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Guest Tutorial: How to Posterize using Gimp

Apr 242013

Creative Team Member Eva (aka whitefrost(dereva)) created an artsy posterized effect on her Parliament of London page, and she put together a tutorial for us to show how she created the photo effect using Gimp, free photo editing software!

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First, choose your background paper and the photo you want to work with. Then, scale the photo to 3600px on the layer above your background paper.

Then we need 4 layers of the photo, so duplicate the original photo layer until you have four of it.

On the top photo layer, choose the filter “Edge-Detect”, then filter “Laplace.”

Here you can see the result:

Then choose the 2nd copy of the photo and apply the “Artistic” -> “Photocopy” filter.

This is how it looks like now.

Next, remove the white parts of the “Photocopied” layer. You may prefer using layer mask to hide areas of the photo but actually i prefer the eraser. Anyway, remove the white part of the photo with layer mask or eraser.

Now choose the 3rd copy of the photo. Go to Colors Menu -> “Posterize” and choose the minimum value. If you set the marker to very left, you can see this.

Then select black color and erase it, then the same with white.

You may want to hide the layers that you don’t use at the moment.

In the next step, posterize the last photo layer with a different value.

Then, select the grey and dark blue colors and erase them.

If you hid some of your layers in previous steps, unhide them now. And here you are.

You can now merge all of the photo layers.

Choose a photo mask to make the picture edges uneven and set it to the picture. Here select the black of the photo mask then go to the picture and invert selection. So you can remove the unwanted area of the picture.

Now you can decorate your page a bit with some elements.

Here’s my finished page!

Eva

Using the Photoshop Brush Tool

guests, tutorials 1 Response »

Apr 152013

It’s all in the details! Using the Brush Tool to embellish your pages…

If you’re like me, you’re typically a one-kit per page kind of gal. You like to keep it simple and efficient by only working with what comes in a kit. Sometimes, even after you’ve used all the papers and elements that you wanted, it still feels like the page needs just a little something more. That’s where brushes can come in super handy. A few clicks of the mouse and you’ve got that little something extra you were looking for. Of course, brushes can be outright fun to use on your pages, so don’t feel like you should only use them when you’re stuck.

I used the brush tool to embellish this layout:

This is what it looked like before adding the brush work (below). I wanted the photos to stand out more on the page. My usual go-to for this are to add a stroke (creating a white border around the edge of the photo) or to add a paper behind the photos. I didn’t like the look of either of those options, so I chose to use a brush instead to add the yellow paint to the edges.

Achieving this look is as easy as 1,2,3 (I used Photoshop CS5):

1. Create a new layer above your photo layer and create a clipping mask to clip it to the photo (right-click the new layer and select Create Clipping Mask). This way if you make a mistake or change your mind you can simply delete the paint layer without having to re-add your photo to the layout.

2. Select the brush tool, choosing whatever brush and color you like (I usually experiment with a few before deciding on the one I want to use) and then draw away on that new layer. Hint: To keep your lines straight, click the shift key while dragging your mouse.

With the brush tool selected, you can find nearly all of your brush settings at the top of Photoshop window: size, style, opacity, flow…

3. Once your paint strokes are in place, add a shadow if you like. I like to add a very subtle shadow to give it a more of a slightly dimensional paint-like texture.

After adding the paint to the edges of my photos, I decided the page still needed something more so I added the yellow border using the same steps, only choosing a more defined brush, and omitting the shadow. Then I went back and added the same paint swipes to the teal paper that I had added to the photos. And here’s my completed page:

I hope this post inspires you to test out the brush tool on our next layout. The possibilities are endless!

Jaime, azrood

How To Use Photo Spots

guests, new products, tutorials 4 Responses »

Mar 212013

What do I do with these nifty Photo Spots??

If you’re browsing Danielle’s amazing creations, you may notice collections of colorful dots and buttons. What are these little circles of joy? How on earth can you use these to add spark and excitement to your pages?

Let’s start with selecting a photo to play with, a background, and a black & white Photo Spot. I am using a photo I took at Denver Botanic Gardens, Miss Daisy Photo Spots and Miss Daisy Paper Pack.

