My daughter inherited my creative spirit, so each year when her birthday rolls around, her birthday party theme ideas are unique and often rarely found in a store. Thank goodness for all my Scrap Girls supplies! Without them, party planning at our house would be impossible. This year, she wants a rainbow cupcake party so I created her birthday party invitation on my iPad using the Adobe Photoshop Touch app. Even though this tutorial was created with an iPad, Photoshop Touch works with both iOS and Android systems.
First, I uploaded my Scrap Girls supplies into my camera roll on my iPad. The steps to do this are located on the Scrap Girls blog here. To start a new project, click the + or the little picture to add a background image or paper from the camera roll. After loading and placing all my supplies on the invitation, it’s time to start adding text layers to create the wording.
To add text, click on the & symbol in the upper right of the workstation screen. Photoshop touch has a workstation screen to manipulate layers and then an additional screen to move, resize, and adjust paper, embellishment, or font layers. Clicking on & opens a tab that has a T for text. Tapping T activates the text layer screen.
The text layers screen has options to choose the font, size, adjust the color, move, and rotate a line of text. However, Photoshop Touch only allows one line at a time. So it works best with layouts with less journaling and text.
Typing is done in the Text box on the lower left and the font is selected by tapping on the font box next to it. The box symbol with four triangles around it locks the text and makes it easier to move with a finger without changing the text size. Colors are located at the colored (white) dot next to the font options.
Tip: To precisely place text, zoom into the layout by placing two fingertips on the screen. Spread two fingertips out to zoom in or pinch your fingertips together to zoom out. Two fingers together on the screen will move the entire layout around the screen without accidently moving previously placed items.
Once the text layer is complete, tap the blue checkmark box to save the layer and return to the workstation screen. Be sure to stay in the text layer window until the current line of text is to your liking. One drawback to Photoshop Touch is new words and colors cannot be added to the line once you return to the workstation. Text can be moved and resized using the arrow plus in the upper right, but new words and letters cannot be added after returning to the workstation screen.
Once everything is sized, colored, and moved into place, my invitation is ready to be saved and shared for printing or emailing. To save, click the arrow in the upper left which opens the save tab and then reopens the home screen. In the home screen, choose the box with an arrow in the upper right. A tab opens with a variety of options to save, like emailing the invitation as an evite or saving it to the camera roll as a JPG to be printed later.
So if you’re looking for a way to take your Scrap Girls digital scrapbook stash to a new level of use, check out Adobe Photoshop Touch and its ability to manipulate layers. Then post your layouts to the Scrap Girls Gallery. We’d love to see what you create!
Tutorial written by Angie Durr