Category: Tutorials

Tutorial Tuesday | Creating Diagonal Flow

Hello, and welcome to another edition of our Tutorial Tuesday series here on The Digital Press blog! Today, I am here to share information with you about creating diagonal flow when you are working on a scrapbook page.

In one of my previous tutorials here on the blog — Creating a Focal Point — I explained how to grab the viewer’s attention with an obvious focal point, and then to use visual hierarchy to guide the eye throughout a layout. In today’s tutorial, I will explain how to create a visual emphasis going from top left to bottom right (the way Westerners read)… or alternatively, going from top right to bottom left for variety.

Here’s a quick look at what I mean…

In that first example, the text stamp is the foundational element that I duplicated in order to place it on either side of the band of papers (at the top left and lower right corners). I would usually duplicate and horizontally flip an element to make it the perfect opposite; however, this would be immediately visible with text (as the text would be backwards on one side) and so that does not work. 🙂

The act of duplicating the stamp forms a frame, of sorts, bracketing the design so that the eye naturally joins these two halves together. This draws the eye from top left to bottom right.

As an extra layer, I have added the vellum heart (top left) and the small word art cluster (lower right) along the same diagonal line. Then, for fun, I have two heart scatters, but I placed them on the opposite (blue) line. A touch of tension is always a great idea: something that makes one look again, to see if anything is different or out of line. This re-enforces the diagonal.

Here’s another example…

In the second example, I used paper blocks and placed them at kitty corners to create the diagonal line (again, top left to lower right). This accentuates the angle at which my hubby is pointing the laser light, as well; when the subject of a photo is looking in a certain direction, the eye naturally follows the line to see what they are looking at. I tilted the title and journaling card slightly to fall on the diagonal, but not perfectly in line — again, to add a bit of tension, once again.

These are just a couple of ideas and examples for creating movement within a layout (especially one that uses a multiple photos), in order to help the viewer navigate their gaze through or across the page. Give it a try! I think you’ll find that creating this sort of flow within your next scrapbooking layout is easy and helpful!


small avi

About the author Stefanie is a member of The Digital Press creative team and a stay at home mother of three older children living in Cape Town, South Africa with her hubby of 30 years, one of their three children, and 3 Siamese cats. She loves photography, traveling, and digital scrapbooking — documenting the good and the ordinary everyday.

Tutorial Tuesday | Creating Custom Torn Paper Edges

Hello, and welcome to another edition of our Tutorial Tuesday series here on The Digital Press blog! Today, I’m here to show you how to create a torn paper edge look with any of the digital papers you can find in the wonderful kits available at The Digital Press!

I’ve had a lot of fun using this technique on layered papers to create a really cool look. The instructions you’ll find here have been created for Photoshop CC, but they’ll likely translate (maybe with a few tweaks?) to other photo-editing programs, as well.

First, here’s a look at my finished scrapbooking page to show you the effect that we’ll be learning here today…

Let’s get started!

Step 1: Download and install these Torn Paper Brushes to make this process much easier.

  • I used the brushes available here.
  • Once you download the file, unzip to get the .abr file.
  • To install, in Photoshop choose Edit > Presets > Preset Manager
  • Follow the prompts to find your download .abr file and install it in the brush folder of your choice.

torn-edges1

Step 2: On your layout, place your paper.

Step 3: Add a Layer Mask

  • In your layers palette, select the top layer of paper
  • Then use the Add Layer Mask icon on the bottom of the layers panel to add a mask.

Step 4: Use a brush to start the torn edge look

  • First select the Brush tool, then choose your favorite torn paper brush.
  • Then make sure that your foreground color is black and that you have the mask selected on your top paper layer.
  • Use the brush along the edge of the paper to create the torn edge.

 

 

Step 5: Duplicate your paper layer

  • Right click on your paper layer and choose “Duplicate layer…” to duplicate the paper layer.
  • Once you have two paper layers, hide the top one so you can work with the lower layer.

Step 6: Add a color overlay

  • With the bottom paper layer selected, choose the fx icon from your layers panel.
  • Because I wanted a white torn edge, I chose white for the color overlay with a 100% opacity.

