Tuesday Tutorial: Quick Brush Adjusts in PSE & CS

This one came from the Digital Scrapper and I hope to use it enough to retrain my brain. If I don't use it, boy do I forget it.btw, there are lots of great tutorials on the DS site.

With brushes, it can be a lot of fiddling and I often just use the .png for ease. But there ares shortcut keys in PSE and CS to enlarge/decrease the size and also to adjust the opacity. The shortcut keys are the same. After the shortcut key you drag left or right for size and for opacity you drag up and down. Is that not easy? Oh yeah!

Click HERE to find the original tutorials and get the exact shortcut keys for your version of either software and operating system. Ans if you want some free goodies including a great brush set, try this week's Creative Market's freebies. But each week's items are only good for that week what you see today will be gone by next week. But there will be a new set so keep checking!

Tuesday Tutorial- Make A Pencil Drawing from a Photo

Yesterday, I read a tutorial on making a sketch /pencil drawing from a photo. I've done this before but these directions were quite clear so I thought I'd share them. In PSE and PSCC, there are many ways to do the same thing. See how you like this method!

Tutorial 

The layout I made shows the pencil sketch in the center photo. I also added a copy of the original photo underneath the inverted photo when I was making that center photo and used one of the blending modes plus an adjustment mask to include some of the color of the shrimp.

I hope you have fun testing this technique out! let me know what you think about it.

Tuesday Tutorial : Word Art Stickers

I have bookmarked and saved many a tutorial that I've not tried out, so I thought this might be the time to have a go at some and share my experiences. What I often do is email the link to myself but as I try to keep my inbox down to >15 items this became a not-so-good-idea.

Something I thought I knew how to do, but obviously forgot, was how to make sticker art from fonts. I saw this tutorial on the Daily Digi for making Alphas from a font. While I could have made alphas, I rarely use them letter by letter, so I went with what I hoped to make, a word art sticker.  Finally, I tested that tutorial.

Last week, I had wanted to add a sticker to my recent  birthday lunch photos but as I say, I forgot how to do it. Here are the final results from my work with the above tutorial, with things I need to emphasize for my own benefit.  The color blue is just because I felt like it and the gray is because white wouldn't show up so well here. Both can be changed in the final use.

The font is CK Ali's Handwriting. I followed the instructions as given but put the new layer - the gray - UNDER the original writing. I believe that's what the original poster meant also. I linked the layers and kept the .psd file for my own reference. Then I edited that .psd file. I could have saved it as a merged .png at the time but I wanted to be sure I remembered what I'd done the next day! LOL Sometimes I think I'll remember but I don't. Oh well...

Once I merged the layers, I changed the gray to white and the blue to a red by using the Magic Wand to select each color I wanted changed in turn. When you do this, and get your marching ants, go to Edit, Fill Selection, and with the color you want, make sure to Preserve Transparency when you fill.

Here is my phrase, recolored and with a deep shadow.

I added that heavy drop shadow just so you could see the white outline of the red.  Always be sure and save your word art as a .png so you can keep that transparent background. If you save it as a .jpg, you'll get a white background which is not good for word art to use on top of an image.

If Barbie is having a birthday, then you might want this color. (I never would but...)  Feel free to copy this if you like.

So...did it turn out the way I wanted? Yes, it did. Just not in time for last week's post. But I hope I can now remember. If not I have this post to remind me!

Tuesday Tutorial: Cut Out Text

How I Finally Wrote Down the Steps

KPertiet Cranberry Twill no longer sold at Designer Digitals

Each time I think I will remember how to do this, I, of course, forget and have to google the technique, and hope I'll find a method I can understand.

Earlier this summer, I saw the steps - somewhere - and made this. The shape can be any shape but this is an Amy Wolff one from her Date Cutouts. I started by filling in the cut out word, Us, and making it just a scalloped circle. The text is landi_echo. If the background of this page were yellow or some other color that is the color, not the white,  that would show where those four numbers are. That is to say that the white is not ON either of these elements; it's what shows through because the text above and the numbers below are cut out.  Got that?

Ok, we'll start with some of the steps. These are the steps I wrote to make it clear to me, and if it's mud to you, I'm sorry. Ask me and maybe we can figure it out. I am in PSE10 and on a Mac. If you're on a PC, when I say cmd (command) you say ctrl (control).


