Using Actions with PSE9 to make your photos really POP

This is my first Technique with Lollipop Press and its a little scary.......

I've been Tradition and Hybrid Scrapping for a long time, although relatively new to digital scrapbooking!!

But i am a keen amateur photographer so I thought i would share with you how i make my photos really POP making them eye catching when on our layouts.

I am using Actions for Photoshop Elements 9.

Im a huge fan of Actions.

Rather than playing with lighting, contrast and colour ourselves, we can down load free Actions, or purchase them from Photographers.

Here is a photo that was taken by the Local Paper at a recent school fete. Its kinda flat and boring dont you think, and i totally don't like that background, but with the right "Action" we can change that!

Once Actions are purchased you have to save them into the Program Data File for PS9 and then they are avaiable to use.

Then its just as simple as a double click on your photo to completely change their look.

I have several free and purchased actions on my PSE9, but my favorite ones are the ones I have purchased from professional photographers.

For this finish i have used what the photographer calls Astoria. It adds brightness and contrast and really makes the subjects stand out from the photo.

This finish is called Tombstone and it gives a real cowboy feel i think. Its been layered with a brown shade, reducing the opaque and adjusting the tones.

But the finish i find i use most is converting the Black & White features. That way it doesn’t matter what colour my photos are, i can always make sure they match my papers.

It also reduces the impact of the background in the photo.

See... the photo looks much better now doesn't it!

So Chic....

In more ways that one.... hehe

Thanks so much

Hope you enjoyed my first Technique with Lollipop Press

Shaker Card - Technique post

Today i'm going to be showing you how to make a shaker card.  Some of you might already know how to make one.  This has to be on of my favorite type of cards to make.  

The materials i'm going to use are:  

Chic and Shabby line for paper and some embellishments from Lollipop Press.  

image- cake and roses from paperfacesdesigns.

 I colored the image using Paint.net.  

Your going to start by picking the size of card that you would like to make.  Then you will be printing the paper, embellishments and image that you would like to use.   

I started with my cardbase.  I used at 6x6 Cardbase. ( i know the picture shows a standard base!!) I then cut my image to 2 7/8" square. Make sure that your image is toward the middle of the cardstock so that you can see it through the window. Instead of printing out a digital image you can also use a stamp set and stamp your image. 

Next you are going to want to make a "window" with another piece of cardstock. The same size as your image. You can make the window a shape or just a square, anything you want!!  i just used a square. I then cut out the middle leaving a border of 1/4 inch all the way around.  Make sure that your foam 3d tape will fit on your border. Increase the size of your border to the size of the foam tape your using.  Or you can just trim your foam tape to fit.   Instead of using cardstock you can just use the Digi paper that you just printed out.  I wanted my card to be a little more sturdier so i'm just going to cover the white border with the Digi paper at the end. 

 You will now need a piece of acetate, or window sheets.  I went to Office Depot in town here and got a whole box of them Qty 100 for $20.  You will need to cut it to the same size as your window.  I cut mine to 2 7/8 square.  At this point add some adhesive to the back of your "window" and stick the acetate to it. now on the same side that you stuck the acetate to your window you will now add 3d foam around the entire window.  Making sure that there are no holes. If there are holes you will get the glitter everywhere!!

Now your going to add some sparkle!!  any type that you would like to use.  I just used CTMH Prisma Glitter. Just pour some onto the window that you just created!

Now just take off the backing of the foam tape to expose the sticky.  Then stick your image onto the foam tape. Now you have your shaker window.  TAADAA!!!

Now you will just design your card just like you normally would.  

My Finished product.  

   

Hello everyone! I hope you had a wonderfully blessed Christmas with your families! I know I did. I cherished each moment spent with my extended family as for my Grandmother is pretty positive it is her last. So I savored every moment, laugh, every hug, and bite of my grandma's cooking and I am basking in the warmth of it all! I must say I am chomping at the bit though, to get started scrapping all my photos, what about all of you?
So without further adieu...... I am going to show you how to create a circle that you can use as a background on a layout, element, or frame. I will be using mine today as a frame. I am using Photoshop CS2 but from what I heard you can also do the same steps similarly in Elements. So lets get started!

