February 2003

I'm starting on 2003 now. I don't think it will take as long to make because I am not going to do all my pages like this one, there aren't as many photos (only about 1500). For most of the pages, I'm just going to drag and drop the photos into the pre-made templates in Blurb.com. I just don't have three years to finish one album. I need to get them done. I am still going to touch up every photo in Photoshop, so that each photo is 300 ppi (standard for commercial printing), and also adjust the levels in each photo. That will take a bit of time.
As for this page, I really like how it turned out. I found this fun penguin font, and I was able to add color to it with the brush tool. I had fun creating the look of snow for the borders by using the creative cutting tool and adding a bevel. I did have to smudge the inner edges, though, so that the lines wouldn't look so harsh. The background was fun to make, too. I LOVE the brush tool. Overall, I am pleased with the way it turned out.

What to do when your picture is too dark. . .

How do I get from this:
to this:Well, it's quite simple, really. It can all be done in Photoshop with a click of a few buttons. There are actually a few ways you can do this, but here is how I do it:

After the photo is in Photoshop (any version), look in the layers pallette (on the right-hand side of the screen). There is a little black and white circle. Press that. A drop-down menu appears. Click LEVELS. A nice graph shows up. I usually just click the AUTO button, and adjust the middle arrow a little, and that's it. If it doesn't look right, check to see if there is any white (or a thin black line) on the left or right side of the graph. If there is, slide the arrows until the graph starts going up. There are other ways of adjusting the colors, and if you experiment with the RGB drop down (in the levels menu), you can adjust the RED GREEN BLUE individually.) Experiment with it and you will see what I mean. If you don't like what you see, just click CANCEL. It is so easy to improve the look of your photo.

Six More Layouts Left!

Over the weekend I finished two layouts, and now only have about six more until I am finished with my 2005 book. The book will be about 320 pages long when I am finished, which is about 160 layouts. I can't believe I'm almost there.

Here are the two layouts I finished this weekend. The one with Brooke holding the dandelion was a template I made, which took me a while to finish. The second one started out as a template, but I got frustrated with the limited ability to place my photos, so I placed the pictures on a separate document exactly how they were placed on the template, and was able to finish it more quickly.

I must mention the background. I created the background by first choosing a color (I got a nice brown by using the color picker on the horse, and then I got a nice grunge brush and adjusted the hue jitter, spacing, etc (I experimented with the brush settings). I then added a bevel, adjusting it down a little, and then added a shadow to give it even more of a grunge look.

Templates

I decided to try a technique where you create a template (like the first picture here), and then use it over and over again to create different pages. The template was very easy to use. I look in scrapbooking magazines to find layouts I like and then recreate them in Photoshop or I even recreate templates from pages I created. The above template is an idea I got from Memory Maker's magazine, "Scrapbook Idea Gallery 5," January 2005, pp. 81. So I used this template to create two totally different pages. The first page is from 2005, and the 2nd page is from this past January. It was an easy technique, but I still think I can create a page faster without the templates. I found that when filling in the templates with my own pictures, Photoshop CS3 is a lot better, because when I paste in the picture, CS3 creates a new layer with a layer mask, which allows more flexibility in editing, like adding shadows, bevels, etc... The one thing I didn't like about this technique was that even though you can position the photo within the boxes, you cannot move the boxes around on the page. I like a little more freedom than that.

You guessed it--I got my inspiration for this lo from the Italian flag. I never realized how "Christmassy" the Italian flag looked until I did this page. Perhaps I could just change the pictures and wording out and reuse it for a Christmas scrapbook page. One nice thing about digital scrapbooking is that you can take a layout you've already created, and with a few simple steps, create what I like to call, "Scrapover templates. You just need to change the pictures, the text, and, if you wanted, the colors. Very easy to do. I'm actually thinking about using layouts I've already completed and creating pages with new photos and backgrounds. That way I don'thave to spend so much time creating a layout. Maybe I'd get caught up.

I really like how this layout turned out. This lo is supposed to span over two pages, and the spine of the book will run down the middle of the page (hopefully blocking out the guy standing in the way). My color inspiration was from the French flag, except the large picture in the middle is covering what would be white. It wasn't hard to find a red; all I had to do was click on my color picker, and run the little eyedrop over Stuart's shirt until I found the red I wanted. For the blue, I ran the color picker over the blue overalls on the statue. Quick and easy layout. I finished it last week or the week before.

Las Vegas Carnival May 2005

Here's another quick page that I did last week or the week before. I took the pictures on the left with our video camera (still shots), and the resolution and coloring weren't that great, so I made them black and white. If you notice, these last two pages I've done I used the outer glow feature in Photoshop. I really like this feature because it's quick, and it gives the photos a little more definition. I've found that on darker pages, sometimes the shadows don't show up as much as I'd like, so I like to add the light/dark contrast to the lo.