All posts tagged: behind the scenes

Behind the Scenes: Some “Scripty” Fonts

Published by Sula H.

I admit it flat-out. I’ve been a font-lover for it seems like forever. I’ve loved fonts and accumulated them on my computer long before I ever even heard of digital scrapbooking or knew anything like that existed. Now that I’ve been on Darcy Baldwin’s CT (she’s a fontographer at Sweetshopppe – for those who don’t know her) the number of font files on my computer seem to explode (and yep, I’ve heard the rumors that this slows down your computer, so eventually I’ll have to start downsizing my font database). Anyways, the point I’m trying to make: I love me some fonts. So, I thought today, for an easy start, I’d share another couple of my favorite fonts with you. This time I’ve gathered some of my more script-style fonts, and here they are: These are the ones I go to first, before even looking at some of the other fonts on my computer (when I’m looking for something scripty). In any case, they are available for free at the usual font downloading places (dafont, …

Behind the Scenes: Using Paper Piecing Patterns in Photoshop

Published by Sula H.

The other day I promised you I would do a tutorial about how to actually use paper piecing patterns such as scrapbooksetc.com offer for free on their website. And today is the day! Like many other resources on the internet, these paper piecing patterns come in .pdf files, which is great when you only want to use them to trace the shapes on an actual piece of cardstock. But how do you go about when you want to use them with a graphic program such as Photoshop? The answer is really simple, and there are different ways how you can actually utilize pdf paper piecing patterns, create clipping masks, or resize these patterns to better meet your needs. Access Patterns in Photoshop The first thing you have to do when working with pdf files, is make sure, you can access the file with photoshop. Some files easily allow that: Simply right click on the file in your folder, and choose the option “Open with …,” and then pick “Photoshop” in the fly-out menu. This will …

Behind the Scenes: It’s On My List

Published by Sula H.

Admitted – I love lists! My desk is strewn with them. Always! At the moment, I have about seven lists of various shapes and sizes cluttering my desk, in addition to all the other little notes and reminders I keep collecting. I have book lists (work/study related), lists with activities/games I’m planning to do with my students at some point, lists for grading, lists with scrapbook titles and page topics; there is even one list of my last sweet rewards purchase at the Sweetshoppe (I think I can discard that one now!), and the “list” goes on and on. Then there is my calender/notebook/timer that is brimming with lists. Now, if you want to know the content of my lists in my notebook, I won’t even go there, because then there’d be no end to this post! Basically, anything from future scrapbook projects (sorted by topic/year/event), to title ideas, to topics for blog posts, to interesting quotes I find, to … you name it. It’s there! Yes, I’m a list lover, and that must reflect …

Behind the Scenes: Principles of Design – Rule of Odds

Published by Sula H.

I have another principle of design that I’d like to discuss with you today, because it is a concept that will be very useful to keep in mind when you are working on a scrapbook page. It’s the Rule of Odds. Basically, this rule says that it is better to work with odd numbers than with even numbers whenever you work on a composition of any kind. Whether you take photos, create a painting, or – like us – design a scrapbook page – knowing about the Rule of Odds can improve your composition significantly. In other words, to ensure that your page turns out more dynamic, work with groups of three, five, or seven, instead of two, four, or six. Naturally, what happens with the human eye or brain is that they try to pair things up or group them together. This may be, because in nature we often find pairs. Even our body is designed in pairs: two eyes, two ears, two legs, two arms and hands, … you get the point! So, …

Behind the Scenes: Creating a Digital Design Tray

Published by Sula H.

It’s time for our monthly Photoshop tutorial, and I thought, today I’d like to take you to the world of Bevel & Embossing. In other words, I’m going to show how you can create a design tray similar to the one I did just the other day. SSD has a challenge this month, for which they used a really cute design tray as inspiration, and I loved the image so much, that I wanted to try my hands on this kind of design. The problem: I don’t have any such design tray – neither in my digiscrap stash, nor a physical one at home. But I had an idea of how I could achieve a somewhat similar look digitally, and here is what I did: 1. Create a blocked background I started by creating a blocked background with the Rectangle Tool on my blank canvas. After filling the whole canvas with blocks of various sizes, I selected all the layers in the Layers Panel, and duplicated everything. The duplicated layers I merged into one layer; …

Behind the Scenes: Smart Sharpen Your Photos

Published by Sula H.

