morning I had a wonderful shoot on the Beach with Princess-in-Training and Prince Charming. There is something so priceless about a little girl running on a beach in a pretty white dress - simple joy. As she danced, this is the song that played in my head. It is funny - these are just some of the spontaneous images I captured - but these are the ones that capture my heart! Tomorrow she will get up early and we will go to the hospital to begin our fifth series. It has been so nice to go all summer with no surgery. I will scrap these over this coming week and post them ;-D

Blending - the Very Basics

2008-07-30T18:10:00.001-07:00

Okay - bear with me - I actually did this tutorial a while ago and never uploaded it - yes - me bad! The thing is that I don't know where I put the text for this one - maybe it has somehting to do with using three computers :D

Let's wing it - this is actually really easy!

So - here we have Princess-in-Training and the nice vignette and photo to work with from the last tutorial. Let's open a 12x12 workspace and drag some paper from Syndee Nuckles Collage Art Collection into the workspace.
Now, drag the image you are working with onto the workspace. Notice that you can see where things are located in the layer palate. This is important because we are now going to move the two pieces of paper into place so that fill up the workspace.
If you will look at the layers palate you will see that my dark orange paper is directly below my green paper and you cannot see it.
Now I am going to open the blending modes found at the top right corner of the layers palate. It is very important that my top paper layer (the Green Paper) is highlighted in the layers palate.
Now for the fun! I am going to use the overlay blending mode to change the color of the orange and get the handwriting to look as though it is on the music!

Pretty cool and super easy!
Try using the multiply mode and the others
to have fun with you papers!

Vignettes - and adding a little DRAMA

2008-06-23T14:56:00.000-07:00

Today I am going to show you how to add a simple vignette to you images in PSE6.

First lets open an image, like this one of Princess-in-Training. Isn’t she cute (everyone say yes!) I just love that look on her face!

Next, we are going to go into filters and choose Correct Camera Distortion.

Your screen will now look like this:

On the right side you will see a slider for creating a vignette. Slide it toward the left to achieve the amount of vignette you want in your image. I like to turn off the Grid at the bottom of the page and then I can see how much I am sliding down my amount and midpoint.

Now click OK and you are done!

Like I told you easy – a vignette to add dept to our image!

I like it just fine – but that is about it. Still kind of flat for me. I like something a little more dramatic. So let’s add a little drama!

Using my Shape Tool I am going to drag a white rectangle over the image. Notice that I have white as my foreground color and black as my background.

You then repeat the steps to create a vignette – but first you need to simplify the shape.

Create another vignette with the slider.

Click okay when you are satisfied with your vignette.

Now for the drama – we are going to blend the vignette to the image of Princess-in-Training!

On the right side of your screen, right about the Shape in the Layers palate you will see a menu drop down that say normal. Click on that as I have:

Now you want to select Multiply – make sure that you have the Shape layer highlighted in the Layer Palate.

Merge the layers together and wow! Here is my final image :D

This is just a spring board to enhance your images her are some variations I did just to show you the possibilities!

Yes, she is defiantly a drama queen :D

Organization - A must for the digi scrapper :D

2008-06-23T12:31:00.000-07:00

One of the most frequently asked questions I get is about organization. I will now try to welcome you into the world of the neuritic. Just remember that you asked for it.

My organization is really simple - I organize all my images by date. When I burn them to a DVD, I write down where and what we did. For me staying organized means being able to get what I want quickly - not having my computer slow me down because I have everything and the kitchen sink on it :D

I shoot Raw Files and they are - in the word of Will Ferrel in Elf - ginormous! So - to accommodate my large file I have 2 hard drives on my computer. My C drive is where my working programs are, for example Photoshop, Word, and Lightroom. My D drive is where stuff that I am currently editing is located and scraping materials that I am currently "in love with". I have two external hard drives and one is for storage of all my scraping materials and the other is for everything from a paper on The Hague Convention on Inter-country Adoption and USPTO stuff to images that have not been burned to a DVD (I now burn DVD's instead of CD's because of my file size) External Drive #2 is all my scraping supplies and that is the only thing that goes on that external. I also have all my images backed up on DVD's by the month and year. Once they are on DVD and I delete them from my external and internal drives. It works for me. I also want to encourage you to delete the compressed file that you receive for the shops where you buys your supplies - once you extract the file there is no reason to really keep the zip file. I burn them to a DVD as a back up and then they are gone.

