ErinInk

Photoshop is your friend: Tip #7

Re-coloring Elements II

by Shirley Woodard Polk

Last time we learned how to re-color papers.  Click here to visit that lesson again.  This week I will teach you how to very simply re-color elements.  This is great on buttons, flowers, or even tags.
1. Open your item in Photoshop. I used a flower from the Cait Kit.
2. Drag your item onto your layout or a new canvas.


3. Command-click on the item’s thumbnail in the Layers palette 
4. Create a new layer (Layer > New > Layer).
5. With your new layer targeted, go to Edit > Fill (or use brushes, etc). Fill this layer with your chosen color.

 

6. In your Layers palette, set the blending mode of your new layer to Hue. The Hue blending mode keeps the Saturation and Luminosity of the bottom layer, but adds in the Hue (or color) of the top layer. Neat!

Photoshop is your friend: Tip #6

Recoloring Basics

This tutorial today is from Shirley (dstnd2be).

In this super easy Photoshop tutorial I will show you how to re-color paper in Photoshop. This tutorial is very fun to just mess around with and see what different colors you can create. Once you master these techniques you can move into more advance options and recolor certain colors of the paper or even just an element or two contained in the paper.

1: Open the paper you want to recolor.  I chose one of Erin Ink's Cait papers. 



2: Go to Images > Adjustments > Hue Saturation.



3: From there just adjust your Hue and Saturation sliders until you achieve the color you want.
Hue will change the actual colors
Saturation will change the intensity of the colors.



4: If my colors still aren't exactly what I am looking I go into Images > Adjustments > Color Balance and tweak them to get them just right.





5: Final Result:

Photoshop is your friend: Tip #5

Cutting out one item from a sheet of items

This post today is from Renee.

I remember my first few experiences tackling digital layouts, and I have to say, they were anything but painless. Sure, opening up a file with paper or a single element was easy enough, but then, I opened up a file that had several elements on it, and I just wanted to use one of the many on the sheet. What was I to do? Seriously, do I HAVE to use all of these? Do I erase the ones I don’t want. Seriously, what DO I do? I found out the hard way – by reading Photoshop books and through trial and error. With that in mind, if you are a beginner, I have a little tip for you today – it’s about how to cut out a single element from a sheet of elements using the rectangular marquee tool.  Simple. Fun.

Thankfully, I have some great products to work with on this one. Here’s a page I did recently using Erin’s “Pamper Yourself” kit. I just love this kit, and I can see myself using it over and over again.



I have to say that I think this page is pretty darn cute because those papers really accentuate that photo, but the layout is missing something. What I really want is some word stickers to go on the edge of the paper squares and a tag to go under the flower attached to the frame. When I open up Erin’s “Pamper Yourself Wordart tickets,” there is a full menu to tickets to choose from, so here’s what to do if you want to use just one.
 
Step One:
Open up the file with the elements the element/s that you want to use, and pick out one that you like.



Step Two:
Go over to your tools palette, and click on the rectangular marquee tool. It looks like this:


Step Three:
Go back to your sheet of elements and draw a box around the element that you like.


Step Four:
Go back to your tools palette and select the “move” tool.

Step Five:
Go back to your sheet of elements, and click inside the box, hold your mouse down, and drag it over to your layout.


Step Six:
Resize it by holding the shift key and dragging the corners in or out, depending on it you want to make it bigger or smaller. Then, must move it where you want it to be.

Step Seven:
If you want to go back to the same sheet to select another element. Go back to the sheet, and hit cmd or ctrl + D to deselect. Then repeat the previous steps.

Step 8:
Tah-Dah! A few little embellies on a layout make a big difference.


Have fun.

Photoshop is your friend: Tip #4

Everyone loves a little eyeliner (Using the “stroke” function)

Post by Amy_M.

Out of all my make-up products, eyeliner is a must have! I love my eyeliner and I think it makes all the difference when I am trying to look my best. It just defines my eyes and adds that extra definition that I am going for!

When I paper scrap, I always outline many things on the page with a pen. I almost always outline my sticker alphabets with a black pen to give them an extra pop. I also outline my mats and journaling blocks. It must come from my love of eyeliner. I am always looking for that extra definition to my elements.

I was a bit concerned about how would outline things once I turned to digital scrapping.  It didn’t take me long to find the “stroke” function and I was all set. Let’s go through this simple process…

1. Click on the layer that you want to outline in the layer palette.
2. Click on “Edit” at the top of your screen.
3. Scroll down to Stroke Outline Selection – click on this
4. Choose your width, color, and location. (Try different widths and colors to see what you like. I normally use “outside” for my location.)
5. I usually do not do anything to the blending mode since I want to emulate drawing with a pen, but you could play with this feature too for a variety of results.
6. Click ok

Now your element is outlined!

What about outlining text? I often use fonts for my titles on scrapbook pages.  I want to achieve that outline look, but when I go to the “edit” section, the Stroke Outline Section is not available. Well I must first simplify my text. Simply right click on this layer and the layers palette and choose “simplify” text. Now you can go back to the previous steps and outline your font.
 
