by Sue Jones, Digitals Designer

Are you new to digital scrapping and using Photoshop? Read on to learn how to put your first page together.

Open PS. Now click File>New. This should bring up the following screen.

Name: This is entirely optional. You can give your new creation a name or leave it as Untitled-1 for the moment.

Preset Sizes: If you press the drop down menu here, you will find many size options. Since in digiscrapping we use unusual sizes, it is better to pick Custom.

Width: The general scrapping size is 12x12. However, you can change your sizing here to 8x11, 11x8, 8x8 or whatever size you wish to scrap in. However, it should be noted that if you plan on printing your layout in 8x8 or 6x6, then it is better that you scrap in 12x12 and reduce the size before you print.

Resolution: Most kits are created at 300 pixels per inch, so set your layout resolution to this size.

Mode: RGB Color.

Contents: This is purely optional, what sort of background you wish. I always set mine to transparent and later cover that with a background from a kit. It won’t stay transparent for long, believe me!

Click OK: Now, to start creating your layout…..

File>Open. Navigate to where you have your photo, kit or elements saved and click the file you want to work with. I always start with my photo and then I have a point of reference for colour matching.

Ensure that you have the ‘Move’ button selected on your menu bar.

Before opening your background. Go to View>Snap To>Document Bounds and make sure this has a tick beside it. This means that when you open your background, it will snap automatically to the edges of your layout. Now File>Open and select the background that you want. Click on the background and hold down your mouse and drag it onto your blank layout canvas. It won’t snap to the bounds straight away. Move it until you are happy with its placement and then release the mouse.

Now, you need to resize your photo to what you want. I want to make this photo the focal point of the layout and add some supporting photos to it later. For the purposes of this tutorial, I will make the photo 6x8. Select your photo by clicking on it to make it active. Now click Image>Image Size. This will bring up a box with the current proportions of the photo. Make sure before you make the changes below, that the box with Constrain Proportions is ticked.

Click OK when you have done this. It may take a little time for your photo to resize. Drag your photo to where you want it on the layout. Following the same steps, I have opened and resized two more photos to add as accents.

I want to put a solid coloured mat under the photos so I have opened another background and using the steps above, resized it to 10x10. Now I need to place this under the photos. To do this, I need to click on my layout to select it and then navigate to the layers palette and click on the layer that is below the photos (in this case, it is the first background). Now when I drag the resized background over to the layout, it will go UNDER the photos rather than OVER them.

Now that I have the basis for my layout, I want to add some elements. Open any that you want to use. I’ve chosen to use a border from my An Affair to Remember Kit but it is too large for my purposes, so I am going to resize it. Go to Edit>Free Transform (or you can click Ctrl+T). This will place a box around your element. So that I keep my dimensions and don’t distort it during this process, I need to press the Shift key whilst I am resizing this.

Once you’ve resized, you can use the magnify button (the little magnifying glass in your toolbar) to zoom in and check that you’ve lined it all up correctly. Just press the ‘Fit on Screen’ button to return your layout to a more manageable size once you’ve finished.

Add in other elements as you wish. If you find that you want to move something, you click on the layer that it is on in the layers palette and this makes it active. Now you can move it around where ever you want it. If you don’t like the element and want to remove it completely – click on the layer and then drag it into the little rubbish bin icon at the bottom of the layers palette. (Alternatively you can click Edit>Step Backward to undo your last step or Layer>Delete Layer). As you can see, there are many ways to do things in Photoshop. It all comes down to personal preference.

Creating a Title: There are many ways to create a title. For the purposes of this tutorial, I am going to create a title from text. I want it to go vertically at the RH side of the layout but I won’t do this until I have created the title in the font that I wish to use. So click your Text button (The ‘T’ in the palette) and drag out a text box by left clicking your mouse at a point on the layout and then dragging out the box whilst holding the button down. Now using the drop down menus at the top, choose the font you wish to use and the point size. You can change the sizing of your text by using your mouse to highlight your text and then clicking in the size box and typing in the point size that you would like. When you are satisfied, click the move button to remove the text box.

To move the text to where you want it. Go to Edit>Transform>Rotate 90 CW. Move the title into position and resize it if you wish. You can change the colour of your text by highlighting the text and clicking the colour box in the text palette. You may also like to add a bevel to your title. Layer>Layer Style>Bevel and Emboss. Just move the size slider to a size you are happy with. (About 13 looks good).

Add your journaling along the bottom in the same way that you created your title.

Now that you’ve finished your layout, you need to make it look a little more realistic by adding drop shadows. I always leave the adding of shadows until the last thing and do them all at the same time. I’m going to start by adding a shadow to the tan background layer. Select the layer in the palette and then click Layer>Layer Style>Drop Shadow. A distance of about 10 is good for a realistic look – the larger the drop shadow the more of a floating effect you will give your photos and elements. Now go through each of your layers and add a drop shadow for realism. Be guided by what you think looks good eg. If a drop shadow doesn’t look good on your title, then remove it. After all, this is your layout and you want to like it.

Now that you’ve finished, you need to save it. If you have the space, saving your layout in layers as a .psd file is highly recommended to allow you to make changes if you wish to. File>Save is the command to save as a .psd file. You may also wish to save as a .jpg file (I always do this). You will need to merge the layers of your layout Layer>Merge Visible and then File>Save As… and choose jpg from the drop down menu (You don’t have to merge your layers before saving as a jpg file but it takes a little longer to save if you don’t. Again this comes down to personal preference). I always save this as high as I can (which is 12 I think). To share your layout with us all, you will need to resize your layout to around 500x500 pixels. So go to Image>Image Size and change the pixels (at the top) to 500x500. Click okay. Now you can choose to save this by File>Save For Web. I use the 4-Up option so I can see the quality of the different sizes. Try to keep your layout around the 100kb mark and then hit OK. Your layout is now ready for uploading to the gallery of your choice.

Voila! All done. This gets easier the more that you do. And of course, once you’re addicted then there is no stopping you.

All of these layouts were created using the same tutorial but with different results.

Rainy Day Fun by Sue Jones using a combination of backgrounds and elements.

Emily – Explorer by Dawn Lewis using my Radically Retro Papers

Smile by Karen Oliver using my Perfect Hug Kit

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