Scrapping by Design

Yesterday, I showed a video demonstrating how to make this 3D pop-up ball that you can make into a photo cube.

The second challenge is obtaining suitable photographs to attach to the photo cube. One way would be to cut shaped pieces out of your prints.  In my view, this would rarely work to your satisfaction since photos tend to be much larger than this small ball.

The better way, at least in my opinion, would be to resize and reshape your photos in an image editing program. I used Adobe Photoshop CS4, but the more affordable Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 would work in much the same way. Undoubtedly you could use many photo editing programs, but my instructions are specific to Adobe Photoshop CS. For others, you will need to figure out how to do the same things.

The first thing you do is either save the two shapes below in your own computer so you can open them in your image editing software program and use them as templates, OR scan your own two pieces into your computer and use them instead.

	To save these images, right click your mouse in the image. This brings up a menu with several options. Choose Save Image As, and save the file to your own computer.

When I made my first photo cube, I didn’t realize that that the top and bottom part of the ball are reversed shapes, so foolishly I printed out 12 pieces that were all the same shape. Talk about wasting glossy photo paper and ink!

Now that you have the two shapes, open them in your software application. I will say Photoshop CS from now on for the sake of simplicity. Make a copy of the two templates. Work with the copy and save the original.

1. The first step is to check and possibly change the resolution of the templates. If you are using my pictures, the resolution is 72 pixels per inch (or ppi), which is suitable to display on the web but not suitable for printing. If you scanned your pieces, the resolution will be different depending on how you have set your scanner. You need to decide what resolution you intend to use to print your photographs. A resolution of 350 pixels per inch is the minimum number I suggest, but even higher is better. I used 350 ppi.

Change the template resolution to 350 ppi (or whatever res you are planning to use). To do this in Photoshop, refer to the Image menu at the top of the screen, and go to Image Size. A window opens. In this window, be sure to put a check mark beside Scale Style, Constrain Proportions and Resample Image. When you have the three check marks, put 350 in the Resolution box and adjust the right side of that box to read Pixels Per Inch. Click Ok. The template is resized. Save it to be sure you don’t lose your work. To see it as it will appear when printed, to go the View menu and select Print Size.

2. Open the photo that you want to use. Chances are good that you will only want to use a small part of this photo, perhaps a face. In your ToolBox, select the Rectangular Marquee Tool. Draw a selection around the part of your photo you want to use. When that part is selected, copy the selection to your clipboard (Control-C). Then , go to the File menu and open a new file. It will open at the size and resolution of the image in your clipboard. Paste (Control-V) the selection in the new file.

3. You must now change the size and resolution to fit into the template. Using the same procedure that you used earlier, open the Image Size window and change the resolution to 350 ppi, or whatever you are using. In the part that says document size, change the width and height to approximately the same size as the template. The template is 2.4 inches by 2 inches. Your photo can be a little larger than the template, but it should not be smaller. Click OK. Change the view to Print Size as you did before.

3. Copy Selection to Clipboard. With this new file active, go to the Select menu and choose Select All. Then, copy (Control-C) this to your clipboard.

4. Paste the Selection into the Pink Template. Activate the Template by clicking on it. Using the ToolBox, select the magic wand tool. Click it in the pink part of the template. This will select the pink part but not the white. With the pink selected, go to the Edit menu and choose Paste Into. Voila! Your picture appears INSIDE the pink selection. It may be off kilter, however. To rearrange it, select the tool that you use for moving things. I don’t know the name of it but it appears directly beside the Marquee tool. It has a small triangle with an X underneath it. Move the image around inside the shape until it is positioned to your satisfaction.

If you are dissatisfied with your image, you may need to repeat the steps using a different selection from your picture.

5. Save your Image for Printing. When satisfied, refer to the file menu and save your file as a JPEG or jpg.

6. Repeat this procedure another five times with five different pictures. To remove the previous photo from the pink template, I refer to the History window. I delete the history from the entry that says Paste Into. This gives me the original template with its pink middle, ready go work again.

7. Repeat the same procedure with the reverse template, creating six files for printing.

Color Tip: Should you want to print your pictures in black and white instead of in color, you simply go to Image->Mode-Grayscale. Alternatively, your printer may have a function that allows you to print color images in black and white. Use whichever is simpler for you.

Printing Tip: If you have Ms Office on your computer, you should have a software application called MS Publisher. I open a blank page in MS Publisher, then insert my 12 pictures for printing. You can move them around on the page to be sure you aren’t wasting expensive glossy photo paper. Print when you have your pictures arranged on the Publisher page.

And this is how I modified and printed my digital photos for the photo cube.

This round mini album has a St. Patrick’s Day theme. It’s a gift for a friend of Irish heritage, and it’s all about her dog, which she spells “dawg.” The title of the little scrapbook is “Dawggone Irish.”

