Creating your own journal cards is fun and easy. Let me share some ideas to get you started. It’s a great way to personalize your layout.
The standard size for journal cards is 3 x 4 and 4 x 6 but any size is acceptable; create them to suit your page design and preference. I often create square cards which work well with my instagram photos. You can create your journal card with a background color as your base or have a transparent background. With a transparent background, you can also use your journal card as a photo overlay. I created this journal card on a transparent background. To save with the transparent layer intact, I clicked the drop-down menu (at the top of the layers palette on the right side) and selected “merge visible”. This can be overlayed onto my photo. As the glitter in the bottom left isn’t in a desired spot, I will select it with the lasso tool, right click and select “layer via cut” from the drop-down menu. After moving it, I then duplicated it, moving it to overlay other areas of my photo.
Here’s the photo with the journal card combined.
Now I’ll create a journal card with a color background but I’ll make it even more fun and add a gradient map to it. You can add a fill layer to your journal card. In Photoshop menu up top, select edit, then choose fill from the drop-down menu and open “contents” so you can click “color” which will open the color picker so you can select a color to use (don’t forget to click OK). If the color option is already visible in the contents box when the menu opens, you need to open the contents menu and re-select color option again as the color picker won’t open unless you do this. So now you will have a base color to work with. Now click onto the foreground color box (at the bottom left, the uppermost one is the foreground color box) which opens up the color picker so you can select another color to use as the gradient overtop of the base fill layer. In Photoshop, click on the new adjustment layer icon (the circle with half white and half black at the bottom of the layers palette) and select “gradient”. In the gradient menu I used linear style and 90° angle.
Here is a Pinterest link with some journal card design ideas to help you get started. Have a look through these samples and see what ideas it sparks in you to create your own cards.
Here are some other links you might enjoy perusing through:
Sahlin Studio Blog – article by Maribel on how to use journaling cards.
http://sahlinstudio.com/how-to-use-journal-cards-to-frame-photos/
Studio Calico – 4 more ways to use journal cards
https://www.studiocalico.com/2015/06/4-more-ways-to-use-digital-journaling-cards-pam-baldwin
TLP Blog – Planner Love: Using Digital Journal Cards
https://the-lilypad.com/planner-love-using-digital-journal-cards/
TLP Blog – Extend Your Stash: Blending Journal Cards
https://the-lilypad.com/extend-your-stash-blending-journal-cards/
Have fun creating your own journal cards. Remember to save your cards so they can be used over and over again.
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