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I know there are more complicated ways to blend, but my tutorials are for those who are either just starting out in PSP or those who may have never realized – oh, that’s how you do that!  I have those moments all the time!

I LOVE to use blending in my layouts!  It can take a boring background to something that is stunning! 

You know me, have to something for you to work with, so here are a couple of papers that you can practice blending on, or feel free to use something you already have!  This works on any paper.

Download the Papers – Don’t give your friends the download link, send them to my blog please.

Ok, let’s get started!

Open up the photo that you have picked to use to blend into the background.  Open the paper also.

(All pictures are clickable to see the image full size)

Copy the image (either right click on the top and click copy or CTRL + C)

Paste as new layer

Now here, I usually resize my image to fill the area I want to use it in.  This size would be subjective as to how much room you want the picture to take up.

To resize, click on image, resize.  I chose 215 percent for this photo.  Make sure resize all layers is NOT ticked.  You just want to resize the photo.

Use your lasso tool to select around your picture.  For blending, I usually use anywhere from 150-200 for the feather.  This doesn’t have to be a neat circle.  When I’m really getting going, I make it jaggedy so different parts are more transparent then others.

Invert your selection (You can also use CTRL + SHIFT + I, I’m all about keyboard shortcuts)

Now, hit your delete key.  (I only hit it once for this picture, but if your picture has a lot of background, hit it a couple of times.)

At this point, you can resize if you need to, I didn’t with this photo, but have with others.

Now, at this point, you get to play!  there are many different things you can do with the picture at this point.

Change the opacity

Change the blend mode – here I have it set to soft light – 100% opacity

Here I have it set to luminance – opacity at 50%

At this point when you have it blended, let’s say you want to take out so more.  go back to your lasso tool, select a little section, and hit delete.  (No need to invert, just select the area you want to feather a little more)  If I left the blend like this, I would take a picture of my nephew in a frame, rotate it maybe 15 degrees to the left, and place it over the bottom part of the blend where the blanket is.

When you have the paper how you like it, right click on one of the layers in your palette and merge visible.  There’s your paper, add more to it!

When you get more experienced with this, you can do the blending after your done with your layout but you think it needs an extra something.  That is what I did with this layout of my daughter:

Credits are Here

You can use this technique to take up the whole background, go across the top or bottom.  Anywhere you can put a photo, you can blend!

Hope you found this one useful!  Have a great day!

We’ve done a lot of overlay work here on this blog, but I’m not sure with we’ve done an actual tutorial on using an overlay as an actual overlay in PSP.  So, let’s jazz up those papers.

First, I made this overlay for you to practice with:

Download the Overlay – remember don’t give out the direct link to your friends, send them to the blog to get it for themselves!

First, unzip your overlay.  Then open it PSP.

Let’s jazz up a paper!  Also, open a paper that you have already.  One that you’d like to embellish a little.  Make it pop a little.

Now, copy your overlay (CTRL + C or right click on the top of it and click on copy)

Now, go to your paper that you want to use the overlay on:

(All images are clickable to see the image full size)  Right click on the top of your paper and paste, paste as new layer.

This is what it will look like.  (I am just using a 12 X 12 canvas filled with burgundy, if you are using a paper, it will look different because you’ll be highlighting the textures and colors on the paper, it’s a very cool effect when we get going.)

Over on your layers palette there is  a drop down box that should have normal as the default.  Click on it.  Now, I’m going to click on Burn.  One of my favorite blend settings.

See how it “burns” it into the paper?  This is my favorite when I am working with papers that have a lot of contrast between light and dark in them.

A very popular setting would be the overlay setting.  It merges the pattern on to the paper.  Here is the blend setting on soft light – another one that I use a lot.  It’s like overlay, but makes it a little softer.

Screen is another setting that I use a lot.  That tends to make the whole thing look lighter.  And if you’re working with an overlay that doesn’t have a lot of transparency to it, it can make your paper look white.

Let’s play a little more -

I am back on burn and I am going to play with my opacity.  right above your blend setting, set at 100% by default.

Slide it down til you find a look you like.

Another thing I do – not normally with grids, but since that’s what we’re using here, that’s what I’ll use, is use flip and mirror.

I duplicate the layer.

Right click on the overlay in your layers palette and click on duplicate.

