So Sorry!!

I know that it has been a long time since I made in tutorials and I am so sorry.  The Holidays have kept me quite busy and we are preparing for a long trip back to Idaho where we are originally from.  I will try my hardest to get a new tutorial out just as soon as Christmas is over!! Thanks for understanding!

Lesson 3; Part 2 Making Templates

Okay, enough chit chat, let’s turn this template into a Super Awesome Page we can share!!

Open up your template. (File, Open, and find your template) It will be a PSE File.

It will probably bring up a window that says, some fonts are missing, jut hit okay. This just means that you do not have the font that is on the paper, but it will change it for you (or you can change it) when the time comes.

*Note: CTRL+G. THIS COMMAND WILL BE YOUR NEW BEST FRIEND! MEMORIZE IT! :)

Now, it’s time to add some papers!! In your layers window, we are going to select a layer. You can start with whatever layer you want, but I like to start with a background color first, so go down and select the Background Layer at the very bottom.

Now, we are going to select a paper to go into this layer. I have not chosen any specific kit for this lesson. Be creative and pick a kit that you think will work great for this Page! Or use several kits if you want!! :)

So, we are going to go File, Place and choose a paper. Now your screen should look like this:

For a page like this, I like to keep the background nice and simple, preferably a solid or a lightly patterned or textured piece. But this is just personal preference. :)

If you like the selection you have made, hit enter or click the green check mark. Adjust your paper to fit over the background layer if needed and then Press CTRL+G. You have just set your Paper INTO the background layer!! Try moving your paper now, it will only move inside the background layer!

LET’S DO MORE!!!

Same thing….choose a layer either by picking a layer on the page itself or by going to your layers box and choosing it. File, Place, Enter, Ctrl G! Let’s do the Accent Paper Layer (one up from the background) and then we will do a picture!

For this layer, you don’t need to worry about making the paper fit the Accent, No need to adjust really unless you have a paper with large artwork on it that you want to show up in the accent Layer. Hit Enter and then CTRL G and the Paper will just go into that layer for you!

Pretty Neat Huh?!! You can do this with Paper, Elements, Pictures and even Text!!!!

Let’s do a photo shall we? We are going to put our first photo in the top cut out of the flower. Find this layer and make sure it is selected. Now, File, Place your Picture.

You can do this one of two ways, you can adjust your picture and then CTRL G or you can CTRL G and then adjust the picture. I find CTRL G, then Adjust, to work the best for me.

When you are done, your picture should fit nicely in the top part of the flower.

Not all pictures are going to work in these spaces….I had a hard time getting all three girls in this one without cutting off little Bina’s head!

I think you get the picture, but I would like to go over the text part with you. So, double click on the text layer in the Workspace Area. You will probably get a message like this:

Hit Okay. It will change the text to a font you already have. Remember, you can go back and change your font to whatever you want so it doesn’t matter what it changes your font to. :)

I would like to change my Text to be a little bit Wider of Wording. So, Since it is already highlighted (and if it isn’t, go ahead and highlight it) and then select a different font and then type what you would like here. If you like the font you have already you can leave it!:) I also ended up having to change the size so that it would not run over onto my photos:

The reason I wanted to change my font to a thick, filled in font, was so that I could show you that you can also place papers into text!! You do this the exact same way as you would with any other part of the template.

File, Place, Ctrl G. With the wording you may want to scale down the paper, depending on if you are using solids or patterns so that you can see more of the pattern in the wording. This is what mine looks like after I place a paper, some Drop shadowing and a bevel:

*Note: When you add drop shadowing or beveling or any effect for that matter to a layer, you need to make sure that you have the actual Template Layer Selected and not the paper you placed into that layer.

Well, I think by now you get the picture, and if you have any questions at all you can always email me at liviesmommy2008@yahoo.com

Here is my final Page:

With Templates, use File Save As and then put in your scrapbook folder. Be careful not to save over the template with all of your layers put into it! :)

Multiple Windows and Using Templates!!!

Multiple Windows and Using Templates!!!

