Making Signatures!

Hi there!

One of the funnest ways to add some poersonality in your forums (besides and fun and flashy avatar ) is to make a fun signature! But it can be tough to try to scrap at that size. I've made it easy for you in my new Siggy Templates!

I have my templates at 3600x1500 so that you can scrap them with regular-sized kit items. Then I include these instructions for how to resize it. Basically, add drop shadows and scrap your siggy and then merge all the layers together. Then, resize your signature down to 600x250- the max size signature allowed by SM forum. Have fun!

How To: Add a stroke inside a shape

As always, there are lots of ways to do this and this is the way I prefer! There are some steps so hang on with me! and Ask any questions in the comments section!

So, I had a customer ask about how to make this nice little stroke inside a shape, like so:

1. Either leave your shape as a vector shape (no texture added) or duplicate the shape, and mask the duplicate so that it's just one color. This is so the next step will work...

 2. Next, grab the Magic wand tool from the side toolbar.

 Select the shape. The whole edge should now be selected with dancing ants.

 3. Now go to Menus along the top, find Select----> Modify---->Contract

Now, I chose to do 30 px. You can play around with this function, but that new selected line will be the middle of our stroke so make sure it's far enough from the edge for the stroke thickness you're going to want.

4. Make a new layer above your shape.
Now, go to the Paths Menu above the layers palette.

Oh man! sorry, I am pointing at Styles in this screen caption, oops! but see the tab below it? Paths. You have Layers, Channels, then PATHS. That's the tab you want. Sorry about the goof!

5. In this menu, find the button at the bottom with the circle with arrows on both sides, should say "Make work path from selection". Click it!

6. Now the selection has become a solid line instead of the marching ants. We're ready to make the stroke. Go to your brush palette and find a round brush. Hover it over your shape to get a feel for the size you're going to want. I used 12px.

7. I also like to set one option in the Brushes Palette. My palette is in a side bar next to my layers, on the left side. Go under "Shape Dynamics" and under "Angle Jitter" select "Direction" from the drop down box. This helps our stroke hug those curves and bends!

8. Now, go back to the Paths Menu and find the open circle button at the bottom that says "Stroke Path with Brush".

9. Your stroke will now appear in whatever color your foreground is. You can always change it. Also, if you don't like the thickness, hit undo, and choose a different brush size and stroke the path again! Just keep playing with it until it's the thickness you like!

10. One last step besides adding texture or clipping whatever paper you want to the stroke: Delete the work path. I promise this doesn't delete your stroke, just deletes that line showing where we selected. Hit the little trash can button. Now you can go back to the Layers Palette and you will have that stroke on a layer on it's own.

 Voila!! You made it! I know that was a lot of steps but I have found this method makes the best-fitting stroke for a shape! Let me know if you found it helpful or if there are any steps you want me to explain better!

Tools I love- for the Designer

Sometimes when you start designing, you think, "There's gotta be a better way to do this!" and usually there is! Sometimes it costs money but most of the time, it's free! sweet! So here's a list of some of my favorite tools for designing/packaging up and some are free!

