Decorative Pages - Digital scrapbooking premade templates, 12x12 kits, embellishments and designer paper

Tutorial #2 - Adobe Photoshop Basics
Step-by-Step Digital Scrapbooking for Beginners.

Today's tutorial we are going to create this simple 2 page layout.

step 1 tutorial #1 adobe photoshop basic

1. Go to File on the menu bar you will get a drop menu click on open. Look for the folder that has your kit and open it. Click on the items you want to open in your photo editing software. Do the same to get your pictures.

2. When I create I like to do a 2 page layout. Decide on your 1st layer. I’m using the blue design. Now, I am going to use the tan paper with the white specks to create a large corner design. In order to do this, first, I need to make sure the layer is not locked. I can verify that by going to the layers palette. You will know that the layer is locked if you see a lock icon. Backgrounds need to be unlocked before you can click and drag them anywhere. To unlock go to the menu bar click on layer, and then click on duplicate layer. Now you have 2 layers of the same paper on 1 file. To create this corner design go to the toolbox and use the magnetic lasso, trace the corner design from 1 end to the other, double click where the lines meet and you should see broken lines in the outline of the design. Next go to the toolbox and use the move tool to click and drag to the next file. To drag a layer you right click hold down and drag it to the next file.

3. I transferred a 4x4 picture frame into the layout using the move tool. To get the size I wanted I clicked on edit in the menu bar scrolled down to transform and clicked on scale. Right after you scale an image you need to click on the move tool, a box will open up asking you if you want to apply the transformation, click apply. The other 2 frames I duplicated them by going to layers on the menu bar and clicking on duplicate layer.

4. Are we having fun yet! What I’m about to show you is a super easy way to crop and frame your pictures. First of all, decide if you want to crop, or not to crop! If you don’t want to crop you will need to resize your picture to whatever size you want. If you want to crop, the quickest way I know is to use the magic wand tool on the blue of the frame. You will see a broken line trace the blue of the frame. Next, use your move tool to click and drag the blue square of the picture frame onto the picture. Go to you layers palette and change the opacity of the blue square to about 45 or 50%. The idea is to make it transparent enough to see what you want to crop, now you want to use the rectangular marquee tool to trace on top of the blue square layer. Next, go to your layers palette and click on the eye of the blue square layer. You want the blue square to disappear. On your layers palette click on the picture layer (make sure that it is not locked) click and drag onto your frame. I like to merge my picture to the frame layer so that I can move or rotate the picture latter on. To merge layers all you do is go to layers on the menu bar, click on merge visible. Before you merge layers make sure all other layers are invisible by clicking on the eye next to the layer in the layers palette. When you click on the eye, the eye disappears and so does the layer.

5. Create the 2nd layout: From layout 1 I clicked and dragged the tan corner design into layout 2. I used the transform sub menu on the edit menu bar to flip the corner design horizontal.

6. I introduced a solid blue paper the same value as the blue design paper. I created a border by using the rectangular marquee tool, and then I clicked and dragged to layout 2.

7. Next, I added the pictures merged with the frames. Opened the rest of the embellishments and added them to the layout. Did my Journaling, and now I’m ready to save to a cd and print.