PSE novice - need help designing card

[butlercy]

I figured you guys could help me. I'm relatively new to PSE. I have PSE 3.0 and have been taking a photography course on betterphoto.com, so in the last several weeks I've learned a ton about PS when it comes to correcting photos. I need to take a PS-specific class, but in the meanwhile...here's what I want to do. My daughter's 1st birthday is coming up in October...YEAH! I want to have a little halloween/autumn themed party for her. I can't find an invitation I like, so I figured I'd create my own in Photoshop then have them printed off. Should be easy, right? :rolleyes: I want to take a photo of her in a pumpkin costume, and put it on the card with the wording, "Our lil' pumpkin is turning one...". I envision a 5x7 card, with the photo angled on the left side with some cutesy little border, and my message on the right side. I have a blank orange background, and I'm just playing right now, but I want to put the picture (approx 2x3) on the blank file (am I making sense...?). I tried following the tutorial about creating a simply scrap page, and it said to click on the photo you want, and when it appears in the little layer's menu, click the little icon and drag it to your blank file. That doesn't work for me :confused: ...so can someone please tell me how to get my photo on the blank file? I tried going through to photomerge like I was creating a collage, but I need to have more than one photo, and I only want one photo...ugh...I do know a little about layers - I have Scott Kelby's book that I use as a bible, but I just need a little help getting going. Anyone have any advice? I would GREATLY appreciate it!! Thanks so much. :D

[lindajay]

Hi, and welcome to the forum! It's a wonderful place to learn and grow.

One of the simplest ways of doing what you want is to open the small picture in Elements; do Control+A (for "select all"); Control+C (for "copy"). Now open your background image and do a Control+V (for "paste"). Now, if the resolution of the two are not the same, your picture that is pasted on may look way too big (and cover up the lower layer completely), or way too small. Usually I check the resolution before I copy and paste, and try to resize one or the other so that this doesn't happen. However, if the pasted-on picture is way too big, click on that layer and hold down the shift key while resizing with a corner handle.

I hope this helps some. If you are still having a problem, please let us know. We'll get you there!

[butlercy]

Thanks Linda - that worked! Now...one more question, when I pasted the photo, it's right in the middle of my blank file. How do I 'grab' the photo and move it where I want it to go? Whenever I try to grab it, the entire thing, including the background, moves.

[lindajay]

If you have the small picture layer as the active one (click on it in the layers pallet), you should be able to move it with the move tool. Try it again, and if that doesn't work post back here. We'll figure it out.

[butlercy]

Hum...the move tool...should have thought of that myself ;)

Worked like a charm. I'll likely be back for more help later. Thanks so much, you're a lifesaver. Have a wonderful evening! :)

[lindajay]

You are so welcome. You can't imagine how much help I've received from others here, so it's a joy to be able to help someone else out. Be sure you let us see your finished product! I have a granddaughter who will turn 1 in December -- a couple months younger than your little one.

[Robyn]

butlercy...........

Just wanted to say welcome to our forum. I see that Linda has been a great help to you..........she is typical of the members we have here on this forum............always ready to help out and give great advice when asked.

[NRiceDesigns]

Welcome to the forum.

[Wendy]

Hi there ...

... and welcome to the forum :)

Do let us see your invitation when it is finished ... it sounds fun.

Wendy

[Bama Gambler]

Welcome to the forum! I'm new here myself. :)

If you can spare the cash, I highly recommend joining the subscriber area. I learn more from those tutorials in an hour, then I learn from reading a PSE book for 5 hours.

[butlercy]

Thanks again for all of your help. I successfully created my invitation for my daughter's first birthday, and I may be hooked on this digital scrapbooking ;). I had them printed on Friday.

I ended up buying a kit from designerdigitals.com, which was SO easy. I came up with two designs and let my husband choose - we went with the first one, even though she's squinting a little in the photo.

But thanks again for your help - I had a blast making the card, and wanted to show off my final product. I'm already thinking ahead to Christmas cards...:)

[kayser]

What cute cards you designed- good job!

You mentioned taking classes for PSE- there are lots of resources here in the subscriber area (as James mentioned). That, and asking questions in this forum, is how many of us learned PSE. There are also online classes here in the online training area- the layers class is great, both for those just starting out and people who have used PSE for awhile jujst figuring it out on their own. Also several of us are taking classes at www.eclecticacademy.com- there are classes on making cards and collages.

Good luck with your next project, and don't heisitate to ask questions!

[NMarti]

Those are both really cute cards. I would have a hard time picking between them.

[tbrannon]

Hi Welcome to the forum!
Your invites turned out great.
And what a cute little girl!!!!
Hope Grace has a wonderful first Bday!

[Richard Lynch]

I have PSE 3.0 and have been taking a photography course on betterphoto.com, so in the last several weeks I've learned a ton about PS when it comes to correcting photos. I need to take a PS-specific class

There are quite a few great courses on betterphoto.com for digital image editing ad image processing. Which photo course did you take?

I happen to be teaching a few courses there on editing this semester and it starts in a few days:

Photoshop Workflow
http://www.betterphoto.com/photocourses/RIC01.asp

Photoshop's Most Powerful Tools
http://www.betterphoto.com/photocourses/RIC02.asp

Photoshop 101
http://www.betterphoto.com/photocourses/RIC03.asp

The workflow course covers working with images from monitor to print. I encourage people to have a look at betterphoto's free contests...it is a great site and that's why I got involved.