The following page, Be Yourself, has several examples of the stroke function. I merged the photo with the photo layer and then I added an orange stroke to match my border. I used a width of 20. I then wanted just a bit more definition so I added one more black stroke with a width of 10. I also outlined the title twice. I used white and then orange for that extra punch.

I use this function often and I hope you will enjoy using it too!  Happy Scrapping!

Credits: **All from ErinInk** Be Yourself Layered Template, Worn Christmas Solids, Textured Solids No 2, Bad Fog Paper, A Bit of Spring Paper, Stitched Down No 1, 365 Word Strips No 1, Valentine Tidbits, Swirly Dot Brushes, Going Dotty Brushes

except for Paula Kesselring – String Along, Traci Murphy – Love Plus One Kit, Font - Kayleigh

Photoshop is your friend: Tip #4

How to create your own actions in Photoshop 

This tip comes from Renee. Look for her interview on Friday!

I don’t know about you, but I love creating my own actions. I have actions for resizing, actions that combine other actions, and my own custom actions. For those of you who already do this, you already know the satisfaction of clicking the button to run your own action, and for those who don’t know how to run your own actions, you’ll soon learn just how easy it is.

Click on the new action icon. I’ve put a star around it.

You’ll see this box.

You’ll most likely want to place your action in the folder called “Default Actions.”

Name your action. I’m going to name mine: “Resize for Gallery.” You can even create shortcut if you want. Isn’t that terrific?

Once you’ve named your action and decided on your shortcut, hit record.

Now, just do whatever you want to do for your action. In this case, I want to resize my page for a gallery, so I’m going to perform the steps to do that.

First click on “image,” and find “image size.”

 
This box will come up. Now, each gallery has file size requirements, so check the gallery where you are posting to see what those requirements are. I’m creating this action to post at Scrapartist.com, so my dimensions will be based on their gallery requirements: Resolution: 72 pixels per inch (do the resolution first), 700 x 700 pixels then click OK.

If this all that you want to do for you action. Click the stop button. Voila! You now have your very own action to use and save you time. Just save your file as a jpeg and upload. You can even create your own action to save as a jpeg. So fun.

Photoshop is your friend: Tip #2

Using the Patch tool in Photoshop

Renee (rsowers) is sharing this tip with you today. Thanks, Renee for sharing this wonderful little gem of a tool.

Have you ever tried to clone a portion of photo but felt unsatisfied with results? Do you find that sometimes cloning just takes too darn long? What you need is the Patch tool. I, like so many others, have spent too many valuable minutes cloning portions of an image with the clone stamp or healing brush that could have been fixed in seconds with the patch tool.   
What is the Patch tool? It’s very similar to the healing brush, but it’s much faster, and it’s great for cloning out large blemishes or large unwanted parts of a photo.    

First things first:

Open up Photoshop

Locate the Patch Tool.  You might have the healing brush as your default, so look for the Band-aid icon first. 

Right click on a mouse or option-click to locate the patch tool.

Select a photo. I’ve chosen this photo taken by my photographer friend, Monique. She’s the one who showed me this tool as she was teaching me some of her photo editing techniques on a photo shoot she did for me. This one, of course, hasn’t been touched up yet. I like this picture; it’s a lovely close up of me and my little mister, Holden; however, the drawback of a photo this close up is that it shows my wrinkles and the little scar on my forehead. It also shows the big mole on my cheek.  I’d normally not get rid of a mole since it’s part of who I am, but for sake of showing you the patch tool, I will.

Once you’ve chosen your picture and opened it in Photoshop, click on the patch tool. At the top of the screen, you’ll see a space to check for “source” or “destination.” Check “source.”

Now, using  the patch tool, draw a circle around the part of the photo that you’d like to get rid of. In this case, I’m getting rid of my mole, so I’ll draw a circle around my mole.

7. Hold down the mouse, and drag the circle to a part of the photo that would be a replacement for the part you are trying to get rid of.  In this case, I moved it to another place on my cheek. 

 

8.    When you reach your destination, let go of the mouse and voila!  No more mole or indication that it was there!

9.    With a few more blemishes touched up with the patch tool, and the use of the clone stamp to remove my wrinkles, it’ll be perfect for hanging on the wall.  Keep in mind that the patch tool can be used for all parts of a photo, not just skin.

Have fun!!

Photoshop is your friend: Tip #1

Creating Sepia Tone with Photoshop

Shirley (dstnd2be) is sharing this tip with you today. Be on the lookout for her interview on Friday!

A sepia tone is a reddish brown monochrome tint. When applied to a photo, it gives the picture a warm, antique feeling.

Always wondered how people get those cool looking sepia tone prints? Do you have sepia envy? Well, wait no longer, you have the recipe! At least in Photoshop that is.

Step 1::

Launch Photoshop and open your file.

Step 2::

Choose Image >Adjustments > Black and White (Command + Option + Shift + B). Use the options in the Black and White Dialog box shown in photo below.  DO NOT CLICK OK.

Step 3::

Click the Tint box at the bottom of the palette. Use the options shown in photo below and click ok.

**NOTE** If you would like to save these settings for use on future photos click on the drop down menu and save.

FINAL RESULT::

QUICK TIP::

Use your cursor to click anywhere on the image and the predom color will be highlighted in the palette, making it easier to adjust the darkness or lightness of specific areas.