First, I clipped the Photo Spot to my picture. Our next step is to find a blending mode that will allow the picture to peek through the Photo Spot. I like to click through each mode, keeping in mind the smoothness of the letters, how the background color affects the colors of the picture, and how you want the finished photo to look. For this photo I will be using the “Soft Light” blending mode. The original white circle becomes a sheer overlay, while the black lettering is smooth and readable. You could also use the brightly colored Spots in the same way, clicking through the blending modes to find the best fit.

Once you have your first Photo Spot blended to perfection, we will repeat the process with an opposite color scheme Spot. I chose to use a black circle with white lettering to achieve an overlapping lens flare effect. The “Color Dodge” blending mode works really well with the white lettering, allowing it to still be slightly seen under the first Spot. Try adjusting the transparency of the Spots to get different looks.

Another option is re-coloring the B&W Spots with a pattern or solid paper. To do this, select your spot and paper, clip the paper to the Spot, then change the blending mode and/or transparency until you are happy with the result.

Now that you have new ideas for the Black and White Photo Spots, let’s consider what we might do with the other Photo Spots.

This is a trick Danielle herself showed me, cutting a semi-circle out of your photo and filling in the space left with a Spot! I have found the easiest way to make a cutout on a standard photo is by using the Erase Tool. Simply select the brush shape and size you would like to use. For this photo I stuck with a standard circle, though you can get creative and use any brush you would like, I think a square cutout and circle Spot with and interesting patterned paper behind the photo would make really fun tab.

Quick tip: Mark your History tab before trying any cutouts, that way if there is a goof it is one click back to your original photo without losing all your previous work!

After you’ve got your cutout where you’d like it, select your Photo Spot and drop it in. Resize to leave a small space between the Spot and your photo. I really like this look by itself.

However, there is an easy way to add a mat to your page to add a little more emphasis to your photo. This technique is a little more involved than the first two and might take a couple tries to get just right, don’t be discouraged if you find this a little tricky.

Once you’ve gotten all the Spots and cutouts in the right place, select the photo and Spot layers, then make a copy of these layers and merge them into one. We’ll call this the mat layer.

Now, we still have a small gap in our copied Photo and Spot layers, here you have two options. Either create a solid shape the same size as the photo and merge it into your mat layer or take your Brush Tool and fill in the space. Clip your selected paper to the mat layer and then enlarge your mat layer until you have the desired width of a border around your photo and Spots.

You now have a paper border around your photo and Spots! Continue building your page, here I used a stitch and tab (with Soft Light Blending Mode applied) from Danielle’s My Sunshine kit and a paint splatter from the Artsy Element Pack and added another Black and White Spot to one of the background papers the same way we added it to the photo. A dash of journaling and a sprinkle of shadows and the page is complete!

I hope you have been inspired to add Photo Spots to your next page and don’t forget to upload them to Danielle’s Designer Gallery at Oscraps so that we can all see your creative genius!

Tiffany, iffybean

Photo Fun | Tip No. 4: Snow Globe Technique

guests, layouts, Photo Fun, tutorials 7 Responses »

Dec 192011

Hi there everybody! It’s Amy here with another Photo Fun technique–just in time for those holiday pages! In the tutorial below I’m going to show you how you can create a beautiful digital snow globe effect on your holiday pages to showcase your photos in–like I’ve done in my page below, “It’s What Christmas Is All About”.

In this layout I’ve used Danielle’s Kiwi Christmas Quick Page No. 2 and added this fun technique to each of the circular photos on my layout–making for a quick yet fun page for the holidays!

To encapsulate your memories inside of their very own digital snow globe use the following steps:

First open a document in Photoshop and create a circular clipping mask (that is relative to the size you want your finished snow globe photo to be) with your Eliptical Shape Tool and rastersize/simplify the layer.

Then select your Eraser Tool and choose a large soft brush (I’ve used a soft 80px brush at 100% opacity) and run the edge of your eraser along the OUTSIDE edge of your clipping mask so that it softens up the hard edge of the mask and gives it a nice soft glow around the edge.

Now take that same large soft brush and change the opacity to 10% and blend the inside of your clipping mask using a spiral motion as you work your way into the center of your circle.