Now use mirror, under image – mirror:

Then Flip it – Image, Flip:

Then play with your opacity again on both layers. 

When you get the look you like, right click on one of the layers in the layer palette and merge visable.  There is your paper.  Now you can add your photos and elements and make a rocking page!

See, all those overlays floating around out there?  Not just for commercial use, I use them so much on my own personal scrap pages.  They add another little kick of pizzazz!

If you’d like to check out some overlays, I’ve got tons of them in my store.

Have an awesome Friday!

I was sitting here this morning thinking, “What can I post about today?”.  Hmmm, then I started searching articles and thought to myself, “There are a lot of benefits to digital scrapping.”  So, let’s talk about those:

1. Delete Button – Need I say more?

2. No Glue Required – Digital Scrapping is only messy when you want it to be!

3. You can make as many copies of your layouts as you need to, doesn’t take a lot of extra time or money to do it.

4. You can send that perfect Layout across the country to Grandma or your best friend with just the click of a button.

5. Digital Scrapbooking Supplies are so much cheaper (one kit can cost less then 1 paper scrapping element) and can be reused over and over again.

6. Freebies!  Do you get those paper scrapping?

7. No external storage – unless it’s on your external hard drive.  All your digi stuff is saved to your computer, not on your table!

8. Set Up?  Clean Up?  Open a folder – Shut your program.

9. You don’t have to print out your pictures first!

10. All of your pieces are saved digitally on top of your printed versions.  So you always have something that will not yellow with age.

11. Have you seen the hard bound Shutterly books?

12. Go Green!  The only paper you are using is what you print out. 

(Paper scrappers, don’t get mad at me!  I know there are reasons to paper scrap, but we are focusing on digi here.  ;o)

And now to your freebie!

2 cardboard frames!  Well, 2 cardboard frame clusters.  I hope you enjoy!

And, the colors match my newest kit that will be coming out next week!

Download

I was planning on offering a freebie today offered this freebie but now it is in the store, I was doing a tutorial, modifying it to make it my own, and got carried away.  So, my lil bee, turned into a mini-kit. 

 And doing a tutorial got me thinking about what I could talk to you about today.  Tutorials are such a wonderful tool to use!  Whether you be a new scrapper, a new designer, or a seasoned scrapper/designer.  We can always learn something new.  I hunt down tutorials all the time to see what I learn to bring you something new.  But, I always try to make it my own.  And, I suggest you do the same.  If we all did the same tutorial, but tweaked it a little bit, nothing would look like anybody elses.  On this tutorial, I used fur instead of smudge, and gave it legs, and textured the wings, and beveled the legs and antennae.  Just something to give it my own flair.  So, when you are searching for tutorials, look for something to change, colors, texture, size, pattern, whatever you can do.  

The beads in this freebie were made using my Bead Happy Script – another tool you can use to customize an element to make it your own, and it’s available for commercial use!  The Ric Rac was made using my Ricity Racity PSP Script.  Same thing, totally customizable and available for commercial use!

This is such an easy tutorial and would be great for someone just starting out using PSP.  (Also, it’s my first tutorial I’ve written, so be gentle with me!  I’ve been lazy about writing one – all those screen shots.  )

 As a newbie to PSP and scrapping, have you ever tried to get a picture in a frame?  Do you resize over and over trying to get it to fit perfectly? 

Here is a very simple way to get a picture into a frame.  Let me start off by saying, it’s easiest if your picture is the same shape as your frame.  So, if you’re using a circle frame, use your circle selection tool to select a portion of your picture that you want in the frame.  Then, you can follow this tut exactly the same way.

Let’s start out with your picture and your frame.

Now, you want to take your magic wand and select the inside of the frame.  (In this case where there are things inside the frame and it wouldn’t select a rectangle, I used my rectangle selection tool and started at the top, putting a little of the frame inside of my selection.

Now, if you used your rectangle selection tool, your selection is already the way you want it to be.  If you used your magic want, go up to Selections, Modify, Expand, then Expand your selection by 5.  That way your picture fits under the frame like it would if it was in a real frame.

Now, make your restore your photo, or click on the top bar of it to make it active.  Either Right Click on the top bar and hit copy or CTRL + C to copy it.

Go back to your frame and add a new raster layer.

Then, right click on the top bar of the frame (making sure your working with your new raster layer, which should already be selected) and paste – into selection.

