The Digital Scrapbook Teacher

Speed Up Changing Preferences

Patty — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 06:22:41 +0000

In my hands-on classes there are several times that we change the Grid preferences to help with designing a card or scrapbook page. This can be tedious to do, especially if you’re using a touchpad on a laptop.

The long way to change the preferences is Edit>Preferences>Guides & Grid (Mac: Photoshop Elements>Preferences>Guides & Grid).

The quick way is to first turn on your rulers (View>Rulers).

Double click on the ruler and the Units & Rulers preferences dialog box will open.

Click on Guides & Grid and make the necessary changes.

While you’re at it, make another quick change that I showed you a couple of years ago, that you may have forgotten. This will save your eyesight! Double click on the rulers and click on Type to change the Type tool preferences.

Once the Type Preferences dialog box is displayed, change the Font Preview Size from the medium default setting to something larger….mine is set at huge. Now when you look at your fonts list you will actually be able to see them, as shown below on the right.

For a printable copy of this tip click here.

National Craft Month at My Creative Classroom

Patty — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 07:24:10 +0000

My Creative Classroom and I would like to invited you to join us as we
celebrate National Craft Month. Every year in March we say thank you to our
students during National Craft Month. If you purchase a class in March (IT
DOES NOT NEED TO START IN MARCH) you will earn a free seat in an upcoming
class. Purchase more than one class and you will be able to earn more free
seats. The seats you can earn are in predetermined classes, but we worked
hard to choose classes that would have broad appeal, all are valued at $25
or more.

During the next three months we have some wonderful classes for you to
choose from including my Organizing Photos with Photoshop Elements class.

Click here to learn more.

Taming the Healing Brush and Clone Stamp Tools

Patty — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 08:07:50 +0000

In the newer versions of Photoshop Elements there is an option for the Healing Brush and Clone Stamp tools that drives me crazy! This may be due to the fact that I don’t embrace change easily (I admit it) or you may not like it too. If you’re not a fan of the overlay option I’ll show you how to turn it off.

If you’re not even sure what I’m talking about I’ll show you an example!

When using the Healing Brush or Clone Stamp tool to sample (copy) a specific area the brush displays the sampled area. In this example, I sampled (copied) my grandson’s eye. Now as I move my cursor around I can see his eye….this bugs me but you may like it!

I prefer to see a blank brush while using the Clone Stamp tool and the Healing Brush tool as shown in the example below. You can work with both options and see which one you like better.

To turn off the overlay which is the default setting, click on the area on the Options bar shown circled to display the drop down box.

Uncheck the box that says Show Overlay. To turn the overlay back on, check the box again.

P.S. No babies were harmed in making this tutorial! He already had the owie before I wrote this tutorial!

To download this tutorial as a printable pdf click here.

Congratulations!

Patty — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 18:26:36 +0000

Congratulations to Martha (comment #45) who wins one of my classes at My Creative Classroom.

I recommend the Organizing Photos with Photoshop Elements which is a great class for digital or traditional scrapbookers because we all have so many digital photos.

See you in the classroom soon Martha!

Scrapbooking Success in 2012

Patty — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 07:18:00 +0000

In my recent newsletter I talked about several sure fire ways to sabotage your efforts to scrapbook.

Leave a comment with one of the tricks you use to get organized or motivated to scrapbook and you may win one of my online classes at My Creative Classroom.

Be sure to check out my Organizing Photos with Photoshop Elements that starts this week. Too busy this week to start the class? Don’t worry the classes at My Creative Classroom now include lifetime access.

I will choose a winner on Friday evening, January 27, 2012 by random.

Also on Friday, registration opens for the following events:

Saturday, March 3 – Garden Grove, CA Scrapbook Crop for digital & traditional scrapppers
Sunday, April 15 – Mesa, AZ Mini Intermediate Digital Scrapbooking Workshop
Sunday, April 29 – New Hampshire Mini Intermediate Digital Scrapbooking Workshop
Sunday, May 6 – San Diego, CA Mini Intermediate Digital Scrapbooking Workshop
Sunday, August 12 – Santa Clara, CA Mini Intermediate Digital Scrapbooking Workshop
Sunday, August 26- St. Charles, IL Mini Intermediate Digital Scrapbooking Workshop
Friday-Sunday, August 31-September 2 – Valley Forge, PA Photo Editing Class & Boot Camp
Friday-Sunday, October 5-7 – Dallas Area, TX Intermediate Digital Scrapbooking Workshop & Photo Editing Class

May 2012 fill your life and scrapbooks with many happy memories!