Now that you have gotten acquainted with your program and you know the basics of how to lay papers and elements, wording, drop shadows, and embellishments, I am going to show you something that will make it soo much easier for you to make really awesome pages!!

I only discovered Templates after I got PSE 9. Originally, I was using Gimp and if there was some way to use a template in Gimp, I had no idea how to do it! My wonderful friend Lisa showed me templates, along with pretty much everything else I know about Scrapbooking and Photoshop!

A template is a PSE file that basically is an already built page, but everything is all shaded grays (and sometimes colors) that allow you to “Place” your own papers into the template! I know, I know, it kind of sounds like cheating right? Well, that’s what I thought in the beginning too, but now that I have discovered them, it has given me so much more room to grow as an “artist” of scrapbooking! You may have a page that is already laid out for you, but the art of putting a well scrapped page together isn’t just about the layout. It is about creative thinking: Which papers go together well? How many Elements should I put on a page? Is my page too busy? And then there is the fact that you don’t nessacarilly have to use just one template! You can use several different Templates for One Scrapbook! Often, I will open a few different templates and then pick and choose what I would like to have my page look like, essentially building my own page in the end!

Before we get started with the template, I would first like to show you something you may or may not have discovered on your own. And that is, dragging something from one document and dropping it in to another. Once you have learned this, you will find that you will use it a lot!

I would like you to have the template ready to go so that when we get to that part, it will already be downloaded. Be sure to make a separate folder for your Templates!! :)

Here is the Link: http://freedigitalscrapbooking.com/digital_scrapbooking_scraplifters_challenge.html

You can download what you want, but we will be using the April Challenge Template for this lesson so make sure to grab that one too! It is close to the bottom of the page and looks like this:

Okay, let’s get started! Open up your program, go to your File Menu and go to “Open”. Select one your pictures and open it in PSE. I am going to throw in a little mini lesson here, on enhancing your photos because this is one of the most common reasons you would use this click and drag feature. Say you had a scrapbook page already started and you had a picture that needed to be cropped or enhanced. You will NOT be able to crop a picture that has been placed into your scrapbook without cropping the ENTIRE scrapbook! So, this is what you should have: Well, not exactly…but a picture of your own anyway! ;)

So, before I would put this on my page, I would want to make sure that it looked its best. This picture is a little dark, so we are going to try and enhance the coloring a bit!

In the upper right hand side of your Workspace Screen, there are three tabs, The first is Edit. Now, under Edit, there are three MORE tabs. The first is Full, the second is Quick, and the third is Guided(PSE 9 only). For the purpose of this, we are going to use the Full and Quick Edits.

Go over and click on the tab labeled Quick. This is what your screen will look like:

The easiest way to make sure your pics look good is to use the auto features of PSE. Occasionally you may have to go in and adjust some of the levels manually, but for the most part, the Autos do a pretty darn good job!

You have probably noticed a small window that runs along the bottom directly below your workspace. This is the Project Bin. It will show you a thumbnail for each project that you have opened. Currently, we only have one project open, but that will soon change and you will need to know this window! Okay, directly above the Project window on your left, is a drop down menu that will allow you to change the view of how you are looking at your edit screen. We are going to drop down and choose “Before and After Horizontal”.

There, now you can see what your picture looks like before and after changes! :) Okay, go over to your Edit window on the right side and select the word “Auto” next to “Smart fix” at the very top.

There! Now my picture is quite a bit brighter than before! You can play with the “Fix” slide bar if you want. It will just increase the enhancement, but if you go too far, your photo will just get blown out or look worse than what it started out as!

Now, click back over to the “Full” Option on the Edit Screen. We are going to Crop the Picture (if needed) so that I am “zoomed in” a bit more on the subject.

On your toolbar to your left, find the crop tool (hover over each until you find “crop”)

Now click and drag until you have the desired area selected. After you have let go of your mouse, you can click in the middle of the Crop and click and drag until you have what you want.

When you have your desired area selected, click on the green check mark or press Enter.

Great Job!! Now, let’s figure out this Click and Drag thingy I have been talking about!

