1st Scrapbook Kit...Opinions/help PLEASE

[AngelicKim]

Ok, by suggestion, I am trying to do a scrapbook kit from some campfire photos I took this weekend. I have never done one before and not sure what I am doing. Any suggestions or comments.

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1ag5bpQV9ZAHtVp95s60fHxk82ZgQ_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1ag5bpQV9ZAHtVp95s60fHxk82ZgQ)

[Wendy]

Hi Kim ...

Oh you are doing fine ... :)

What I would suggest is that you now do some lighter papers to go with the one you have already done ..

Wendy

[AngelicKim]

Thanks Wendy, I have two other papers to go with the kit but didn't put them in the picture. One is another flame with the opulency lightened and the other is more the embers and burnt wood. I will add those to the uploaded image.

I wanted the horizontal and vertical lines I did to be logs but haven't found a download yet. I think I will just take a photo of some from my wood pile. Probably look better anyway.

[AngelicKim]

Here is a new copy with the other 2 papers added.

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1GlzehKzEPhKHrUzqaRgTMz1FcEqUg_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1GlzehKzEPhKHrUzqaRgTMz1FcEqUg)

[Bama Gambler]

What does it mean to make a kit? Do you save it as a different extension or something?

[AngelicKim]

James, this is my first so I am hoping I am saving everything right. There is a Scrapbook Exchange going on between the members. Here is a link to the second thread of it, the first one got so big they had to start a new one.

http://www.photoshopelementsuser.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12833

BTW, welcome to the forum. You'll love it here.

[Wags374]

That looks very nice Kim.

James - putting together a "kit" involves creating coordinated items - papers, embelishments etc. The papers are saved in jpeg and the embelishments are saved in png format to preserve their transparent backgrounds.

[AngelicKim]

Thanks Jane, I am trying. To me it doesn't even come close to measuring up to everyone else's. You mean what they say, "We are our own worse critic."

[Wags374]

Kim - it is definately something that is very unusual. And unique can be fun! :D

[huntress]

AngelicKim Nice kit. I love the flames. The flame you show as the smaller paper is kind of close to the first. I'm wondering if an ambered colored paper would work well with a more softer pattern. One of the things I was playing around with the other day may work well here if you want to try it. I hope I can remember the steps:


The first step is to create a grey scale copy (Mode->Greyscale) of your flame image and save as a PSD. You probably want decent contrast. If you save it in your C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop Elements 3.0\Presets\Textures (version may be 4.0, C is what ever drive you installed elements on), it will come up automatically in a later step.
Create a solid fill of one of the flame colors as your background layer.
Create another layer above that with black or a darker amber from the flame.
On the top layer choose Filter->Render->Texture fill. Then adjust the blend modes until you get the look you want. Color Burn or linar burn usually created some neat affects. Experiment with the colors and blend modes for the top layer. Try a couple blending layers. It is fun to experiment with and does create some nice background papers.



James a kit is a group of images to be used to create a digital scrapbook. If you've seen traditional scrapbooks or any of the digital ones posted on this site, you usually see 2 or 3 coordinating papers, some embelisments like: tags, punched items, fibers, fasteners etc and of course photos. A kit is everything but the photos that you could use to put together a scrap book page together or to make a card. If you look at the exchange links several people posted samples which show the various items in their kits.

The digital pages can be printed or just make unique and special slides for a slide show presentation. Making the kits is a fun way to learn the tools buy experimenting with different brushes, filters, blending modes and other tools to see what you can come up with.

[Bama Gambler]

Thanks for the info. Do you know where I can download a kit (are there some in the Subscriber Area)? Clearly I don't know enough yet to make my own kit, so I can not get access to the kit exchange.

[AngelicKim]

Lynn, thanks for the tips. I will try it. The embers paper has not been changed from the original photo other than cropping it to the 12x12 (made smaller for display purpose). The flame one, I really didn't know what else to do so I just lowered the opacity. I was going to make a solid color page the color of the flames but couldn't get the right colot form the color picker. I also considered using one of the photos I took of the woods aound the campsite.

[AngelicKim]

New version of the 2nd flame paper per Lynn's tips. Is this what y
ou meant?

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1WbW3FJ4Ozc4QL243R4v5k2M8RSm0_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1WbW3FJ4Ozc4QL243R4v5k2M8RSm0)

[Wags374]

I think she might have meant a plain (or maybe texturized) paper that matches one of the amber tones in the flames. Something that isn't quite as "busy" as the flame pictures.

You can use the color picker for you base - and then use hue/saturation to modify the color to get it more to your liking.

[AngelicKim]

:confused: Now I am really confused. I thought that she meant to use the flames since she told me how to make a texture out of it in step one and then in step 4 she said to do the texture fill.

"I hope I can remember the steps:

The first step is to create a grey scale copy (Mode->Greyscale) of your flame image and save as a PSD. You probably want decent contrast. If you save it in your C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop Elements 3.0\Presets\Textures (version may be 4.0, C is what ever drive you installed elements on), it will come up automatically in a later step.

Create a solid fill of one of the flame colors as your background layer.

Create another layer above that with black or a darker amber from the flame.

On the top layer choose Filter->Render->Texture fill. Then adjust the blend modes until you get the look you want. Color Burn or linar burn usually created some neat affects. Experiment with the colors and blend modes for the top layer. Try a couple blending layers. It is fun to experiment with and does create some nice background papers."

Back to the drawing board.

[Wags374]

You could do both - save the plain one and then use it as a base to make a textured one too. :)

[AngelicKim]

Ok, I can do that. Thanks

[AngelicKim]

Ok, this time I just created a background with an amber (as close as I could get) color and only clicked the texturizer filter.

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1B1BktCULAfFzevRhudH8rLoQxKLy_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1B1BktCULAfFzevRhudH8rLoQxKLy)

[huntress]

By plain, I ment plainer, such as a tone on tone which is what the chared wood is in a way. I like the vivid flames and chared wood, just didn't care much for the lighter flame with it. Plain paper with texture filter is always good.

Yes, I like that. What do you think? How does it look with the other two? It is softer but goes better with the kit by keeping the richness of color. You can also tone down the look by lowering the opacity of the blending layer if that is still to much of a pattern for you. There are mutiple ways to add texture, one is with the texturizing filter on a solid but a tone on tone like this can read like a textured solid if soft enough. You could also try some of the other texture fills that come with elements.

The color picker has two options. One picks the color of an individual pixel the other picks a blend of the surrounding pixels. Which option where you using with the color picker?

[AngelicKim]

Lynn, I meant to upload a new version of the whole kit and got side tracked doing housework.:eek:

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1qK36LXLu5lTi3oMBQbfvHy8sS741_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1qK36LXLu5lTi3oMBQbfvHy8sS741)

[kayser]

Thanks for the info. Do you know where I can download a kit (are there some in the Subscriber Area)? Clearly I don't know enough yet to make my own kit, so I can not get access to the kit exchange.

James- many sites have free kits to download. Try this one:

http://www.scrapgirls.com/store/product.php?id=1441

or this one:

http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=17808

generally you just have to register to get the free stuff.

For the scrapbook exchange here, we're all trying out our skills with PSE to make the elements. We have help from some tutorials in the suubscriber area here, including tutorials on scrapbooking items like ribbons or patterned pages.