TUTORIAL and 2 sb pages

First off, the tutorial. I'm gonna show you how to customize digital scrapbook items to fit your needs! All of my stuff is done in Photoshop CS5. I'm going to be using a piece of background paper that looks like wood from the kit "Working Overtime" by MT Lane Designs. Apparently she no longer has a blog so I will link to the image in my own photobucket. Save it and use it to go along with me in the tutorial if you like.

Background Paper

*note: I always start off with a new document 12x12 inches at 300 dpi

I wanted the wood background, but I needed it in different proportions and in a different color. Here's what I did: (Click the photos to see larger image)

Original file:

First, I transformed the image to make skinnier wood planks. To transform an image, go to Edit>Transform>Free Transform and drag the points however you desire. Here's a tip - holding down SHIFT while dragging a corner point keeps the image's proportions. I did not want to keep the proportions so I simply 'squished' the image.

Next, I duplicated the layer.

Now I have 2 layers of the same image. Move one of these layers so that the last and first planks of wood overlap (this way you still get the dark line dividing the planks in all the right places). I highlighted my second layer green so you can see where I moved it.

Now, for that layer you just moved, you're gonna want to mess with it so it doesn't look like a repeating pattern. All I did was rotated it 180 degrees.

Repeat the duplicating and rotating until your page is filled. Here's what it looks like now

You're going to want to merge the layers together so it's just one image again. Select the layers by holding down control (PC) or command (Mac) and clicking on the layers. Right click then click Merge Layers

Now we're going to work on recoloring it. There are a thousand ways to go about doing this. Here's how I did it:

Desaturate the image to turn it to grayscale

Now create a new layer

Fill that layer with a color close to what you want the wood to be

Change that layer's blending mode to Multiply.

Here's what I got:

Now for the final customization! Click on your desaturated wood layer. Go to Image>Adjustments>Brightness/Contrast

Play with the brightness until you get the final color you want.

Thanks for stopping by! This was my first tutorial so let me know if I can clear anything up. And don't forget to visit my SITE!

Now for my scrapbook pages. One of which uses this new and improved background paper. I'm not sure yet if I like the swimming pool one. I was in a 'just get it done' mood rather than a 'make it perfect' mood. You might be seeing a remake of that one in the future.

^credits:

background - Working Overtime by MT Lane Designs

clothespin - Americana by Ziggy Fan Scraps

string - Buddy Boy by CuddleBeez Scraps

^credits: Splash Kit by The Scrapping Sisters

clip - Daditude by Peppermint Creative

Linking to:

zoo

^credits:

clear pocket - What’s in Your Pockets? by Katie Pertiet

zoo wordart from Word Art World by Jennifer

orange paper - Color Theory in Orange by TLC designs

yellow paper - Blast Off by Jodi from Ginger Scraps

cream paper - Valentine’s Day by Sweet Tweet Designs

green paper - To the Moon & Back by Amanda Dykan

black paper - Essential Blacks by Emily Giovanni

And check out this blog background I made! Don't forget to visit my site: KimrasKreations

Linking to:

Scrapbook Pages and Blog Background

^credits:

Rock With You Mini

green bracket - Funk-a-licious by Heavenly Scraps

bracket template - brack-ity by Kim B

orange paper - oktoberfest by joyful heart designs

zippers closed by Gunhild

blue ribbon - Whats Up by Andrea Dickinson

green ribbon - desmond and molly

stitch and alpha- power crafter by Bren Boone Designs

^credits:

twill ribbon - sweet by angie svoboda

stitch - Shabby Stitchin by Christina Renee

duct tape elements - Crime Scene Charlie by Charlie’s Digiscraps

bg paper - Color Theory Gold by Christina Renee

scallop - Moments by RK Design

scatter dots - Tinker Toy by Studio Flergs

frame - Birthday Freebie by Designs by Angelica E.

grid paper - I Love Paris by happy-scrap

Linking to:

So I was on one of my digiscrapping freebie blogs tonight

http://handpickedfreebies.blogspot.com/

And I clicked on one of the freebies and it led me to Jen Martakis Designs. I loved what I saw SOOO much and thought it was worth blogging about. Look at some of these things!!!

http://jenniferann75.blogspot.com/

First Official "Craft"

Yay! I finally made something. And it was free! DH took DS golfing and I stayed behind to clean. Well, while I was cleaning, I came across an old board book of DeVon's that was torn into pieces and all chewed on. I had been holding off throwing it away because it was his favorite book from about the time he was 6 months to 18 months, or so. I decided it was just time to cut the head off so I grabbed the one piece of it I had found and headed to the trash can. I stop cold as I realized I could make something out of it. I LOVE board book transformations. I went to look through the photos we have of DS, but there were no recent ones worth displaying. Being a digital scrapper, I turned to photoshop. I had a picture of him I liked, but I didn't like the distracting background. So, I cropped him out, put a background paper behind him (elegent mess paperpack by Joyce Paul Designs) and decided on wings as embellishment (Baby Kit from Newlife Dreams Designs). With a boy, I never use wings on my scrapbook pages so this was the perfect opportunity. We have no color ink, so I had no choice but to grayscale, but i'm a sucker for b&w. I just printed it out on my computer on regular paper with regular ink. I mod podged the picture onto the backside of the book page so the title of the book would be on the back. Gotta preserve those memories! I used a hard plastic calculator cover to smooth air bubbles and it worked perfectly. Filed the edges and VOILA! Now I gotta figure out what I want to do with it. Since we're pretty much nomads, it might have to be sent to Grandma to display at her house.

Shoulda cropped the picture closer. Since I turned it to black and white, you can't tell he's wearing his auntie's cowboy boots and he looks bow-legged! oh well...

Linking to:

Scrapbook Page and New Blog Backgrounds

When my old external hard drive crashed, I lost several scrapbook pages so I've been attempting to recreate them. Here's one of them. It's one of my all time favorite pages, too.

Here's a couple backgrounds I made recently for my sister and a friend:

More Blog Backgrounds

New Blog Header

click on the 'blog' key above and see the new header I made for my blog!

And don't forget to visit my SITE