Go back to the file menu and click on “Open”. Now, we are going to select a Paper from one of your kits. Any paper will do, this is just for demonstration of clicking and dragging.

Now, you should have a paper in your workspace and TWO thumbnails in your Project Bin at the bottom of your Workspace Screen!

Okay, this is really simple. Go down to your project Bin, Click on your picture and drag it up to your workspace on top of your paper.

TADA!!!!

Well, Now that we have learned that: Let’s move on to Lesson 3; part 2! TEMPLATES!!! SEE YOU THERE!!

UPDATE

Because of the Holiday Season, I am going to be slowing down a bit.  I know that I just got started and I will continue to bring you lots of fun tutorials, but maybe not two in one week.  :) I would like to get one more PSE Tutorial out there that will greatly improve your scrapbooking experience and then I will try to get some more Gimp Tutorials up! Hope everyone has a Great Christmas and God Bless!!!

Adding Text and Learning Drops Shadows and Bevels

Okay! Time for Lesson Two!! Since I have written the tutorial on the basics of Making a Scrapbook Page, and for time’s sake, I am not going to go back over what was already discussed in the first Lesson. I assume by now, you have been playing with the PSE enough that you have all of that stuff figured out! If not, please feel free to take a look back at Lesson 1!!

Since I had you save your scrapbook page that we made in the first lesson, I am going to be continuing to work on this page as we go along!

Alright, so, your program is opened up and we left our scrapbook page looking like this:

This page is very, very basic so we need to add some more things to make it a little more interesting! I am going to add some wording to the bottom of the Dotted Paper. We are going to make sure that the top layer is highlighted in our workspace and then on your toolbar menu, on the left of your workspace screen, you are going to click on the icon that is the letter “T”. This is your text tool. It’s going to allow you to make a text box and then type in what you want. So, draw a box, the length of the dotted paper at the bottom, directly under the photo.

After you release your mouse, you should be able to see a flashing line in the middle. Now you can type something here! Your top Tool Bar, directly above the workspace allows you to change your font type and size. Pick something that you like and a size and then begin typing something in this space. I am going to type “Just your smile makes me happy”.

In order to get out of the text box, just click anywhere outside of it and it will create your layer. Now, I don’t know about your wording, but mine is a bit too close to the photo. I am going to move this down by going back to the toolbar on the left and selecting the Move Tool. It should be the first tool on your tool bar. At least it is in PSE 9. If you are unsure of which tool is which, you can always hover over the top of them, and they will tell you what they are.

Okay, Now that you have clicked on the right tool, go to your Layers Window and make sure that your text layer is the one selected. Now, text can be kind of pain to move with your mouse. You have to be directly on part of a letter to get it to move and it can get a little irritating! So, instead, we are going to use our up and down arrows on our keyboard! Using these keys, move your lettering to a more desirable position. Or, if you like it where it is, just give it a try anyway and then put it back!

Click anywhere outside the text box to “set” the layer. Great Job! You have just learned how to use your Text Tool!!

Let’s move on to some Beveling and Shadowing Shall We?

Bevels and Shadows can be used to bring out text or elements (or even papers,) so that they stand out a bit more.

Let’s try some on our Lettering!

This little area right here is where you will find all of your Photo Effects. It is located directly above your windows layer. Make sure that the Tab “EFFECTS” is selected. You will know because the lettering will be white. In that tab will be 4 different icons that you can choose from. Hover over each of them to learn what they are, and then go ahead and click on the one named “Layer Styles”. Now, in the drop down menu find the word Bevels and select it. This Screen Shot Above shows what Bevels look like.

Okay, now that we have found them, we are going to make sure that our Text Layer is selected in our Windows Layer. Go ahead and click on different Bevels, each time you click one, you will need to click Apply in the bottom right hand corner of the little Effects Window(or just double click on the bevel you want). Go ahead and click on several. You can only apply one Bevel to a layer so each time you click on a different one it will change it. The only way I know of to get the Bevel off if you decide you do not want one, is to hit undo in the Edit menu until you no longer have a bevel.