 

Step 7: Add an inner glow

  • With the bottom paper layer still selected and your effects panel open, now add an Inner Glow with the following settings:
    • Blend mode = multiply
    • Opacity = 10%
    • Noise = 0%
    • Change the color swatch to black
    • Size = 25px

Step 8: Add a drop shadow

  • Keep that Layer Style panel open and now add a drop shadow with the following settings:
    • Blend mode = multiply
    • Opacity = 30%
    • Angle = 135
    • Distance = 10
    • Spread = 0
    • Size = 10

Step 9: Turn the top paper layer back on and use the Move tool (V) to move the layer up by 10 or so pixels so you can see the white torn paper below it.

Step 10: Use a smaller brush to paint away more of the edges

  • First, make sure the mask of the top paper layer is selected. Then, I used the Rough Round brush (found it in the Legacy brushes folder) with a size of 50. Paint away more of the edges to give a rough look.

 

 

And you’re done!

Yes, it has a few steps, but it gives you a whole lot of flexibility to determine just how you want your torn paper to look.  The settings suggested here are just that – suggestions.  You can play around with brush sizes, drop shadow darkness, the edge itself… so much!

Hope you guys have fun!

 


About the Author  Shannon has been completely addicted to digiscrapping since she began in early 2016 (though she’s been a scrapper since 2000). Her early morning ritual of a few quiet hours of scrapping while sipping a chai tea is her favorite part of each day. She is also the owner of a web design company, and when she’s not at the computer designing websites or digiscrap layouts, she’s probably hiking one of the local mountains in her hometown of Phoenix, Arizona. She is an avid reader and loves to travel to foreign countries.

Hybrid How-To | Valentine’s Day Trading Cards

Hello everyone! It’s Tanya here, and I’m excited to share another edition of our Hybrid How-To series with you here on The Digital Press blog today! I seriously can’t believe it’s already mid-February and almost Valentine’s Day. Today, though, I’m here to teach you how to use your digital supplies to make some super cute Valentine’s Day trading cards… a project which will hopefully remove the stress of this holiday already being upon us!

You have plenty of time to grab a digital kit or two and create some fun Valentine’s Day cards for your little ones to trade with others; it’s definitely a project you can complete this weekend!

SUPPLIES NEEDED:

  1. Your favorite digital Valentine’s Day kit(s)
    (or, you can go the unconventional route and use non-themed kits that have fun papers/elements you like!)
  2. White cardstock
  3. Double-sided tape
  4. Paper cutter
  5. Scissors
  6. Valentine’s candy
  7. Washi tape

For this project, I used the following digital products (as you can see, I went the “unconventional” route and used non-Valentine’s-themed items — Be The Magic Be A Unicorn by Rachel Etrog Designs -and- Rawr Like A Dinosaur by Mari Koegelenberg)…

I created these fun school Valentine’s cards in Silhouette Studio, but you can use any photo editing program; I really like the software and I find it very easy to use (most of you already know that my favorite thing to do with my Silhouette machine is Print and Cut; this time, however, I actually designed and printed and then used my paper trimmer to finish them off).

The first step is to open the images and papers you want to use. For the paper, I drew out a rectangle in my software and and then did a drag and drop. Then I began layering until I got the desired look I wanted…

Here is a look at the final image I ended up with, after doing the steps above…

You’ll find that there are sooooo many possibilities for what you can do! Just play around and have fun! There are some really cute embellishments in the kits I used, so I just experimented until I found something that worked.

The next step is to duplicate them and print as many as possible onto one page. Here, I was able to fit eight on one page, but if you find that you would like them to be a little larger, you can definitely go with six…

Now, we’ll create the back of the card the same way we created the front (choose papers, embellishments, word art, etc… and layer until we have a design we like).

To print them onto the back of the cards we already printed, we will need to ensure that we use the same exact layout/arrangement when we print… and then we simply flip over our paper, fee it into the printer, and print side two. Make sure to follow your printer options for double-sided printing (if applicable); on my printer, to print on the back side of a page, I have to insert it printed side up (but know your own printer, and/or experiment to be sure!).

After I created the unicorn cards shown above, I decided to make another Valentine’s Day card design — this time, using the Rawr Like A Dinosaur kit. This was created the same way I created the cards up above.

Here’s a look at the design I settled on…

Again, I arranged them 8-to-a-page… and then printed the front sides before flipping it, putting it face up in my printer, and printing the back sides.

 

After we have finished printing the cards, we’ll use our paper trimmer and/or scissors and cut them out…

After trimming, you’ve got yourself some super cute custom double-sided Valentine’s Day cards!

