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Behind the Scenes: 5 Tricks & Tools I Use Most Often

Published by Sula H.

Today, I’m going to take you once more behind the scenes of my own processes of scrapbooking. I thought, it would be a good idea to show you some of the tricks, tools, and techniques I use on almost every layout of mine.

 

1. Alignment

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There is no page, on which I don’t use the alignment tool. Most often, I use it to align alphas, and to position my clusters on the page (if I want to make sure something is centered or spread out evenly). There are two ways to align things on a layout:

  1. Align within a selection (Marquee Tool or Magic Wand)
  2. Align in relation to other elements (select all layers you want aligned and align to each other, or spread out evenly)

 

Aligning the alpha

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2. Blending & Opacity

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I love making things look realistic on a page. One way to make your journaling (fonts) and brushes look as if they were really placed on your paper (as opposed to floating) is by adjusting blending modes or opacity.

Go to Blending Options, and you can separate the little modifiers by pressing alt while moving them. Experiment with this, and you’ll see what I mean.

Text written “directly” on the paper

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3. Sticker Effect

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Often, I work with fonts to turn them into an alpha for my title. That’s when knowing how to create a sticker comes in most handy. As always with Photoshop, there are multiple ways to go about this, but the method I use most frequently is by selecting the layer with the Magic Wand Tool, then expanding my selection, adding a new layer underneath the original layer, filling that with a solid color to use as a clipping mask for my papers.

Sticker effect for the title

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4. Actions

I can’t live without actions any more. They turn a mediocre photo into something like art. They will help you modify your photo’s colors to match the colors of the scrapbook kit you want to use. There are tons of free actions out there for you to play with and improve your photos.

 

Photo modified to match general color scheme

 

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5. Unsharp Mask

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Every page needs to get saved in the end (of course), so before I do that, I flatten my image and run it through a filter “Unsharp Mask” in order to save it for the web.

 

 

Shady …

Published by Sula H.
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Today is the day when I can actually see my shadow. Which means that today is the day when the pollution isn’t all too bad. Which means that today is the day when the sun is out. Which means that today is the day when I can walk outside in a sweater without freezing for the first time this year. Which means that it’s starting to get warmer outside. Which means that
SPRING is coming!!!

Journaling Café: Conversation

Published by Sula H.

We talk. Everyday. To a lot of people. But how many of our conversations actually make it onto our scrapbook pages or into our journaling? Today, I got you a couple of prompts to journal about conversations and the way we communicate.

130304-Journal-Inspiration-v2And of course, I can’t let you go without giving you some inspiration with one of my own pages …

 

Pipe & Leak Problems

Published by Sula H.

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It finally happened. Not that I ever wanted it to happen. I mean, I always felt so lucky whenever one of my neighbors had to deal with it, but I was spared. And I’ve been spared for years when all of my neighbors around me had to deal with it.

The problem? Call it a pipe problem. Or a leak problem. Or a pipe-with-a-leak-problem … whatever you call it: the results are always the same: Water.

In place wheres you don’t actually want to have it.

Like on the bathroom floor. When you’ve just mopped your whole house and expect everything to be nice and in order.

But this time all was not good. Because it finally happened to me: a pipe broke and now I’m having to deal with water, right before I actually wanted to go to bed.

 

But on a more positive note: it’s just a small leak, which will (hopefully) not affect my entire home. And after it’s been my turn at last, I should be save from leaks for another couple of years, don’t you think?

P2D: QQ Candy

Published by Sula H.

I found myself another source of inspiration for my scrapbook pages.

I found this page at http://www.jbsmercantile.com, a website full of inspiration and fun layouts, so you might want to check it out if you’ve never heard of it.

Anyhow, what intrigued me about this page was the composition and the use of patterned papers and stitches, and you’ll find that these are the aspects I’ve tried to maintain when I worked on my own version. Take a look at the end result:

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