Heidi Dillon

Shortcuts You're Guaranteed to Love

In my wanderings around the Internet researching things as diverse as the Tampa Bay Devil Rays 2011 home schedule to Jupiter's icy moon Europa, I have also come across some pretty neat things that have helped me speed up my scrapbooking. Shortcuts! And not just any shortcuts, mind you, these are some super-duper, top-secret, blow-your-socks-off type shortcuts.

And guess what?

I'm sharing.

Yeah, these are so cool that I just have to share them with you.

I know you're going to love them as much as I do.

So fire up your Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, because you are going to want to try these out right away! (Mac users, substitute Cmd for Ctrl and Opt for Alt.) Here we go:

Spacebar – When you are zoomed in on your document, you can press and hold your spacebar and then drag your document around to move to other places. This is basically activating your Hand Tool without activating your Hand Tool.


Ctrl+0 – That's the number zero, not the letter "oh." This will zoom your document so that it fills your screen.


Ctrl+Alt+0 – Again, the number zero, not the letter "oh." This will zoom your document to 100%. Want another way to do this? Double-click on the Zoom Tool.


Click+Drag – In your Layers Palette you can turn on/off consecutive layers in a row. Just click on the first Eye icon of the layer you want to turn on/off, keep your mouse button held down, and drag your mouse along the rest of the Eyes you want to turn on/off. This one has been such a time-saver for me, I can't even tell you!


Alt+Click – Here's another great Layers Palette on/off trick! Hold down the Alt key and click on the Eye of the ONLY layer you want to see. The rest will turn off! To get them turned back on, just Alt+Click on the Eye again.


X – This one simple key will switch your foreground and background colors. Great when you're working with masks or brushes!


Shift+Alt+Drag – Last but not least, my favorite! When using your Transform function (shortcut Ctrl+T), you can hold down the Shift and Alt keys while dragging to change the item's size from the center. Yeah, I know. WAY COOL!

I hope one or more of these will be helpful for you as you start your new year of digital scrapbooking!

- Heidi

Scrap Girls, Etc. is a weekly column pulling bits and pieces from all over Scrap Girls. Stay tuned each week as Scrap Girls' Jane-of-All-Trades Heidi Dillon brings you tutorials, musings, recipes, interviews, design/software tips and tricks, layout walk-throughs, and who knows what else!

SCRAP GIRLS CLUB

Join the Scrap Girls Monthly Club and you can have fun with the newest traditional digital and printable scrapbooking looks while saving! (A $27.94 value for $9.99 or less!)

The Scrap Girls Club contents are released on the 1st day of the month (or the closest business day to the 1st).

With the Scrap Girls Club, you will receive:

1 Collection Biggie
1 Paper Super Mini
1 8.5x11 Sheet of Word Art
1 Embellishment Set
1 Assemble Your Own Zoom Page Set
1 Designer's Choice Item

Layout by Elisha Barnett using January's Scrap Girls Club
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Created for you by Syndee Nuckles

If you prefer not to join a club, the Scrap Girls Club contents are available at regular prices in the Boutique. You can easily find them right now by checking the What's New? section of the Boutique.

Note: The Scrap Girls Club contents are always available for sale elsewhere in the Boutique at their regular prices once the associated club month is released. But all club contents are totally brand new, never-seen-before product releases for each month!

SCRAPSIMPLE CLUB

Join the ScrapSimple Monthly Club and you can enjoy the newest ScrapSimple looks while saving! (A $13.95 value for $6.99 or less!)

The new ScrapSimple Club contents are released on the 15th day of the month (or the closest business day to the 15th).

With the ScrapSimple Club, you will receive:

1 ScrapSimple Paper Template Set
1 ScrapSimple Embellishment Template
1 Brush Set
2 Designer's Choice Item

A commercially licensed version of the ScrapSimple Club is also available here.

