Techniques-Digital - Page 3
Word Art, Digital Stamping, Recoloring, Stained Glass, Christmas Card, Computer Generated Text, Chipboard Letters
|
Word Art
Stars Word Art - Directions using Paint Shop Pro 7 (or a graphics program):
(Click here for directions in Microsoft Word)
- Create a 500x500 image, 300 dpi, white or transparent background
- Add a layer and type the word "the" using Art Gothic Bold font, size 26
- Repeat for your other words, placing each on a new layer
- Add a new layer and type "Stars" in Acquiline Two Font, size 65; repeat for "High" and "Dreams" placing each on a separate layer
- Add a new layer and type "Stars" in Porcelain Font, size 100 in grey color; repeat for "High" and "Dreams" placing each on a separate layer
- Using the move tool, move the letters around until you like the layout
- The layers for the grey words should be under the layers for the black words
- Merge visible layers and save as a .jpg or .png file
Journey/Love Word Art - Directions using Paint Shop Pro 7 (or a graphics program): (Directions are for Journey - follow the same basic directions for the wordart Love)
(Click here for directions in Microsoft Word)
- Create a 1550 x 400 image, 300 dpi, white or transparent background
- Add a layer and type your first letter, in Wide Boy font size 250, color black)
- Repeat for your other letters, placing each on a new layer
- Using the move tool, move the letters around until you like the layout
- Add another layer and type your small words in Copperplate Gothic Bold font, size 18, color white
- I typed four words (dream, imagine, travel, discover) and repeated until the line was long enough to completely cover all of my large letters
- I copied and pasted the first line, indenting a little so the words don't line up
- Copy and paste the two lines until the words completely cover your large word
- Add a new layer and type one of the small words, same font and size, but color red (or your choice)
- Line up that word over top of one of the white words
- Repeat for the other 4 words
- Merge visible layers and save as a .jpg or .png file
|
|
Star in the East
- Create an image 475 pixels square and add a gradient (I used PSP's Multi-Blue).
- Add a layer, and using the Sponge Brush, add a line around the edge of the entire image (keeping the gradient as your background color)
- Add a Gaussian Blur of 12 (this gives the look of "inked" edges)
- Add a Beige Rough texture, default settings
- Add a layer, and add the SL Christmas Silhouettes Dingbat font letter "f" in size 150 (or to fit), color black - add a drop shadow
- I wanted a star which was available on the letter "e" along with a different three Wise Men. I added a layer, added the letter "e" in a grey font to get the star, and erased the grey Wise Men.
- Apply an Inner Bevel to the star to get the dimension
- Add a layer, and add the first line of text in white font - add a drop shadow
- Repeat for the next two lines of text
- Add a Border, width 10 pixels, and select with the Magic Wand
- Fill with a silver metallic gradient
- Add a drop shadow, using Vertical and Horizontal of 10. Repeat, using -10 for both
- Add a Border, width 30 pixels in dark blue and add same drop shadows as above
|
|
Digital Stamp Technique - by Gillian Allen on the art-e-zine site .
This technique takes any piece of clip art or a photo and makes a digital image that looks like a rubber stamp. I needed to make a few changes to Gillian Allen's directions, so here's how I created the digital stamp:
- Open image in Paint Shop Pro
- Adjust the brightness/contrast (brightness 0, contrast 75)
- Adjust Threshold (I used a setting of 225)
- Use Magic Wand to select black areas
- Expand selection
- Copy (CTL + C)
- Open a new transparent image the same size as your adjusted one
- Paste the image as a layer into the new image (CTL + L)
At this point you can stop, or add text like I did:
- Add layer and print first line of quote using Pegsanna
- Add layer and print "that we might have"
- Add layer and print last line
- Add layer and print Roses using Papyrus font
- SAVE FILE AS A PSP FILE to preserve the layers
- Save file as a .jpg
|
|
Computer Generated Text or Clip Art
To print onto your full size card stock:
- Print text or clip art on a scrap piece of paper and hold up to card to be sure placement is correct.
- Keep arranging text or clip art on screen and printing on scrap until it is in the right place
- Put card stock through the printer (it's preferable if you don't fold the card until after you print)
If you want to print onto small pieces of card stock:
- Print text or clip art onto scrap paper
- Tape card stock onto scrap paper, centering over text or art, and put through the printer.
- Use tiny pieces of tape, and it's a good idea to have a little extra space around your image so that you can cut off the edges if the tape doesn't come off cleanly.
"Foreign" Text - I have an Italian Poetry stamp, but wanted a stamp with French text.
- Type any text you want and copy (CTL + C)
- Go to Free Translation site and paste your text (CTL + V)
- Choose the language you want and copy the translation
- Paste back into your document and choose any font you want
|
|
Recoloring Clip Art
You will need a graphics program that will allow you to select a color. Directions are for Paint Shop Pro:
- Open original image and duplicate (Shift+D) - CLOSE original
- Using Magic Wand, click on the area you want to recolor.
- You may have to adjust the tolerance to get more or less of the area that gets chosen
- Choose the color you want to use and click the Fill Tool
- Fill the selected area
Some variations:
- If some of the old color remains around the edge of the selection, undo (Ctrl+Z) the fill, and choose Selections > Modify > Feather (Ctrl+H), and enter 2 pixels. Then fill with selected color
The angel with the blue background is the original. The "green" angel looked all right with the slight halo of blue, but the "purple" angel needed to have the selection feathered.
- If the original area has many shades of color, the filled area may look flat. While you can't easily add the shadings, you can add some texture to the new color (Effects > Texture Effects)
If you look closely at the green background, you will see little flecks of blue which looked fine when printed. With the purple background, I eliminated the "flecks" and added a slight texture.
|
|
|
Digital Stained Glass
- Download digital stained glass pieces from Spectrum (or any other site)
- Open any stained glass pattern (you can do an Internet search)
- Using the Magic Wand, click in any of the open areas to select
- If you want to use the same pattern in more than one space, hold the Shift key and click on other areas
- Choose the stained glass image you want to use and set it as the Pattern
- Using the Fill Tool, fill the selected areas with the pattern
- Repeat for other colors
- When all areas have been filled, click on the stained glass lines with the Magic Wand to select
- Fill with black
- You may choose to add an Inner Bevel to the lines while they are selected
|
|
|
Chipboard Letters-Digital
This is almost too easy to be a technique!
- Type a letter in a graphics program or Word in any font you want, in the size you need (I used the letter "B" in Cooper Black in size 300)
- Fill the letter with any color or pattern you want and print on cardstock (Alternately, you can print just the outline of the letter onto any decorative paper or cardstock you want)
- Cut out letter and securely tape to thick cardboard
- Cut out letter from cardboard (I needed to use an Exacto knife as my scissors wouldn't go through the cardboard. The edges of the "holes" in the B were a little ragged, so I just rubbed my knife along all the edges to rough them up).
|
|