{Make a page}

K, if you're sitting there thinking to yourself, "Yes, brushes are nice but I wish this girl would get on with it and make a page already!" - this tutorial is for you. ;) It looks like a lot of work, but it's really not. I just took screen caps along the way to help, it's always easier to see what's going on.

So let's make a page! First off, think what kind of page you want to make or have a kit ready you want to use. I love the kits from Shabby Princess and am using this awesome one (it's free ::wink::)

So if you have that ready and a photo, let's get started.

1. Open a new image. (Now if you're going to print this, choose 12 inches by 12 inches and 300 dpi (for print quality). I never print mine, just look at them on my computer, so I'm using 500 pixels, by 500 pixels and 72 dpi. (This will make it easier to view for this tutorial also). But let's just pretend I'm using 12 x12.)

2. Now to put a background paper in. Go to File>Place. Browse to the background paper, select it, then select 'place' once it's on your document.


3. Now, I'm going to put my photo where I think I might want it. (Always use a new layer, I'll be able to move my photo later and place elements on layers both behind and in front of it.)

So I'm going to open my photo, then use the move tool to drag it onto my background page. This automatically creates a new layer. Then I can use the move tool to move the picture where I want it.

4. At this point, I'm going to give my photo a bit of a drop shadow, to make it look like it's actually a photo on a paper. Go to Layer > Layer Style > Blending Options. Choose drop shadow. I'm going to use a small one, just because I like them better. So I leave all options at default except for Distance and Size which I change to 2.



5. Ok, so now I probably want to add some pieces of paper behind my picture, because I reallllllly like layering paper. So I'm going to open a few paper files, and either resize them, or cut out. I'll show how to do both.

Open paper number 1 that you want to include. File > Open. Working 12 x 12 you'll want to trim this paper a bit, otherwise it'll hide the background. So I think I want a big rectangle behind my picture.

(So first I'm going to resize it to 500 px to have it the same size as my paper (you can skip this step if your working 12 x 12, just wanted to let you know I'm doing this. To resize, go to Image > Image Size and change the numbers, I change from 3600 to 500.)



Now I want to select only a piece of this paper. So I'm go to select the rectangular marquee tool.


Ok, I have a wide screen monitor, so I can put both these pages side by side to see how much I want to cut. I make a rectangle by clicking and then dragging the mouse.


Then I drag it over to my layout. By default it goes on a new layer above everything else.


So I need to click on the layers palette on that layer and drag it under my photo. Then I can close my paper file, because I'm not going to use it again.


6. Now we have a photo with a shadow, but the paper doesn't have one. Instead of going into Blending Properties and resetting it how we want it, we're going to use a shortcut. Click on the layer with your photo. You'll see the little 'f' in a circle, this means this layer has a style. We want that style on our paper layer, so right click the photo layer, choose 'Copy Layer Style'.

Then click on your paper layer, right click and choose 'Paste Layer Style'.


Now we have a drop shadow on the paper too. And it was super fast and easy to do.




7. Ok, now I'm going to do the same thing to add a few more papers here. I'm going to open them, select shapes from them, and then drag them to my layout, then copy and paste the layer style.

8. K, I've got two more papers positioned, and we're going to learn another little shortcut. I'm going to copy my layer style from the photo, and then paste on both new layers. So copy layer style, then click on one paper layer, press 'Ctrl' and select another paper layer. They are both selected now, any change will be made to both layers.

Then right click 'paste layer style' and we've got the style on both layers.



9. Now I'm going to add in some embellishments and things, just like we added in the papers and photo. Use the move tool to move them where you want. Copy and paste the layer style from the photo.

10. Now I think the last thing I want to add is some text, I'll put Erika's name on. So choose text tool.



Click and drag on your layout to make a text box.


Type away. Click on the check at the top to enter your text. Press 'Ctrl + A' to select all text when you're done and then change the font, color or whatever you want on the top toolbar there. Use the move tool to move it where you want it, and add a drop shadow if you want to (I'm not going to, I want it to look like pen on paper)

Ok, well I think I'm done.
I'm going to save mine as a .png because I only look at them on my computer. For printing you should save a .jpg at highest quality.

Hope you had fun and learned something new. If this helped you make a page, please comment with a link to your page, I'd love to see it!

(And don't forget to credit designers wherever you post pages made with their stuff ;D)

Brushes {Having fun with...}

OK, so today let's learn how to do some neat things with brushes.
We'll learn how to fade them, add dimension, and space them to make a line.

First let's fade one.

1. Pick a brush and stamp your image. (remember to use a new layer for your brush!)
2. By the layers palette (see pic) you can change the opacity with a little slider when you click on it. Play around. Here's mine normal and set at 30%





K, now let's add some dimension.