1. create new layer (background) & make it a distinct color so you can see the effect of the cut out when done
2. create another new layer above the background
3. on that layer create a shape or plunk a simple .png like that twill above or the scalloped circle above
4. simplify your shape if it was created with the shape tool  - over in the layers panel right click on the shape and select simplify
5. create another new layer
6. write text on your new layer
7. simplify text (see number 4)
8. merge simplified text and simplified shape

9. magic wand function-click on shape with text on screen (you'll get marching ants)

10 right click on shape & select inverse (which means the text)  - you still have marching ants

11. hit delete and text (i.e. the inverse )is gone (yes???)

12. cmd-d to eliminate marching ants - then delete the background layer (the lavender color below the shape)

 13.  You now have a label shape with cut out text - the text area is now transparent

I believe this process could be simplified (writing the text ON the shape to begin with and then simplifying the lot?) but I haven't taken the time to check that out yet.  If anyone knows an easier way or a shorter way PLEASE let me know! Simpler is almost always better in my book.  If this works for you, again, I'd be glad to hear and see your examples.  Have fun!

Tuesday Tutorial (on Monday): Adding a Feedly Button to Your Blog

I had a hard time understanding and finding information on this so once I found the bits of information I needed, I decided to put it together and share it with you.

First of all you need your blog feed. I found the best information here. I used the RSS 2.0 Full Feed info for Blogger.  Since my blog name is 'cookingmylife', I just inserted that information into the url template they show- http://blogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss . I then had http://cookingmylife.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss as the feed info for MY blog.

Then I went to Feedly. Not the Feedly where YOU get YOUR feeds but rather the Feedly website. It's not too intuitive but when you get to this page,  the hyperlink tells you how to get to the  the Feedly Factory.   <----Just click there.

If you want to look at more information on this page, here is the link to it. Feedly Help.

Now you are ready to start creating your button.

Step 1 - Select your button of choice (i.e click on the one you want to use. Nothing will seem to happen but that's ok.)

Step 2 - Insert your feed URL  Remember what you created earlier? when you put your blog name into a file like this? http://blogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss  Now copy and paste your feed name into the empty space. Yes, you're almost done!

Step 3: Copy and embed the HTML code snippet   FIRST, you have to click on that little Feedly button and see if it takes you to YOUR Feedly feed. If it does, say Halleluiah!!! and continue on. If not, sad to say I can only suggest you stop have a drink - tea, coffee or something stronger if needed - and start from the beginning. But that shouldn't happen. Seriously.

When that button click does take you to the feed your followers will see, you will see the HTML code appear. Copy it.  Then you continue with the directions for your type of blog.

Depending on the button you chose, you should then see something like this on your blog. That is the largest button fyi. Feel free to click on it if this tutorial made you happy.

Tuesday Tutorial: Easy Extraction..Well Maybe

I have always had a hard time with extractions, and when I saw this tutorial over at Scotty Girl Designs, I thought I'd give it a try. Now, this does want a fairly clear background and in the original tutorial she uses a patterned paper but one with no texture.

I had to go through my stash to find one like that or at least close. I used one from Katie Pertiet's ShellColl4 (no longer for sale). Katie's paper has a lot of layers in the creation of this jpg, I'd say. This is about as clear a background as I'd buy.

Ok, As Scotty Girl did with her paper,  I cropped that bottom left section with the red lighthouse.

Next step was to use the Magic Wand on the white background, with these settings.

After hitting CMD-X on my Mac (CTRL-X on a PC), I got this. hmmm. Not quite enough.

So I repeated the process and got more. But somehow this was telling me this was not the best way to get that lighhouse.

I finally bit the bullet and used the Quick Selection tool, by starting at the top of the lighthouse, and without lifting my finger from my mouse, continued dragging down the lighthouse. I then let go of the mouse, and right clicked, getting this choice.

I selected Layer via Copy and then had my Lighhouse on its own layer. Clean and neat  except that I forgot to include that top bit of the tower.

So I started again, with that cropped bit of Katie's paper. I used the Quick Selection tool from the very start, making sure to start my dragging from the tip of the tower. One selection and I had this.

There is the lighthouse, right on its own layer, with only one step. While Scotty Girl's tutorial might work for those who have very simple images to extract on very very plain paper, I think the Quick Selection tool works best here. But try both ways out and see what works for you. There are a million and one ways to do the same thing in all the Adobe software programs so you're sure to find the one that works for you! Happy Scrapping!