As for my scraping materials - I have a three ring binder and I print out the contact sheets that come with most kits. I print them in color and then place them in the binder by designer and boutique. I do this so that when I am away and I want to prep a layout - I can pull out my three ring binder and work. Also - this is a great source when I am looking for an embellishment and I know that the one I want is by Syndee Nuckles from Scrap Girls - just as an example. I can start there and find what I want. It beats going through the hundreds of files I have accumulated in a short time since I started digi scraping.

For most folk I suggest two external drives. One for images and another for your scraping materials. I go back and forth between my laptop and desktop, so having two externals makes it easy to keep working. Also - Sending your scrapping materials to an external hard drive will keep your computer "clean" and working at optimal speed.

One more tip - I have a file for Prince Charming's Scrapbook and another file for Princess-in-Training's book. If you were to open that file you would see a file for each month in 2008. I save all my LO's in these files. Once I am sure that a file is perfect and I am not going to do anything else to it - I delete the PSD file. I only save and burn to DVD's the jpg. flies. Once a month I burn to the DVD the image and a slide show set to music.

Oh - BTW - I de-frag everyday - my computer is set up to do it automatically - this is just good maintenance :D

So that is how I stay organized ~ did it help? If you have a tip to share on how you stay organized - leave a comment and share it with everyone :D

Creating Chipboard Elements with Brushes

2008-05-14T06:45:00.001-07:00

So you bought a kit – love all the doodles and swirls, the papers are perfect for the image you just shot, and last but not least the creative juices are flowing! Great – Wrong! The great swirl is in a stripe that looks horrific next to your daughter beautiful new…

Okay, maybe I am getting to personal, but I love having the ability to take a brush of a swirl and turn them into exactly what I want in the blink of an eye – well – a few click of a mouse :D

Today, we are going to take a brush from Rhonna Farrer and apply some papers and then add a stroke to edge it to give us an element that looks like chipboard. I love Rhonna Farrer’s swirls and I thin that they are well worth investing in for your digital toolbox and after this I hope that you will see how easy using brushes is. I have all my brushes installed and if you are having trouble installing brushes then shoot me an e-mail. Please don’t just leave me a comment because so many times I try to answer your questions and I get that “no reply” e-mail.

So – let open those brushes :D
I start by opening a new page. I happen to like working with the white background – but that is just a preference of mine and I will delete it at the end.

I am going to select my brush from the tool sidebar and it will give me my options at the top of my workspace.As you can see – I use the drop down menu to select what brush collection I want to use and then it will expand so that I can chose the brush I want.I need to do one more thing before I actually use my brush and that is create a new layer. Remember I told you that I was going to delete my background at the end; I need to create this layer so that I don’t delete my project.So here is a quick look at my screen Nothing to exciting – let’s fix that :D The first thing that we are going to do is just positin the brush on the page with our mouse and then give it a single left click. Make sure that you are working on Layer 1.
I don’t know what size this is going to be in my final layout so I am going to err on the big size and then shrink it to fit when I go to design my layout.The next thing I need to do is select a piece of paper and I am going to use black polka dots from Shabby Miss Jenn’s Gracie’s Garden for this. I have the two windows side by side.And I am simply going to drag and drop my black paper onto my brush design. When you do this you should not see your design. I have played with the opacity for the purpose of the tutroial.I am going to close my paper and expand my project. I want the dots to be smaller so I am going to shrink my paper to where it is just barely covers my brush design.

and now I can cut my design out from my brush by using the Ctrl G shortcut.

Viola ~ we have used a brush to create a perfectly matched element for your layout!

I am not quite done – I want it to look like chipboard so I am first going to add a stroke of white to outline the design. To do this I first going to delete my white background layer and flatten my image (this step is in another tutorial or e-mail me for help). I am going to use the stroke command found in the edit tab at the top of the screen.
When you select this you will get a window that asks you to select the pixel width of your outline and the color. For this I am using a pixel width of 5 and a white outline. FYI – when I outline pictures I use a pixel width of 20 to 35.Here is what we now have and we are almost done:
Remember I said I wanted to create a chipboard look; we do that by using the bevel feature in the Effect palate.I like the Simple Embossed bevel look so I pick that option and hit apply. I went ahead and added the drop shadow so that you could see the cardstock effect.

What do you think now? Easy huh :D

Please let me know if this tutorial was helpful and remember to e-mail me if you have questions – I’d love to help :D

STOP The Presses!