Layout by Trish Yochum using December's ScrapSimple Club
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Created for you by Trish Yochum and Valerie Randall

If you prefer not to join a club, the ScrapSimple Club contents are available at regular prices in the Boutique. You can easily find them right now by checking the What's New? section of the Boutique.

Note: The ScrapSimple Club contents are always available for sale in the Boutique at regular prices once the associated club month is released. But all club contents are totally brand new, never-seen-before product releases for each month!

Calendars

Chances are, if you have places to go, things to do, and people to remember, you use or have used a calendar. Or a planner. Or something else that helps you to systematically keep track of your days. Life is busier than ever - and we don't want to miss a thing!

It seems only natural that creative digital scrappers have turned to digital use of calendars. We use them for keeping track of upcoming events, but also for gift giving or even as a fun way of archiving the daily happenings in our lives in layouts. For me, calendar digital scrapbooking products are one of my most favorite supplies to use.

There are many different types of calendar products in the Scrap Girls Boutique. Some are templates, where you can add your own colors and papers. There are others that have most of the work done for you and all you have to do is add photos. There are even some products that are designed for less-traditional calendars, such as for use in ID Badge sleeves or in CD cases.

There are so many ways to use the calendar products at Scrap Girls, but I thought I would share three of my favorite ways to use them.

There are some calendar templates in the Boutique that are sized much smaller than your standard scrapbook layout size. I have found these great for lower resolution photos, even possibly cell phone photos. ScrapSimple Digital Layout Templates - Calendar: 2.3x3.1 Perpetual Mini is one product that can be used for smaller photos and is particularly great for creating a mini album with your favorite monthly photo.

In the samples below, I used the photos as the background under the calendar. Then I used the photo mask area for my journaling and circled the date of the photo.

Sample by Brandie Valenzuela
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Commercial license versions of ScrapSimple Digital Layout Templates - Calendar: 2.3x3.1 Perpetual Mini and His and Hers Collection Biggie are also available.

I enjoy that I can put together a calendar gift easily, while also sharing my digital scrapbooking hobby. Sure, I could go into a store and buy a calendar for my family, but I like that I can use my digital scrapbook files, plus a calendar template, and put together something personal and unique.

By using Easy Page Pro: Alive, which is a pre-designed scrapbook layout, I was able finish the gift below in less than five minutes. I opened the page, picked a few photos for it, and added the entire 2011 calendar in the large photo spot with Brush Set: Calendar Year 2008-2013. Now it's ready to print and frame - super easy!

Layout by Brandie Valenzuela
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Commercial license versions of Brush Set: Calendar Year 2008-2013 and His and Hers Collection Biggie are also available.

Most of the time, we buy calendars for keeping track of upcoming events. One way I like to use them is as a scrapbook layout to document the past by describing things that happened in a particular month on each day.

In this example below, it uses Easy Page Pro: 8.5x11 2011 Calendar. Since my son's birthday is in March, I used this page to add a single photo of him and record a little something about each day. Some days it was what he ate, other times it was sharing an activity he did that day. (I actually recorded things that happened in 2010 in the 2011 calendar to illustrate my idea.) It makes a nice way to use only one photo, but yet have lots of spaces for journaling.

Layout by Brandie Valenzuela
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Commercial license versions of Easy Page Pro: 8.5x11 2011 Calendar and AMC_Friendly Font are also available.

These are just a few of the ways to use calendar products in the Scrap Girls Boutique. You can find all of Scrap Girls calendar products here. We look forward to seeing your creative calendar ideas on the Message Board and in the Gallery.

Article written by Brandie Valenzuela

FREE STARTER KIT

Free eBook "starter kit" turns your dreams of digital scrapbooking into reality today!

This dynamite eBook is 65 pages - packed full of the information, ideas, and help people need when they are about to dive into this great hobby. It answers all of the important questions new digital scrapbookers have. They are all here for you - in one easy to use eBook!

Bonus! Download the free "Warning" Label, too. It was created for you by Valerie Randall as a little bit of extra fun!