Now clip your photo to your clipping mask–if you are happy with the effect then you can move onto the next step

If not then you can try adjusting the opacity and/or fill of your clipping masks layer to add or take away from the frosty look of your of photo’s snow globe.

You could also try adding a fill layer of white (clipped over top of your photo) paired with your Dissolve blending mode for a fun snowy effect. Just use your opacity and fill sliders to make the effect more subtle.

Now with your photo’s layer selected in your layer palette, choose Distort and then Spherize from your Filters Menu. Choose a percentage somewhere between 50 and 100 using the preview to judge what percentage will work best with your photo. You may want to readjust the placement or size of your photo after you’ve applied this effect.

Once you’ve completed your snow globe you may decide to add a drop shadow to it to finish it off. And now your snow globe is ready to take the spotlight on your next holiday page!

Amy Kingsford is a happy wife and blessed mother from Northern Utah who has been scrapbooking for 12 years. She teaches at Get It Scrapped and Masterful Scrapbook Design and is a creative team member for Danielle Young Designs and fellow Oscraps Designer Biograffiti. To see more of her work visit her new site at AmyKingsford.com. And for more “Photo Fun” join us next month to see what other tricks she has in store for you!

Photo Fun | Tip No. 3: Pop-Art Photos + Wall Art Template

guests, Photo Fun 2 Responses »

Aug 282011

Hi there it’s Amy again…with some more “Photo Fun!”

I hope you’ve all been enjoying your summer…I know I have . To commemorate the end of summer, I’ve got a fun technique to share with you today, as well as, a template that you can use to make your own pop art poster for the walls of your home, office or even your kids’ lockers!

To make my “The Things I Love About Summer” wall poster I used elements from Danielle’s Citrus Summer Kit to add a few summer touches and a fun photo technique to give my photos a sketched, pop art effect.

Follow the steps below to get this same look:

1. First open your photo in your version of Photoshop.

2. Next got to Filter—>Artistic—>Poster Edges and enter the quantities specified below:

Thickness: 2

Intensity: 1

Posterization: 2

3. Now go to Filter—>Artistic—>Cutout and enter the quantities specified below:

Levels: 3

Simplicity: 2

Fidelity: 1

4. Now convert the photo to black and white.

5. Use your magic wand to select the lightest color of grey in your background and select it–you may have to select it in more than one go so make sure you’ve selected to “Add to Selection” option in the Magic Wands menu bar.

6. Double click on your background layer to unlock it and then clear the selection by pressing delete–this is going to allow more of the color you choose to blend the photo with to show through.

7. Now drag your photo on top of the colored background layer of your choice and change the blending mode of your photo’s layer to multiply.

Note: If your using more than one photo with this same technique, you may want to go through afterwards and adjust the levels of all your photos so that the contrast in all of your photos is similar to one another.

To download my Summer Wall Art Template (.PSD), CLICK HERE. I hope you will enjoy using it along with this technique and I look forward to sharing more Photo Fun with you next month!

Amy Kingsford is a happy wife and blessed mother from Northern Utah who has been scrapbooking for 12 years. She teaches at Get It Scrapped and Masterful Scrapbook Design and is a creative team member for Danielle Young Designs and fellow Oscraps Designer Biograffiti. To see more of her work visit her blog Scrappydoo. And for more “Photo Fun” join us next month to see what other tricks she has in store for you!

Photo Fun | Tip No. 1: Create Unique Photo Textures Using Digital Papers

guests, Photo Fun, tutorials 3 Responses »

May 182011

Hi there! My name is Amy Kingsford and I am a proud member of Danielle’s Creative Team! Danielle has been kind enough to lend me your ears once a month to share some fun ways to play around with those beautiful photos of yours! Today I’d like to help you use your digital papers to bring a unique feel to your photos, in a way that can help to unify them with the rest of your page. In just 5 easy steps you’ll be on your way to creating one-of-a-kind photo textures for your photos, using your favorite digital papers!

Let’s get started…

1. First open your photo in your version of Photoshop and preform basic edits and cropping.

2.If you’re looking for a definite “colorized” effect, in which your photo will take on both the hue and the texture of your digital paper, you may want to desaturate your photo first to make sure you’re getting a good color match. This can be done by using SHIFT+CTRL+U in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements.