Go to File and open whatever paper you want to use. I chose to use the swirly one.


Next, Go to the Marquee tool on the tool bar to the left, and make sure you have it set to the circle marquee.

Now make a circle to your desired size. Also at this time you will want to go to File and create a NEW document and make sure it is 12 inches by 12 inches. Also make sure your resolution is always set to 300 pixels/inch!


Next, make sure you are back onto the circle image and you will want to click on the move tool (Arrow) and then hold it down on your circle, you will see a little pair of scissors show up and move the circle to your layout(if you want to use it)or delete it as I have.


Go back to your marquee tool and make another circle, outside of the deleted one. Now, go to the move too and move the new circle to your layout or new document.


On the New Doc or Layout as I like to call it, you can change the size of the circle to whatever you desire. One little tip to help you keep the dimensions locked is to hold down the shift key as you are using the mouse on the perimeter sizer to make it the size you want. * I also at this time, picked a paper (teal) for my main background. You can use just the one or you can picked new papers and repeat the steps to make more circles. Have fun with it, try shadowing or embossing them by going to the Layer tab and clicking on Layer Style.


Finally, build a layout as you like. You can create multiple circles or use the one as a frame as I did!


Whatever you do, I hope the tips in here will help you and also give you a few ideas!
I hope you had a wonderful Christmas with your families and enjoying yourselves! Have a safe New Year!!!

Your friend,

Tutorial- 3D Pop Up Cards digital

Today I’m going to show you how to make 3D pop up Cards digitally!!!

I use a different program than most people, StoryBook Creator 3.0 Plus.  I’m sure that you can take the basic techniques and use them for the program that your using.

We will be starting off with a 12x12 blank page.  You will be creating 4- 8”x4” rectangles. 3 will fit horizontally and one will be vertical.  There will be a square in your upper right hand corner.  You can use that square to make a tag if you wish. That is what I did!!

Lets start with the first rectangle top left.  We are going to basically cut your rectangle in half.  The way I did this is by using my Cut and Fill Option.  I made a rectangle around the bottom half of the rectangle, and you CUT AROUND THE SHADED AREA. In other programs this might be the select tool? This will make you have 2 smaller rectangles now. See the next 2 pictures.

So now that you have the 2 smaller rectangles you are going to fill the bottom one with your choice of paper.  I used papers from the Santa Baby Kit. For this first card I chose the pink paper.  That will be the bottom half of your card.

Now you will import/add embellishments to your liking.  I used the embellishments from Santa Baby to match the paper I took from the kit.  Just remember that you want to have half of the image to be off of your paper rectangle. Just like the picture below

Don’t forget to add shadows if you want to POP it off the page more.

Do any personalization at this point too.  I wanted my plain pink paper to have some texture so I added that at this time too.  If you use SBC+ and would like to learn how to do this just send me a message and I can help you out.

Now after you have finished placing everything were you want you will erase the grey box at the top.  You will now repeat all the steps again for every card.  When you are all done, Print them out.  I send mine into Costco because that is the cheapest place I have found to print them.  Plus I do not have a 12x12 printer!!

After you have printed this out.  You will now have 2 options for cutting and mounting onto cardstock.  You could cut around the tops leaving the white part attached to the rest of your card. Just like i did with the snowman card below. Or you can cut around everything even eliminating the white off the card.  like i did with the "Holly Jolly Santa" 

 Now just depends on what you did with your cutting will depend on what you do next.  If you cut everything off then you will need to cut a piece of white cardstock 4"x8" and score it at 2" on the 4" side.  You will then glue the card onto the cardstock.  (picture is below).  If you decided to just cut around your image you will need a piece of cardstock 2"x8" to glue onto the inside back like the picture below. Your basically trying to cover the hole were you cut the image out of with the cardstock. 

