Digital Tutorials - Page 16

Using Quick Pages & Templates

In my ongoing quest to show how digital design and digital scrapbooking merge well with card-making, I thought we would have some fun with "quick pages," templates and the like. Since most quick pages and templates are made for scrapbooking, they are square. I generally resize the image to 525 pixels square which will produce a 5 1/4" printed piece, so that I can layer it to a 5 1/2" square card. I also look at the quick page to determine what "real" elements I want to use to replace the printed elements.

Quick Page is a digitally designed, full-color scrapbook page that generally has a transparent opening for you to insert one or more of your photographs. Here's a sample by Doris Castle (Doris Castle Quick Page) - because I saved this as a .jpg, the opening is now white, but the original file I downloaded did have a transparent background.

The image I wanted to use was not oriented for the opening, so I rotated the quickpage 90 degrees.

1. Open the Quick page, duplicate the image and close the original
2. Resize the image to 525 pixels wide and rotate 90 degrees.
3. Since my image had a transparent background, I used the Magic Wand to select the transparent portion
4. Choose complimentary color and fill transparent portion
5. Add texture (I used Texturizer Filter, canvas)
6. Open the girl image, copy (CTRL+C) and paste it onto the Quick Page as a New Layer (CLRL+L)
7. Drag the girl layer BELOW the quick page layer
8. Use the Pick Tool to resize the girl image if necessary
9. Print on white cardstock
10. Set 4 silver eyelets on the printed eyelets, and thread dotted ribbon through, attaching on the back
11. Attach the piece to a 5 1/2" square red card
12. Glue three black buttons to the upper left (Quick Page Card)
    
    Credits: Digital White Washed Quick page(Doris Castle); Image (tubed by Hanna's Designs)

Template is like a digital "sketch" of a scrapbook page layout. The file can be opened in a graphics program, and the individual sections selected and filled with your choice of papers, photos, designs or elements. Here's a sample by Celly O'Neill (Celly O'Neill Template). The good thing about templates is that you can make as many changes to the design as you wish, or use it exactly as it comes. (Because most templates are designed for PhotoShop or other Adobe programs, it takes a few extra steps to use these in PSP, but it's not difficult and goes very quickly once you've done a few.)

1. Open template, make copy and close original. (If you choose to keep the star, you can elminate steps 2-7 below, except that you will need to paint over the words on the template)
2. Click the Eyedropper, and left click the light grey portion of the template to set the color as your background
3. Use Magic Wand to select the star, Expand by 3 (to get all the border) and hit delete (the star will be filled with the grey color)
4. Select the dark grey portion with the Eyedropper and choose your Paintbrush tool.
5. Paint over the portion of the star that should be filled with the dark grey (or just leave it for an usual cut to the paper). While you have this color selected, paint over the words "Title" and "Journaling"
6. Repeat with the black portion, then the white portion to paint over the star
7. Paint over the word "Photo"
8. Click the white photo section with the Magic Wand and expand by 1.
9. Open your image, copy, and Edit-Paste Into Selection on your template
10. Repeat with the red, blue and beige papers
11. Add a layer, use your text tool, and insert Hiraga text
12. Add a layer and add the flourish design
13. Resize to 525 pixels wide
14. Print Quick page on white cardstock and attach to 5 1/2" square black cardstock
15. Insert real brad through printed photo turn
16. Tie red ribbon through coin charm and glue to bottom of card (Template Card)
    
    Credits: Template (Celly O'Neill); Red Digital Paper (JanHhosford-Enchanted Evening); Blue Digital Paper (Phoenix Tiled DGB paper-unknown designer-recolored blue to match image); Asian image (unknown); Flourish (Doris Castle)

The Overlay was a .png file so it already had a transparent background. Because the image was outlined in black, I chose not to layer it onto contrasting cardstock. (Scrap Sisters Overlay)

1. Open template, make a copy and close original
2. Resize to 5 1/2" square
3. Use the Magic Wand to click in one of the openings to select
4. Open the text image, copy, and Edit-Paste Into Selection on your template
5. Repeat until all the sections are filled with text
6. Open the images you want to use, copy each and paste each as a new layer on your template (I used PSP tubes which had transparent backgrounds. If you use clip art, you will need to delete the background of each image)
7. Use the Pick Tool to resize images if necessary and to move them into place
8. Print completed template on 8 1/2 x 11" white cardstock, lining it up on your screen so it will print at the bottom right of the cardstock
9. Trim, and fold to make a 5 1/2" square card
10. Print text on vellum, tear edges and attach to bottom of card with pink brads (Overlay Card)
    
    Credits: Overlay Template (Scrap Sisters); Text image, PSP Victorian Tubes (unknown)

Scrap-Map (or Card-Map) or Recipe. This is similar to a template, but is usually a design to be used for paper scrapping or card-making. These are not necessarily drawn to size, nor designed to be used in a graphics program (although they can be used as templates in Paint Shop Pro). Here is a sample card-map from Scrap-Maps. One basic design will give you a huge variety of options. On the first sample, I used three ovals in place of the squares, and a decorated tag for a greeting. On the second example, I moved the squares down to the bottom, and the greeting to the top. You can even turn the map and have the three squares vertically on the card.

1. Fold cream cardstock into an 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" card
2. Print an 8 1/2" x 4" piece of both the checked and striped digital papers (or use purchased paper)
3. Attach the striped paper to the bottom of the card; tear the bottom edge of the checked paper and attach to the top of the card
4. Add an oval peach border around the three images (or layer to cardstock), and print on white cardstock
5. Cut out and attach to the top of the card with foam tape
6. Print a piece of the checked paper on cardstock and cut into a tag
7. Print the text on vellum, tear and ink the edges and attach to tag with vellum tape
8. Thread lace and pearls through the hole and attach tag to card with foam tape (Card Map Card 1)
   
   Credits: Digital Checked Paper (I manipulated this to make the checks smaller and recolored) (Laurie Farrar-Shabbyesque); Digital Striped Paper (recolored)(Josie Celia); Oval Images (PSP tubes - tubed by SLH)

1. Fold pink cardstock to a 5 1/2" x 4 1/4" card
2. In a graphics program, draw a small square of cream and add the PSP flower tube
3. Use the eyedropper to match the green of the leaves and draw a border around the square
4. Print three on cardstock, cut out, and attach to the bottom of the card with foam tape. (Of course, you can print your image and layer to green cardstock, or stamp on cream cardstock and layer).
5. Using the colors of the flower square, create (Striped Paper)
6. Type the word thanks in Carpenter font
7. Print a 5 1/2" x 2 1/2" piece on heavy text-paper
8. Trim, tear the bottom edge, and attach to card (Card Map Card 2)
   
   Credits: Digital Striped Paper (Dyan Cross); Flower image (PSP Tube)

There are some Quick Pages designed with no photo insert. Here's a sample of a quick page by Shabby Princess. The original design is to the left, (Shabby Princess Quick Page-no photo) and as you can see, it has no opening for a photo, but the colors, design and elements are all present. Click here to for directions on how to make the No Photo Card.