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"Back To School" by Janine Buckles
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Directions for one technique I did on this layout:
The paper in the background that looks like a grid is actually a blue and white paper from Angie Briggs' Commotion Collection Biggie. To remove the white from it, I clicked on the paper's thumbnail image in the Layers Palette, selected my Magic Wand tool, set the Tolerance to 50, made sure Contiguous was unchecked and clicked on a white area of the paper. Marching ants appeared around all of the white sections. I then pushed the Delete button and was left with just the grid lines which were the perfect touch to finish off my background papers.
Software used: Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0
Name of challenge: Create a layout with a Back To School theme.
Other Ingredients:
Journaling: Every year it is more and more of a challenge to get a "first day of school" photo of you. I had to sneak these after you left, but you know that doesn't stop me so you might as well just grin and bear it!
"September School Calendar" by Amy Lemaniak
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Directions for one technique I did on this layout:
Using the ScrapSimple Digital Layout Templates - Calendar: 8.5 x 11 Clean and Simple 2010, which comes in a layered PSD file, I brought over the different background papers that I wanted to use on some of the layers. Using a clipping mask, I applied them to the template layers.
Software used: Adobe Photoshop CS4
Name of challenge: Create a layout with a Back To School theme.
Other Ingredients:
"Explore" by Amy Flanagan
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Directions for one technique I did on this layout:
I wanted to give some color to the word art, but I wanted to maintain the transparent, waxy look to it. First, using the Color Picker, I selected a color from my photo that I wanted to highlight in the title. In this case, I selected a point in Mark's hat. Then, I highlighted the word art layer, and made a direct selection by Ctrl+clicking on the thumbnail to get the marching ants. Then, I made a new layer below my word art layer. On the new layer, with the marching ants still active, I used the Paint Bucket to fill my selection - which was a perfect outline of the word art. The word art layer is now directly above the fill layer, an effect which subtly changes the color of the word art without loss of any texture.
Software used: Adobe Photoshop Elements 7.0
Name of challenge: Free Scrap
"Back 2 School" by Kelly Favor-Chronister
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Directions for one technique I did on this layout:
To create the "straight" lines of paper piercing down the sides of solid strip of paper, I selected a brush from Ariadna Wiczling's Dynamic Brush Set: Paper Piercing 8201 and adjusted the size to suit my layout. Then I clicked once with my mouse to start my line, and then holding down the Shift key, I clicked again at the bottom of my paper. The variations of the dynamic brush create a natural look, so the line doesn't appear to be completely straight. I like that the paper piercing adds a little texture to my layout that would have looked a little flat without it.
Software used: Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 and Apple iPhoto
Name of challenge: Create a layout with a Back To School theme.
Other Ingredients:
Journaling: Here are the kids, posed for the "traditional" first-day-of-school photos in front of our house. They were both very excited to be seeing their friends and teachers. Jamison had been asking for weeks if today was a school day.
"Billy" by Elisha Barnett
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Directions for one technique I did on this layout:
When I first wrote "First Day of School" on the tag, it looked pretty harsh. I wanted it to look like it was actually written on the tag. To get the look I wanted, I applied Ariadna's ScrapSimple Styles - Blended 8201 Super Biggie to the text. There are a lot of settings included to work with different background colors and brightness, so I just clicked through each of them until I found one that worked for the black tag.
Software used: Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0
Name of challenge: Create a layout with a Back To School theme.
Other Ingredients:
"Sweet Baby" by Armi Custodio
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Directions for one technique I did on this layout:
To make the light colored stitched word art "Sweet" more readable against the clouds in my background paper, I duplicated it and applied Sarah Batdorf's ScrapSimple Tools-Styles: Basic Shadows 6501 to both the original word art layer and the duplicate layer.
Software used: Adobe Photoshop CS3
Name of challenge: Free Scrap
Other Ingredients:
"Looking Forward" by Jennifer Labre
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Directions for one technique I did on this layout:
Often, I will love so many of the different patterned papers in a collection, but like so many others, I can be patterned paper challenged. My solution for this is to just use small pieces of the papers so as not to overwhelm the page. For example, on my layout here, I love the swirly background paper, but for me it was just too busy to use as my main background. So, I instead use just a hint of it as the border for my page by layering a solid paper above it. I continue to use patterned papers from the same collection by just making rectangle shapes and using clipping masks with them, just showing small pieces behind the photos. I'm still able to use all the papers I love, but now they don't overwhelm the layout.
Software used: Adobe Photoshop CS4
Name of challenge: Create a layout with a Back To School theme.
Other Ingredients:
"First Day of 1st Grade" by Joann Brown
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Directions for one technique I did on this layout:
I love the main photo – it captures my son's personality perfectly! In this layout, I wanted to give the photo a unique "flavor," so I played around with a few different options. I decided to use Ariadna Wiczling's Dynamic Brush Set: Textured 8201 to add a really great texture effect.
This is such an easy technique but adds a lot of interest to a photo. To do this, I first created a layer above my photo layer. I used the crosshatch brush above the photo (my brush color was a dark green), and then I changed the Blending Mode to "Multiply" at approximately 45% Opacity. Finally, I clipped the texture layer to the photo layer using Ctrl+G. This is a fabulous technique to use with the dynamic brushes – play with different Blending Modes, and you may get an effect that makes your layout perfectly pop!
Software used: Adobe Photoshop CS4
Name of challenge: Create a layout with a Back To School theme.
Other Ingredients:
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