Solid papers are often the foundation of any scrapbook page. They can be used on their own or in combination with patterned papers.

The simplistic way to create a solid paper would be to fill a full-size (3600x3600px) image with a solid color from your color palette. However, this would look very flat and unattractive. What you need to add is either texture or shading, or a combination of both.

ADDING A TEXTURE

You can use the Texture command in PaintShop Pro to add a texture to your paper. That is quite simple and easy.

You might also have some textured overlays. To use those, simply add an overlay on top of your solid layer and play with the blend mode. Considering that Blending can change the colors, be careful with what you choose or you will stray away from your color palette. It could be a great opportunity to review the class on Textures and Overlays as it will give you ideas on ways to use overlays to make your solid papers more interesting.

Some tutorials in the Creative Scraps can guide you in adding textures. Check these out:

Denim Texture
Canvas Texture
Knitted Texture
Felt Texture
Velveteen Texture

ADDING SOME SHADING

Varied shading will turn flat solids into something more interesting. Inside the Creative Scraps, you can consider the Grungy Texture, or even the Embossing that can be applied to create a subtle effect.

Of course, you can apply some texture AND some shading.

To get more variety, try to avoid using the same effect on multiple colored papers. If needed, rotate the texture or the overlay. But the best way would be to start from scratch for each color.

SAVING YOUR SUPPLIES

As you are now starting to create your elements, we should look into how you will save them. Even if you create the elements only for yourself, this step is essential to stay organized.

FOLDER ORGANIZATION

Start immediately by creating a separate folder for your kit. Give it a name related to the theme or the title of the kit. It can be a placeholder for now, but you will want to give it a more definite name pretty soon.

Inside that folder, create sub-folders. Typically, you would have Papers, Elements, and Alpha, as common sub-folders. The larger the kit will be, the more you may want to add sub-folders. For example, if you have lots of wordarts, you might want a folder for that. If you have several clusters, you might want a folder for that. You get the picture.

Of course, if you were to create a mini-kit, you would not need all those sub-folders, but I can assure you that you won’t stop at a “mini” in this workshop!

NAMING CONVENTION

Typically, you would want to start all your products with a sort of name or prefix that will be yours. You might have noticed that all my scripts, brushes, and picture tubes start with cass-. That is my prefix and by now, everyone can easily associate any product starting with those letters with me. If you are already a designer, you must already have such a prefix. If you are brand new to this, see if something can be made from your name, your initials, etc. This will help make your filenames unique.

After the prefix that will identify YOU as the designer, include a word or a few words that would indicate the name of your kit. If you don’t have a name yet for your kit, use something temporary, but then, you will need to change it later. The Batch Rename function might be helpful, but if you start with the correct name, it will save you work.

Finally, as we are working on papers, try to be somewhat descriptive on what you are saving. Using “paper1” and “paper2” might not help if someone is searching for “yellow” in their stash, so if you can use “paper-yellow”, it will help the user. Of course, no need to go overboard with names like “paper-light-orangy-yellow-grungy”.

In general, the components will be named like this: [prefix]_[kitname]_[element+description]

So, your first papers will have a name like cass_Hungry_PaperLightYellow

You can also use some abbreviations like PP for Paper, El for Element, Blk for black, Dk for Dark, etc. Try to be consistent and logical.

In some cases, you might end up with some numbers, especially when you are creating a series of matching elements (ex: metal buttons). You might want to then use something like MetalButton01, MetalButton02, because in some situations, it can become less meaningful to describe them.

FILE TYPE

Another detail to consider when saving your papers is the file type. Typically, papers will be in JPG format UNLESS you have some transparent areas (like tears and holes). In that case, you will need to save in PNG format. Although PNG format is said to give better quality than JPG, it also makes for much larger file size. In a kit where you might end up with a dozen papers (or more), that can really add up. Do yourself a favor and save that space for other goodies!

It is time for you to go create your papers.

Time to show us what you do, in this thread.