Scrapbooking Question - Newbie Here

[Michael D]

Hi Everyone,

My wife (Sandra) and I are new to scrapbooking. So new in fact that it is still in the lets give this a try stage. I recently purchased and downloaded a few design kits from Digital Design Den. When I open them, they open in a windows photo gallery.

My question is this .................

Now that we have them how to we get them into Elements 6 so that we can beging our scrapbooking journey. Can anyone walk us through this process or point us in the right direction as to where we might find what is Im sure a simple process.

Thanks,
Michael & Sandra

Note:

We are so happy we discoved Elements Village a few days ago.

[vawitt]

Hi Michael (and Sandra) and welcome to the Village!

There are many ways to get your scrapping supplies into PSE 6. One way is to open PSE, then choose the FILE menu, click OPEN, and then browse you way to where you stored your supplies.

Another way is to open PSE, then open the folder that holds all your supplies for a project (I like to have those in Thumbnail view so I can see everything), then drag the item you wish to work with into the PSE window.

Each item (paper, decorative embellishment, etc.) will open in its own window in PSE, so you'll then have the step of combining them. Select one layer to be your base layer (usually a sheet of paper). Be sure to save it with a new name so you can use the paper over again later. Then open the first item you wish to place. CTRL+A to select the entire item, then CTRL+C to copy if, then switch back to your base layer and CTRL+V to paste it. Once it's in your document, on its own layer, you can drag it around and resize as needed.

Hummie's World (http://www.hummiesworld.com/Course1.html)has some great, free written tutorials on some of the scrapping basics. She uses an older version of PSE and the major difference is that when she talks about dragging UP from the photo bin into the window; in PSE 6, you'll have to drag DOWN from the work window into the appropriate open document.

Look through a few of her tutorials, and post back here if you get stuck. This place usually has someone up and around all hours of the day or night!

[Wendy]

Hi ...

... and welcome to the Village :)

Do all of the items (jpgs and png files) open in Windows ... if so try this to ensure that they open directly in Elements for the future:

One way you can do this is to right click on any picture on your hard drive and select "Open With". Then select the Choose Program option from the menu. Select the program you want to open the picture from the list and also check the "Always use the selected program to open this kind of file" box.

You have to do this for file types (e.g. jpegs).

Wendy :)
PS ... Hope you enjoy the kits

[Michael D]

It appears that the files I downloaded are zipped. When I try to open them in PSE6 it says they are an unsupported file type.

Do you know how I unzip the files?

Thanks,
Michael

[vawitt]

If you are using Windows...

View the zipped file (so you can see the folder with the zipper on it).
Right-click your mouse on top of the icon. A menu will appear
Click "Extract All"
A wizard launches. Just be agreeable and click Next, Next, Finish and let it do its thing.
When it's done, it will probably open the now unzipped folder for you. If you look at the location of the zipped folder, you'll see the zipped folder AND a new folder, with the same name but no zipper, ready for use. Retrieve all your files from the unzipped folder.

You can save or delete the zipped folder. I usually delete mine once I've unzipped them; saves disc space and I don't inadvertently attempt to open the wrong folder.

[Michael D]

Thank you ...

Unzipping them works perfectly.

Michael

[bambione]

I'm also a newbie still in the learning process. I have yet to do a page. I"m just reading tutorials and the Scrappers Guide. I've done paper scrapbooking for years, so the design part is easy. I was having problems with the unzipping and then having two folders, so thanks for the tips! I now understand why I had the zipped up folder and the regular folder. Now I just have to figure out how to organize things. I just thought the scrapbooking guide which explains how to organize things, (The Digitaldesign teacher, I think). I'm going to try to put things on an external hard drive to save space.

Anyway, thanks for the tips
Karen

[jojo99]

Hi Karen,
You'll be an expert in digital in no time.
The EHD is a good idea, buy the biggest one that you can afford, (I got a 1 tb EHD last month on sale) you'll end up collecting lots of supplies to feed your habbit and of course you'll need space for all the photos you're going to scrap and your layouts too :)

[Wendy]

Hi Karen ...

... and welcome to the Village :)

You will find that lots of things are zipped when you download them ... its mainly because zipping things makes the files smaller for downloading :)

Wendy