Finish doing this to all the cards.  I chose to cut the white off of my cards it seemed to be easier to do that then take an exacto knife and cut around the image. 

Here are all 4 of my cards done, with a nice tag to match.  

All the digital product used was from the Lollipop Press, Santa Baby Kit. The cardstock i used for the bases of the cards is from CTMH.  

Technique: Polka Dot Paper by Erin Ostgulen

To create your own polka dot paper follow these steps below. It's actually easier than you'd think!

1. Create a new 12" x 12" white document and a 1" x 1" white document by going to "File" then "New" and changing the sizes to above.
2. Click on the 1'' document and use the Ellipse tool to create a circle by holding down the shift key as you draw it. Then rasterize the circle layer by right clicking on the layer and clicking "rasterize layer". Also, delete the white background.

3. Click "Edit" then "Define Pattern". Name the pattern whatever you want.


4. Switch over to the 12" x 12" document. Click "Create New fill or adjustment layer" in the layers pallete then click "Pattern." Adjust the scale to your liking. I chose 40% because it fit the dots on the page perfectly. You don't want dots cut off on one side and not the other.

5. Next, you can add a background color (Click "Create New fill or adjustment layer" in the layers pallete then click "Solid Color." Choose the color you'd like with the color picker) or change the opacity of the dots. It's all up to you!
6. Flatten image and save as a jpeg. And you have made your first polka dot paper like mine below! It's ready to be pulled into any 12" x 12" layout. Enjoy!

Technique Post: BreAnna Murdock

Have you seen those cute layered flowers everywhere?

Here's a way to digitally create your very own.

Step 1. Start with opening a new project in Photoshop. Example a 12x12 page (you will then be able to down size your flower)

Step 2. Pick your favorite papers from any Lollipop Press line. You can have as many as you would like. I used 5 papers from the Santa Baby line.

Step 3. Draw a circle on your first paper choice and drag it to your new document.

Step 4. Go to Edit, Transform, and Warp

Step 5. Warp any way you would like.

Step 6. Double click on your layer to get the "Layer Style" box. It will look like this...

Step 7. Check the "Drop Shadow" box

Step 8. Check the "Inner Shadow" box. Then click on it so you see this...

I made some adjustments in here. I changed the color from black to gray. Increased the size to 25 and changed the contour. So it looked like this...

Step 9. Repeat steps 3 through 8 with each paper you picked. Remember to size down each layer.

Step 10. Pick your favorite Embellie to put in the middle.

Step 11. Hide your background by clicking on the eye next to the background layer. Then merge visible layers.

Congratulations! You have created your very own digital layered flower. You can use it on anything i.e. cards, invites, layouts, etc. Have fun!

BreAnna

Technique Post - Gift Canister

Good morning girls!!! Happy Monday.

Have you tried the fabulous Dapper Man line yet???? It is a super fun line and soooo manly ;)
Today I've got a cute little gift canister for you to make for all those men in your lives. It holds a tie quite perfectly...but you could put anything you like in it, of course!



To start off we'll gather our supplies. I took the label off of a small Crystal Lite canister. It's perfect because it has no other markings on it and makes a great little container.

I printed out a couple of strips of patterned paper, the pomade circle and a circle for the lid.

First I measured a piece of cardstock to fit the canister then cut the correct lengths of my patterned strips. I also took a piece of matching cardstock and punched the edge with a decorative border.

Line all this up on your background piece and glue every thing on. Center and attach your pomade circle. Now you're ready to adhere the main piece to your canister. I just put adhesive down the ends, wrapped the paper around and it sticks really well.

Now you'll get your ribbons and attach a little knot to make it cute....but not too cute. We're talking men here ;) I also wrapped a little twine around the canister and included it in the blue knot.

Lastly, you'll take your patterned circle, fit it on the lid and add a little brad to top it off.

There you go...easy, peasy.