Want to join in our Template Tuesday challenges?! Great! Check out our challenges section on our message board to come and play, with a new template coming out every Tuesday.
Here are a couple to get get you started! Click on each of the images below to be taken to the download link for the template.
Our most recent.
We had such a blast at the Roots Tech Expo this year. The Digital Scrapbook Memories booth saw a lot of traffic with new faces, and several return customers and friends. Our most popular kits for the show were out Young Love kit and our Family Ties CD. They both tie in well with genealogy and heritage style layouts, along with blogs and newsletters that a lot of people wanted to use them for. I had several women and men return to my booth, that came last year, to tell me just how amazing Digital Scrapbook Memories is and how much they love our Digital Kits. It makes me so happy to see that we got so many people excited about digital scrapbooking. Besides, I love it and I love what I do, so it reflects on how people perceive our business as a whole.
This year we got to be right across from the Microsoft Playground. I was SO excited. They have a nice lounge/play area for people of all ages with games and activities to do to help with the overwhelming education of genealogy that took place at the show.
Our old friend Jill, from Flip-Pal, stopped in to say hello. She is such a motivational woman to be around. She always pumps me up about our graphics and tells me how much she loves our company. Jill always manages to squeeze in little business tips and tricks, that she has picked up along the way of many of her own ventures in life. I always appreciate them and have acted on a few of them. I don’t know anyone nicer or more thoughtful than this woman. I love her. lol
Overall the show was a success and we got a lot of new people into the world of digital scrapbooking. I always have such a good feeling in my heart and head at the end of shows that reaffirms me why I do what I do.
LOVE for all my digital scrapbookers out there!!
Much love,
Amy
Layer Blending Modes
1. Open or create two separate layers to be directly on top of one another that you want to ‘mix’ together. This could be:
Papers on Papers/Elements
Elements on Papers/Elements
Photos on Papers/Elements
Adjustment Layers, like Solid Color, Gradient, or Pattern on Papers/Elements
2. Select the top layer of the two to be mixed and from the Layer Blending Mode drop-down list select an option, such as Multiply, Screen, or Overlay.
TIP: After making the first Layer Blend Mode selection, use your keyboard arrow keys to move up and down through the list to experiment or play with the various options.
OPTIONAL: Change the Layer Opacity setting on the top layer to make the blending mode not as prominent.
Changing Color (Method 1)
1. Open the image you want change colors.
2. In CS versions select the Image menu, Adjustments, and Variations. In Elements versions select the Enhance menu, Adjust Color, Color Variations.
3. Using the options provided:
Select the Area to be affected (Shadows, Midtones, Highlights, Saturation)
Adjust the Intensity slider
4. Click on OK to accept changes or click on Cancel to reject changes.
Changing Color (Method 2)
1. Open the image you want change colors.
2. Select or sample the foreground color you want to use for the new color.
3. Select the New Adjustment Layer button from the palette options bar, and choose Hue/Saturation.
4. In the Adjustments window choose the Colorize checkbox. Then proceed to adjust the saturation and lightness as desired.
5. Click on OK to accept changes or click on Cancel to reject changes.
TIP: Changing the Hue will alter the base color you previously chose.
TIP: Play with various Layer Blend modes to try and get a more natural look to the color change.
OPTIONAL: Better results can often be achieved by first converting the base image/layer to black and white (BW) and then adding the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. To do this, select the layer to be converted to BW and then:
(CS versions) Select the Image menu, Adjustments, Desaturate.
(Elements versions) Select the Enhance menu, Adjust Color, Remove Color.
Controlling Changes
Isolating by Selecting First
An excellent way to help control what and where colors are affected in the previous techniques is using selection tools to first create a selection around the area or of the colors you want to affect.
The Magic Wand and/or Quick Selection Brush are two beneficial tools in quickly and efficiently getting only certain areas highlighted or isolate where changes will occur.
Jumping to a Separate Layer
After selecting what or where you want things to be affected, an additional step to further control and add flexibility to your changes is to jump those pixels or area to its own layer.
With a selection made, press Ctrl/Cmd + J to Copy the pixels/area to a new layer above the current.
With a selection made, press Shift + Ctrl/Cmd + J to Move/Cut the pixels/area to a new layer above the current.
These new layers can then have their Layer Blend Mode adjusted, have an Adjustment Layer clipped to just its specific pixel information, or change the Layer Opacity.
Class taught by Bryan McEwan
So the past week I have been REALLY into creating some hybrid Valentines day projects for the house and found a couple cute ideas I wanted to share! I created them all digitally and printed them out on my computer.
This first one is a playing deck card box that I am printing out and folding for Caulen’s class valentines day projects. You can find a Poker card box online, as a template. I found mine here and made the green lines super light so you can see them enough for folding but you wont be able to see them unless you are really, really up close. I also sized them down a little smaller so two boxes would fit on my 8.5×11 photo paper so I don’t waste paper and ink. Aside from cutting them out this is a really easy and cute project to do for your kids school parties or other fun gifts you can think of. If you would like the exact template/print out that I used and designed feel free to email me amy@digitalscrapbookmemories.com, and I will be more than happy to give it to you for free. 
That way all you have to do is print,fold and cut your way into a cute gift for Valentines Day.
I have tons of photos in frames around my house, and I wanted to create something different so I found that word art in frames works really well together. The best part is that you can change them out with every coordinating season or holiday and have new decorations for only a few cents all the time! This is what I came up with for a Valentines Day word art frame. I found the frames for about 5.00 at Michales, the ribbon was 2.99 for one roll and some Modge Podge to hold the ribbon to the frame.
The last thing I have created, so far, for Valenties Decorations in a”Be Mine” banner. It was really easy to create the template (if you want it for free please email me: amy@digitalscrapbookmemories.com) that fits onto an 8.5×11 piece of photo paper that you can design and print out on your own. Now I know mine looks light in the photo but in person it came out super cute.
Those are some examples of easy to create projects for your home that you don’t have to spend a ton of money on.
Love,
Amy Herzog
1. Open Photoshop or other photo editing program.
2. Open photo you want to use to create the silhouette. File>Open>Select folder where the photo is located>Open.
3. Click on the Lasso Tool in your toolbox. Right-click to see your options. You can choose either the Polygonal Lasso Tool or the Magnetic Lasso Tool to create your selection.
4. Using your Lasso Tool, move your mouse to carefully select the area on the photo that you want. The “marching ants” will show your selection.
5. Once you’ve made your selection, you will make a copy of that selection. Layer>Duplicate Layer. (Shortcut: Control-J)
6. Now you will clock on the “background” layer in your layers palette, and press DELETE. This will remove the excess part of the photo.
7. To make the silhouette a solid black color click on Hue/Saturation, and move the”Lightness” slider all the way to the left. Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation (Shortcut: Control-U)
8. Now you have your silhouette! You can use your move tool to drag it onto any new project you want and use it in so many fun ways!!
9. To save your silhouette file, you will want to save it as a PNG file. This will allow you to move only the silhouette image (not the background) to different documents and projects.
10. Here are some idea of what you can do with silhouettes:
Do individual head silhouettes, family holding hands, bride and groom kissing, action silhouettes (dancing, jumping in the air, ect)
You can line them up in a row of each family member’s silhouette and frame it. Cards and tags. Use printed out silhouettes as a template to trace out fabric or vinyl to make personalized pillows, put on glass or vases, create personalized jewlery, ect. You can make a family tree just using silhouettes of family members.
Here are some examples of what Brooke Kemp (teacher) came up with for silhouettes:
Thank you Brooke Kemp for your amazing and simple class!
