The Lilypad

Word Art is a very versatile digital product to use in your layout design. There are many ways to incorporate word art; let me show you some of my favorite ways. Sometimes word art is perfect the way it is and other times there are bit and pieces of it that work even better for your page design. Erase or move the words around, or select part of the word art (I like to use the lasso tool to do this), right click and select "layer via copy" to put the selection on its own layer. Then I erase that area off the original layer so that only the new layer selection will be visible. Then you can manipulate that layer as you wish. Some ideas include enlarging, recoloring, clipping a paper to it and applying a brush or style texture. By altering the word art, you can personalize it for your page and give it a new look. Applying a stroke or texture to the word art adds a variation to the … [Read more...]

Howdy Pad Scrappers! Polly Liana here with a tip about how to use Photoshop to recolor parts of your photos so they coordinate with the rest of your layout.  I'm sure you can think of times that you've been working on a layout and you've got the perfect photo and the perfect kit but the colors don't match well or even clash completely.  Of course you can use them together but if there is a way to change a small part of the photo to make them coordinate better, why not?  Here's a recent example of a photo I wanted to change to make it match better with the layout: See how the purple in the cards jumps out in a not-so-good way?  Do the cards have to be purple?  Will it affect the meaning or memory of the photo if they're a different color?  No!  So I changed them... Better, right?  Here's how I did it: First, make sure your photo layer is selected (or just work with the … [Read more...]

Hello and happy summer!  I'm just dropping in with a quick tip today about making journal strips look more finished on your digital pages.  I was playing with Fiddle-Dee-Dee's awesome Artsy Fartsy templates (which are available in today's SOSN sale for 50% off) and used the rectangle templates to make my own journal strips.   Here is a look at my page:     Notice the strips in the top and bottom right corners?  Those were made by clipping paper to the template rectangles and then adding an inner glow adjustment around the edges to give them a more finished look.  It is a subtle effect, but adds some real dimension to the element.  Here is a look at the before and after comparison:     To apply the style, choose Inner Glow from the layer styles pop up menu at the bottom of the layers palette (the fx button).  In the layer style box … [Read more...]

Creating clusters may be easier than you think. Let me share a few tips on how to get started and after that, all you need is your imagination. The fun in clustering is that you never quite know how it's going to end up, if your design will go as planned or  you might veer off course along the way and create a cluster much different than you originally anticipated. Not that you can't plan and design your cluster specific to your idea but you can certainly just let it come together as you go, trying out different elements and changing their size, placement and color. There is no steadfast rule about clustering, some prefer a realistic look, with shadows placed as they would be in real life and others prefer a more whimsical, surreal look, not building up their layers so much in a real-looking format. There is no right or wrong, design your cluster to suit your style, your preference. … [Read more...]