I am going to go ahead and select the third Bevel over on the top row. This one will make my text stand out quite a bit more by darkening and enhancing it.

Great! Now that you have chosen a Bevel, let’s go back to the drop down menu and select “Drop Shadows” . Do the same with the drop shadows as you did with the Bevels. If it makes it easier for you, you can hit “Undo” in the Edit Menu after each Drop Shadow you apply, that way if you decide you do not want one at all, you will not have to hit Undo so many times.

I am going to Choose the Last Drop Shadow, in the last row.

Feel free to go ahead and play with any of the selections in the drop down menu! There are tons of effects in there and as long as you have the layer selected you want to apply it to, you can apply it!

Great! See? This is pretty easy stuff huh?! Try adding some drop Shadowing or Bevels (Or Both!) to some of your other elements on the page. You Dots paper, maybe the bow or the ribbons. I kept this page pretty simple and basic. I really just want you to learn how to use the tools given here. As soon as we get through some of the most common tools, we can go on to make a little bit fancier of a page!

More tutorials coming! Hope this one helped!!

UPDATE!

PSE READERS: I WILL HAVE ANOTHER TUTORIAL UP FOR YOU BY SUNDAY EVENING!!
GIMP READERS: YOURS IS COMING SOON ALSO! BY TUESDAY AT THE LATEST!!

Making a Page in Gimp

When I first opened Gimp, it opened three windows like this:

The First is what is called your layers box. This is where each page or element you use will go and this is also where you will be able to move them around, depending on where you want them (in front of or behind another object) the middle box is where your page will appear, and this is your workspace. The third, is your toolbox. We will talk about the ones you need to know in a bit.

BACK UP A BIT!!!:

Up until now, I have assumed that ya’ll know that you need to have kits to be able to make a page….but I guess, if you are beginners, you probably are going to need to know where to get those too! So, quickly, here is a list of sites that offer freebies almost every day!

These websites search for all of the daily freebies and bring them to you in one place:

http://suzee-q-stuff.blogspot.com/

http://handpickedfreebies.blogspot.com/

http://scrapbook.creativebusyhands.com/

http://www.browniescraps.com/

http://www.foreverfreedownloads.com/page/2/

Here are a few places that offer free kits all the time:

http://www.summertimedesigns.blogspot.com (One of my favs!!)

If you prefer to purchase them, I use two sites that are my favorite, but I am sure there are tons and tons and tons of them out there!

http://www.browniescraps.com

http://www.gottapixel.com

*If I could just give one little word of advice: Don’t separate out your kits! It’s very hard to give credits to the designer when you don’t know where you got it from, and also, it is a great big pain to try to find something to match a kit when you have them all compiled together! I made this mistake once and spent hours putting them back. My suggestion is that you Make a folder name, and then three subfolders under that: Papers, Elements, and Alphas. Also, some have Word Arts in the kits and when they do, I also make a Word Art subfolder in that kit. Just suggestions though; do what ya want!

Okay, so let’s get started already!!

MAKING YOUR FIRST SCRAPBOOK:

I found the easiest way to learn this, is to just find a tutorial that will show you how to make a scrapbook without getting into too much detail about exactly how or why you have to do things this way or that. So, that’s exactly what we are going to do! If you have any questions at anytime please feel free to email me at liviesmommy2008@yahoo.com and I will try to answer your questions as best as I can!

Step 1:

Open your program already!!

*Note: If your program opens up and does not look like the screen shots, it is probably maximized. You can work with it like this also! Or you can restore it back to the smaller screen. Either way, if you ever need to zoom in or zoom out on your page, you can use these commands:

*Shft+ (to make larger) and – (to make smaller)*

Step 2:

Okay, so you are staring at a blank Gimp Screen. The first thing we need to do is make a new Project. Go up to your File Menu and click on “New. This will bring up a screen like this:

In the Image Size Section, we are going to change the Pixels to 3600 X 3600 or 12 X 12 inches. You may type this in however you may prefer by using the drop down menu next to the box labeled “height” and changing it to inches. Okay, we need to check one more thing before we move on!