1. Pick brush and stamp your image. (new layer for brush!)
2. Go to Layer> Layer Style> Blending Options...
3. A new screen will pop up. Click on drop shadow. You can change the depth and width and opacity. Here is what mine looks like on default settings. Kinda neat. Let's add more dimension though.
4. Choose bevel and emboss. I used the default settings for bevel and emboss on the picture above and you can't really tell on my image, because it's a detailed brush, but I'll show you another one below. (So you can see you can make really neat little buttons and stuff for your pages with a brush as simple as a circle brush. You can use this to make brads with a small circle brush ;)).




K, what else should we do here? Let's make a line. You could use this to make a border too ;)

1. Pick a brush, then click on brushes at the top right of the screen.
2. Click on 'Brush Tip Shape' and change the spacing.


3. On your document click shift and drag the mouse to make a straight line. ( I did one with a flower brush too, it makes a cute border.



K, well that's it for that one, although there are so many things you can do with brushes. I just thought those one might be a bit fun. As always, hope you've learned something. If you want to know something I haven't included in any of my tutorials, feel free to ask in the type box or a comment and I'll try to work out a tutorial :)

xox
Jac

::flower brush credit to Icon_collide::

{ Brushes } Let's use them!

(*note* I show everything from the most basic. If you already know some things, skip them, but I add them in for the very newest user to PhotoShop)


Ok, so we learned how to get them, now let's use them.

I'll just cover how to use a brush on a normal layer. So let's talk about layers for a second.

Think of creating a paper layout, and how you can add different things, like patterned paper, flowers, ribbon, etc... Before adhering anything, you can move each piece around until you're satisfied you've created a masterpiece.

Same thing for digital. For every different element you use, use a new layer. Here's the button for that:


Why use all these layers? Because you can move each layer. Anything on one layer moves together. So if you stamp a brush onto the same layer as your background - that brush is stuck there. By using a new layer for the brush, you can move it anywhere you want. So remember, lots of layers!! You can merge them all into one layer at the end.

K, enough about that, let's use a brush!


1. Open a New Document - any size - i'll use 500 x 500 so the picture can be big enough to show.

2. Fill your background with a color. Then add a new layer for your brush to use. Make sure to select that layer in the layer pane by clicking on it. It'll become darker grey when it's selected.

3. Grab your paintbrush tool.

4. Select your brush - press the button the blue arrow points to here.


Select a brush - it'll ask if you want to use them, select yes. Then select a brush from the group.

5. This slider is your brush size. You can slide, and then hold the brush over your open document to see the size. (second picture)



6. Once you have your brush selected and sized, just click on the foreground color box (the one that's blue in this picture), and select a color.



7. Stamp away. :D Remember layers. I always use a new layer for each brush.

8. Ok, let's say you add a brush, but want to move or resize it. To move it, select the move tool.



Drag it anywhere you want. To rotate it, hover your mouse just outside the box, until you see the double sided arrow - then you can rotate however you like. Click the check mark on the top toolbar when you're done. (If you don't, you won't be able to do anything else)



9. Let's resize it. Using the move tool still, click on the move box. Once you do that you can resize, but let's make sure to click the linked button on the top toolbar so we can maintain our aspect ratio - meaning we won't squish it the long way, and stretch it out the other way - it'll remain the same shape when you resize it. Click the check mark on the top toolbar when you're done. (If you don't, you won't be able to do anything else)



All right, that's how to use, recolor, resize, and rotate a brush. I wrote this pretty fast, so I hope it all makes sense. If not, leave me a note. If so, happy brushing!!


Jac

{Brushes} Where to find, how to install

Ok, so let's start off with brushes. To me they are the digital equivalent of rub-ons and stamps - lots of fun! So let's start off here.

1. Find some brushes.
I like these two places (although there are sooooo many more, but we'll start with these)

• Jason Gaylor
• DeviantArt

2. Once you find some you like, read the Terms of Use. (How and where you are allowed to use them. I find most brush makers just like a link on the project you use them on, so make sure to credit them whenever you use them - your blog, galleries, etc....)

3. Download them. (For the next step, you will need an unzipping tool usually -- I use WinRar.

4. Find the brush (I usually virus scan, just in case) then unzip it. Inside you'll find the brush (the .abr file) and sometimes a preview or Readme file.

5. Add it into Photoshop. Ok, this is how I do it. I open two windows -- one with My Documents (or wherever I have downloaded the file to) and one with the location:

C:/Program Files> Adobe> Adobe Photshop CS2> Presets> Brushes.

Now drag and drop the .abr to the above location.

6. Now open Photoshop and you'll see your new brushes.



That's all.

Welcome

I'm going to use this blog to post some beginner digital scrapbooking tutorials (using Photoshop CS2)

I hope they will be easy to follow along and help beginners using photoshop.

I'll start off with some basic tutorials on how to add brushes, resize stuff, edit photos, and just some easy tutorials to get things started off. Then we'll move up to making our first page. I hope to update this very often, so bookmark and keep checking back if you're interested :D