2008-04-26T11:58:00.000-07:00

Okay - after getting several e-mails stating that the tutorial on paper curling was Awesome for some but not for other, I suggested that a few of you call me and try to muddle our way through! Well, call number one produce fruit, but call number two (today) produced FRUSTRATION! In the process of almost giving up - kick myself for not thinking of this earlier - I asked my friend if she was using XP or Vista. OMG - that was the problem! My tutorial is written for XP and even thought I am getting a new computer in a few weeks, I will not be using VISTA. Thanks to Google - we found out that installing Actions in PSE6 is different in XP and Vista. Why did Adobe have to make this so hard! So - if you are still having problems - e-mail me and I will send you what I have to make it possible for you to upload if you are using Vista :D

BTW - thanks for all the suggestions on new Tutorials! I promise a new one next week - brushes is almost done and I am combining that with clipping masks!

Happy Scrappin'

Word Art

2008-04-18T06:16:00.000-07:00

So sorry that this took me so long to get up. It has been quite a week here at the castle.

Word Art was so intimidating to me – how could I possibly create such wonderful creations. Well, have no fear, creating beautiful word art is the crowning jewel in a beautiful layout and SO SO SO easy. I hope that everyone is getting comfortable working with layers because that is really the only trick to word art - working with lots and lots of layers.

The first thing I do is write out what I want. For this Tutorial I am doing a smug little picture of Prince Charming and Princess-in-Training out in a field. Here are my words:

You mimic everything HE does

Right down to the Attitude.

I am going to now open a 5x7 300ppi new page. I am also going to keep the image that I want to use open in my project bin so that it can help dictate what fonts I use.

When I wrote my text I circled certain letters and words that I wanted to distinguish.

YOU

Mimic

Attitude – 8 letters = 8 layers

I am going to get those words going first and I am actually going to do Attitude because I am going to use a Rhonna Farrer Font in my brushes to achieve the look. I am going to put each letter on a separate layer so that I can move and position them just the way I want. Take a look:

The short cut for opening up a new layer is ctrl – shift - N

I am going to do this 8 times and then after we are done creating the word Attitude we will merge the layers together. In the following image you will see that I have the word Attitude done with each letter on separate layer.

Now that I have all 8 letters on individual layers I can resize them and move them to where I want them. Notice that in the next image I moved the letter A and resized the letter and PSE6 is just waiting from me to hit the big green check mark to go on.

Once I have moved all the letters into place -

I 'm done with this word. I am going to delete my Background Layer and merge the layers together.

Open up another 5X7 300ppi new window and drag and drop the word Attitude into the new 5X7 - DO NOT CLOSE THE WORKING WINDOW THAT YOU USED TO CREATE THE WORD ATTITUDE. You might need to go back and redo the word and that is the beauty of the undo key :D

Now that start adding words and each word is an individual layer. I also start at a pt size of 72. I will show you in just a minute how to go back and edit the text once we get everything in the page.

This is what my screen now looks like – YIKES!

That is not very pretty lets start editing. To edit text that is already in your layout just make sure that you are in the text tool and right click with your mouse on the text that you want to edit.

When I select edit type I can now go back and play with the word. Notice how my cursor appears in the middle of the word down.

So I changed the font from Be Aggressive to all the words except YOU and HE to 2Peas GG Mix and the pt size from 72 to 30. Here is what my word art is looking like:

Better? Yes – but still not there. Let’s keep going and focus on YOU.

Notice that I deleted the Y and changed the OU font and point size. I am going to open a New Layer for the Letter Y. I also need to move the OU in closer to the word Mimic. I want the Y to reflect my little Princess so I am going with a rather girly font. Take a look:

Now it works with the image I am using. I decided not to change HE because in the final layout it works and this is a very busy word art. So – once again I will delete my background and merge my layers. I now check to make sure that my word art and photo work by dropping them into a new 12x12 layout – here is a sneak peak at my current page!

Have fun making word art today! I need to get this page finished :D

Slideshows in PSE6

2008-04-12T05:33:00.000-07:00

***If you would like to view the slideshow that was created from this tutorial please click here.

Sometimes it is just good to start at the beginning. I was asked by a special friend to do a tutorial on how to make a slideshow in PSE6 and since the Royal Scribe brought her BEAUTIFUL daughters over for me to photograph today, I decided that I would write this tutorial. I love slide shows and this is one of the items included in my photography sessions, but I love how they can enhance your scrapbook. When you get your book printed, and that I will talk about in another post, I would suggest burning a DVD of special slideshow and movies and making a library card jacket in the book for the DVD. Someday, when you sit down and reminisce, you won’t have to go looking for the video!

Oh- BTW – We have been under a terrible drought where we live and so I know how bad the yard and plants look – I am so embarrassed you are seeing this! I am using conservation techniques so I can’t transplant my plants into pots just yet ;=(

So – without further ado – Let’s make a slideshow in PSE6!