At that point, you can prep them for trading with friends by having your little one sill out & sign all of them.

Aren’t these just the cutest?  There is nothing like creating your own things… especially when you get to share them with others!

Finally, I like to use cute patterned washi tape to attach some candy goodies to the cards, if you choose to…

There are so many fun things you can do to create your own Valentine’s Day cards! Not only do you have endless options for graphics, colors, and phrases when you look through your own digital stash… but if you google “Valentine’s Day puns,” there are tons of other funny and cute ideas out there!

I hope that this simple tutorial will help inspire you to use your own digital scrapbooking stash to create some really fun and unique cards for this Valentine’s Day! Have fun!


Tanya

About the Author  Tanya is a part of the hybrid team here at The Digital Press. She has been hybrid crafting for at least 16 years now, and loves creating and sharing those creations with others. Her all-time favorite tool is her Silhouette Cameo. She has been married for 29 years to her high school sweetheart, Richard and has two sons: Chris, 26 and Chance, 22. She also enjoys crocheting, photography and woodworking.

 

Tutorial Tuesday | Make Your Subject Stand Out

Hello, and welcome to another edition of our always-popular Tutorial Tuesday series here on The Digital Press blog! Today, I’m here to share with you some practical tips for making your subject stand out more when taking photographs.

Whenever we take a photo, it’s usually much stronger if it has a subject (or a main subject, at least) that can be immediately identified. To make the subject of your photo stand out, you have several “tools” at your disposal. Today, I will show you how to use those tools… using a toy that was recently gifted to my newborn son (because it’s a toy and not a person, it was able to “stand still” for a loooong time while I took all the pictures to illustrate this tutorial, LOL — so it was the perfect subject for me!). Here’s a look…

As you can see in this first picture… it’s a cute stuffed animal, but there is a lot going on visually around the toy (let’s be honest and call it what it is… clutter!). Because of this, it’s not standing out as well as it could be; you cannot easily tell, in just a split second, what the subject of this photo is.

How can I change that without having to clean up the mess around it? Here are a few ideas…

Use Focus and Depth of Field

“Depth of Field” is the sharp area of your picture. If you use a shallow depth of field, that means that only a small “slice” of your image is in focus, the rest of it, in front and behind this “slice”, is blurry. This is a great technique to avoid distractions in the background and separate your subject from the background, even when it’s super messy (like my example here).

How to achieve this effect?

  1. Use a wide aperture (small f/stop in manual mode, macro mode, “portrait” mode on some smartphones)
  2. Zoom in
    …or…
  3. Increase the distance between your subject and the background

You can also mix all of those steps/techniques for an even bigger effect. That’s what I did in the 2nd image, above, when compared to the first image above it. I moved the toy away from the background (closer to the camera), and switched to my “nifty fifty lens” to have a much wider aperture (f/1.8  vs  f/3.5-5.6 with my zoom lens that I had used in the first picture).

Want to read more about depth of field? Here’s an older tutorial from TDP’s blog all about focus and depth of field.

One other idea — you can also “fake” this technique after-the-fact, using your favorite photo-retouching software to blur your background, if your subject isn’t standing out to your liking.

Use the Rules of Composition

The rules of composition — such as the most famous “rule of thirds” — are great at helping guide the eye of the viewer towards the subject to make it immediately visible. There is a great tutorial on TDP’s blog about the most common composition rules.

To quickly recap the concepts that are covered in that previous blog post… here are some of the Rules of Composition to think about…

  • Rule of Thirds
  • Balance
  • Leading Lines
  • Viewpoint
  • Background
  • Symmetry and Pattern
  • Depth
  • Framing
  • Cropping

We definitely recommend giving that old tutorial a quick read! Lots of great info.

No matter what rule you use (or if you decide to break them!)… what’s important is that you make a mindful, creative choice that’s dictated by your subject and what you want to convey. Isolating your subject is key — whether you do that through use of negative space or, on the opposite, by filling the frame completely with it. Each of these two composition choices work really well to eliminate distractions. When you use the “fill the frame” technique, don’t be afraid to crop part of your subject. To achieve these two techniques, you might have to move yourself around your subject… and sometimes move your subject itself, if it’s possible.

Here, I chose to focus on the toy’s face and fill the frame with it…

Use Color

Color can be a very powerful visual tool. Using complementary colors (colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel — for example, purple and yellow… or blue and orange… or green and red), or using contrast between bright and neutral colors, is a great way to add dynamism to your image.