Next, in your layers pallet either drag your photo layer under your frame layer, or right click on the photo layer, arrange, move to bottom.

Now, all you have to do it go to your layers pallet and merge visible.

There’s your picture inside of your frame!  Now to put it on a page, right click and copy or CTRL + C, then paste it as a new layer on the page you are working.  As you get more knowledgable in PSP, you can do this whole frame on the page you are working on. 

Now, you know you came for a little giftie, didn’t you? 

How about the frame that’s in the tutorial above?  Do you like it?  Do you want it?  Oh, ok, I’ll let ya have it!

First, I’d like to say, thank you to Micheline Martin for letting me use all of her goodies on that frame:  Twisted Essentials, Flower Essentials, Button Essentials 2, and Stitched up Holes.  The Paper Bag Frame was made using my Just Bag It – Combo Pack.  If you ever need a paper bag for anything, I’m your girl!  You get a smoother paper bag, a wrinkled paper bag, and 2 texture overlays to use on your papers.  Available for commercial use! 

Now, please don’t give out the download link to your friends.  Send them to Scrap Your Art Out to get the goodies themselves!

Download

Another easy tutorial from me, but, if you don’t know how to do it, it might not seem so easy for you. 

You’ve made this really neat doodle, you can always save it and open it up every time you use it, or you can save it as a brush, and just push a button and it’s right there.  So, let’s run through saving a brush in PSP.

First, download the doodle that I made for this tutorial.  It’s in PNG format for 2 purposes.  1 – so you can follow along as a PSP user, 2 – so if you use PS you can easily use it or make a brush out of it in your program. 

Here’s the doodle -

Now, let’s get started – unzip and open the doodle in PSP.

In PSP, brushes can be no bigger than 999 pixels.  This PNG is bigger (on purpose LOL).  Go to Image and Resize:

(I have made the pictures clickable so you can see them full size and don’t miss any of the settings)

Then, on this one resize it to 999 for height because that’s where it is the biggest.

Again, resize the height to 999.  Make sure your lock aspect ration is ticked off, that way it’ll resize everything to the right proportions.  If it was wider than taller, you would make the width 999.

Now, click on File/Export/Custom Brush

You will see this pop up:

Fill in the information – for this doodle you would use my information, because it’s my doodle.

Name:  HM-Doodle_Swirl

Author:  Heather Manning

Copyright:  ©2007 Heather Manning

Description:  A swirly Doodle

If this was your doodle, you would fill in your information.

Press OK

And there you have it, your doodle is now saved as a brush and you’ll have it any time you use your brushes.

I hope that helped out those of you who don’t know how to export a brush and  I hope those of you who do know how to do that, at least like the doodle!  )  

Another Easy Cheesy Tutorial!  This again is another beginner’s tutorial.  Got to learn the basics!  I have created this for you to work with:

If you already know how to hang something in PSP, but you like the charm set, go ahead and snag it!

Download Here 

Also, if you’d like more of the charms, I had a set on my blog for free on Wednesday.  Feel free to snag them!

Let’s get started!

First, extract the files then open them both in PSP.

Open a new file, transparent – 12 X 12, to give you room to work.  You can resize later.  Copy and paste each of the images on to your new canvas.  (To copy and paste, click on the image, and then CTRL + C – then right click at the top of your new image and paste as new layer.)

Make sure your charm is under your holder – click on the layer in your layers pallet to drag it under if you it isn’t. 

Arrange them how you want. 

First you are going to want to rotate the charm a little.

(Pictures are clickable to see them full size)

Image – Rotate – then use the settings you like.  I did Right, Free, and 20 degrees for this one.

Now use your lasso tool to select a portion of the loop, this will be the part that you bring to the top.  See where the dancing ants are above.  (Ok, they aren’t really dancing here, but they will be in yours because yours is active.  LOL)  

Now right click on your charm layer in your layers pallet.  Click promote selection to layer.  Then drag that layer to the top (right click on your promoted layer, hover over arrange, then click on bring layer to top). 

Now, right click on any of the layers, hover over merge - Click on Merge Visable.

There you have it, you charm is hung.  Now you can copy and paste the whole thing onto a layout, resize, and add a drop shadow (alas, that is a tutorial for another day.  LOL).  As you get more confident, you could do this whole tutorial on your layout, rather than doing it separately. 