3. Next choose a textured paper you’d like to work with. I’ve chosen this taupe colored paper with a subtle woven texture, from Danielle’s latest release “Through The Years”.

4. Then drag your textured paper onto your photo and clip it to your photo using CTRL+G in Photoshop Elements or CTRL+ALT+G in Photoshop.

5. Then go ahead and change the blending mode on your digital paper’s layer to Overlay. This is a great option for getting a nice blend of the details in your photo and the texture/color in your paper.

Now your photo is ready to use on your layout and contribute to the overall feel of your page!

Don’t be afraid to try out different blending modes or to play around with your opacity for different effects. You can also blend together more than one paper! The key is to to have fun and then you’ll be sure to come away with something you LOVE!

Amy Kingsford is a happy wife and blessed mother from Northern Utah who has been scrapbooking for 12 years. She teaches at Get It Scrapped and Masterful Scrapbook Design and is a creative team member for Danielle Young Designs and fellow Oscraps Designer Biograffiti. To see more of her work visit her blog Scrappydoo. And for more “Photo Fun” join us next month to see what other tricks she has in store for you!

Guest Blogger – Hybrid Valentine Album

guests, layouts, new products, tutorials No Responses »

Jan 262011

Hello everybody! My name is Jessica, aka penkitten, and I’m so happy to be able to share with you today.

January is almost over and you know what that means … Valentine’s Day! It’s already crossed my mind a few times and I didn’t want this year to be the same as every other year … scrambling the day of or a few days before to make something super special for my loved ones. So, when inspiration struck, I went straight in to action. It took my computer, a printer, an afternoon and a few helpers to create a super special Valentine’s Day gift.

I’d like to share this project with you in hopes that you will be inspired to create something awesome of your own!

First, I chose my project. I started with a small cream pocket album from Close to my Heart with 3×3″ pockets. Why did I choose this album? Well, to be honest because I just happened to find it while cleaning up a pile of random stuff and said, “Hey, I could make something!” It also helps that I happened to have Danielle Young’s latest kit, With Love, on my mind

I headed right over to the computer to get started!

I knew that whatever I created would be a gift for my husband. I instantly had the idea that I wanted the kids to help and make at least one page themselves. So, I started by creating the pages to be printed.

Danielle Young has these very cute Lovebug printables, but they were rectangular and not square (my pages were 3×3″).

I used them as inspiration and decided to create my own square valentines using the With Love kit and the Lovebug Title Wordart (the images that are sold separately used to make the printables). I took papers from the With Love kit and resized them to 3×3″ or 900 x 900 pixels (that’s 3″x3″ with a 300 dpi print quality).

I use a program called Macromedia Fireworks, but no matter what program you use, I’m sure you could interpret my instructions for your own use.

I added a second paper (the cream colored weave that will be used on all my pages) and put a drop shadow on it. For those of you who want to know, it’s 800×800 pixels. It looked something like this:

Using this same theme (with different background papers from the With Love kit) I created three different styles of pages.

The top row of images is the square valentines I created using the Lovebug Title wordart. The second row contains more valentines and the photo pages I made – one for each of the kids. I used some elements of the With Love kit, but they are reduced in size to fit the 3×3 page. The next four rows are blank pages that I created (some with a small decoration or two), printed out and let the kids draw on.

It is not hard at all to get these printed out. Your programs may vary, but I just exported my pages as .jpgs. I saved them to my chosen folder and then inserted them in to a Microsoft Word document.

Some other people use different methods for printing (and I myself have used quite a few), but I went with the quickest and simplest method for this project. My printer is just a normal color inkjet printer and I used 8.5″x11″ matte photo paper. I was able to fit 6 of my little album pages on to one printable page. I was not thrilled about the amount of empty, wasted space (2.5″x11″), but you do what you have to do. Simple and quick:

After printing them out, I gave the kids some art supplies and told them to have fun!

They ended up loving the project so much that I had to print out extra sheets for them to color and we made extras for our other friends as well.

While they worked, I created a cover and printed it out.