Would you like a chance to try digital scrapbooking yourself?

Scrap Girls' Refresh Collection Biggie offers you free samples of some of our most popular product types. Try making a layout, your own paper with a ScrapSimple Paper Template, a fast layout with a ScrapSimple Digital Layout Template, or experiment with a brush.

We know you'll love digital scrapbooking as much as we do, and we have thousands of products to feed your new addiction!

Ready to Take Off? In-depth Tutorials Help You Become a Great Digital Scrapbooker

Scrapbook Software Secrets Revealed!

NEWLY UPDATED! Scrapbook Software Secrets Revealed for Photoshop
NEWLY UPDATED! Scrapbook Software Secrets Revealed for Photoshop Elements
Scrapbook Software Secrets Revealed for Paint Shop Pro X (XI)

Find out what tens of thousands of people have already learned: Scrapbook Software Secrets Revealed is the fastest way to learn how to create digital scrapbooking layouts. And because this series covers so many topics with one purchase, it is a bargain!

In the tutorials, you'll see Ro working on her computer and hear her talking about why she is doing what she is doing. It's like having Ro come to your home and give you private scrapbooking lessons. You can create digital scrapbooking layouts today!

Download and CD versions available.

Photoshop and Photoshop Elements users receive:

30-33 movie tutorials
Companion eBook(s)
Collections
Other supplies

Paint Shop Pro users receive 31 movie tutorials.

MORE Scrapbook Software Secrets Revealed!

MORE Scrapbook Software Secrets Revealed! for Adobe Photoshop
MORE Scrapbook Software Secrets Revealed! for Adobe Photoshop Elements

Now that you've learned the basics of digital scrapbooking with Scrapbook Software Secrets Revealed for Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, you are ready to learn advanced skills for having even more fun while you create digital scrapbooking layouts!

Get a big boost learning how to use ScrapSimple products to make your own backgrounds, embellishments, and alphas with the MORE Scrapbook Software Secrets Revealed for Photoshop Elements movie tutorial series. You'll learn so much that your digital scrapbooking layouts will never be the same!

eBooks

Scrap Girls offers a large catalog of eBooks covering topics that will expand your digital scrapbooking abilities to new heights. Here are just a few samples:

Scrapbook Quotes: The right quote for your scrapbook layouts

Looking for scrapbooking quotes or quotes to use for greeting cards? Here's your solution. This packed eBook contains hundreds of quotes, collected over many years by Rozanne Paxman specifically for use on scrapbooking layouts.

Inspirations eBook

What happens when you move digital scrapbooking beyond the basic page? What happens when you allow the layout to blur the edges between keepsake and art? Find your answers and take the next step in Inspirations: Celebrating Life's Joys With Digital Scrapbooking eBook. This eBook is meant to highlight the hopes and loves, the faith and joys, the simple days and big events that give our lives meaning and inspire us - and the pages we create about them. There are different layouts in a wide range of styles and techniques to be found in the book, and there are a multitude of ideas to be culled from the pages.

Scrap Girls Tutorials & Way Cool Stuff eBook Set - 2010 1st Quarter

Subscribers to the Scrap Girls Newsletter have one thing in common: they love to learn new techniques! Each issue shares ideas, tutorials, and new ways to use Scrap Girls quality digital scrapbooking products. Now you can have all those past tutorials and Way Cool Stuff articles of the 1st Quarter of 2010 in one convenient PDF format. It's easy to find those helpful hints with just the click of your mouse. You get two eBooks for the price of one!

Mastering Brushes for Photoshop

Whether you are just finding out about brushes, or have been using them for a while, this eBook will help you see and understand the creative power that brushes contain and give you new ideas for using them in your digital scrapbooking layouts.

See more titles

Layout by Trish Yochum
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Designer Freebie by Trish Yochum coordinates with her ScrapSimple Paper Templates: Threads,
part of this month's ScrapSimple Club offering!

