Creating Gingham Papers (& a Freebie!)

Here is the next part to my Potty Kit (for layouts of little ones learning to go potty).

In making these papers, I created a video to teach you how to make them.

A higher quality version is in the Subscriber area (along with over 125 other videos for only $5.50 a month!)

If you have never made gingham papers, I think you will be surprised at how easy they are to make! Once you've got them made, use them to make other cute elements!

Thank you for all the comments. I am reading each one of them and will respond as time allows.

If you make anything using this tutorial, please do share with me (by leaving a comment or by sharing with everyone a freebie download in the Subscriber Area).

Download

Making Polka Dot Papers, Baby Shower Ideas, and a Freebie

I had a lot of fun at my neice's baby shower. I'd like to share with you!

First, I made some polka dot papers in Photoshop Elements and printed them out on thin inexpensive photo papers with my borderless printer. I was so impressed with out they turned out! I may just have to do this again in the future on other crafts.

Next, I had taken a photo of her with her hands in a heart on her belly. I filled the heart area with polka dots and cut the photo into a heart shape. I saved it as a .png file and printed it out on multiples per page.

I cut the paper into strips and glued them, along with the hearts, so that they slipped over water bottles as labels. It was fun to do girlie crafts for a change since I have all these boys in my house.

I took the "baby" word art that I had made for the invitations and used an Atomic Cupcake action on it to make stickers. I cut them out and glued them to a circle which was then glued to a party stick and stuck into cupcakes. I made white cupcakes with strawberry icing and then simple brownie cupcakes.

I took the leftover cuttings and prints to make a calendar for the guests to write down their guesses on when the baby would be born.

My party planning partner made this scrumptious no sugar angel food cake. The filling is whipped cream with no sugar pudding mix fluffed into it.

She also brought these cute napkins. How simple is that to make something so "wow." She also brought other foods and decorated the gift table, but I think I've shared too many photos already. We all had a great time!

I made a video tutorial to share how I made these polka dot papers in Photoshop Elements. You can find it in the Subscriber Area (which has over 125 videos currently available for only $5.50 a month).

This freebie is also in the Subscriber Area. However, I am offering it here on the blog for a limited time, just as always! I included the sticker as well as a paper made with the sticker. I found it to be cute as a background as well as to cut out for cupcake decorations.

Click here.

Quick Tip #14 Embedding Photos in E-mail using PSE Organizer

Jeannette inquired of me how to embed photos in an e-mail using the Photoshop Elements Organizer, so I did a quick video to help her. I do not generally use this option as the Organizer can use a lot of RAM, but it does have some cool frames and other options if you are really wanting to impress your friends! I generally send embedded photos in Outlook and will do a tutorial on how to do that next.

Let me know if this video helps you! I do so appreciate all the comments I've been getting. Warm fuzzies abound!

Quick Tip #13 - No Marching Ants

In this tip, learn how to make those pesty marching ants, also known as selections, go away so you can see what you are working with, all the while keeping the selection. Yep, its invisible selections!

I'd love to hear from you why you would use this tip. I am having trouble coming up with reasons why I would make the selection invisible.

Quick Tip #12 Revisited

I literally had to restart the recording of this very short video at least 25 times! I couldn't stop coughing. Of course, the more I thought about resisting to cough, well.....

I was surprised that no one mentioned in my last Quick Tip video that there is more than one way to remove the bounding boxes. However, I did appreciate all the comments! I am glad that everyone is enjoying these videos.

P.S. Don't laugh at me when you get to the end of the video.

Quick Tip #12 No Bounding Box

This nearly drove me crazy until I figured out this tip.

Do you ever sit back to look at a layout only to wish that silly bounding box weren't in the way of your view?

You try to put it on another element. You try to put it on the background layer so it goes all the way around the out edge out of the way. However, there is a simple way to get it to go away! Do you know how?

Quick Tip #10 - Part 3 - Importing text into Photoshop Elements from Microsoft Word

This the final part of the quick tip series on kerning. In this tutorial, you will see how you can create word art in Microsoft Word and import it into Photoshop Elements. In addition, as you discovered in Part 2 (if you played with the technique), the text comes with a white background. This is easy to remove with a click of the magic erasure.

Of course, as Murphy's law has it, my word art in this video has a white area without a border, so that one click did not work! Since I was trying to make this a quick video (because it is a quick tip), I did not resolve the issue while recording. However, after the recording I did grab the erasure brush and eraser around the edge where the white of the word art is to end and then grabbed the magic erasure to delete the rest. It went so fast that I wished I had recorded it!

Quick Tip # 10 Kerning in Photoshop Elements -Part 2

Here is Part 2 of the quick tip on kerning. Be sure to go back and watch Part 1.

In this video, you will see how text with expanded kerning created in Microsoft Word can be brought into Photoshop Elements.

However, stay tuned for tomorrow's video as although the results in this video appear good, there is a hidden problem.

Quick Tip #10 Kerning in Photoshop Elements - Part 1

Kerning is the space between letters which allows for better readability. However, Photoshop Elements does not have this tool, so work arounds need to be utilized. There are two methods to achieve kerning in Photoshop Elements. First, you may use the Asian Text option. This option only contracts kerning. Stay tuned for tomorrow's video for an additional option.

