They’re always curious (even when they try not to show it) about what we do.  So I often pull out my albums and leave them lying on the table for people to look at, which will start the conversation.  They’ll pick up the book and flip through the pages slowly, politely commenting here and there.  But I know I’ve got them when I catch them TOUCHING THE PAGE!  Inevitably, someone will surreptitiously slide an index finger across the page to see if she can feel the edge of the “paper”. That’s when we start the “bet you thought digital layouts were too flat and boring” conversation.

One of the secrets to creating touch-tempting layouts (aside from good shadows) is texture.  Paperscrappers are accustomed to textured cardstock like Bazzill makes. So early on in my digi career I learned to add texture to my papers.

One way to do that is the Texturizer filter.  This filter allows you to use any image to add a texture to your image – and it’s simple to use in both PS and PSE.

Here’s how:

• In the Menu Bar choose Filter> Texture> Texturizer. You’ll get a full page dialog  box, with a bunch of sliders on the right.
• In the box where it says Texture: you can pull down the menu and choose one of four preset textures. (More about how to add your own later!)
• Move the Scaling slider to the right, and notice how the image in the preview window at the left changes.  Be careful when you scale up, some textures will look ‘soft’ or blurry scaled over 100%.
• Move the Relief slider to the right to change how strong the effect appears.  What this does is makes the highlights and shadows stronger (lighter and darker).
• You can change the direction the light is hitting your texture with the pull down menu next to Light:
• Try checking the Invert box for a different look.

Tips:

• Zoom out. The preview window automatically opens up at 100% – this shows you what your eye will be able to perceive when you print the page.  But if you don’t intend to print, (or even if you do) you may want to zoom out to see what it will look like.  NOTICE that the look is MUCH worse at odd zooms:
  
  the image to the left is at 25%, the one on the right is 25.725. Notice how different they look!  So don’t be freaked out if it looks funny, if it looks good at 100% it will print fine.
• Don’t overdo the Relief – the noisy effect you see on the right above is worse the higher the Relief setting.  Keep it subtle, really you only want people to be able to see it if they look.
• Check for repeats – sometimes the image that is used to create the texture creates obvious patterns where it repeats.  Sometimes this is ok, other times not.  So when you zoom out, check to see if you see and obvious pattern, and if you like it that way!

Making your own texture:

Any image can be used to make a texture. For papers images of fabric, woodgrain, even peeling paint can make great textures!

• In the Menu Bar to to Filter> Texture> Texturizer.
• When the dialog window opens up, look for the right-facing arrow in a circle next to the Texture pull-down and click on it, then choose Load Texture.
• Navigate to where you have a .psd image you want to use as a texture. (You can prepare these by taking a .jpg image, opening it in Photoshop or PSE and saving it as a .psd file.  I have a whole folder labeled Textures so I can find them when I want them.)
• Click on the image to choose it, then click Open.
  

• Your image will now appear as a texture!  The program uses the black and white values to create areas that look high and low to give the impression of texture, much like the bevel and emboss layer style does.

Experiment with images and settings, and soon you’ll have people touching your layouts too!

Notice the differing textures in this layout – one of my most touchable!

There are lots of sources for free texture images, just be careful.  Many of them are for web use, and they’re very small images, so when you scale them up they get very ugly.

Here are some links to get you started!
http://www.amazingtextures.com/textures/index.php
http://mayang.com/textures/
http://www.photoshoptextures.com/

Do be sure to let us know how it goes!  Post a link here, or post in our gallery, and we’ll check it out.

Jenn

During our vacation in Connecticut recently we have gotten into a tradition with our friends of lighting off fireworks and sparklers.  Minor fireworks have recently become legal in Connecticut and so they are still fresh and novel.  Unlike Tennessee, where you can buy enough at one time to rival displays put on by the Grucci family (and blow yourself up), the kind in Connecticut are wimpy. Sparklers, minor Roman candles, poppers.  Nothing like a rocket or even bottle rockets. So it was with much glee that I had my hoard of precious Tennessee illegal fireworks to bring up to our friends and really show off.

And I forgot them at home.

Grrrr…….