Commercial license versions of ScrapSimple Paper Templates: Threads, ScrapSimple Embellishment Templates: Zippy, ScrapSimple Word Art Templates: Zippy, Dynamic Brush Set: Zippy, ScrapSimple Embellishment Templates: Brooches and ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: Halloween Confetti 7201 are also available.

* There is a "free download" button on the details page for each gift. You don't need to put them in your shopping cart unless you are shopping for other items. Also note that if you are slow reading your newsletter, you may find this freebie has already been retired, as the freebies are only available as gifts for about two newsletter cycles.

CROPS AND CHATS

NSBR Chat - Early Edition
Thursday, January 6th - 2:00PM MT

What is NSBR? It's a non-scrapbooking related chat! We talk about everything, including some scrapbooking and usually chocolate. It's a great chance to meet new friends, catch up on what everyone is up to, and just relax! If you have a problem, we'll lend an ear or a shoulder to cry on. Have some great news to share? We'd love to celebrate with you. So join Pat (PBarnes) at 2pm MT in the chat room Lobby! Hope to see you there!

ScrapSimple Club Chat
Thursday, January 6th - 6:00PM MT

Join April (April Showers) and Angela (angelaNussbaum) on Thursday, January 6th at 6pm MT for a chat and challenge using this month's ScrapSimple Club. Did you know that every time you create a layout with the ScrapSimple Club and upload it into the ScrapSimple Club Gallery that you could be chosen to be featured in the Newsletter and receive a prize? Well, join us for the chat so we can encourage, inspire you and help with any questions that you may have. Let's get those ScrapSimple Club layouts done and uploaded!

ScrapSimple - Use It! Chat
Friday, January 7th - 8:00AM MT

Strengthening your abilities in scrapbooking is essential to becoming a better scrapbooker and learning to utilize the ScrapSimple product line available here at Scrap Girls will give you so many more unique and fun options with your layouts! Join Angela (angelaNussbaum) and Elisha (elibar) for this monthly chat on Friday, January 7th at 8am MT as we focus on using one category of these versatile products!

What's New in the Scrap Girls Boutique Chat
Friday, January 7th - 9:00AM MT

Join April (April Showers) at 9am MT on Friday mornings to chat about all the cool new things in the Scrap Girls Boutique. What are your favorite new items? Is your shopping basket full? What did you kaboodle? Have you already done layouts or other projects with your new goodies? Come tell the designers how much you love their work. You never know who will show up. There's a thread every Thursday and now there's a chat too!

Back-Up Party and Chat - Early Edition
Friday, January 7th - 2:00PM MT

Need a little extra motivation to back-up your layouts and stash? Join April (April Showers) in the chat room at 2pm MT for the Early Edition of the Back-up Party and Chat. The goal of these chats is to make sure our back-ups are current. Come chat while you back up your files. We'll also go over several different ways to safeguard your files and even give you some tips on organizing your supplies. Grab some chocolate and we'll see you in the chat room!

Recipe Swap Chat
Saturday, January 8th - 7:00PM MT

Join April (April Showers) and Lei (Bride) at 7pm MT in the chat room for our Monthly Recipe Swap Chat. Please check the message board the Thursday before the chat for this month's theme and the swap details!

Quote Challenge Crop
Monday, January 10th - 7:00PM MT

Come join Pat (PBarnes) for the Quote Challenge Crop at 7pm MT. Including a quote on your layout can be a touching and meaningful addition, especially if you use the quote to create your own word art. Here's how it will work. On Monday, Pat will post a thread on the Chat section of the board giving you the quote that you will use to make your own word art. It's not hard, and she will have a layout with a Word Art example in the gallery. Then we'll meet in the chat room to have fun, chat, and create our Word Art layout! Everyone can participate and create a layout, even if you can't make the chat. Hope to see you there!

