When I digital scrapbook, I create a whole layout on one document in Photoshop.  After I am finished with the page, I copy and paste each half of the layout onto separate "pages."  That way I can place them in my "books" that are later published.  You'll notice that I leave margins around the edges of each page to make room for "bleeding." Bleeding is where the picture is printed all the way to the edges, and some of the picture is lost in the printing.  

The most pages I have done in one week was about 160, which was a book I made of my family reunion in July 2006.  For the most part, the pages were very simple, and I used very few embellishments (not only because of time constraint, but also because I have five brothers who aren't really into "frills").  It was quite a task.  My mom came out to take care of my kids so I could finish the project before Christmas.  NOTE TO SELF: Don't attempt to do that many in a week again.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

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.
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Sunday, April 13, 2008

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.
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