DAY 1: LEARN THE LINGO.
"Elements" (sometimes also called "Embellishments"): Things like alphabets, flowers, doodles, ribbons...pretty much anything that isn't a paper is an element. You'll use these things to flesh out a layout and make it pretty.
"Quick Pages": These are pages (like my project 366 pages) that are all ready for you to "plug-and-chug" your photos. All the work of designing has been taken off your shoulders. Sometimes this is really the way to go, especially when you get behind. It takes no more than 5 minutes to put a page like this together and off you go! We'll be working with these this week to introduce the process to you.
.jpeg/.gif/.bmp/.png: types of image files. With digiscrapping, you'll find a lot of .png--that's because parts of .png files can be transparent, which allows you to have your pictures or other elements show through. In the end, you'll save the finished product as a .jpg because most printers prefer that, but while you're working you could easily have mixed types.
"Layers:" Layers are exactly that: images that lay on top of one another. We use layers in digiscrapping ALL THE TIME. That's how we position a picture behind a quick page's invisible spots, and it's how we add elements and journaling (writing) to the top of them.
"Brag Book Pages:" These are like quick pages, but they are sized 4"x6" or 5"x7". They're meant to be printed off as little photo books, usually for parents or grandparents to show off their kids or grandkids (hence the name).
SO. Check and see if you have a .png file that's a quick page. If you don't, download 5 from HERE. You'll need them this week! If you come across any other words you want defined, leave me a comment or a message and I'll clarify. :)
DAY 2: GATHER PHOTOS TO SCRAP.
This may seem obvious, but you'll need some photos to scrap. We're (hopefully) making 5 different pages this week, so you'll want enough photos for all five. Know where they are. Know what direction they go--vertical? Horizontal? Could you crop them to squares? Try to find quick pages (you can even do a google search if there aren't any in your stash) that match the season or the colors of your photos, or at least the shapes. The best quick-pages out there have really generic elements and neutral-ish color schemes so you can use them for just about anything. Look for those, at least for this week. (We'll talk about fancy stuff, like making it black-and-white or recoloring things, later...). You can do 5 different pages for 5 different people/adventures, or you could just make multiple-page spreads if the colors go well together. I do this A LOT with quick pages since they usually only have room for 1 or 2 photos and I take a million anytime we go anywhere. :)
DAY 3: USE PAINT.NET TO ADD PHOTOS TO QUICK PAGES!
Today we get to actually use all this new knowledge and some of our fun downloads! I'll walk you through each of the steps today, and then you can practice on a new quick page each day for the rest of this week. :) Using quick pages every day will help you get the "basics" of PAINT.net down almost as second-nature, too, so that you'll be more prepared next week when we get fancy. :) So.
Step 1: Open your quick page .png image in Paint.net.
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| Open Paint.net. Up at the top left corner, click "File," then "Open," and find that .png quick page file you want to use. Double click or then click "open" and it will appear! |
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| You'll see several toolbars. On the left are your tools and your color wheel, and on the right is your history (useful when you try something and decide you hate it) and your layers. We'll go in more detail about these things in the next few weeks as we learn, so don't get overwhelmed just yet! |
Step 2: Import your pictures as layers.
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| Go to "Layers," click on "Import from File," and then select the ones you want. |
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| Sometimes you can hit Control as you click to open several at once, or sometimes you just have to do it one at a time. From the iPhone I almost always have to do it one at a time. I actually think it's less complicated to do one at a time, so do it that way until you're comfortable. :) Double click the image you want or click on it and then click "Open." |
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| Now you have your (probably GIANT) photo on top of your quick page! If your photo is larger than the page, don't worry--I'll help you fix that at the end, everything until then is the same. :) |
Step 3: Resize, rotate, and move images.
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| Making sure your "Tools" toolbar has the arrow highlighted, you can use the "hands" at the corners to drag the sides of an image to make it larger or smaller. That one is pretty intuitive. :) |
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| Move the picture over the blank spot you want by left-clicking anywhere inside the picture and dragging it to where you want it. |
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| If your image needs rotating, you have to move it first. Otherwise you'll get a weird copy of the picture rotated on top of the original, and it's frustrating! Once it's moved where you want it, RIGHT CLICK and use your mouse or touchpad to drag the insides of the picture until it's at the angle you want. The closer you are to the edges of the picture before you click, the smaller the changes will be--if you click right in the middle, even a small change could have your pic doing a 180. :) |
Step 4: Push those layers "down" below the quick page. Get rid of (erase) the parts that don't fit in the space.