Go down to the area that says “Advanced Options” and click on the Plus Sign(+) next to it. Find the box that says, “Fill With” and make this say TRANSPARENCY! THIS IS IMPORTANT!!

Now, your Workspace should look like this:

*Note: Notice that the windows are in a different order from the original screen shot? You can move them around to wherever you feel most comfortable using them. This order is the most comfortable for me.

Step 3: Let’s Get Acquainted!

Okay, so, notice that your 12X12 box in the middle looks like a checkered piece of paper. This is just what “transparency” looks like. This means that there will be no color on this layer when you save your file. It is TRANSPARENT!

In the Window to your right (or left if you did not switch them around), is your Layers Window. This is where your will spend a lot of time! Each Page or Element that you add to your scrapbook page will show up down here. Everything is a Layer. Each layer is separate from the other. I will show you why this is important when we start building your page!

Step 4: Choose a Background Layer

Okay, this is where the fun begins! We are going to put down our first layer! I am going to use a kit that anyone of you can also use. It is from Summer Drigg’s website http://summertimedesigns.com and it is called Limeade. You can find it here: http://summertimedesigns.blogspot.com/2008/08/blog-post.html you can also use any kit you have! It just might be easier to follow along if we are all using the same kit!

We are going to go to the File Menu now and click on the word “Open As Layers”

Get very comfortable with this Command! You will be using it A LOT!!! (File + Open As Layers)

Now, this will open your documents in your computer. Find the folder that contains your Digiscrap Material. For example, mine is in Documents, Digiscrap, Kit’s to keep together, and then whatever kit I want to use.

Open your folder and choose a Paper. If you are following along with the Limeade Kit, Please choose the paper labeled “Dots” by doubling clicking the paper or clicking on the paper and then selecting Open in the bottom right hand corner.

Now, your screen should look like this:

We have just laid our first paper! You will see that we now have two Layers in our Layers Window on the right. One is our background and the other should be your Dots Page! *Note: if you want to you can click on the name of that layer and change it to something easier to find like: Dots Page or Layer 1.

Step 4: Adding More!

Okay, so we want more than one page on our scrapbook so, now we are going to grab another! Again, File+ Open As Layers and choose your next page or element. In this case, we are going to choose another paper, I am going to go back to the Limeade Kit and Use the one labeled “FLOWERS”. Now, your screen should look like this:

The paper we just added will be placed on top of the dotted paper. Now, just for fun, and to get you to understand the Layers Window, we are going to switch the papers around so that the dotted paper is on top!

Go over to the layers window on the right and select the dotted paper. You will know which layer you have selected by the color. The one that is selected will be highlighted first blue, and then when you click back to your Workspace in the Center, it will become Dark Gray.

Now, hold down your Left Click and drag the dotted Layer over the top of the Flower Layer

Release your mouse and now your dotted layer should be the one on the top!

That was fun! Now, let’s make this page!

Step 5: Scaling Layers

Okay, now we are going to make sure that the dotted paper is the layer highlighted in our layers window (on the right) and then we are going to go to the paper in our workspace and make it smaller.

You can do this, one of two ways. I am a shortcut person and prefer to use keyboard shortcuts; however, if you are a clicker, I will also tell you how to do it this way as well!

Shortcut: Hold down Shift and the Letter T (Shft+T)

Clicker: Go to the toolbar window on your left and click on the shape that looks like a Square box with an Arrow pointing down through it. Third Row, 4^th one in.

*HOVERING OVER EACH TOOL WILL TELL THE NAME OF THAT SPECIFIC TOOL*

Okay, if you know the exact size of the paper you would like, you can change it in the boxes. The drop down menu will allow you to change pixels to inches. However, I never really know the size I want until I mess with it a bit, so, we are going to move the Scale Layer box over a bit, off of our paper, and use the squares at the corners to click and drag (they will appear when you click on the corner you want to drag from). You can also use the squares at the tops and the sides, but be very careful! This could distort your paper!!

