Crop Corner

This tutorial will show you how to make plaid papers in PSP. The screen shots are from PSP X but the same rules apply to 8 & 9. You will need to start by creating your pattern. Think of it like a small swatch of material. Open a new document 2 in x 2 in, 300 resolution and transparent back ground. Now its time to build your plaid. It is important to remember that the width of the lines in your swatch will be smaller in your final paper so dont make them too small unless you want the color to be very subtle. Also, you need to consider if you will want a background color, or if you are going to have your lines fill 100% of the space, in which case you will need to be more precise with your stripe sizes.

Layouts uploaded to the gallery at Scrapbook-Bytes must be under 125kb in jpg format. Below are two methods for resizing your layouts. Navigate to the folder you wish to save the layout in. Check the file to ensure the layout is under 125kb. For heavily embellished layouts and layouts 12x12, you may need to reduce the Options> Quality level slider further but avoid going under 80. If necessary you can resize a 12x12 duplicate layout to 8x8 after flattening and before saving. Choose Medium Web View from the Picture Size drop down menu. Ignore the File size indicator as it will change with the next step.

When you create a brush it is placed into the brush palette, but this is only a temporary saving of the brush. I know that it can appear permanent because you can open Photoshop numerous times and the brush is still there, but if you happen to reset the brush palette to the default set of brushes, your brush will be gone forever. The same is true for custom shapes, pattern, and styles. So how do you make it permanent? The answer is the Preset Manager. The Preset Manager can be located under Edit>Preset Manager. It can also be located on the little flyout menus on each palette.

This tutorial will show you how to put together a layout in Photoshop CS2, using a variety of commonly used techniques and tools. The tutorial should also be suitable for users of Photoshop CS. Due to the size of the tutorial it is only available in Adobe Acrobat Reader (pdf) format. You can get the free HERE if needed. Save to your harddrive, unzip the folder and double click the pdf file to open.

Essentially, a Preset is a type of script that defines the behavior, properties, or settings of a tool or a dialog. Many tools and dialogs already come equipped with a ready to use predefined Preset. Additionally, you can create and save your own Presets. When you click the down-arrow for the Presets in the New Image dialog box, you will see a list of image sizes to choose from. This is helpful if you typically scrap in a particular size. By choosing the size from your Presets list, you eliminate the need to type in the image size and resolution each time.

With the click of a mouse, you can explore your family's lineage on online genealogy sites. This site isn't the most user-friendly, but the research and how-to guides are worth a look. World-Wide Genealogy Resources (www.genhomepage.com/world.html) offers genealogy links that are specific to about half the world's countries. Western countries are better represented than Eastern ones (for example, Sri Lanka has one link while Ireland has 50), but there's a surprising depth to the information available. This isn't just for international research, though; each state in the union has liks as well. While you'll likely run into a broken link or two, you'll still find information for just about anywhere your ancestors called home.

Not every photo we take is great. Tricky lighting situations, unavoidable background elements, and camera flash can thwart our best intentions. Thankfully, in the digital imaging world, we can correct these problems, plus add creative touches to put pizzazz in our layouts and other projects. Learn the first and most important steps Anita Matejka takes when she works with a digital image. Use your digital technology to fix a common photo problem - underexposure and overexposure. See how to edit your photos to look like new or take out elements that distract from your subject.

Using the Replace color tool is ideal for changing specific ranges of colors. Changing the color of clothing, flowers, or a color in a background paper or element is relatively quick and easy. Move your cursor to the photo, it will turn into an eyedropper or a crosshair depending on the preferences settings. Click on the color that you want to replace. In the Selection window you will see where the color has been recognized. Increase or decrease the fuzziness slider as required until as much as possible of the color is selected by the white mask, without affecting colors in other parts of the image.

This video tutorial will demonstrate how to create tags from background papers with the Marquee Tool. Please be patient as the video loads - the speed will depend upon your internet connection. You will know the video is loading by the icon in the bottom left hand corner.

Digital Scrapbook Place has a wonderful collection of digital scrapbooking tutorials.

The best thing about them is that many of the tutorials have separate versions for the software that you’re using.  So, instructions for Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro are kept separate.  This is especially helpful for the beginner when they need exact instructions for how to accomplish a particular effect.