1. Alpha Cutter- wow. yeah, for months I would crop each letter in my alpha. What a pain! I use Flergs Alpha Maker and I love it! Chelle's Creations has made her alphas coordinate with Flergs alpha maker in that they fit in her grid lines. So easy to customize your alphas and then just hit an action that cuts them all for you! LOVE! I have heard that there are other alpha makers out there that are cheaper...
2. 7-Zip- I love this program. I made it my default zipper on my computer so I just right-click a folder and say "Add to ___ zip". I also have any downloads open up in 7-zip so that as they are completely downloaded, I can sort them into a specific folder. If I am downloading several parts of a kit, the drop down box saves my recent locations and I just click on that to put the files in the same folder. I am sure other zipping/un-zipping software works similar but I found this, it's free and I love it.
3. PNG-saver- This is for when you have templates in PSD/TIFF format but need them in PNG format for customers that don't use PS or you need to have it converted into PAGE (SBC can load PNGs and then you arrange them as the template is, and save in PAGE formats). I use Happy Scrap Girl's PNG Layer Saver. Also love! Love that it makes a preview for you! fun! I had a different one before and it would name the layers based on what you named them in PS but I also found these pngs were HUGE! and that didn't work. For these layers, they are numbered and I just use the next tool...
4. Renamer- Holy scrap this one's cool! Allows you to rename groups of files all at once. I name my elements as I create them for kits but then I use this bad guy to add my designer initials and kit nickname to the files. Also, I changed my initials recently from MC to MegsC on my files and I can tell it Replace "MC" with "MegsC" etc. Lots you can do with this guy! Awesome! Free, too!
5. Hide Shadows action- I mentioned this one a few weeks ago when talking about making clusters with only the inner drop shadows. I used WendyZine's Hide Shadows Action. Yes you can do this yourself in a few steps but I make A LOT of word art clusters and this action is done in like 3 seconds and opens it up in a new document so I don't have to worry about making a bunch of duplicates so I still have the layered version. Totally love :)
6. File Stacking- Ok so this isn't something you have to download...well actually, it's a script that some PS users might not have and you can download...at least I thought I heard that. If you don't have this, oh man, try! Making previews can take FOREVER but this little nifty guy helps a BUNCH AND keeps the file name on the layers! That makes it so much easier to see what you are working with! I talk more about how file stacking works HERE.

Those are my biggest tips for saving time! Hope you found the list helpful!

Saving your Layouts

When you create a layout, we have to keep in mind it's digital. Paper scrapbooking always has the paper there to re-arrange or change whenever desired. But with digital, we can't change it after if it's only saved as a jpeg. So when I save a digital scrapbooking page, I save it 3 times!

1. Save the layered version of the layout! Save using TIFF format to save spaced AND to see a preview of the layout in your folder! For a refresher on saving in TIFF format, see this blog post tutorial.
2. Save the jpeg version of the layout at 12x12. Make sure you choose a quality level of at least 10. Even if you plan to print it on 8x8, make it 12x12 and re-size in the program's software.
3. Save as a 600x600 jpeg for gallery posting. To keep it distinguished, I add "gallery" at the end of the file name. Also, I keep my gallery-sized layouts in a separate file from the TIFF and full-sized jpegs of my layouts.

It's important to stay organized with your designs! Make sure you take some time to sort layouts by year (and month possibly too!)

Saving Space: TIFF file formats

My tip for you this week is about saving space on your hard drive! We all know that these scrapbooking files can get big and I like to save my layouts in layered form in case I want to go back and change something or find a mistake later. But instead of saving your layered files as PSD, save them in TIFF format. The same template that would be 30 MB in PSD format is only 3 MB in TIFF format!

These are the settings you want to use when saving in TIFF format:



Do this to all of your layered layouts and then with templates that you get! If your program uses TIFF files, just delete the PSD! The TIFF open up EXACTLY the same in Photoshop and they take up so much less space on your hard drive!! Be sure to periodically clean out your space so you have room for more beautiful layouts!!

Tutorial: Overlapping Drop Shadows Only

Hi there! If you've ever worked with one of my word art clusters or Thao's clusters, you know that we only include the overlapping drop shadows between the layers and not the outside drop shadows. This is so you can use the drop shadow that works for you (your direction, darkness, etc!). So I thought I would write this tutorial for anyone who is on Creative Teams and making clusters to share with others! It's a great idea to only include the overlapping drop shadows when making cluster freebies. And it's very simple to do!

Step 1: Add drop shadows to your liking to each layer of your cluster.



Step 2: Now select all the layers and duplicate them. Then, with all the duplicated layers still selected, clear their layer styles (clears their drop shadows).



Step 3: Merge all the duplicated layers (without drop shadows) together into one layer. Then, merge all the shadowed layers together. You should have two layers now, the layer with the unshadowed cluster merged together, and the layer with the shadowed cluster merged together.

Step 4: Now, put the shadowed layer on the top of the unshadowed cluster, and create a clipping mask of it onto the unshadowed cluster.



And voila! You have a cluster with all the drop shadows of the elements on top of each other, without any outer drop shadows.



Now, I have to admit something. I don't go through this process every time. I use an action! It's just so much quicker for me and I love it! I use Wendy Zine's Hide Shadows Action. hehe But if you're good at making actions in PS, maybe you could make your own from these instructions!  