Tuesday Tutorial - Lightroom, Have Your Cake and Eat It Too

My Lightroom class has ended and while I still have the month of April to go over the videos, I need to find other sources of information I think. With Kim Klassen's class, you can buy a year's access to them but I've decided I'm not going to do that. I'm pretty used to having unlimited access to class material for my digital classes and was not overjoyed to have to pay for a limited access.  Chacun a son gout.

I just saw a link to this video on Twitter today and thought I'd share it.  If you go to Tipsquirrel.com and do a search for Lightroom, you'll see quite a few. Adobe has a lot of wonderful videos too. Short and to the point.

I had already forgotten the Tab shortcut to see hide the side panels. Just call me sieve brain! But this video shows you how to have your cake and eat it too, by hiding those panels but still getting information on your photos.



I hope this one is helpful to you Lightroom users out there! I'd love to hear of any video tutorials you've found also.

Tuesday Tutorial - Super Dotted Lines

I just saw this one and thought I'd share it with you. It's a video about making perfectly aligned dotted line borders in PSE. WooHoo. Just reminding me how to make dotted lines was almost enough but you can be sure I'm going to test out that border making also. The whole tutorial is over on One Little Bird's blog.   Check it out and have fun!

 

There's only one caveat here. Well, if you're like me when you find a horde of tutorials. It's a quick trip down the rabbit hole and suddenly the sun is setting on another day. You have been warned.

Tuesday Tutorial - PSE Key LInes, Encore une Fois

I have made these key lines a zillion times, and yet, half the time I go to make them, I forget the method. I don't know why some techniques in PSE stick in my head and others just drift off like smoke from a snuffed out candle. 

Today, I printed it out...once again. Today I'll share it with you and hope that it sticks in your brain a little better than it has in mine! Today this version of the method comes from Designer Digitals, a source of many, many tutorials to help you along the way. Today I'll also share with you, one of the little journaling cards I made for my Project Life. Hope you enjoy it!

Creating Keylines with Rounded Corners in Photoshop and PSE  

1. Begin by opening your project in Photoshop or Elements.

2. Get the Rounded Rectangle Tool and set your Foreground color to a color that contrasts with your open document. In the Options bar, choose a Radius. The larger the number, the more rounded your corner will be. Click/drag out a rectangle on your page.  Holding the Shift key as you click/drag will create a square instead of a rectangle.

3. Next, select the shape layer in the Layers Panel.  Ctrl click (Mac: Cmd click) the thumbnail of the shape to select it. Marching ants will surround your selection.

4.Tick the Layer Visibility icon which looks like an eyeball on the left side of the shape layer to hide your shape.

5. Make a new transparent layer by clicking the New Layer icon in the Layers Panel.

6. Target the new transparent layer and then choose Edit > Stroke to activate the Stroke dialog box.

Select a size and color. Set the Mode to Normal and Opacity to 100%. Uncheck the Preserve Transparency box. Click OK.

7.Press Ctrl D (Mac: Cmd D) to remove the selection from your keyline.

8. You can use the Move tool to reposition and resize your box, since the outline is on its own layer.

The hidden shape layer can be deleted by dragging it down into the trash bin once you’re satisfied with your keyline.

Click HERE for Card PSD

If you have any questions on the method, or use, just ask and I'll try to answer you if you have an email link. Otherwise, the answer will be here. 


click here for Journaling Card

Goodbye Tuesday Tutorial - It Was Fun

Sadly, I must say goodbye to the Tuesday Tutorial. I have hit the wall with Blogger's photo limit and am in the process of working my way round that.  I think, with tutorials, the images have to be large and enlargeable. If I ever figure how to make it work again, I'll try to reintroduce this feature. It also helped me keep tutorials where "I" could find them!

Right now, I'm doing the "800px and under" images which are still free because I sure don't want to have to buy more storage on Google. I already pay for Flickr! I am not a professional blogger and I don't want to have to monetize to keep blogging. Choices, choices.

But life goes on and next week there will be a new Tuesday meme. It will certainly take you places!

Tuesday Tutorial: A Word to the Wise

PASSWORDS ARE LIKE UNDERWEAR

Passwords are like underwear. Change yours often.