From the opening window in PSE6 choose the create icon.

When it opens, it will look like you are in organizer, but on the right side of the screen it will ask you want do you want to create? Click on Slideshow.

You will then have a window pop up with pre-set features for the slideshow – I generally ignore these because I am going to set my slideshow to music I don’t know how long my slides and transitions need to be yet. So just hit OK.

Notice that I did not pick any slides to be in my slideshow from the organizer window. Before I start a project – actually when I was editing and add my artistic flare – I was saving the images for the slideshow into a separate folder. So when I open up my work window it will be empty.

Now I am ready to add my images. See the BIG LIME GREEN + sign at the top – click on that.

and a dialog box appears:

and I can retrieve the images I want to use. Since I took the time to organize my images earlier, I can use the shift key and select all the images in this folder.

You will now see that all of my images appear at the bottom Slide Palate. You can also use the “click here to add photos” feature in the Slide Palate, but I find that it is easier to organize and use the +MEDIA feature. Both work.

Here is what my screen now looks like:

The first thing I have to do is find the title slide I created in PSE6’s Edit Workspace. For this show, I added titles and did all the work in the Edit Area. So let move the slide around by dragging and dropping them where we want them.

Now my title is first and the slides are in the order I want them. I want to add music to the Slideshow so I am going to click on the “Click here to add audio to Your Slide Show in the Slide Plate. A dialog box appears that contains my music in it and I navigate to the song I want.

Once you find your song and open it, PSE6 lays the track to your slideshow. The default feature will cause you song to repeat at the end of the show based on the time you select for your slides and transitions. I have a lot of images and like them to move along, so I use the feature found right above the Slide Palate on the left side that says “fit slides to audio”. See what happens to the time of my slides:

To save your slideshow click on the Output tab and save your slideshow.

So – you have now created a simple slideshow that you can save and load to your blog or burn to a DVD.

Curling Paper and Installing Actions

2008-04-09T04:45:00.000-07:00

Well - the number one request was "teach us how to curl the paper!" Um??? Use a curling iron? LOL! Little joke ;D This is VERY VERY easy and this will also get you addicted - I mean started - using ACTIONS!

- here we go!

First you will need to go to here and download the Action by Traci Murphy Designs. It is a whopping $5. The file will be zipped so you will need to extract all the files before you can install this Action. Make sure that you do not have PSE6 running while you are installing Actions.

The most challenging thing about this for me was installing the Action in PSE6. Since this is the program that most of you have mentioned that you use, I am going to take you through the steps of installing this Actions in PSE6. Very important - you must purchase the Action for the software that you are using. I have found that if the Action works in PSE5 - it will work in PSE 6 but you MUST rename the PSD to PNG by using the Save AS tool.

Once you have renamed your file, the process of installing the action becomes much easier. Open My Computer:

You are next going to open Local Drive C.

and from there - go to Documents and Settings:
Once you are in the Documents and Settings Window click on All Users. because of the way our computer is set up - I can not do a print screen of this page. From the all Users page go to Application Data and open that folder.and then navigate to the Adobe folder and open it.
Once in the Adobe Folder choose Photoshop Elements, and inside that folder -open 6.0. You computer screen should now look like this:
We are almost - and ready to install the Actions. We need to open the Photo Creation folder to get to the Photo Effects folder:
Once we open the Photo Effects folder we will see all the effect that came preloaded in with PSE6. With the folder open that contains your Actions make sure that you rename the file so that it has an PNG ending - and drag and drop it into the Photo Effect window. Now your actions are installed!

Open PSE6 and a sheet of paper that you want to curl. You will also need to open your Traci Murphy Curl Paper Action to get to the templates. Remember how to use templates?

Here is that your screen should look like:
Open the Temp folder:
and pick one of the four paper curls to use. I am using #4 on a piece of paper from Miss Shabby Jenn's new Flower Stand kit. Adjust your work space so that the two windows are side by side.
Now, Drag and Drop the paper into the template.

Cover the entire template with the paper. I close my original paper at this point too.
Take a moment and look at the Layers Palate. Make sure that you paper is the top layer.
We are now ready to run the Action which is in the Effects Palate above the layers. I DO NOT know why, but the action is just a blank square. On my image above it is in the bottom left corner. In the image below I have pointed to it with a red arrow. To run the Action click on it and hit Apply. Once again MAKE SURE that your paper is the top layer and highlighted in the Layers Palate.
You did it! Now you have a beautiful curl for your pages! Have fun :D &
Let me know how it works out!

