Digital Tutorials - Page 20

You've looked at 5 million digital scrapbook kits and can't find the exact kind of striped paper you're looking for. Or the color isn't just right. Or you wish there was a dotted paper to go with the striped one. The solution: create your own digital kit.

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This is an easy project, though it may be a bit time-consuming at first, but I find I enjoy the design process almost as much as creating the layout or card. While there aren't a lot of rules (after all, it's your kit), here are some things to consider:

1. Is this kit for me, free to others, or for sale?
   1. If the kit is for me, and I'm making paper for a card, I may only create the paper to fit my card front rather than a full 12" x 12" scrapbook page size. Also, I can save my elements as psp files to preserve the transparent background.
   2. If I'm making the kit to give away, I want to create the standard size papers (3600 pixels square at 300 dpi) and save all of my elements as .png files.
   3. If for sale, you need to be very careful about using copywrited clipart, images, etc. Also, many designers offer elements, PSP scripts to make elements, and other items for personal use only.
   
   
2. What type of kit do I want to design - cute, heritage, elegant, etc?
   1. This will help you focus on the type of paper to create and what kind of elements you want. That cute little baby bear sticker won't go so well with a heritage kit, but will look great for a new baby ensemble.
   
   
3. Choose a color pallette
   1. You want to make sure that all of your pieces go together well - the green in the ribbon needs to go with the green in the paper. It doesn't have to be the same shade, of course, but you don't want things to clash.

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And now, on to the kit. I wanted to make a mini-Christmas kit (a mini kit has fewer papers and elements), in a "cute" style. I loved the colors in this card I made, so I used pinks and greens as my color pallette. I ended up not using the lightest green or the maroon, but if I was making a larger kit, I would have incorporated those.

    

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First I designed my papers. I created a striped, a dotted, and a patterned paper, all keeping in the same color pallette. I created two solid ones, but used textured overlays to keep them from looking too plain.

1. Create a New Image, 3600 x 3600 at 300 dpi. (This will give you a 12" x 12" page suitable for printing).

There are many different ways to create stripes - here are links to two tutorials:

1. This is a tutorial I wrote on creating stripes from selecting blocks of color - (Dyan-Striped Paper). This gives a very definite edge to each stripe.
2. This was a great tutorial by Lori on how to create stripes from a photo. The stripes are very soft and have a different look - (Lori - Stripes from a Photo).
   
   I used the photo of the pink and green Christmas card as my base and Lori's method to make the above striped paper.

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1. Create a New Image, 3600 x 3600 at 300 dpi. (This will give you a 12" x 12" page suitable for printing).

Again, there are many different ways to create dotted paper. I used a tutorial by Dizteq which explains how to use the Halftone effect in Paint Shop Pro. After creating the dots, I selected them and used the "Select Selection Borders" option she mentions to add the dark green border.

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1. Create a New Image, 3600 x 3600 at 300 dpi. (This will give you a 12" x 12" page suitable for printing), and fill with the color of your choice (I used the dark green from the pallette.)
2. Open a blank image, 400 x 400 and add an image in the center (I used a Christmas Dingbat font in the medium green from the pallette, but you can use a brush, a dot, or any clip-art image).
3. Create a Seamless Tile from the image - (Effects > Image Effects > Seamless Tiling. Settings: Corner, Bidirectional, Transition 97%)
4. Use the seamless tile as a pattern to fill your image
5. Add the overlay, set Blend Mode to overlay
6. Merge all layers
   
   Credits: Overlay (Helen Monteiro Scraps TextureOverlay01); Font (Dingbat font ChristmasTime)

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1. Create a New Image, 3600 x 3600 at 300 dpi. (This will give you a 12" x 12" page suitable for printing).
2. Fill with a color from the pallette.
3. Add the overlay, set Blend Mode to overlay
   
   Credits: Overlay (Helen Monteiro Scraps TextureOverlay01);

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1. Create a New Image, 3600 x 3600 at 300 dpi. (This will give you a 12" x 12" page suitable for printing).
2. Fill with a color from the pallette.
3. Add the overlay, set Blend Mode to overlay.
4. Add PSP Linen Texture (Effects > Texture Effects > Linen)
   
   Credits: Overlay (Nancy Janitz INKEDEDGES)

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Now onto the elements.

Here's a link to a tutorial I wrote on how to make a sticker from clip art - (Stickers). I used a white background, obviously. The original Teddy Bear was brown with a red hat, but I used the Change to Target brush to change colors so he would match the kit. (The sticker has a transparent background - I placed it on one of the papers so you could see the white "sticker" outline).

Credits: Teddy Bear clip art (unknown)

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1. Open the striped paper you created and rotate image 90 degrees.
2. Select a portion that you want to use for the ribbon.
3. Add PSP Blinds effect (Effects > Texture Effects > Blinds (color was light grey).
4. Add digital stitching to the top and bottom and merge all layers.
   
   Credits: Digital Stitches (unknown)

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Here's the link to make the page pebble using a pre-made digital frame - Page Pebble.

Here's a link to a tutorial to make your own frame (which I used here) - Frame, using the Eye Candy Glass filter.








Go to Techniques Page 21 for information on how to prepare a preview of your kit, upload and share your link with others

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You can click this link (Dyan's Cute Christmas Kit) and download the entire kit free. (If you do download, leave me a comment or drop me an email - I'd love to know what you think).