Once you get your paper the size that you want it, if you are following along, you want it to look like this:

Now, you will want to Press “Scale” on the Scale Layer Window that you moved to the side (or just press Enter). You will see a green line going across the bottom of your workspace screen. This is the program showing you that it is working on your request. The green line will disappear when it is finished.

In order to get out of the Scale Layer Mode, you will need to click on the Move Tool in the Tool Bar, or….you can just press the “M” key on your keyboard! The move tool is the one that is a cross made of arrows on both ends.

Now, we are going to grab the dotted paper and drag it to the center of the Flowered Paper. If the paper still seems too large, go ahead and rescale (Shft+T). Don’t forget to press Enter after you get your paper how you want it! Then, Press “M” and move your paper back to the center.

Your page should look like this now:

Good Job!! Let’s Move On! Now, we have two different Layers and our papers set where we want them. It’s time to add some elements to set off the page.

Step 6: Adding Elements

Okay, you are getting pretty familiar with it now, so think about that next step and see if you can do it by yourself! …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Still need a little Help? That’s Okay! File + Open As Layers!

Time to choose some pretty’s as my two year old would call them! If you are working in this kit, the first element we are going to grab is the black polka dotted ribbon labeled “Black Dotted Ribbon”.

The Ribbon comes in a bit large so we need to scale this down a bit, so that it fits just across the top of the dotted paper. So, hit Shft+T (or use your tools and find the scale tool) and then scale the dotted ribbon so that it is just as long as the dotted paper. Be careful to only pull the corners (and possibly tiny bits at the ends) so that you don’t distort the ribbon.

*Note: If you do mess up the ribbon, hit cancel and start over!

I have moved the Ribbon to the top by Pressing the “M” key on your keyboard and then clicking and dragging. Now, we are going to move it again, just slightly down the page. So that maybe an inch of the dotted paper is showing at the top:

*Note: If something else moved that wasn’t your ribbon, then you probably have a different layer selected in the Layers window! Make sure that the layer you want to work with is highlighted!!

Okay, this is what your page should look like at this point:

Okay, let’s add more!! File+ Open As Layers and then add the ribbon labeled, “Green Ribbon”. This too, will come in a little too big and we will need to scale it down to the same size as the black ribbon. You will probably need to make your Work Space smaller in order to find the corners of the green ribbon, do this by tapping the minus (-) key until you are satisfied. Then, to make it bigger again, hold down shift and tap the plus sign (Shft+) Remember to try to only scale from the sides if you can so that we do not distort the ribbon. (if you can’t get these commands to work, click anywhere in the workspace and then try them again)

I noticed that I had to grab the ribbons a bit at the end of them to pull it to the edge of the paper. Do this if you need to! Tiny bits will not distort, but try dragging it like that across the entire Scrapbook Page and see what happens!

Okay, so right now, the green ribbon is on top, but we want to move it under the Black Ribbon. So, go to the layers window and highlight the Green Ribbon. Click and Drag so that the green ribbon is under the black ribbon! Don’t go too far or your ribbon will end up under your papers!

Now, it should look like this:

Okay, now you can’t see your green ribbon and that’s a problem. We could have just moved the green ribbon a bit above the black before we moved it down a layer, but since I want you to know how to get out of hard spots like this, we went ahead and did it the hard way! . So, your green ribbon is still selected, if it isn’t, select it now in the layers window and click somewhere in your workspace. Now, using the arrows on your keyboard, “Nudge” the green ribbon with the up arrow so that you can see it again! If you can see your ribbon, grab onto any part of it that you can see and drag it up.

Now we are going to adjust it so that it is part under the black ribbon and rotated a bit. Right Now, we are just going to rotate the ribbon and then we can move it under the black. New Command! Shift Key Plus R (Shft+R) Or, using your tools, hover over until you find the Rotate Tool. There will be two rectangles with curved arrows around them.

Click on the Ribbon and adjust it so that the end on the right is slightly slanted upward:

Now, Hit that “M” key on your Keyboard that we are becoming so familiar with (or again, use the toolbar) and move the green ribbon so that the left end is positioned under the black ribbon:

Okay, now let’s add one more Element! So, File+ Open As Layers and select the big green bow. If you are having trouble being able to preview what you are clicking on, click on the preview box and it will generate a preview for you.