If your subject is red, well… lucky you, because red is a color that stands out naturally! Watch out for red elements that are NOT your subject, however, because they will attract the viewer’s eye and distract from your subject. In this example I used the toy’s bright colors in contrast with the neutral background by photographing it from above…

If you need more color inspiration, there is an older tutorial on TDP’s blog about using colors in layouts …but those examples can perfectly apply to photographs, as well!

Change Your Perspective / Point of View

Try taking your time to work your subject… move around it… experiment various points of view… different angles, etc. Try shooting at your subject’s level, or above it (like I did for the image up above), or from below it (like this next example), or from the front or the side, or even from the back for a “faceless” portrait.

Use Light

Light is the photographer’s raw material (photography means “writing with light”)… and you can definitely use it to make your subject stand out. For example, you can use backlight (with subject between you and the light source); rim light (the light is on the side of your subject and defines it with a “glow”); or a pocket of light in an otherwise darker environment.

In this image, above, the light was actually a mix of backlight and rim light.

Focus on Details

Last but not least, sometimes you don’t have to see the “big picture” to tell a story through your photo. You can focus (no pun intended) on small parts of your subject and still evoke emotions and memories, and sometimes they will even be more powerful than an image of the whole subject.

Focusing on details can easily be “mixed” with the “filling the frame” technique I mentioned before. Here I decided to focus on the toy’s ears that are, to me, the cutest part of it. My hand got into the picture as a nice “prop” to help attract the eye to the part I wanted to highlight.

Hopefully all of these practical tips and tricks will help you get stronger photos by helping to ensure that your photos have a clear subject! Now it’s time to get out your camera, and start capturing the little Everyday things in your life from a new perspective!


ChloéAbout the author  Chloé is in charge of PR and communication for her small town by day, is a digiscrapper “by night,” and a photographer whenever the light is beautiful. She lives with her man and dog Kira in a small town of Alsace (in the northeast of France), where she loves to read, watch good TV shows (TWD being her absolute favorite), and just hang out with her friends — no matter if they are close by, online, or away in her Swiss hometown. Right now she’s busy growing her baby boy that should be here in February.

Tutorial Tuesday | Photographing an event

Hey there! With Holiday season upon us, we thought it might be a fun idea to give you some tips on how to photograph an event, whether it is Christmas (as in my examples below), a birthday party, a baby shower, a family reunion, a professional event or anything you could think of!

Capture the “big picture”

This is the most “obvious” thing, that we usually all do, so it’s an easy one to remember. Take a couple images of the whole event, the whole room (or rooms if it’s a big event). This will help record the location, but also the weather, the time of day. Of course, you will have most of the guests on those photos, even the shy ones that won’t agree to be photographed alone or in smaller groups! Remember to change your points of view so that all those pictures don’t look the same. If you can find a higher position (from a scene, for example, or even by stepping on a chair), it’ll be easier to have the whole room in your image. Use the widest lens you have (18mm in the image below).

Focus on the relationships

Those events’s main interest is usually to be together, so remember to capture that in your images. The moment people arrive at the location and greet each other is a perfect opportunity to capture those happy reunions. Don’t hesitate to photograph people hugging, talking, laughing with each other. That’s the whole point of being together, right?

Take some “documentary” images

This is another great tip to help take photos of the shy guests: take their photo without them noticing, without directing the scene you’re photographing, as if you were a fly on the wall. Capturing them that way will help you getting relaxed, natural photos of them. Of course, if they ask you to delete the photos, you have to respect that… but try showing them how awesome they look first, they might change their mind! LOL

Take some posed photos

If it works with the kind of event, have a little “photo session” with traditional, posed photos of the guests. I have a tradition like that with my mom, brother, sister-in-law and now my niece when we celebrate my mom’s birthday on December 26th. It’s almost the only photo I have every year of my brother who hates to have his picture taken and is awfully good to avoid my camera… but at least I have one good yearly photo of him! LOL

Photograph the details

Remember to photograph all the details of the event. Decor, food, piles of gifts, the games that are played during the event, the flowers, the activities (below my family watching old photos my mom had scanned and my cousin playing some music), the invite and more! Those details make the “personality” of an event, what’s special about THAT event, they deserve to be remembered!

