Photoshop Elements

I have been busy learning so much about Photoshop Elements. I am having a blast! I have been going through Patty Debowski's book Photoshop Elements Basics and Beyond. I am reading the section on organizing. Wow I so needed this! She explains how to use tags to find just the right photo. As someone who takes a ton of photos this is gonna come in handy.

You can see in this screen shot of the organizer in PSE9 that I have already tagged these 2 photos. Patty explains that it is easier to add more tags than not enough. I have tagged these with sunny, Texas, June, 2011, and cell phone. I also tagged the 1st photo with my nieces Megan and Kaitlyn and the 2nd photo with my son Dylan. So now that these are tagged lets say I wanted to find a photo taken in 2011 of my nieces in a sunny location. All I have to do is click on these 3 tags and walla you would bring up this photo. Sounds simple doesn't it?

It will take me a while to get all my photos tagged, but in the end I believe that it will help me so much. I have always used the organizer, but had not used the tags. She also tells you how to create multiple catalogs so that you can have 1 for photos and 1 for digital scrapbook supplies. I will next tackle tagging the scrapbook supplies, but as with the photos this will take me some time. To learn more of these great tips go to Patty's site located on the left side of my page and check it out. I never thought that I would learn how to do this stuff!

Have a wonderful day!!

The Digital Scrapbook Teacher

All of the classes that I took at GASC were digital scrapping classes. I did this cause I already know how to paper scrap for the most part and wanted to learn something new. The first class that I took was from Story Tellers. In this class we learned some of the basic techniques for digital scrapping. Here is what we made.

She taught us how to add a shadow, how to duplicate an element, and how to add a photo to a template. All this sounds so simple, but it is not.

The next 2 classes were taught by The Digital Scrapbook Teacher, Patty Debowski. I was in such awe of how well she taught us. As Patty will tell you she is not a techie. She now teaches, because when she tried to learn PSE there were not alot of great tutorials out there. She taught herself how to do many of the wonderful techniques with trial and error. She tries to tell all of her students how to do it the easy way to save us a headache.  I love how she can teach how to do something without getting so technical.

I ended up taking the class #6 Stamping, Distressing, and Making your own with PSE. This class was so much fun! We learned how to use brushes which are like stamps to us that are familiar with paper scrapping. She also told us to push every button and play with everything that is how you learn. If you make a mistake oh well there is always an edit button. She explained that some brushes are created to act a certain way. Look at the photo below.

Here we used the grass and leaf brush. As you can see as you click and drag the image changes colors and blends wonderful. How cool! She also taught us how to make our own digital papers.

The other class that I took was #7 Creating Montages with PSE. In this class we were taught how to take a picture and and add a person to the photo in different locations. Here take a look.

This is the same boy on the slide just in different locations. She took 3 pictures and taught us the Eraser Method and the Masking Method to create this photo. Pretty cool huh?

I also bought her new book Photoshop Elements Basics and Beyond. I am going chapter by chapter to learn new techniques on how to organize my photos and my digital scrapbooking elements. Patty has created a disk that has 3200 digital items already tagged and separated into categories. This saves hours of time!

Here is another picture of all the template disks that I also bought from her. I am so excited to learn how to do some of these amazing techniques with PSE.

I am also trying to butter up my dear hubby to let me attend one of Patty's Boot Camps. This is where for 2 days for 8 hours each day Patty teaches you all the ins and outs of the program. I so want to go. She is having a Boot Camp in Irving, Texas this year on October 22 and 23. I wouldn't have to pay for a hotel, because my parents live not too far from there. Hope that it works out for me.

If you want to find out more information about The Digital Scrapbook Teacher just click on my link on the left side of the page and it will take you to her site to check out all the wonderful products that she has to teach you with.

I want to wish everyone a glorious July 4th weekend and hope that you are spending it with the people you love!

Mouse, Paper, Scissors Hybrid Layout

Just realized that I never posted my hybrid layout that we created in Jessica Sprague and Heidi Swapp's class. This is one amazing class. It teaches you so much stuff that my brain hurt after taking it. I have reviewed the class many times so that I can get better at the techniques that Jessica teaches you in PSE. Heidi then explains how to put it all together. What a terrific team!

Here is one of my Twins Dylan riding his new scooter. As you can tell my printer is not so good on printing pictures. I am on the look out for a new one that does better.

This picture showes the titile and the 3 gems that I added.

This one shows some of the frames that we used around the pictures. I love this technique!

Here is the little element that we created. Jessica showed us how to use a brush to stamp the leaves and how to change the opacity so that you can see the lighter color. She also showed us how to add the words.

 

Here we used another brush stamp to stamp the circle for the journaling. Then Heidi showed us how to use tissue paper to create the white pleated look. As you can tell I need lots of practice on this part.

This is another view of the frames that we used on the photos.

Here again is the final product. All of the patterned paper is digital that Jessica showed us how to print out to use on this layout. Isn't that cool? Think of how many layouts you can create with these digital papers and you can use them over and over and never run out.

Hope that everyone has a wonderful Friday!