It again, is a bit big so let’s scale it down. Then, we are going to move it to the ribbons and rotate it a bit so that it is sitting at an angle. It should look like this when you are done:

The steps are as Follows Using the Shortcut Keyboard Keys. If you prefer to use the tools remember every short cut is a tool in the toolbar!

Step 1:

Shft+T : Scale the Bow to make smaller

Step 2:

M: Move the Bow to the ribbons (If your bow goes under the ribbons, remember to move to the top in your layers window!)

Step 3:

Shft + R: Rotate the Bow so that it is sitting at an angle on the bows

Your Page should look Similar to this when you are done:

Step 7: Adding your Pictures

Now we are going to insert a photo! After all, isn’t that what a scrapbook is made of?!!

Again, File+ Open As Layers

Now, go to your pictures and select a photo of your choice. I am going to use a picture of my daughter Olivia.

Depending on your picture size, this could come in fairly large! If it does and you cannot see the edges, use the Minus Key (-) to make your workspace window smaller until you find them. Scale the image (Shft +T) and then you can zoom back in with Sfht+ .

BE VERY VERY CAREFUL WHEN SCALING YOUR PHOTOS!! GO SLOW!! DISTORTING YOUR PICTURES IS VERY EASY TO DO WITH GIMP!! PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE! REMEMBER-YOU CAN ALWAYS CANCEL THE SCALE AND START OVER IF YOU FEEL LIKE YOUR PICTURE LOOKS FUNNY!

We want our Picture to go UNDER the ribbons. So, go over to your Layers Box and move the photo down until it is under both ribbons and the bow.

CONGRATS!! YOU JUST MADE YOUR FIRST VERY BASIC PAGE!! WE ARE GOING TO GO UP AND SAVE IT NOW, LATER WE WILL DISCUSS ADDING TITLES AND JOURNALING…ALSO USING DROP SHADOWS WHICH ARE GREAT ELEMENTS TO ANY PAGE!!

SO, GO UP TO YOUR FILE MENU AND CLICK ON FILE SAVE AS. MAKE A NEW FOLDER OR IF YOU ALREADY HAVE ONE, MAKE SURE YOU ARE IN YOUR FOLDER THAT YOU WANT YOUR NEW PAGES TO BE SAVED TO. NAME YOUR PAGE (AT THE TOP) AND AFTER IT PUT .XCF. FOR EXAMPLE, MY PAGE NAME IS GIMP TUTORIAL.XCF

CLICK SAVE. .XCF FILES ALLOW YOU TO BE ABLE TO COME IN AND MAKE CHANGES TO YOUR PROJECT ANYTIME YOU WANT! YOU WILL ONLY BE ABLE TO OPEN THESE IN GIMP.

NOW, WE ARE GOING TO GO BACK UP TO FILE AND SAVE AS. THIS TIME, WE ARE GOING TO SAVE OUR FILE NAME AS A .JPG. PUT IT IN THE SAME FOLDER AS YOUR .XCF FILES AND NAME IT THE SAME THING, JUST CHANGE THE .XCF TO .JPG AND CLICK SAVE. THIS ALLOWS YOU TO POST IT TO THE INTERNET AND ALSO PRINT OUT YOUR PAGES!

AFTER CLICKING SAVE A BOX POPPED UP THAT LOOKED LIKE THIS:

CLICK ON EXPORT. THIS WILL FLATTENYOUR IMAGE TO MAKE IT A PICTURE WITHOUT THE LAYERS.

NOW YOU WILL GET A BOX THAT LOOKS LIKE THIS:

THERE IS A QUALITY BAR AT THE TOP….ALWAYS SAVE AT AT- LEAST 95% SO THAT YOU WILL GET THE BEST QUALITY PRINTS AND UPLOADS! NOW CLICK SAVE AND YOU ARE DONE!! THERE YOU GO! BE BACK SOON FOR MORE TUTORIALS!!