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| On the right, in your "Layers" toolbar, you should have that picture layer highlighted still. The little arrow pointing down moves your layer down below. |
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| Since we only have two layers right now, I don't have to push it down more than once--but you might later on. This is what mine looks like now. If you want it to move or resize behind that opening in the paper, do it now. |
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| Over on the left "Tools" toolbar, select the pink eraser. You can change the brush size to as large as 500 px, but you probably won't need it THAT big. But use it to erase the parts of the photo that don't fit and that are showing through. |
REPEAT Steps 2-4 until all your transparent spaces have been filled with photos.
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| This is what my page looks like now, having imported pictures as new layers, moving them, resizing, and rotating--notice that there are more layers so I could have had to move it up or down more...but since the pink blossoms pic was under, or behind, the lettuce sprout pic I didn't have to alter it at all. |
Step 5: Flatten.
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| Up at the top left of the screen, click "Image" and then "Flatten." It may take a minute or two for it to do this. |
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| Notice how, in the "Layers" toolbox on the bottom right, it's only one layer now? That's because you flattened them all into one layer. This will be more handy later on, although you have to have a "flat" image to save it as a .jpg. |
Step 6: Add text. Flatten again if necessary.
Sometimes you want to add text--whether it just be a short note about the place and date of the pictures, a page title, or a full-out journal paragraph that records your memories about these photos. Here's how:
(IMPORTANT: CTRL + D (holding down "control" on your keyboard plus the letter "d") is how you "deselect." So if you have a photo highlighted and you want to start adding text somewhere else, you have to do that first.)
Then you can go one of two ways:
HORIZONTAL TEXT:
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| If you just want to add straight text, it's easy. Click on the text icon in your "Tools" toolbar (the T). You can change what font and text size you want in those drop-down menus. |
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| Write your text right on the image and you're good to go! |
IF YOU WANT ANGLED/VERTICAL TEXT:
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| First, you'll have to add a new layer on top (so you can drag your text around without disturbing your paper or pictures). Click on "Layers," then "Add New Layer." |
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| Select the text color, size, and font you want, and type in your text. |
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| Use the "Select" tool (the rectangle at the very top left corner of the "Tools" toolbar" to select the area around your text, and drag/rotate it wherever you want. Do this until all your text is added. |
STEP 6B (only if your photo was bigger than the quick page and now, after resizing and adding text, you have a bunch of white space): CROP YOUR FINAL IMAGE.
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| (Sorry, I had to use a different quick page (QP) and image so I could show you how this works.) You should have already resized, rotated, and moved all your images, added text, etc. to your page. Now you need to use the "Select" tool from the Tools toolbox (it's the dotted rectangle at the top left) and select the part of the image you want to save--so all around the page. |
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| Go to "Image," then click on "Crop to Selection." |
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| And voila! There it is. (I only added one pic, just to show you how it's done. Hopefully you filled all the photo spaces with pictures, though. :) |
Step 7: Save.
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| Find the folder you want to save it as, type in your file name, MAKE SURE WHERE IT SAYS "SAVE AS TYPE" YOU'VE GOT IT AS A .JPG, and click "save." |
Ta da! You did it! Wasn't that easy? I know I explained a lot of steps and there were a LOT of pictures, but mostly that's for the sake of people for whom computers aren't as intuitive. Chances are you've already got it down, but go ahead and make another one tomorrow just in case. Once you get the hang of the different controls and can make a quick page without looking here for directions every time, you're ready to go on to next week's tutorials. So spend a little time practicing now until you have it down to an art. Or a science. Or second nature. Or whatever. :)
DAY 4: PRACTICE!
Go make another quick page and save it!
DAY 5: PRACTICE!
Go make another quick page and save it!
DAY 6: PRACTICE!
Go make another quick page and save it!
DAY 7: PRACTICE!
Go make another quick page and save it!
If you post your creations to your blog, share the link below so I can oooh and aaaah at your awesomeness! :) Hooray for learning new things! Stay tuned for next week...we're REALLY gonna get fancy then! :)
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