Jen Caputo

Photoshop Tutorial: Using Digital Sketch Templates

I've done various tutorials on using sketch templates before but some of those have gotten lost and some are outdated, some were before I knew certain keyboard shortcuts, or how different versions of Photoshop behaved.  So today, I'm posting my most up to the moment tutorial to show you how to use my sketch templates!

PSD or TIFF?
When you purchase my templates you have the option of selecting the PSD or TIFF version of the files.  Which should you pick?  Well, if you use any version of Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, you should definitely choose the TIFF version.  Why?  Because they are saved with LZW compression turned on which is a lossless compression algorithm that will result in a file about 1/2 the size of the PSD file without a drop of quality loss.  When you save your layout you will also want to continue to save it as a TIFF File.  Finished digital layouts can be huge (300MB for an unflattened PSD saved layout is not rare in the least) so saving in the tiff format (with LZW Image Compression and Zip Layer Compression turned on) will save you gigs of hard disk space in the long run.

To summarize, if you have the option of choosing TIFF (meaning, if you use any version of Photoshop), choose TIFF!!!!
Who can't use TIFF?  Users of other software such as Paint Shop Pro.

Working with the sketch template
Well now that you've decided which file to download, let's open the template of our choice in Photoshop (any version). 

1. In Photoshop, choose File -> Open and browse to the template you wish to work with.
   
   Here is the template I'm using, it's from Sketch Collection #22:
   
2. To avoid accidentally overwriting your template file, choose File -> Save As, and save the template with a new name (the name of the layout you are working on for instance)
   
3. Open the photos you wish to use on your layout in Photoshop.
4. Select the layer on the template that you wish to replace with your first photo (it should be highlighted in the layers palette).
   
5. Select all of the image you want to use in the template (CTRL/CMD-A) and copy it to the clipboard (CTRL/CMD-C).
   
6. Paste your photo into the template (CTRL/CMD-V)
    
7. Your photo should now be on the layer directly above the template piece you are replacing.
   
8. Press your magic key sequence:
   • Photoshop CS+ w/Windows: CTRL-ALT-G
   • Photoshop CS+ w/MAC: COMMAND-OPTION-G
   • All Other Versions w/Windows: CTRL-G
   • All Other Versions w/MAC: COMMAND-G
     
9. Voila! Just like that, your picture should have conformed to the shape of the template piece. 
   
10. Press 'V' to select your move tool and move your photo until it is framed the way you like it.  If you need to resize it to make it fit in the template piece better, press CTRL-T (Command-T on a Mac) and drag in the corners (to maintain the correct proportions hold the shift key down while you transform unless you have the "Constrain Proportions" box checked which will do it for you!).
    
11. You can repeat steps 4-9 for every piece of paper and photo that you wish to add to the layout.
12. Finish your layout by embellishing, journaling, and adding a title.

Journaling in/on Text Paths
Many of my templates include text paths which are basically shaped journaling blocks.  Text paths can ONLY be used in PSE 3+ and PS CS+ so if you are using an earlier version, you will not be able to take advantage of the text paths.

1. Double click on the text layer (the T icon).
   
2. You should see all of the text highlighted.  Begin typing your own journaling, when you are done, press the Commit button.
   
3. When you have finished typing, consider changing the font-style or size.  To do so, select all of the text by again double clicking on the text layer.  Now just change the font settings until you get something you like!
   

Saving your layout
At this point, if you save your layout with all of the layers, even as a TIFF file, it will be fairly large because we haven't merged any of the layers.
Some people don't even save the layered version of their files but I always prefer to in case I need to go change something at a later time (misspellings are a common occurrence :))
To make your file size smaller but still maintain the ability to edit the layout at a later date, do the following.

1. For each clipped layer, simply hit CTRL-E (Command-E on a Mac) one time. This will merge it with the template layer below it and thus you will only be saving the part of the photo/paper that overlaps with the template instead of the entire file. 
   
2. When you save your layout again you should notice a significant decrease in file size.

Finished layout:

Layout Credits:
Sketch Template - Jen Caputo Collection #22
Shawna Clingerman and Michelene Martin - Pieces of You
Date pieces by Janet Phillips

Try it yourself!
Well, now that you know how to use the templates, why not try some out?  I have plenty of freebies to the right under "Freebies". In addition to those freebies, all of my new freebies are sent out via my newsletter, so be sure you are signed up for that (you will get a confirmation email immediately after signing up - you need to open that and reply to be sure you are subscribed - check your spam box if you don't see it)!
Finally, if the freebies have you convinced you need lots more templates, then hop over to my store at Scrapbook Graphics and pick up whatever you want for 20% off using coupon code jc-tutorial20.

