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here's another one I made earlier

Well, the warm summer seemed to pass me by and here I am in the middle of Wimbledon fortnight, wondering where the time went!

playing with paper

So, I haven't blogged on Fridays for the last couple of weeks but I have been busy. I went to the Warrington Crop at the beginning of the month, and made two paper scrap pages! This first page is just a bit of fun centred on the arrival of my Cropadile 2, the Big Bite. I really did like the pink packing, it looked great! Sandy at the crop had the great idea of sewing on the pieces, rather than just sticking them down, and she did it for me as I would have made a right old mess, left to my own devices. Thank you Sandy. Sorry I won't be there next Sunday, but hey, it's Wimbledon Mens' Final Day, never to be missed!

The class kit had some gorgeous papers in it that I couldn't resist, and the bonus that you didn't actually need the photo there and then to complete the page. There is journaling under the photo, held together by the paperclip. Now that was a good idea, and one I'll be using again; not just the idea of the hidden journaling but adding a decoration to the paperclip, using a brad for fixing. It's simple, but it works and I now need to get hold of some nice paperclips to try it again.

 

It was Father's Day here in the UK last Sunday, and this is a simple design I made for my Dad. I know it's nothing special as such, but as it's another paper project, I was pleased with it and it's raised a giggle with everyone.

my digital doings

One of the UKScrappers Weekly Challenges had us using at least three different techniques on our page; I did mine as a digital version, as I've done my quota of paper for the month! My three choices were digital stitching using my own stitch brush, curling paper up at the corners using shadows, and a digital paper tear. I was pleased with the tear's realism, as I used a different method, which I'll write up soon so you can try it out yourself.

There's not much work in Paint Shop Pro, but I've also been building a Zen Cart website for my friend, Jessie. I can always rely on her to set me a challenge, but this is her biggest one yet, as I've never customised Zen Cart. I can't show you my progress as the site isn't live, but after only a week, I've got the basic design done. In the meantime, have a look at Jessie's Etsy store; I've got one of these camera straps, and I love it, but everytime she adds new ones I want those too!

Finally, here's a simple layered template based on the card I made for Dad; it's two cards on a single page of A4, so it will be easy to print. This is a layered psp file, with quick details on how to use Paste As New Selection to easily clip papers to the layers. For more information you can also check out this article, a clipping mask in paint shop pro. I've also included a layered psd file, in case there's someone over here who uses the 'other' software!

I'll see you next week.

 

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Posted by Jane on June 26, 2009 08:00 | Jane's profile | 0 comments | Permalink |

here's one I made earlier

May has positively skipped by and I'm anticipating the prospect of a warm summer, starting today, as I have glorious sunshine here this morning. I'm looking forward to roaming around outside, taking some photographs and enjoying the odd barbecue!

creating a header

I started off this month showing you how I can take a photograph of something mundane, like grey plastic, and use it to create a header for a blog. I keep all my not-so-good photos in a folder, and then when I have a few minutes I pull one up, and try out some effects on it. It's a good way of practising with Paint Shop Pro, and learning what all the tools and effects can do.

a clipping mask

One option that Photoshop has can cause envy in even a diehard PSP'er and that's the clipping mask. Do we have something similar in Paint Shop Pro? Yes, we do; layer transparency combined with pasting as a new selection produces the same result as the famed Photoshop clipping mask. It's easy to do, and always gives great results, and no jagged edges.

customisation

For the last two weeks I've been discussing how to customise your Paint Shop Pro workspace. Moving your most used effects and commands onto toolbars, where you can access them with one click, can improve the way you scrap and design. Playing with toolbars in this way can be daunting, so I showed you how to do it without making a mess. Remember, you can always revert to the default workspace, if anything goes horrendously wrong! One of the most useful elements of customisation is binding a script to an icon, and then placing it on a toolbar. It's great to have your commonly-used scripts available with one click, instead of searching the script menu.

The tutorial for June will be published on Monday, and shows you how to create a shabby page overlay using a Mask Layer. I've been using masks more myself recently, and they really are a useful tool to get to grips with.

That's May, all done and dusted! I'll see you next week, when I'll be looking at pasting options and how not to lose a layer!

Posted by Jane on May 29, 2009 08:23 | Jane's profile | 0 comments | Permalink |