Have Your Way With Paper

HYWWP Design Team Member MemberSince: July 14, 2005 10,000 posts

Ok, here it is. I did something dumb to put this together. So I've had to take photos of my screen shots, so I apologize for any blurriness and crookedness. Live and learn (but did not want to do it over again, which was my only other option).

Here goes:

HOW TO CREATE A LAYOUT USING LAYERS IN PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS (OTHER USERS WILL NEED TO ADJUST, sorry)

Open your photo editing program, such as Photoshop (something, like Elements, Creative Suite, etc), or Paint Shop Pro. Only programs that work with layers can do this so if you have something you think will work, make sure to save frustration.

Go to “My Pictures”. Find the photos you want. With your program open and your photos beside it, drag each one over to the workspace. It will look something like this:

Now find a background paper. You need to have either created one of your own or have some downloaded in a file. Make your choice and add it to the mix. Again, just drag it in.

You will notice that these are layered, or stacked, overlapping each other. When you click on one, it will suddenly be the one you can work on. REMEMBER THIS PRINCIPLE: THE LAST ONE YOU CLICKED ON IS THE ONE YOU WILL BE WORKING ON. If you find you are not doing what you want on a layer, it well could be that that is not the last layer you selected.

Next, arrange your layers as you would like them.

I want everything else to go on top of the blue bg paper. So I have arranged my workspace like this:

Using my MOVE TOOL (in my case it’s the top tool on the left hand side vertical tool bar, (if you have any Photoshop program it should look similar. My apologies to Paint Shop users – you will have to find yours), drag each photo over on to the blue bg paper. IT IS VERY LIKELY THAT THE PHOTO WILL BE TOO LARGE. Drag the corner to resize equally till it fits smaller for you. You can change the size any time.

(I am keeping my layers smaller so I can show this all to you. Often I go back and forth between totally opening them up to making them smaller again)

Above is what it may look like if your photo is too large. Here I have reduced it, and added the next photo:

Now I will drop down the three photos where they are no longer in the workspace, and open up the paper will all three on it. The photos are still available, if I need them, tho I could simply close them as I am not likely to need them again, unless I mess up! Or want to change them somehow.

PLEASE NOTE: YOU DO NOT NEED TO MAKE A COPY OF YOUR PHOTOS IN THIS SCENARIO. THE COPY IS WHAT YOU SEE ON THE PAPER. WHEN YOU GO TO CLOSE YOUR PHOTO, IF ASKED TO SAVE CHANGES, SAY “NO”. THAT WAY, YOU ARE ASSURED OF YOUR ORIGINAL.

Now you can position your photos. I am keeping this simple, so no frames or anything. Those would usually just be another layer to work with. I fiddle around to see where I want them, just like I would a regular paper LO (or use a sketch, but not doing that in this case). I resize till I get the size I want. This is what I have so far:

Now what I don’t like is that the slanted photo of Em walking the dog is under the other two. So I select the layer option at the top, then a drop down thing comes down, and I choose Arrange then Bring to front.

So here is the result:

So far, so good.

I’d like a title, journaling, and some pretty stuff. Then maybe pop the photos off the page a bit.

Title. Simply type right on to the paper (this time). Choose a title and a font and a spot. Oh, yes, and a color and size. 

I decided I’d like to try the blue of Emily’s shirt for the title color. This is what I do: I choose the eyedropper, bring it over the Emily’s shirt, and click. Voila, I have that blue!

Now I switch back to the T for typing, click where I want my title, type it in.

I want to split up the title so I type part of it here:

And the rest here:

I would like to slant the upper one, and make the lower one large (I did select the largest size the font would give me but it’s not large enough). So I go to the MOVE TOOL again (the one tool I use over and over and over again), the adjust. When you select any item there will be a little circle at the bottom (you can see that on :”walk” above). Simply turn there till you get it positioned as you like. Then to make the “walk” larger, simply grab the corners and stretch it out.

You still with me?

Now journaling. Again, keeping it simple. I will type right on the paper, using a different font.

Now that’s done. I typed all at once, then adjusted to fit.

Now I want to add something pretty. I look through my stuff, and add my choices:

These are on transparent bg’s, and only the item will be dragged over. Now I will put them wherever I like.

(hint: when dragging items on a transparent bg, be sure to grab the item itself to get it over to your paper)

Remember you can put things on top or behind (back to front, front to back) so there’s lots of flexibility.

So now I want to add dimension. I will do that by either using drop shadows or bevels.

The only thing I beveled was the orange flower. The rest drop shadows.

AND LAST! MERGE IT. That is found in layers, then choose Merge Visible.

Save it. You are done!

Note: the file name will be the name of the paper you chose. Don’t forget to change that to the file name you want. That will protect the paper to use again, and give you the name you want for the LO.

NOTE: IF YOU WANT TO CLOSE DOWN FOR A WHILE BUT YOU ARE NOT FINISHED, DO NOT MERGE OR FLATTEN. JUST SAVE IN PHOTOSHOP (I STORE MINE IN “MY PICTURES”. WHEN YOU GO BACK, YOU CAN GET BACK TO WORK. BUT REMEMBER, YOU CAN NO LONGER GO BACK TO SOMETHING YOU DID BEFORE SAVING, SO BE SURE YOU ARE OK WITH WHAT YOU’VE DONE. THE MAIN THING IS YOU CAN STILL MOVE THINGS AROUND AND CONTINUE TO EDIT. MAKES SENSE?

Finished LO:

Preparing for this class took some time (maybe two hours), but actually doing a LO takes about half as long as a paper LO, unless I spend a ton of time looking for what I want to use, which is my usual problem with paper LO's. Once you catch on, it's easy. And with companies such as Arts Cow, you can get printing done well and at a reasonable rate.

I hope you will try this, and that you have learned something in the process, something you will continue to use.

OH MY GOODNESS! what a great tutorial!!!

i;m gonna have to play more. gotta wait till nathan is with dad though.

! so much!!!

Good Job Marlene!!..

You actually gave more than I thought. If this is too overwhelming for beginners, maybe you can do classes on sections of what you did.

If anyone has Paint Shop Pro, I may e able to help. I have PSP8 and it does pretty much the same thing, jsut listed differently.

Paula, I expect to see more digital from you..

..

well, i'm gonna try more digi sketches!

HYWWP Design Team Member MemberSince: July 14, 2005 10,000 posts

Roe, not too complicated, really. Take it step by step. Glad to help anyone who's stumbling along.

One thing you can do is limit it to one photo. Then it's less to do. But of course, I didn't do that! It's all the same, no matter how many you do. It's all layers.

If you take what I did layer by layer, there are something like a dozen layers involved.

I did not even begin to deal with the actual creating you can do.

I am going to add a challenge, Roe, that you can add to the July challenges.

Marlene...we don't think it is..

..

I know I was lost until I found my deform tool..

..Up until that point, I couldn't figure out how to move anything on the page..

..

I still haven't played much with PSE. Guess because as long as I'm getting what I want in PSP, I'm ok...

Marlene, I will add ths to our ongoing challenge thread!! I'll put your challenges right under the 'class'...

i have GOT to try this!!

HYWWP Design Team Member MemberSince: 29 Oct 2007

Yeah, and that looks like it took a ton of work explaining so well, Marlene.
Thank you!

HYWWP Design Team Member MemberSince: 7/26/06

I've no clue how I missed this post!
Marlene, you did a great job explaining an thank you so much for making it super easy to follow! Thanks!!!!!

yippee!

HYWWP Design Team Member MemberSince: 29 Oct 2007

LOOK AT YOU GO GIRL!!!
I'm so proud of you!

me too!