You can use this to hang anything.  Hang something off a paper clip, loop a tag through a safety pin, dangle something from a fiber or piece of string.  Same technique, different objects.

Have a great day!

Another digi scrapping in PSP tutorial for a beginner.  And what is one of the first things we use as a new digiscrapper?  Quick Pages!  (Ok, we use them as we get farther along in our scrapping too, but they are great tool for those just starting out.)

Today, I have this quick page for you to use.

This quick page was made using parts of the soon to be released (Sept 1) Mega Kit from the designers at DSO, including myself. 

Download the Quick Page Here.

**ETA** – All of the files I offer are in PNG format (or jpgs if it is a paper) so it should be compatible with PSP and PS programs.  I’m not sure about the other programs, but if you can use a PNG, you should be able to any of my files.  You should be able to use anybodies’ files here at SYAO unless otherwise specified as a special file.  I hope that helps!

Let’s start by opening your QP (Quick Page) and the photo you want to work with.

(Images are clickable to see settings up close)

 On a quickpage that doesn’t have anything in the area where you would put the picture, you can use your magic wand with these settings to select:

If you have more than one spot to put a picture, you want to tick the little box that says contiguous.  That way it won’t select all of the opaque sections of the page.

If you have one like this, that has things over the picture spot, you are going to want to use your lasso and select a rectangle, a little bit outside of the actual box where you are going to put the picture.

See This Image for an example of that –  I didn’t put the image here in the tutorial as it’s basically the same thing, just a different way of selecting.

Now, you are going to want to click on your picture to make it active.  Then right click at the top and copy (or CTRL + C – I suggest learning the keyboard shortcuts.  It makes things so much easier!).

Go back to your quick page and either right click on it in your layers palette and create new raster layer or follow the image below. 

If you followed the image, you will now see this:

Click Ok

On your layers palette where you have the new layer, drag that below your quick page layer.

Right click on the top of your image, paste, paste into selection

Now your quickpage looks like this:

At this point, I resized my image so that the ric rac wasn’t directly over a important part of my son’s face.  If you need to do that, go to the top, image, resize, and I used 120%, all layers UNchecked.  Then I moved it around so it would fit a little better.

You also want to make the quick page your own, add some journaling, some other elements.  Make it so it reflects you and your style!  I never leave a quickpage the way I get it.  I don’t want it to look exactly like everyone else’s who might have gotten that QP also.

Ok, I didn’t actually put a lot on this one, but it’s a sneak peak of the Mega, can’t give it all away now can I?  LOL   

Hope this tutorial helped you out!  Have a great day!

 love playing with fonts!  I love word art and I always add some type of journaling to my pages.  This isn’t really a tutorial, more a commentary.Some pages look great without any words, letting the photos speak for themselves, other pages need a little something something to pack a punch, while other pages just call for some sweet journaling to tell the story.

I love using word art.  Though, I can never find it in my folders.  I suggest getting organized.  LOL  I just started putting the word art I have collected over time into it’s own folder within my elements folder so that I can find it when I want to use it.  Now, sometimes you can find the perfect word art, other times there doesn’t seem to be one out there that goes with your picture.  What’s a person to do?  Play with your fonts!  Don’t just use one, mix it up, use different sizes, different types – scripts, handwriting, block, bubble.  Make the point size different from one word to the other.  It’s so much fun!  Use an alpha when you can’t find word art that suits your page.  Or journal your heart out.

When your journaling a long page, don’t just type in the box and let it go at that.  Try to fill up some space.  Type some.  Then Type some more and place it in a different spot.  Check out the page that I did for the ADSR here.   I journaled all over the page.  I had a story to tell but I didn’t want it just lumped in the middle of the page.

This one didn’t need a lot of explanation once I had the title in place.  But, I added a little using different fonts to really emphasize what Kat was telling us with her little pouty face.

I just say, play with your fonts, play with your word art, play with your alphas, use what you have to really add to your photo. 

And for you today, I have a little word art.  It is in both Spanish (Español)  and English.  I’ve been working on Spanish (Español) Word Art a lot lately.  If that is something that you need for your scrapping pleasure you can find some here and here and I have some Spanish Word Art about Fairy Tales (Los Cuentos de Hadas) here.

Remember, do not give your friends the direct download link, send them to the blog to grab the word art for themselves.

Download

Have a great day!