theBlog @reneepearson.com
Keeping it Real: Page Evaluation
I’m happy to be back here at the RP blog offering my favorite “keeping it real” tips and techniques for digital scrapbookers. Today’s post takes a look into my own process of layout creation. Specifically, my thoughts on page evaluation.
In my upcoming Scraphic Design: Foundations, I share the following tidbit:
As designer’s we have to move past the emotional connection to evaluate our work as objectively as possible. Hard to do considering a scrapbooker’s work contains multiple precious memories. But an analytical eye is a powerful resource for completing a scrapbook layout.
Let’s see this in action. (more…)
Keeping it Real: Create Digital Flags
Flags, pennants, and banners are popping up everywhere on digital scrapbooking pages. Here’s a cool way to create your own using Adobe Photoshop’s Pen tool. Grab this nifty PSD Pen tool flag guide to follow along.
1. Download and open my pen tool flag guide. Select the Pen tool (shortcut P on your keyboard). Verify the tool is set to Shape layers in the context sensitive menu.
2. Next, click your mouse on the first point on the top right corner. This indicates the start point of the flag. The first point is always important because you’ll begin and end here to close the final shape.
3. Now, click along the guide to create your 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th anchor points. But do not click and DRAG your mouse. Doing so will create handles at each anchor and curve the flag.
4. The 6th and final anchor closes the shape. Hover your mouse over the first original point. Your cursor should change to a Pen tool cursor with a small circle. This indicates the end point of the flag. You can completely skip indicating the final anchor point or closing the shape by hitting the enter key at any time.
Once your shape is complete, you are free to begin a new flag, adjust its position using the Move tool, change the color, add Layer styles or even clip papers to the new shape. That’s real, right!
What other ways do you use Photoshop’s Pen tool?
Keeping it Real: Shaped Journaling
Welcome back to another keeping it real digital technique. Today I’ll share my steps for shaped journaling in Photoshop CS, one of my favorite journaling techniques for digi and hybrid pages. Let’s have at it! (more…)
Keeping it Real: The Horizontal Type Tool Mask 2
Last week, I introduced you to the Horizontal Type Tool Mask, an underused tool that creates type-shaped selections. With it, we learned how to quickly stroke a selection of text. Today I’ll share another quick and really fun technique using the same tool. (more…)
Keeping it Real: The Horizontal Type Tool Mask 1
Welcome back to the Keeping It Real series here at theBlog. I’ve got a serious question to ask you:
How do you outline your title text on a digital scrapbook page?
If I were a guessing woman, I’d wager you might open the Effects Panel, or the Layer Styles menu in Photoshop, of the appropriate text layer and simply apply a stroke. That’s one surefire way to create the look.
Another way is by use of the Horizontal Type Tool Mask, a nifty, underused tool that creates type-shaped selections. You read right: selections! This tool offers you the same design options as other selection tools like the marquees, lasso, and magic wand. Oh, the possibilities right! Well for the next, few Keeping It Real topics, I want to show you just how real-ly fun this tool can be. (more…)
Keeping it Real: Anatomy of a Layout
Hello! Tiffany Tillman here and I’m back for yet another Keeping It Real topic. Today I’ll take you behind the scenes into one of my most recent layouts That Wild Hair. Why you ask? Because I want to share how I think through a complete layout from start to finish. I will rip one of my layouts apart, look at the individual components and discuss why each part was necessary. That’s what keeping it real is all about. Shall we? (more…)
Keeping it Real: Imperfect Details
Hello! Welcome back to another Keeping it Real technique for digital scrapbookers. For this round, I’ll cater to our Elements users though the technique works in Photoshop too.
Stitches, staples, brads, pins and the like all have one thing in common: holes. We typically create holes on our layouts using the items listed. Nifty! But in the digital word, not all holes are alike. No, no, no. Some digital holes are better than others. Today I’ll share one brush and layer effect combination that is sure to help your holes look real. Let’s get to it, shall we? (more…)
Keeping It Real: Playing with Text Part 1
Hello! Time for another Keeping it Real technique for digital scrapbookers. This tip is specifically for our Adobe Photoshop friends, though Elements users can recreate the look with a few different steps.
Today I’m sharing a text technique I use when I want to add a piece of “fun” to a scrapbook page. The steps below highlight an alternative way to shape text blocks without using the paths panel. Let’s get to it! (more…)
Keeping it Real: Digital Stamping Part Two
Click the thumbnails to enlarge the screenshots.
I hope you enjoyed my first Keeping It Real technique for digital scrapbooks. Today, I’m sharing another quick tip for my digi-peers who love the look of stamping.
Paper scrapbookers are known for stamping objects to multiple surfaces on their scrapbook page. Have you ever noticed how an offset occurs when the ink is applied? Raised portions show a slight deviation from surface to surface. It’s a characteristic of applying stamps to a layout. You can recreate the same look digitally with ease. (more…)
Keeping It Real: Digital Stamping Part One
Tested and approved for Adobe Photoshop & Photoshop Elements Users. Click the thumbnails to enlarge the screenshots.
If you’re anything like me, you enjoy a good tip or two, which helps your scrapbook pages look real. That’s what keeping it real is all about! So join me here every other week for a new keeping it real technique demonstration. Let’s jump right into our first tip. (more…)