What are you working on in February 2020?

[Cassel]

I think it would need a "custom shadowing", like making the center areas darker than the left/right sections for each "layer".

[trish williams]

the heart was shaded dark half and half, but it didnt show, so should be darker Carole.

[Shirley]

I received this frame as a freebie and I thought it would nice to frame my beautiful George.  I have used papers and elements from KB-Tranquillity which was a freebie I downloaded for one of Carole's boot camp projects

[Annie Tobin]

Shirley this is a beautiful page and George is a gorgeous cat. Is he a rag doll or a birman cat? My sister used to breed rag doll cats and they were so beautiful. Anyways, well done my friend.

[Colleen]

Hi Everyone!

 

Your layouts all look great! :)

 

After the bootcamp, I started making my own things for scrapbooking. I only have a few, but I wanted to get some practice on papers. Also, I found a Photoshop tutorial for making peppermint candies. Since I LOVE Christmas, I had to do it right now. :)  There was a step or two in the tutorial that I couldn't do, because I didn't know how to find it in PSP, so that will be my question at the end of this post.

 

Anyway, I tweaked a couple things and made these 2 mint candies. I really like how they turned out, but want the opinions of others.

 

Do you like them? Would you use them? Is there something else I should do?

 

As for my question, one of the steps was to add an adjustment layer>Bevel and Emboss. I can't find that option in PSP. Is it located somewhere else, or do I just need to do it as a regular layer and then add the effects of bevel & emboss?

 

Oh also, when making elements for scrapbooking, what size should I use? I used a 500x500 canvas for these, but I'm thinking I should make them larger, so that they can be reduced in size, if someone wants to do that.

 

One last thing, for Cassel, I got behind on the emails that are sent out, so I'm not sure if the Basic Scrap Course was mentioned in one of those? Is there a place I can sign up for the next one?

[Colleen]

Trish, the papers you made are beautiful! Overlays is something I don't understand yet - I haven't even looked into them yet - so I'm hoping that will be something I can pick up easily.

[Colleen]

Oh, another thing I just finished and received back. My niece got a cell phone for Christmas and I promised her I would make a phone case for her, so I did.  :)

 

I found this unicorn clipart on a royalty free site, that allowed me to use it for my own personal use, as long as I wasn't going to sell it on places like CafePress. I figured Snapfish would be ok to upload to, since it doesn't get sold to anyone except me. Anyway, I used that clipart, did a gradient for the background color, added her name, and then some stars & hearts. I just received the phone case a couple days ago and I think it looks really cute! This pic is what was uploaded, but the finished product turned out much brighter, which I'm very happy about.   :)

[trish williams]

Hi Colleen thank you for your comment, an overlay is a paper that is transparent, is most times  a png but can sometimes be a psp's.    they are usually a transparent pattern or an effect like adding smoke perhaps.  If a pattern place it as a new layer over your chosen background layer, as an effect, place it over the element or sometimes under you are wanting the effect to show.   It could be say lightening, which case you may need to place it several layers on top, so it enhances the picture in a larger area.  Hope this explains it. ask if you need further info .

The bevel edge , which is what I think you are asking, is under Effects/3D/inner or outer bevel.   emboss is on the side panel/ light and darken brush/ emboss

[Colleen]

Thanks Trish, that makes sense about the overlay.

 

Yes, I did a slight inner bevel through the Effects dropdown. But in the Photoshop tutorial, it had Bevel & Emboss listed in the options for a new adjustment layer.

 

As for the emboss, I know there is an option for it in the Texture effects, but where specifically are you talking about? When you say the side panel, are you saying where the main toolbar is on the left side?

 

I'm only asking because what the tutorial said to do with the Bevel & Emboss Adjustment Layer, I wasn't able to duplicate through the Effects options.

[trish williams]

Sorry Colleen didnt answer you peppermints, they are great, you made a good job or them,  well done.x

 

The cell is also great, your niece should be please with that, to darken it, go to Adjustment/ brightness ans contrast, and tweak the sliders just a tad. x

 

Shirley that cat picture is so cute, nice work x

 

Carole Thank you, yes I agree, but it was a fun thing to do and has open up all  sorts of possibilities.

 

Annie Thank you for your remark, always nice to read and cheers me on , Thank you xx

[trish williams]

Sorry Colleen I dont know about a bevel n emboss adjustment layer,  I dont know much about adjustment layers, but the use of them is different in photoshop than it is in PSP.   although there are a lot of things you can do in both, they are done differently in psp than photoshop, Photoshop has a lot more things you can do.

Yes the emboss is on the side tool bar .

adjustment layers you can find at the bottom of ther layer pallett and also under layers to the top panel.

Have you looked  on this site at the top, Classes/ intermediate/ creative scrap, therer is a whole bunch of things to make and learn in there, there maybe a peppermint of sweet inn there that might answer what you want to do. Hope this helps.

[Cassel]

Colleen, the  "adjustment layer>Bevel and Emboss" in Photoshop is a bit similar to the Layer Style in PSP where you CAN set a bevel and emboss there:

 

 

 

 

 

It has the advantage that it is non-destructive, so it is like a shadow on a separate layer that you can just change or discard. The disadvantage of using the Layer Styles is that the settings are completely different than their counterpart available through the menu.

 

And of course, the settings for Photoshop are totally different than the ones for PSP.