The back cover (shown in the middle photograph)  has a three dimensional shamrock shape which contains a picture of the dog, and the text “Dawggone right I’m Irish.”

I used Photoshop CS to edit the photo, bu you could do the same with Adobe Photoshop Elements 7

To make the shamrock shape, I started with a shamrock shape from Microsoft Office clip art. I copied and pasted the shamrock into a new file in Photoshop, then resized it to the size I wanted my printed picture to be. I think this was about three inches wide. I also converted the clip art to a resolution of 300 dpi, which is the resolution I planned to use for printing. Then, I resized my photograph to the same size as the shamrock.

I used the magic wand tool to select the inside of the shamrock. Then I selected the photograph and copied it to my clipboard. Returning to the shamrock image, I used the “Paste Into” command to paste the picture of the dog into the shamrock. I used the Move tool to move the dog picture around to get the best display.

So back to the mini album. The third picture shows the mini album standing upright and fanning open like a flower.  Despite having only four pages, this little mini album has plenty of places to put pictures, journaling or other artwork.

And, because no ready-made album or kit is used, its an economical project. it uses only four squares of card stock, some chipboard from a cereal box and whatever papers and embellishments you choose to add.

I embossed the card stock and paper with the Allegro Embossing Folder from Cuttlebug. It shows a musical score.

Here is a video tutorial showing how I made the round mini album:

I did a Google search to find the various Irish blessings, sayings and proverbs that I included in the project.

This is the title page of the Flower Power Scrapbook Album that I wrote about yesterday.

I attempted to make the layout resemble a window box with flowers.

The flower photos were edited in Adobe Photoshop . I used pictures of miscellaneous flower beds and shaped them into flower shapes using the software.

The background wall is scrapbook paper, with a window opening cut from it. The “curtains” are made from the soft  paper (forget the name) that tears into lovely shapes or bunches out to resemble fabric.

The window box is shaped from paper with a cork texture and held into place with large eyelets.  The layer of “foliage” along the top of the window box is made from green scrapbook paper that I crumpled and then ironed.

The title, Flower Power is simply gold stickers.

Like I say, this layout was made close to ten years ago and represents my earlier attempts at scrapbooking.  I rather like it, nevertheless.

Does your scrapbook layout represent fact or fiction? Has it become something like a scripted reality TV show — based on real life but heavily orchestrated to create special effects? And if it has, is this a good thing or a bad thing?

I’ve been providing tutorials lately for making things look better through photo editing and photo editing software. How much photo editing can you do before you’ve created a new reality, based more on how you wish things were than how they really are?

Sure, knocking off the five pounds that the camera added, whitening teeth a bit and removing the spot where the chocolate ice cream dribbled down on your t-shirt isn’t that big a deal.

But what about more extreme measures? Photo editing lets you make innumerable adjustments to a photo. Would that seascape look better if it had two sailboats instead of just one? It’s easy to make a duplicate. Would that new copper roof be more attractive if it had the greenish patina of aged copper? No sooner said than done with photo editing.

This raises the issue of whether we are scrapbooking to preserve memories, or whether we permit ourselves artistic license to make everything look bigger and better than the reality. If the latter, how much is too much?

I once made a scrapbook for a woman who wanted a certain person removed entirely from a group picture. Why? She didn’t like this person and didn’t want to be reminded of her each time she looked at the picture. I obliged, because that was what was asked of me.

If this were my own memory album, I would not have gone that route. I take the position that a scrapbook represents a memory of what happened and that should not be tampered with. To me, changing the odd detail like removing a blemish from the face is not a big deal. Removing an entire person distorts the truth of the event being preserved in the scrapbook.

I learned a lesson on this topic when I made my very first scrapbook, which was to be a gift for a family member. I wanted pictures of the farmlands where we grew up, but I had none. A friend living elsewhere offered to take pictures of the wheat fields in her location, pointing out that one wheat field looks much like another. I agreed, and used the bogus wheat field picture in the album. The recipient recognized the sham immediately. I was embarrassed to say the least. Through this little episode, I came to fully appreciate that scrapbooks are for preserving memories — accurate memories that reflect what actually happened in the story being depicted in a layout.

I recently received a package of heritage photos taken as early as the nineteen twenties. I love these pictures and I know they are authentic. Will future generations feel the same way when they look at pictures from this era? Or will they be left wondering how accurate the picture really is?

What’s your take on this issue? Leave me a comment and tell me where you stand on scrapbooking reality vs fantasy.

Okay, so we all know that the camera adds five pounds, right? Therefore, its not really “cheating” to use photo editing software to remove the five pounds that really aren’t there in the first, place, right?

At least, that’s the way I see it.