Passwords are like underwear. Don't share them with friends.

Passwords are like underwear. The longer, the better.

Passwords are like underwear. Be mysterious.

Passwords are like underwear. Don't leave yours lying around.

Tuesday Tutorial: Lighten and Brighten Those Images

There are many ways to skin this cat or subject so keep playing with your images and you'll find the method that works for you. This one comes straight from  Sahlin Studio.While Krista Sahlin uses PSCS, it also works just fine in PSE.

I'm using PSE10 on a Mac.

First get your image, here one of us on a Cunard cruise 5 years ago. You may say we look old but to us today, we look much younger! Gravity happens.

The basic image, but with the only layer, normally called 'background' changed to layer 0. Do this by double clicking that layer, over on the right in orange, and you'll get the option to change it to an editable layer. Simple huh?

Now duplicate that layer by clicking on layer 0, then hitting CMD (Cntrl on PC) - J. and you'll see the new duplicate layer on top of the original. Click that duplicate layer, and change the blend mode, the drop down right above the layer, to Screen. Click the eyeball to the left of the layer image and you'll see the on- off difference. Keep it on but you probably want to reduce the opacity as Krista does and as I did.

I reduced the opacity to 42%. That way you have more contrast and the image is no longer so white. Don't worry ...there's more to do!

Now you want to click that layer 0 copy, and duplicate it.  CMD/Cntrl J again. This time, make the blend mode Soft Light. I changed the opacity to 75%.

Looks good to  me. One thing I often did in early days, and still do in some layouts when I am working with lots of copies, is to enter the blend and/or opacity info as the name of the layer. It helps you to see the kind of combos that appeal to you. If you're in CS, you can write your own action. PSE? not yet, maybe in PSE12???

Tuesday Tutorial: Reducing Noise in PSE

This tutorial is taken straight from The Texas Chicks, who I tend to call the Dixie Chicks but they're not! There is a lot more info on the blogpost in different ways to reduce the noise.

Here is how it looked on my computer. I'm working in PSE10 on a Mac.

First, with an image open, go to Filter, Noise, then Reduce Noise.

Using the setting that the Texas Chicks used, gave me this variation.

This was too blury for me so I fiddled with the setting, especially the preserve details.

I liked this one a lot better. By the way, this photo had a considerable amount (for me) of work on the lighting before even getting to the basic image. I did not take it and the only light appeared to be the cake. That's my granddaughter at her 9th or 10th birthday dinner.

Many thanks to The Texas Chicks for giving me a new technique to use. Hope this helps you with your editing!

Tuesday Tutorial: Just Japonize It!

I love this design - Art Deco in a classic form? Japanese design? You decide. You can have it your way and in your own colors. It's Japonizer which I saw on Pugley Pixel.

Click here. You'll figure it out!

Tuesday Tutorial:Finding the Original Pin on Pinterest

I'm sure you have been as frustrated as I've been to click on a Pinterest pin, only to find that the poster did not link to the original link. Maybe it was just a 'hurry up and repin' or maybe the pinner didn't know how to link to a specific post rather than a whole blog or ... who knows. But I let out a deep sigh when it happens to me. Clicking back to oblivion can be a real pita or perhaps you go back to Tumblr and hit that brick wall. I cannot fathom why some people still use Tumblr but that's another issue...

Karen, aka The Graphics Fairy, put this post up on a clever way to find that original image without clicking into the next century. Click here!

You DO know that The Graphics Fairy has oooodles of free, vintage images don't you? Well, you do now, so do take time to have a good, long at Karen's site. She's really got a treasure trove for you.

Tuesday Tutorial: PSE Text Overlays for Photos

This is something I learned long ago, but saw again as I was clearing out some of my printed tutorials. Ok, when I first started digital scrapping, there were almost no video tutorials, so whatever I found, I printed out. That's when the fun began as I tried to fathom what the tutorial meant with my Mac PSE4. Yes, version 4 when the rest of the PC PSE world was using version 6. It took Adobe a frickin' long time to realize there were a lot of us Mac users, and today, the two versions come in the same box so you could switch platforms.

Sorry, that was a deep rabbit hole. But this is my blog and I do get a place to rant a bit here.