 

And your candy is great!

[Shirley]

Thank you Ann, yes George is a rag doll, he is nearly  2. 1/2.  I have 3 moggys the other have rag doll strain, but George is all rag doll. They are really a placid and laid back breed

[Colleen]

Trish,

 

Thank you for answering. Yep, the differences between PSP and Photoshop are frustrating to me, since I'm really just beginning to learn, but I thought I could try to figure it out...haha. I laugh because figuring it out is not something I'm really good at with these programs. :) I'm reading the PSP user guide, but I want to keep working on things too.

 

Oh and yes, I did look through the tutorials that Cassel has, but didn't find a peppermint candy one, so I googled and the only tutorials I could find were for Photoshop.

[Cassel]

Colleen, the lollipop tutorial is very similar to the peppermint one. The main difference would be in the beveling.

 

https://scrapbookcampus.com/element-creation-index/lollipop/

[Colleen]

Cassel,

 

Thank you so much! I really like how the candies turned out, so I appreciate yours and Trish's opinion on it too. :) I totally missed that layer styles button, so thank you for pointing it out to me. And yes, the differences between the 2 programs are frustrating to me. I've only been using Photoshop when I can't find the tutorial I want for Paint Shop Pro, but for now, I think it's best that I just focus on Paint Shop.

 

I have a few more questions for you, if you don't mind.

 

1. When creating elements, like the peppermint candy, what size canvas is best? I remember from your bootcamp videos that it's better to have something bigger, that can be sized down, instead of sizing up and losing clarity. Those peppermint candies I made were 500x500, but I think that might be too small for a scrapbooking page of 3600x3600. Do you have a suggestion for a good base size for elements?

 

2. I feel silly asking this next question, but I want to know the answer. :) So, when I start a new 3600x3600 page, the heading shows that it's being viewed at 20%, as opposed to 100%. (I zoom in when I need to see better, but I personally like working at the 20% or so) What I'm wondering is when it comes to printing out those pages, if I created everything while it's at 20%, when it's printed out, will everything be bigger? Does that make sense?

 

3. Remember when I sent you an email asking about creating drinking glasses? I took your suggestion about looking at that public domain clip art page, but I am still wanting to learn how to make them on my own. This image shows where I tried creating a glass in 2 different ways. The bigger one was making 2 ellipses and then a line on each side to connect the top and bottom. For the space in between the 2 lines and the top & bottom of that glass, is there a way to select just that area to flood fill? (The bottom glass I drew just with lines and was able to flood fill that area, so that may be the way I go with creating the glass, but I'm still wanting to know about flood filling the other way.

 

Thank you, and I hope you don't mind me asking here, instead of emailing you. Or is there a better place in the forums for just questions like this?

[Colleen]

Cassel,

 

Oh ok, thank you! I did see that tutorial, but wasn't even thinking it would be similar. I will watch it again.

[Annie Tobin]

Trish it is always a delight to hop into the campus and peruse your work ... you are tireless, well done Hon!

 

Colleen, you are well on your way to becoming a PSP enthusiast, love your work and ... your enthusiasm!

[Colleen]

Thank you, Annie!  :)  I'm really really loving it!

[trish williams]

Carole, thank you for that bevel /emboss. can we please learn more about that as I never knew it was there or its function.

 

It is good asking questions on here, we all get to learn something.

[Cassel]

Colleen, here to answer your questions:

 

1- since a standard page is 3600x3600 and the resolution should be like 300 pixel/inch when printing, it means that a 300x300 px element will be one inch. That is ok for a button. One trick is to put your element on a full size image and see how it looks.

 

2- Whatever ratio you view your image or work with will not affect the end result. If you work on something that is 1000 pixels, it will still be 1000 pixels, whether you view it at 20%, 100% or even 400%.

 

3- Yes, you can use the Magic Wand, using the None match and checking the Contiguous checkbox. Then, it will select inside each section and you can hold the Shift key to select another one. Then, you can enlarge your selection by a couple of pixels just to avoid tiny gaps. Since you will want to work in a separate layer, you can also use the Brush tool to cover any imperfection.

[Cassel]

Trish, I personally tend to avoid the Layer Styles for a few reasons:

 

- the settings are completely non-intuitive and the Size, Opacity, X and Y values don't resemble what they are in the "menu commands". For example, the Size in the Layer Style means the Blur in the Drop Shadow. How would you make sense of that?

 

- the settings have changed throughout PSP versions, where in older versions, the Size was based on the image size so the same element on a different canvas using the same settings would have different results. So it was too inconsistent to give valid instructions.

 

- the X and Y are not measured in pixels but in proportion, making it very inconvenient.

 

I will try to use it if I HAVE to apply an effect to a vector layer, but it am often still not happy with the in-flexibility it gives. Sorry to be a downer, but to me, it is not a feature that is intuitive and convenient enough to use most of the time.

[trish williams]

It just nice to know what something does, I will play around with it, acidental accidents often are nice surprises.

 

Carole those pots, I have down loaded them 3 times but they havent arrived, perhaps they will tomorrow. x

[Cassel]

Trish, did you receive the Campus update yesterday? I am wondering if you are still "not" receiving our emails? I can see in the backend that you were sent the link at least twice.

[Cristina]

Wow, so much going on here! Helen, Trish, Diana, Cindy, Shirley, and Colleen, very nice and creative work!