The top picture is a “duck” taken at Vancouver’s Annual Sea Festival. We can all agree that the duck could stand to lose a few from his belly. in the bottom picture, I have taken several pounds off the duck’s belly. He now has a definitely slimmer look.

Sure, he could stand to lose more than that, but we have to keep this believable. I mean, let’s face it. If I knock thirty pounds off my hips, people are going to know its a fake. If I restrain myself and just remove a few, it’ll pass inspection.

So if you also would like to remove the five that the camera added, this is how to do it in Adobe Photoshop CS3 and Adobe Photoshop Elements 6

1. Open your photo in your software editing program.

2. Create a duplicate layer.

3. Working on the copy layer, activate the Polygonal Lasso Tool and select the area that you want to shrink. Be sure that the selection is closed completely.

4. Go to Edit>Transform>Distort. This puts a “box” with draggable handles around the selected area. With your mouse, select one of the corner handles and drag the selection to “shrink” the area you want to be smaller. When you are at the size you want, hit the Enter key.

5. Using the clone stamp, color in the areas where the larger image used to be. Voila!  You are suddenly sleek and trim.

If only it were this easy in real life.  Photo editing software is so much faster than Jenny Craig.

Want to add some special interest to your photographs? If you’re doing digital photo editing with a software program like Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 or Adobe Photoshop CS3, you can create the look of a colorized black and white photo quickly and easily.  Other digital editing software will probably have similar capabilities, but these are the only ones I have used personally.

The top picture to the left is a full color picture of a magnolia blossom. These wonderful trees grow in Vancouver and treat us to their blooms every spring. People call them “tulip trees” because the huge blossoms somewhat resemble a tulip.

To produce the spot coloring, first open the image in your software.

Next, click on Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Hue/Saturation. Click okay to create the layer.  A window with a slider appears. Move the Saturation slider to zero. This removes the color and gives you a black and white photo. Refer to the middle photo to the left.

Finally, select the Eraser Tool and move it over the parts of the picture that you want to colorize. The color returns as if by magic.  See the bottom photo.

This technique gives you an attractive effect for artistic purposes. The magnolia picture produces a subtle effect, since the original background of the tree is dark and the pink flowers are delicate in tone.  You can obtain a much more dramatic effect if your picture lends itself to it.

This technique is similarly  handy if you have a photograph with a central object, but a lot of “busyness” in the background.  Simply leave the “busyness” black and white and colorize the central object. The main object stands out and the busy background is minimized.

There are so many neat things you can do with digital editing software. Digital scrapbookers and hybrid scrapbookers truly have an array of tools at their disposal.

If you have photo editing software, such as Adobe Photoshop CS3 or the more affordable Adobe Elements 6 , you can do any number of cool things with your photographs.

I wish I knew the name for the effect, but I do not. Do you remember those old photographs where the subject was centered clearly, but faded out to a soft blur towards the edge of the photograph, usually in a circular or oval shape?

It’s easy to get that effect digitally. You’ll be delighted with the way this will spruce up even relatively boring photographs.

Take this picture of my cat, Baloney to the left. Yes, his name is Baloney. Don’t ask.

It’s not a bad photo, as far as cat photos go. But as you can see by the middle picture and the picture to the far right, it can be made more interesting with a little Photoshop magic.

I did this with Photoshop CS, but you can do it with other versions of Photoshop, and with Adobe Photoshop Elements.

These are the steps:

1. Open your picture in Photoshop

2. Using either the rectangular, circular, or freeform Marquis tool, select the portion of the image that you want to use. In the pictures here, I used the circular Marquis tool set to a fixed aspect ratio. This selects a perfect circle.

2. While the image area is selected, go to the Select Menu item and choose Feather. A window appears asking you to provide the number of pixels that you want to feather. I used 15 in this project, but you will want to experiment. Add your number and click Okay.

3. Copy your selection into the clipboard. I use the keyboard command of Control-C (Windows) to do the copying.

4. Open a new file with the preset set to Clipboard. Have the bottom layer white.

5. Create a new layer on the new file.

6. Paste your clipboard onto the new layer. I use the keyboard command of Control-V (Windows) Your feathered image will appear, with a soft blur that fades to white, since your bottom layer is white.

7. At this point, you can leave the bottom color white, or you can change it to any color you want. In the middle picture above, I used the eyedropper tool to pick up the creamy color from the cat’s mane. In the picture to the far right, I picked up the bluish gray color from the chesterfield stripe. When you have chosen the color you want, make the bottom layer active (refer to the Layer Window to do this). With the bottom layer active, use the keyboard command of Control V to fill the bottom layer with the color you have selected with the eyedropper tool.

8. Save your file.

This is a simple photo editing trick but very effective in your scrapbooking projects.