So we had to settle for sparklers.  But since I always take the lemons life throws at me and make lemonade, we did some Angel pictures with the sparklers.  It’s easy! 

• Set camera on tripod.  Oh yeah, forgot that at home too….  Used our friend’s fence post on their deck instead.
• IS0 400, f/4 or 5.6, 8 second exposure seemed to be about right.  It was long enough for the kids to draw a complete angel.
• Get sparkler lit, run into position, open shutter and let it go.
• Shoot lots and lots!

And here are some results.  I’m really happy with how they turned out:

The last was the best and my favorite!

Now what if you don’t have a camera with manual settings?  You can try the fireworks mode which should get you nice long exposure times.  You also might try the Tm or Time mode (if you have it) where you pick the exposure time and the camera picks the f/stop.  So go and try some today!   

Which one’s your favorite?

There are two Type Mask tools – the Horizontal Type Mask tool and the Vertical Type Mask tool. Just like the regular type tools you can use them to create type that goes sideways or up and down. But the cool part is that type is automatically used to create a selection! Why would you need that? I use it to cut titles out of papers, like this:

Step 1:
Choose the Horizontal Type Mask tool. It’s under the regular Type tool, just click on the Type tool and hold the mouse button down until you see the other tools revealed, then click on the one you want.

Step 2:
In the Options bar at the top, set your font and size (you may have to type a number in the type size box if you want it larger than 72 pixels).  Now type your text.  You’ll notice that the whole page goes red, don’t worry!  This is the mask:

Step 3: Click on the Move tool to get out of the type mode, and you’ll see that the red goes away and you now have a selection in the shape of your type!

Step 4: Press Ctrl C to copy and change to your layout, then press Ctrl V to paste, and you have your text made out of the paper!

So give it a try next time you want to cut some text out of paper, it’s fun and you’ll amaze your friends and impress your acquaintances. Tell them you learned it here!

Happy Scrapping!

Jenn

So for a little fun this week I give you www.badyearbookphotos.com. It’s a site dedicated to users posting pictures of themselves or others in the “school day worst”. Make sure to follow the link and visit but here are some of my favorites:

Lots of big hair

More Big Hair

Is there a bird in there?

He's protecting his turf...

I really can't think of anything to say...

My favorite! Hope they're happy...

And to be fair – one of me:

How wide is that shirt collar? And the feathered hair!

So go visit and see the others they have. Leave a comment and let us know which one’s your favorite!

In the digi-world, it’s not hard to do either!

Here’s a quick and easy way to put mats under your photos – the digital way:

Step 1: Pick out a background paper and a photo. Drag the photo onto the paper, making sure that there’s room all around it for the mat.

Step 2: Pick out the paper you want to use for the mat, and open it.

Step 3: Choose the Move tool, and hold down the SHIFT key.  Now click and drag the mat paper onto the background paper.  Holding the SHIFT key will make the mat paper land exactly in the center of the background paper, covering the whole thing. If you can’t see your photo at this point, hold the CTRL key and press the [ key until the mat paper is on the layer below your photo).

Step 4: Choose the Marquee tool, making sure you have the Rectangular Marquee tool.  (If the Elliptical tool is showing, click on it and hold the mouse button down until you see the Rectangular Marquee tool, then click on it to Choose it.)  Click and drag a selection around the photo, leaving as much space as you like around the photo.

Right-click inside the selection, and choose Select Inverse.

Press Delete, and the rest of the paper except for the part right under and immediately around the photo will disappear!

Step 5: To keep the mat under the photo as you move it around, you want to link the mat layer and the photo layer.  To do this, hold the CTRL key down and click on both layers in the layers panel to make them both active (they will highlight).  Now click on the Link Layers symbol at the bottom (or top if you have PSE) of the layers panel– it looks like a little chain.

When you do this, it’ll put a chain symbol on both layers, showing you they are linked.  If you move one layer, the other will move too!  To unlink them, just click on one of the layers to make it active and click on the Link Layers symbol again.

You can repeat this process as many times as you want!  It’s quick, easy, and you don’t have to try to guess how large to ‘cut out’ your paper, or stretch it to fit after the fact!

Happy Scrapping!
Jenn