Patty

December Blog Give Away

Patty — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 06:02:23 +0000

The winner of the Wintertime Paper kit (610 pieces) is…….

Comment #18-Denise Chapman!

Congratulations Denise! Enjoy!

Add Sparkle to Your Photos & Pages

Patty — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 11:23:49 +0000

This is a fast and easy way to add some excitement to a photo. Holiday photos are especially fun to dress up with this tip. Try it! You’ll like it!

Follow these easy steps with Photoshop Elements or Photoshop to add a sparkle to your photos:

· Open a photo (File>Open).

· Create a New Transparent Layer above the photo by clicking on the first icon at the bottom of the Layers panel or by typing the shortcut Shift>Alt>Ctrl>N (Mac: Shift>Opt>Cmd>N).

· Choose white (or a very light color) for the Foreground color located at the bottom of the Toolbar.

· Choose the Brush tool from the Toolbar.

· Click on the Brush drop down arrow and choose the Assorted Brushes set. Click on the 50 px Starburst small brush circled below. The Crosshatch 1, and Starburst large brushes also sometimes work well.

· With the transparent layer selected, click where you would like to add a single sparkle.

· If you want to add additional sparkles, create a new layer, and stamp the brush again.

· If the effect of the sparkle is too strong adjust the layer opacity or Blending mode. These options are located at the top of the Layers panel.

· The size of the brush can be a little difficult to gauge. If you don’t like the size of the stamp tap the Undo key (Ctrl>Z, Mac: Cmd>Z) and resize your brush using the Bracket keys.

Save the photo (File>Save) as a jpeg to email to friends or to upload to Facebook or to your favorite photo processor to make copies.

***To download this tutorial as a printable pdf click here.

Like us on Facebook!

Win our Wintertime kit! Leave a comment on this blog by 12-15-2011 and tell us how you will use our sparkle tip. We will use a random number generator to pick a winner on 12-16-2011. If you purchase it and win I will issue you a store credit.

Online Class Winners!

Patty — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 17:47:26 +0000

Congratulations to:

Laurie who left comment # 21 on this blog.

Congratulations to Margi Lunn who won the drawing for a free online class at the Creating Keepsakes Convention in San Marcos.

Organizing Phtotos with Photoshop Elements begins October 4th.

Fast & Easy Photo Editing with Photoshop Elements begins October 18th.

Ladies please contact me ASAP so I can get you signed up.

See you in the classroom!

Patty

New Online Class Giveaways

Patty — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 22:29:43 +0000

Thanks for your interest in my online classes! My first online class sold out so fast that I’ve decided to offer it again beginning October 18th.

As a matter of fact I’m giving away another FREE class! Online registration just opened for these two classes:

Organizing Photos with Photoshop Elements

Begins October 4, 2011

4 weeks

Fast and Easy Photo Editing #1 with Photoshop Elements

Begins October 18, 2011 (first class sold out in 2 days)

4 weeks

Read the rules carefully because this contest is a little bit different. To win one of these classes (your choice) you must do TWO things:

Like the Digital Scrapbook Teacher on Facebook

Leave a comment on this blog post about why you want to win this class.

The winner will be announced on September 19th.

Good luck!

Patty

P.S. I heard from some of you who held off registering for the class because you wanted to see if you won the contest. Don’t worry if you register now and win the contest the class fee will be refunded. I don’t want you to miss out again!

U.S. States Template Winner

Patty — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 22:16:45 +0000

The winner of the U.S. State Templates is Karen comment #8.

Congratulations Karen! Please contact me so that I can send you the download links.

Thanks to everyone who entered. I loved hearing about your favorite vacation places.

Patty