When the kids were done, we cut the pages out and inserted them into the album sleeves:

*~*~*

All in all, it probably took under three hours to complete this project. It was a lot of fun, the kids loved it and we created something so wonderfully personal for their daddy. I can’t wait to give it to him!

This idea would work for any family or any relationship. Have older kids? Have no kids? Need a gift for your mom or friend? This would apply to all of them! The best thing about it is that you can do whatever you want. You can change the size or layout anyway you desire. You can use all photos or no photos. It’s completely up to you!

So, I hope that I’ve inspired you just a little. Have a great day!

*~*~*

http://www.oscraps.com/shop/product.php?productid=26199&cat=312&page=1

The Gilded Bee Hybrid Inspiration

guests, layouts, new products No Responses »

Oct 212010

So, I know you all loved the beautiful flowers and leaves that The Gilded Bee offers at their Etsy store. Even if you didn’t win my giveaway, you can still take them as inspiration!

Here, Eileen (Leenorific at Oscraps) used paper leaves to decorate this beautiful gift bin!

What a great idea! You can make something like this too using some of your paper scrapbooking stash, purchase new stuff (from wonderful places like The Gilded Bee) or print out some elements and papers from your digi stash. The leaves from my new kit, New Day, would work beautifully! Have fun!

“Scrap like Nobody’s Looking” by Katharyn Brine

announcements, guests, layouts 15 Responses »

Sep 222010

My first guest blogger ever is the fabulous Katharyn Brine. Katharyn has had layouts published in numerous scrapping magazines, is a wonderful template designer, and even serves as a KaiserCraft digital design team member. Today, she’s sharing some great advice & a freebie template, too! Read on…

Hey Gorgies,

SkrappyKathy here, I’m one of the lucky people who happens to be on Danielle’s CT. Today I’m bringing you a whole lotta love with a brand new, never-released-before freebie template! Yes! It’s all yours, with extras, including a circular text path and ready-made shadowing. There really is no more to do than clip your papers in and your photo and then add your title (or not, if you prefer!) and some precious words to tell your story.

(ETA: Template link is now expired.)

Here’s a layout I’ve made with it using Danielle’s Here’s To You kit.

So. What’s stopping you from using a template? Is it because you don’t know how to? Is it because you consider it cheating? Is it because you hate to use the ideas of other people to progress your own creative fulfilment?

Well. Stop it! Just stop it NOW. I’ve got this layered template for you and I’m soooo hoping you’ll have fun using it. I am an unashamed user of templates. I know there are some of you out there who consider it “cheating” unless you create something totally from scratch. But I’m not one of them.

Why not use them? If you need a no-stress layout that records a story and illustrates it with a photo or two, then what’s wrong with taking this easier, quicker approach to get it done? I’m all for learning new Photoshop techniques and sometimes attempting to create absolute masterpieces that would make even Martha Stewart blush (or Ali Edwards, or Cathy Zielske, or whomever it is who’s your scrapbooking goddess).

But between you and me, there are times that I just want to scrap like nobody’s going to be looking at it. It’s just for me. It just needs to make me happy. Not every page needs to be perfect, gorgeous, or even created from scratch. In the same way that not every cake you make needs to be made from scratch – I sometimes use a packet mix – Eeeekkk!!!! Does that make me less of a mum? Do the kids say it tastes different? Nah. It’s all good.

I’m not saying cut all your corners. But just don’t make it harder than it has to be.

There is a time and a place to focus on all aspects of your scrapping – from developing your photography skills, to learning how to fix them up digitally. From focusing on your titling work, to working on your drop shadows. And there is a time to painstakingly ‘umm and ahh’ about where to place all your elements and photos about the page, and a time to say “You know what? I’m going to concentrate on the story/photo/kit this time around.”

Using someone else’s provided template, and crediting them for it, is ok.

As busy mums, or working career women, or volunteers, or whatever – our scrapping time is finite, so we need to use it wisely.

And just so you know, we who make layered templates, enjoy doing so. And we enjoy it all the more if it makes your life easier too.

So happy weekend scrappers! Make us proud!

Don’t forget to leave us some lovin’ by making a comment here – it lets us know how much you care!

Thanks for sharing your talent with us, K! Read more on Katharyn’s blog: http://www.katharynbrine.blogspot.com/