Journaling Chat
Monday, January 10th - 6:00PM MT

Join Angela (angelaNussbaum) and Lei (Bride) for a Journaling Chat at 6pm MT on the second Monday of each month. Struggle to find the right words for your layouts? Are your layouts more decorative than descriptive of the moments you're trying to capture? Then you won't want to miss this chat - we'll have a special challenge to encourage you to journal on your pages more! See you there!

New Member Chat
Tuesday, January 11th - 7:00PM MT

Join Pat (PBarnes)and Angela (angelaNussbaum) for the New Member Chat at 7pm MT in the Live Chat room lobby. This is a great place to ask questions about getting around the Scrap Girls site or about digital scrapbooking in general - and a great place to make some new friends. All are welcome, new and long time members included. You do need to have Java installed on your computer to access the Live Chat.

East Coast High Noon Crop
Wednesday, January 12th - 10:00AM MT

Join April (April Showers) each Wednesday at 12 Noon Eastern Time for the East Coast High Noon Crop. All coasts and time zones are welcome! These crops are designed to allow you to work on your own photos and themes simply giving participants a one hour goal and a fun, new challenge each week. On January 12th, we'll do an embellishment challenge! Create a layout using lots of embellishments - flowers, tags, frames, whatever you'd like! Make use of those fancy, fun embellishments! You'll be amazed what you can get done in just one hour, but there is no High Noon Sheriff timing you!

Baby Theme Crop & Chat
Wednesday, January 12th - 7:00PM MT

Join Carla (CRS) and Thersea (tiza126) for a new twist on the Baby Theme Crop! We're starting the New Year with a new challenge. This month, we'll work with ABC's. Include something in your layout that starts with an A, a B and a C! We'll see you in the chat room on Wednesday, January 12th at 7pm MT!

JANUARY EVENTS

January Message Board Game: Jumpstart January!

Join us on the Message Board this month for "Jumpstart January!" This is a Message Board game and challenge to start your year with fun and focus on taking time to scrapbook regularly despite the little speedbumps of life. When the month is over, you'll have completed several layouts and been challenged and treated to some fun along the way.

A member of the Welcoming Committee will post a mini-challenge/task every day from January 1-30 in the Games folder on the Message Board. Check out the game thread titled "January Jumpstart 2011" for complete details and rules.

Those who complete all tasks and submit or post required participation by 11:59pm MT on January 31st will be entered in a drawing to win one of three $10 Gift Certificates to the Scrap Girls Boutique! Those who complete just the layouts will be entered in a separate drawing to win one of three $5 gift certificates. (Those who complete all tasks will have their name entered in both drawings!) Winners will be announced in the newsletter on Saturday, February 5th.

For complete details, visit the Monthly Message Board Games folder on the Scrap Girls Message Board.

Layout Contests:

January Monthly Layout Contest: Now that the snow is flying in some parts of the world, we are focusing on staying warm! For the January Layout Contest, we'd love to see what you do to stay warm! Do you have a favorite blanket or sweater? Or is there a family favorite comfort food you turn to in the winter? Let's scrap the photos and stories that help keep us warm! Post your layouts in the January Gallery before Midnight MT on January 31st. Be sure to list your credits in the description or under the EXIF Properties. If your layout is one of the two chosen, you will win a $10 gift certificate to the Scrap Girls Boutique!

Club Concepts Layout Contest: Post your new layout using the current club selection (either the Scrap Girls Club or the ScrapSimple Club) in our Scrap Girls Club Members Gallery or the ScrapSimple Club Members' Gallery. Be sure to list all of the Scrap Girls products you used. If your layout is chosen, it will be showcased as a Club Concepts layout winner, and you will win a $5 Gift Certificate to the Scrap Girls Boutique!

Check our message board calendar if you have any questions about what is happening at Scrap Girls. All event times are given in Mountain Time Zone unless otherwise noted. Need help converting time zones? Check out the World Clock - Time Zone Converter. (Use 'USA-Utah-Salt Lake City' as the location for the Mountain time zone.)

Haven't received your prize as a contest winner? Please send an email to [email protected] and we'll get it out to you right away!