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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. 2: Make Fun Photo Masks Using Digital Elements

announcements, Photo Fun, tutorials 3 Responses »

Jun 142011

Hi everyone…Amy here again for some more “Photo Fun!” Today I’d like to share a simple way to turn your every day digital elements into fun photo masks!

I’m sure most of us are familiar with the basic clipping mask and the method by which they are created, but for those of you who aren’t–here’s a quick run-through:

A clipping mask is created when you “clip” one layer to another by using the command CTRL+G (in PSE) or ALT+CTRL+G (in Photoshop).
This method is often used to add your digital papers to templates and custom shapes.
A photo mask, then, is created when you clip your photo to another layer, allowing it to take on the shape and opacity of that layer.

There are a wide variety of photo masks available for purchase, but today were going to take a look at how we can turn the digital products you already own into photo masks–creating unique photo effects in your pages.

1. Start by opening the digital element of your choice and the photo you’re going to be working with in your version of Photoshop.

2. Next resize the digital element to the size you’ll be working with for your project or page.

3. Then drag your photo onto your digital element and “clip” it to the element using CTRL+G or ALT+CTRL+G.

4. Adjust the photo size and position, so that it appears the way you want it to inside of the shape you’ve clipped it to.

5. If you want you can use your blending modes or adjust your opacity to get the effect you’re looking for.

6. Now you’ve got a custom photo mask that allows your photo to be the center of attention, while contributing to the overall theme of your page.

Using Blessed Blooms, High Tide, Three Ring Circus and Family Kits by Danielle Young Designs

You can try this same technique with your alphas, fonts, flourishes, splatters, and more–to create one-of-a-kind photo effects on your pages.

Join us next month for more photo fun! I’ll have a Summer-Themed Project Tutorial to share with you and another excuse to have fun with those photos!

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 2 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:

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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!

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