Don’t stress too much about technique and be present

As you can see from my pictures above, technical perfection wasn’t my main concern there. I made sure I recorded those memories, even though my white balance was a mess and some pictures were blurry, but the most important thing for me was to be present, enjoy my family (that I don’t get to see very often) and have a good night making memories with them. Don’t get too caught up in getting the “perfect” settings or trying to figure out a new photographic technique but remember to make and record memories, even if the pictures are far from being perfect!

EXTRA TIP: take videos!

Last but not least, remember that pretty much all cameras can take videos so use that awesome feature. It’s especially great for speeches, music, dancing, candles blowing, gifts opening and anything with movement! And if you want to add these videos to your scrapbooking pages of the event, here’s another tutorial on how to use QR codes on your layouts.

Here is a page I created using last year’s Christmas pictures and the beautiful kit “Traditionally Festive” by KimB Designs.

I hope you’ll find these tips helpful to capture all those fun memories on the next event you attend!


ChloéAbout the author  Chloé is in charge of PR and communication for her small town by day, is a digiscrapper “by night,” and a photographer whenever the light is beautiful. She lives with her man and dog Kira in a small town of Alsace (in the northeast of France), where she loves to read, watch good TV shows (TWD being her absolute favorite), and just hang out with her friends — no matter if they are close by, online, or away in her Swiss hometown. She recently became quite obsessed with Bullet Journaling, FlyLady and Zero Waste.

Tutorial Tuesday | Documenting Pop Culture

Welcome to another edition of our Tutorial Tuesday series here on The Digital Press blog! I’m so excited to be here with you today to talk about one of my favorite things… pop culture (and how to incorporate it into your scrapbooking)!

Ever since taking a pop culture course in college, I’ve been fascinated by the ideas, perspectives, attitudes, and images that are within the mainstream of our culture. From advertising to literature to music, it all has a huge impact on our day-to-day lives. I think it’s really important to document the various aspects of pop culture in my scrapbooking, because I know I will love to look back and see how pop culture has changed over time in our lives. It gives me a glimpse into the details of our lives and the things that have made them unique and interesting.

With that in mind, here are just a few ways that you can document pop culture and all of its impact on your life …

  1. Create a ‘snapshot of today’ by scrapbooking about the realities of life today. You can include things like the major news events, the popular TV shows, the music on the pop charts, and the political realities that your country is facing. The world changes so fast today that having those details in your scrapbooks can help you remember what life was like for you and your family at any given time.
  2. Outline your favorite books and literature from your current lives. What books have you loved? What books have been made into movies? What book-related events have you attended? What magazines do you read? What are the genres that you enjoy?
  3. Create a page about your personal style. What clothing brands do you wear? What style do you wear your hair in? What are the fashion trends that you love (or those which make no sense to you)?
  4. Scrapbook about your musical tastes. Are you a music person? Do you listen to the radio in your car? Spotify or Pandora? Do you listen to podcasts? Do you have a theme song that gets you through your day to day?
  5. Document the different things in your life that make your life more interesting — TV shows, movies, slang/expressions, the technology/apps you depend on or use on a regular basis.

Here are a couple of example layouts that I’ve created, each of which document my own connection to pop culture. The first one outlines all of the podcasts that I listen to on a regular basis (it will be interesting to go back later and see what I was listening to in 2017!)…

[ credits: Mellifluous Kit by MEG Designs ]

This second page documents the fact that I am a huge reader and a lover of all things books and reading! I make a point of creating a page at the end of every year that documents my favorite books from that year, because I love going back later to look at what I was reading in any given year…

[ credits: One More Chapter Kit by Anita Designs and Designs by Soco ]

 

I hope that these tips will help to inspire you to begin capturing pop culture, and documenting its place in your life! I think that you will find it adds a little something special to your pages and helps transport you back to an exact timeframe to add to your memory keeping!


Amy

About the Author  Amy lives in Richmond, Virginia, with her husband and their 13-year-old boy/girl twins. Their 22-year-old daughter has finished up graduate school at Clemson and is starting her first full-time job! She has been scrapbooking since the early 1990s, but discovered digital scrapbooking in 2005 when her twins were born… and has primarily scrapped digitally since that time. She is passionate about telling her family’s stories and documenting their life together. She is also a huge reader (mostly literary fiction), a pop culture junkie, and LOVES all things beauty & makeup!