Colorizing Images

2008-04-04T08:03:00.000-07:00

I have had a few people ask about how I do the colorization technique. I am working on my photography website and I have several images that I scanned from my professional days before kids and need to be able to show to prospective clients. Here is a composition I love! I hate the way it looks after being scanned – so with a few tricks I can spruce up :D Ready?

BTW - While I did grow up with a fashion photographer father and lots of college classes - my "digital" education is probably a lot like yours reading blogs and trial and error. The trick that I am using today is one I learned for the Pioneer Woman, but I played around with it to get the softer brown tones that I prefer.

The first thing that I am going to do is click CTRL J to make a working layer that I can manipulate. You will also notice that I have hidden my project pin.

I also need to turn my Background into a workable layer. See below:

Now we can start manipulating.

The first thing that I am going to do is turn Layer 1 to a Sepia Tone by using the Photo Effect that comes with Photoshop Elements 6. Look at the above image and there are 11 square boxes above the Layers Palate – the Sepia Tone has a black box around it and the hit apply. Make sure that you are working with Layer 1 as in the figure below:

You will notice in the Layers Palate that there is a blue fx by the layer that you have applied your photo effects to. Right above the fx symbol is the opacity slider. That is where we are going now.
Slide it around until you find the right amount of color bleeding through. The above image is at 74% opacity.

For me that is too much so I am going to slide the opacity up and I find that I like it at 86%.

I need to flatten my layers together and I do that by going into the Layers Menu in the top tool bar. The last option is flatten image:

Done. I can save the image as a jpeg and get it printed or use it in my scrapbooks.

I would love to see your images so try this and the please leave me a link so I can see your beautiful images!

Working With Templates - Part 1

2008-04-04T06:45:00.001-07:00

Today ~ I promised to talk about templates and I am going to show you how to use a template designed by Meredith at M Originals (link is in my sidebar). I would really like to know if this helps you so please leave some feed back in the comment section. Also – email me if there is something you don’t understand. Also - if there is something that you would like me to do a tutorial on - let me know :D

Let’s get started!

I am using template #11 by Meredith and I am working in PSE 6. Here is what my screen looks like after I open up the kit that I chose – which is the Olivia Kit from Shabby Princess.

You will see at the bottom the template and all the items in the project bin. I find it easier to keep the project bin open when I am working with a template. Now that I am ready to work – I change my work area to cascade mode and minimize all my embellishments so that my screen now looks like this:

Now we are ready to start filing in the template space.

For the background I just drag and drop the paper that I want to use into the template and then make sure that it is positioned correctly to fill the page. Easy enough? Now I click on the layer that says Shape One in the layers palate and choose the next paper that I want to work with, by again dropping it into the template that I am working with,

As you can see, the paper is hiding part of the bottom circle – I need to drag it over so that it completely hides the circle I want to fill with paper – See below.

Now I am going to CUT that paper to fit the circle by using the short cut key combination of CTRL and G. See what our template now looks like!

I told you this was easy!!!! Moving on – Next Circle! Oh – BTW – When I am done with a paper I close it – if I decided to use it again – I just reopen it.

So – let do Shape One Copy 2 by highlighting it in the Layers bin.

Drop and Drag the paper you want to use into the template.

Make Sure that You cover the entire circle and use CTRL G to cut your paper.

Two more to go – Remember highlight the layer in the layers palate that you want to fill, drop and drag your paper, and use the CTRL G keystroke to cut your paper – Finish all the circles now.

Here is what I have when my circles are filled:

Now I am going to fill the square – and you can use an image like this if you want to – just add a title and some journaling and you are good to go.

Like I said - now all I have to do is add some journaling and a title and I am done. However, this is not the image that I want to use, my image is a landscape orientation, so I am going to rotate the template and do some embelishing.
and I am going to fill Shape Two with paper.

Time to put Princess-in-Training into the LO.

It is on top and I am going to send it back so that it is under one of the circles. I also added the drop shadow to the image.
Time for a title – and I begin by deleting the layers that are in the template that say title and journaling.

I am going to use the word art provided in the kit and embellish – so I restore all my hidden embellishments back to the work area

Again, drop and drag them into place, and I like to get all my embellishment onto the page and then maximize the page.

Time to move them into to place and here is my final page!

Save your page as both a png and jpeg!

There are a few little trick that I omitted – because I wanted this to be an easy way for folks to get started, like I didn’t tell you how to “paste”the image to the circle and stick them. I am going to do that in tomorrow’s lesson – Templates Part two.