Color Isolation Video Tutorial

I recorded a matching video tutorial for the written Color Isolation Tutorial in Photoshop Elements today. You can see it for a limited time in the main area of the forums and then it will be available always in the Subscriber area.

I look forward to seeing your digital scrapbooking layouts using this technique!

Quick Tip #9 Copy Merge

This is a quick tip to follow my video for making curved photo templates in Photoshop Elements. This is an alternative ending to the tutorial that can be applied in many other ways.

Learn how to copy several layers at once and paste them to a new layer.

Creating & Using Grunge Overlays in PSE

Now that we've made some grunge brushes, let's use them!

You can download my free grunge overlay and watch the video to see how to create them and also how to use them in the forums. You must be logged in.

Quick Tip #8 Fast Access of Brush Library

Since we are creating grunge brushes and utilizing them in digital scrapbooking challenges, I thought this tip would be appropriate.

Do you know how you can quickly access the brush library in Photoshop Elements? I believe you will be surprised by this one. It also works on the shape library.

Newest Video and Freebie – grunge brushes

Today’s video is for creating grunge brushes!

I am anxious to see you create grunge brushes and to share them with me!

I have provided a download to a set of grunge brushes which I created.

Click here

I am sharing this technique challenge on my blog, but please keep in mind that I do not post notifications of all new things here on my blog. Join my notifications Yahoo Group to keep up with the new things in the forum!

This challenge is to bring focal weight to a photo by using turned mats. There is a video with more ideas in the forum. I hope to see you participate! Sharing layouts is one way to inspire each other.

I look at this layout and realize I was only scrapping 6 months or so when I made this totally from scratch! See, if you are new to scrapping, you CAN do it!

Quick Tip #7 - Visible Masks

Did you know that you can see your mask in full view just as a layer and not only as an itty bitty thumbnail?

Check out the video! This tip is cool!

Technique Challenge - Gradient on Mask Video Tutorial

As we continue the technique challenges on ways to utilize the gradient tool, we learn how to put the gradient on a mask to create a blended area into a photo perfect for journaling, quotes, or titles.

You can see the video and share your layout with this technique in the forums here.

Video Tutorial and Challenge --Repeated Elements in Photoshop Elements

Join this technique challenge in the forums!

Use your imagination with this technique!

Watch the video to see how easy it is to repeat an element. What elements can you repeat? I did a brick. However, I thought about repeating a face or a gradient dot. What about a button? Look through your photos and your stash until something hits you!

Remember, you can repeat into one line or one area. There is no need to fill the entire background with the repeat. For instance, you can repeat a button to create a border. Keep it straight or offset.

You are only limited by your imagination with this technique!



Credit: Flergs Nana's Garden (and my brick wall)


Here is quick tip #6!
Use Photoshop Elements and a simple keyboard and mouse coordination to duplicate elements on a digital scrapbooking page.

Diamond Metal Freebie and Video Tutorial

Here is newest Designer Element Challenge! You can download my freebie and watch the video for how I made the papers and elements in Photoshop Elements.

Thereafter, create your own and share! I am looking forward to your participation and seeing what types of elements you come up with to create with this challenge.

See the forum for the freebie and video.

No Confusing Layer Masks --Please!

We enjoyed watching the band concert at school last night. The soloists were totally amazing! Would I be a bit partial if I declared once again that we have the best band program in the State of Missouri?

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I managed to find time to revamp my blog, finally! For a long time, over a year, the blog was not loading quickly and seemed to get hung up on something. The last week or so I've been feeling a strong urge to finally just whack the whole template and start from new.

Suddenly, the impulse hit me and I just went for it last night. I am glad that I did. It does not hang up any longer. I am not sure what was making it hang up, but even after I changed the template, it continued to hang up. So I started deleting things from the sidebar until it began to run smoother. I believe I know what it was now, but do not want to bash a product online.

I was pleasantly surprised at the new Blogger template. It is much easier to use than the previous template of the same name which I was previously using. There have been many great improvements over the last year that I was not aware of. For instance, the headers do not even have to be hosted elsewhere now and, in addition, they can be applied through the widgets without even going into the code.

I am happy with the new look. I like blogs that are clean, crisp, and easy to read.

So, take a peak at my sidebar now. Look at what tools I deemed as necessary for this blog. For instance, the Romlet. Goodness! I love that tool! I don't know if you are checking it, but I sure do!

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My men woke me up early this morning. They are good at doing that. I often awake before them, but when I do not, it is because I REALLY am tired and need the sleep. I eventually fell back asleep and was in such a sound sleep that I would have been highly likely to have overslept and been late for work had it not been for Abbie Rae. She knows my routine and found it odd that I wasn't up when I normally was and came and woke me up.

So, you can thank Abbie Rae for this quick tip today. If it weren't for her waking me up, I wouldn't have had time to record this before work today.

Are those layer masks just way too confusing for you? Keep them from being created!

......Or maybe you just want to use Grant's Tools layer masks instead.