Hope you found this tutorial helpful!! have fun!

Changing Drop Shadows on Clusters

So we all know (or should know!) that a key part of making a great cluster is variation- variation is size and shape of the elements. Which means our clusters will have a mixture of thin and thick elements. Thao, our fabulous cluster-maker makes gorgeous clusters with my kits. Here is a cluster I grabbed from the Retro Halloween Cluster set.





I loves the stacking of the ribbons in the cluster and I do love those purple stitches but you notice that drop shadow is a little steep for those stitches. So here's what we do.

Add your drop shadow and then right click on the drop shadow style in your layers palette. This menu will pop up. Choose create layer.


This makes the drop shadow it's own layer! Now, you can soften the drop shadow by erasing it at maybe 25% opacity, but what I decided to do was to erase the drop shadow completely from the stitches.
Then, I went back to the cluster layer and added the drop shadow again, again created a new layer for the drop shadow and erased that drop shadow from everywhere EXCEPT the stitches.





My finished layout using a Retro Halloween Quick page.


Hope you found this tutorial helpful!! have fun!

Designer Tutorial: Advanced Textures

So I have another designer tutorial for you this week. But it's also important for scrappers to know some about textures so that if you want to texture your printed font so it actually looks like it's on the paper.

So when you open up a texture, first make sure you de-saturate it if it's not black and white already. Now, go to the levels adjustments again, Image--->Adjustments---> Levels
Here, I will be using an awesome texture by Dream Big Designs from her CU Textures Vol. 2. I love the wrinkles in this pack and will show you how to make them shine!




When using the levels tool on textures, we want to move the middle gray arrow to the middle of the highest peak in the hills there. This helps the color of the paper you choose, stay as true as possible to that color when you place the overlay on top of it.



So, here's my color that I am placing the texture on.



And here it is with the texture, set to blend mode overlay.



Now, I want those wrinkles to stand out a little more...so I duplicated the texture layer, placing it under the original one, and then changing the bottom texture layer blending mode to linear light and about 25% opacity. For lighter colors, I would use linear burn instead.



And here's my finished paper.



and the side-by-side before and after linear light...



It's up to you which style you prefer but I like textures to be obvious and not subtle! Hope you enjoyed this tutorial! Thanks for reading!

How to: Double-Pagers!

So I don't do too many double-pagers but I recently had my kids' joint-birthday party, one a girl and one a boy. I quality-check for Dream Big Designs (yay!) and she just released some adorable Birthday party kits, one for boys and girls but the the color schemes work together so I thought I would do 1 page with both but wasn't liking that. So I decided a double-pager would work great. I personally, like to scrap the whole two pages together, this way they can flow together better as you have items crossing that border. So today I'm sharing some tips with you about scrapping double-pagers.

Make the background paper flow.
You do no want to stretch your paper to be 24x24. That would lower the quality immensely. Often, you can use the same background paper on both pages but I also have another idea. When we have papers that have edge work on them, like a grunge, flip one of the papers horizontally, so that the same edges meet up. This helps the gradient get darker and lighter matching up any spots/grunge. Obviously, do NOT do this if the paper has text or other items that would look weird backwards.

Use CTRL+ mouse click to find elementsSometimes my 1-pagers are crazy enough with a bunch of elements, now we have double the mess! So it might be easier to find the elements you are trying to move around by using this neat trick. With the move button selected, hold down the control key as you click on your layout, on the item you are trying to find. It should select that item in the layers palette and now you can better arrange it! No hunting through your layers for the element you are trying to adjust!

Avoid the middle groundBased on how you like to print your scrapbooking pages, it might be best to avoid putting someone's face or text or titles right in the middle of the double-pager. Give yourself about 1/4 inch on both pages to keep important parts of your layout out of the middle and out of book binding areas.

Cropping the finished productOk, so here's how I crop it once I finish scrapping it. And you might have noticed that the computer had a hard time with opening and saving such a large document. You might also want to crop and separate the two pages once you finish scrapping. Here's my page:





 Kit Credits: Dream Big Designs: Party Shop:Boy and Party Shop Girl

I decided to place a ribbon in the middle there too to help divide the page. You'll see I gave myself room on either side of the 12in mark.