Ok, back to the making of a that overlay. Many many designers make these and sell them and if it's quick and easy you want...just buy them. They really are worth it. However, there comes a time when you want something NOW and don't want to hunt through the shops for the specific wording you want or you want a special font or you want to use your own handwriting which you've made into a font.  So you do it yourself.

Cathy Zielske has both a video AND a print out to share with you.  Click HERE.  Cathy is super generous and oh so clear in her instructions. Mwahaha!

I played along just to be sure I DID remember this way.

my basic photo - about 6"

now we have that inner frame

now we have the Text Overlay up on the top

I used one layer for Hello (Archer font) and another layer for los angeles (Yevida font).  I then veered off... This is what I did and why.

Lots of times you see a text overlay like this inserted into the frame overlay.  Here's how.  If you are really satisfied with your text, use the move tool, and drag the text OVER the frame overlay. If you have more than one font layer, link those two layers with the Link tool (looks like a chain link fence).

Once you have the text OVER the part of the frame outline you want to remove, click on the frame outline layer. Be sure you are on this layer!! Go to your erase tool, (just check again that you're on the frame overlay layer) and erase the part of the frame you want.  If you goof, there is always Ctrl (CMD on a Mac) -Z.  God bless undo.

I moved my text down, and erased. I'm letting you see what could be better. If I had made my frame overlay further (farther?) away from the edge of my photo, I could have done this and still seen that great base of the letter L. Oh well, it just shows that it's practice, practice, practice.

Again, thanks to Cathy Zielske for such great tutorials, and thanks Cathy for being on a Mac!

Tuesday Tutorial: Adding a B&W Background in PSE

I thought this video showed quite a few good techniques in PSE, so I picked this one to share with you. She also shows how to correct a selection that may need a bit of touch up. Have fun with this and tell me if it helped you.

Tuesday Tutorial: PSE 10 Blending

This tutorial caught my eye because it shows several parts of the blending process very clearly. You may not want to make something like the image shown, but adding your own images to a basic photo can give you some wonderful results.



Hope you enjoy this one!

Tuesday Tutorial: Resizing Project Life Cards for Printing

For the most part, I am a totally digital scrapper. Less mess, and unfinished projects can just sit in a computer file or sometimes just hang about my screen desktop. I usually keep that desktop a lot tidier than my actual wooden desktop though!  But all those great project life cards... Sometimes I do print some to use in a page protector that holds the extra images I print at home. Sometimes those images have overlays or journaling ON them but not always. When I don't have enough of the right size images to fill the page protector those journaling cards come in handy for telling a bit more of the story or telling about something that has no image.

I'm also someone who wants to get the best use out of cardstock. This means I'm frugal-->cheap.  I may also want a card from this designer and two from that kit and ....you get the picture. I want a mixed assortment.

When I saw this tutorial I thought  of you and decided to share it.  If resizing is still a vague process for you, try this one out.  Thank you to the Two Peas in a Bucket Blog. It's not all just paper there!

Click here for the step by step tutorial

For myself, I finally just made a layered template with 6 rounded corner clipping masks. (I really squished them on that 8.5x11 sheet!) You could just as easily do it with four and give yourself some breathing room!

I want to get a lot of cards printed out as a gift for my daughter in law. She has a new baby but had to go back to work very soon after the birth as she's a teacher. I thought these cards would be a nice way for the baby sitter to note some of little Maria's activities and changes each day so Mom had a tangible memory of what was happening as she was in school doing her job. I hope she likes the cards! We're finally seeing the little one next month! Hope it cools down in Arizona....maybe under 100???

Tuesday Tutorial: Frames and How to Keep Photos Inside

This is a subject that used to give me grief when I first started scrapping and the subject tends to come up every so often on scrapping forums. Maybe you are one of those people wondering how to do this.

If I am using the same frame a lot on a page, I am more likely to make and use a clipping mask and then even save MY masked version in the original file. Of course it didn't always occur to me to save my own edited version til I realized I was making the same clipping masks on the same frames over and over...Some of us learn more slowly than others!

Here is another method or two from the Designer Digitals team. It's worth learning the Magic Wand tool method because the concept is so useful for other things as well. Try it out! Erase is always a good basic method but be sure to save a copy of the photo etc you are erasing. Erasers do slip at inopportune moments and sometimes something is saved before someone notices that ...Ooops! I erased a good part! Yes, I am Someone. How did you guess?!?!