It’s time for our monthly photography “class,” and today I thought, I’d stay rather simple. There are many tiny and very easy steps to improve our digital photos, though they can have a great impact on our images. One of these small, but effective tools in Photoshop is the “Smart Sharpen” filter. If you are anything like me, you already know about the process of saving your layouts for web, and that using the “Unsharp Mask” filter is part of that process. When working with photos, however, I discovered that the “Smart Sharpen” filter comes in very handy. With just a few clicks, you can improve the image significantly, and that can also make a difference on your digiscrap layout. Take this photo for example: I took this picture last weekend, and I didn’t make any adjustments. It’s a pleasant photo, but the edges of the little petals are a little blurry. Now take a look at the same image, after I applied the “Smart Sharpen” filter: I didn’t do anything else to this image. …

Behind the Scenes: What About Tracking & Kerning?

Published by Sula H.

Have you ever heard about tracking and kerning? If not, today you will, for it is “Time for Type!” Yes, you got it right: today, we are talking about fonts again. Fonts and journaling. If you know anything about typography (or graphic design for that matter), you might have heard about tracking and kerning already. For those of you who are clueless, however, let me explain … Tracking – according to one of the many photoshop tutorials – is “the process of loosening or tightening the spacing between characters” in a text. Kerning is “the process of adding or subtracting space between specific pairs of characters.” If you go “Ah???” now, hold on! I’m still not done explaining. Tracking Basically, when we talk about tracking, it means to add or take away space between the characters of your text. It applies to the whole text and can make your text look wider or more dense. Condensed text will appear heavy, while loosened text will appear lighter.   Kerning Kerning, on the other hand, deals with …

Behind the Scenes: Ideas for Photos in Spring

Published by Sula H.

Many of us love to take photos. It’s part of our memory keeping process. The problem starts, when you are tired of the same ol’ same ol’ kind of photos that you get every year – the ones where the only difference is, that it’s a different year, and the faces get older. If you are looking for some fresh ideas and inspiration for your spring photos, however, I might have just what you are looking for. I did some researching the last couple of days to come up with ideas to make your photos a little more fun and varied. And for your convenience I’m putting them together in a nice little list. Spring Cleaning What’s part of your spring cleaning? Your progress Before and after shots You accomplishments Spring – Season of Firsts First flowers in your garden First warm day First picnic First time playing in the park First bbq First time swimming Easter Your decoration this year Your decorating progress Egg dying Easter baskets Egg hunts Your Easter treats this year …

Behind the Scenes: Principles of Design – Static and Dynamic Composition

Published by Sula H.

Since (digital) scrapbooking is no less than another form of graphic design, I thought that once a month I’d start to share some insight into the principles and rules of graphic design. Lots of things can be learned in this area, and I’m sure that knowing a little about these rules and principles will help us create even better pages in the future. Now, keep in mind, I’m no artistic pro. All I know about this is self-taught with a few tips by professionals here and there, and I’m making no claim that what I have to say is exhaustive by any means. My goal is simply to share some insights with the hope that it will help us become better scrappers.  But if you are a pro and have something to add to what I’m going to talk about, feel free to do so. So, today I want to talk about a very basic principle of composition – the principle of static and dynamic composition. Static Composition In a nutshell, static composition means that …

Behind the Scenes: Using Photoshop Brushes on a Scrapbook Layout

Published by Sula H.

Brushes. They are an essential tool for many aspects of graphic design. They also are a great asset on our scrapbook pages. I love brushes. They can give our scrapbook page more dimension, since they usually are applied directly on the background and therefore can serve very well to make the other elements pop off the page a little better. They can add grunge and texture to your page, which can define the tone of your layout. They can be used for emphasis, or in order to draw the observer’s attention to a specific area on the page (see layout below). Originally, for today I had planned to prepare a tutorial on how to use photoshop brushes. But when I started googling this to do some research, I realized quickly that there are actually tons of great tutorials that explain everything you need to know about brushes. So, doing another one would be quite redundant. Simply google for something like “tips for photoshop brushes,” and it will bring up a range of various websites with …