Next, go to guides, and place one at 12 in vertically.




Now, go to the crop tool and starting on the left corner, drag it to the guide. It should snap to the guide we just made. Save that page and then click undo and repeat the process!


You'll see I checked and the image came out to perfectly 12x12. Without the guide, if you just try to use the rulers, you'll probably be off. Best to use the guide to make sure the cut is accurate! :)

Setting Action Shortcuts

Just sharing a quick tip with you about setting your own quick key settings for actions! You may have some favorite actions you use over and over and you don't want to have to search through our actions window to find it each time. You can set a shortcut key for it, quickly!

Open the action in your actions toolbar and then double-click to the right of the action.



This will open up a new dialog box and there you can set your shortcut key for that action!


Now, whenever you have selected a layer, you can hit that shortcut key and it will automatically perform that action! Sweet right! Now beware that if you choose one action in a set of actions you have, it will automatically set the rest of the actions with the next consecutive function keys.

If you have any questions, let me know!

Design Principle 4: Proximity

We are on the last week of my 4-part design prinicples! This last one is called Proximity and the idea is that things that are related to each other are close together. Now, Since I make finished word art, I put the words close together, if you were doing a title for a page, I don't think there would be any problem with placing part of the title at the top of the photo and the rest on the bottom. As long as they are close to the photo, you are still following proximity.

I almost always put each word of my title on a different layer because I want to move them closer together. You can use that same alpha toolbar I showed you in the last tutorial to space the rows differently, which I use often when I am journaling if my text doesn't line up with the journal lines. You can find that tool where you see it on the screen:


Credits: Steampunk Quick Page

But then when I have several rows of words and I am making word art, I will definitely put them on different layers.

Now, you might see me play around with placing words even on top of each other. When I do this, I try to make sure to also include the principle of Contrast so that each word is distinctive enough.


Credits: Steampunk Word Art Clusters

I often will add a stroke to the word on top too so it can have a drop shadow and stand out more, especially if it was a more dainty font. You can see this below:


Credits: Wishes and Wings Word Art Clusters

Here you also see my proximity tool with word art is sometimes to make the words touch each other and then use Contrast to make sure they stand on their own and don't get lost. I placed "key" and "heart" on different layers so I could more easily position them as close together as I wanted.

Play around with these tools and I'll see you next week with another tutorial for making your layouts and designs great!

Design Principle: Alignment

When I was learning about this principle it mainly was applying to documents and flyers and how you shouldn't change between left- and right-alignment and center alignment without a purpose in mind. But the idea of alignment is very important in word art, too. Today, I'm going to talk about alignment in some different ways.

First, I like to make most of my word art left-aligned just because I find we write and read left to right but then I also indent the second line, like you can see in this word art (from my new release today!)

Credits: Steampunk Word Art Clusters

You can see in this one as well as other word art I do, I don't particularly like to make the words line up right under each other. Then of course, the ampersand is not really aligned with either but I do that for some visual interest and to add that contrast!

Included in alignment I think is letter spacing. Do you know how to change the space between letters? Here is an example of a word I have typed out and then decided I want the letters to be closer together. Hi-light your text, and then find the alpha toolbox. Then, you will see a drop down menu next to a symbol with AZ and an arrow underneath it where you can space the letters out further or move them closer together. Some fonts I have found place the letters really close together and I use this to give them some room. I don't however, recommend this for script fonts as the curves won't flow into each other when spaced out.



Here are the settings I used on this word. I used -25 to move them closer together. You can always type in a different value than the menu gives you an option for.



I especially use this trick when I make a text path on a shape. Here I have made a circle text path and want to write "Beautiful Baby" three times. Sometimes changing the font size doesn't fix the spacing issue or the text is just the size I want but too close together. This alpha tool is perfect for that.



I hi-lighted the words and then spaced them out, using my own value after playing around with the presets.



One other thing I wanted to show you was that text paths don't only have to be on the outside of shapes. You can move them to the inside using the Direct selection tool.


Click on the text and hold the button down as you drag the cursor inside the circle.



And there you go! You now have text inside the circle.

Play around with these alignment tools and I'll see you next week for the Proximity design principle!