If you have any questions or I didn't cover anything well enough just leave a comment on this post and I'll be sure to come back and answer you!

 

CPS102: Valentine's Cards & Tutorial

Today I wanted to play along with the CPS sketch, it's my first time but PTI is one of the sponsors this month which gave me the kick in the butt I needed to play along.  You can see my sample above!

Here is the sketch:

You'll notice I used strips of cardstock stamped with words again just as I did on this card and these two too.

Every time I post one of these cards I get a bunch of comments/emails saying it looks like it must have taken forever and so I wanted to take a few pictures to show how untrue that is. They are really quick and easy!

I start by just cutting several strips of paper 1/4" wide. I usually use my scraps to do this and just slide along my cutter in 1/4" increments until I get a big pile.  Then I stamp them (I'm using PTI's clear stamps so it's really easy to line them up.  I lay out a bunch of strips and then just stamp down the line, it takes a few seconds to go down the whole set of strips.

Then I run a piece of scrap paper through the xyron machine and just layer the strips on, budding each piece up to the previous one. I stagger them and don't worry about overlaps on the side.

Then I trim off the excess

Now you can just punch a shape, run it through a die cut machine, or trace something on the back. Here you can see 3 different hearts created three different ways.

For the first one, I punched it. The 2nd, I traced a Heidi Swapp chipboard piece onto the back, and the last one was a sizzix die-cut.

The chipboard shaped heart wound up on the first card up at the top of the post, here's what I did with the others.

Credits
Stamps: PTI Love Songs; Just for Fun Background Swirl
Paper: Sweet Blush, Raspberry Fizz, Aqua Mist, Stamper's Select White , True Black,  - all from PTI
Ink: PTI Raspberry Fizz, Sweet Blush, True Black, Aqua Mist
Dies: Nestabilities Rectangles & Scallop Rectangles (small), Sizzix Heart, EK Success Heart Punch, Martha Stewart Border Punch
Other: Pink satin ribbon, Kaiser Crystals, Heart Charm (Target $1 spot)

Hidden Gift Card Holder Card Tutorial

well that doesn't exactly sound right but oh well.

Both of my parents received gift cards from me for Christmas this year so I wanted to share the method I chose to present them.

(I didn't give my dad my Sam's Club card but I didn't have the actual giftcard, which was to West Marine, at the time I took these photos).

1. Start with a piece of cardstock 2.75" wide by 6 inches tall.

2. Score it along the 6" side at 1/2" and 4". 

3. Use the Basic Grey notch tool or a circle punch to cut a notch, then assemble as shown below using a thin line of adhesive on either side of the gift card.

4. Add a piece of red line tape at the very bottom of the holder only and adhere your "waves" (a piece of cardstock stamped and cut using a Martha Stewart Border Punch)

5. Add another piece of adhesive on the top 1/2" piece and adhere your background down. (The background paper should be roughly 2.75" x 3")

Now you have this match book style thing to hold your gift card

the background paper can slide beneath the waves to stay closed.

6. Cut out your focal image and add some dimensional adhesive only to the part that will touch your background paper

7. Adhere it to the background paper with no adhesive under the bottom of the boat.  That way the background paper can slide below the waves while the boat stays on top of them.

And here's my finished card

and open:

and a nice matching envelope to finish it off

 

My mom got one too, hers holds a gift card to Macy's where we love to do our day-after-Christmas shopping!

 

Sailboard Card Supplies:
Stamps: PTI Men of Life
Ink: PTI Pure Poppy, Dark Chocolate, Spring Rain
Paper: PTI Pure Poppy, Stampers Select White, Spring Rain, Men of Life Patterned Paper
Other: Nestabilities Rectangles, Raffia, Martha Stewart Border Punch, Brick Red Distress Embossing Poweder

Pink Christmas Trees Card Supplies:
Stamps: PTI Merry & Bright, Snowfall
Ink: PTI Pure Poppy, Dark Chocolate, Berry Sorbet, Sweet Blush, Versamark
Paper: PTI Pure Poppy, Stampers Select White, Sweet Blush
Other: Nestabilities Rectangles, Martha Stewart Border Punch, Silver Embossing Poweder, Star brads

Candy Box Tutorial

I wanted to make a small gift to give to the coworkers in my group and this is what I came up with:

I thought I'd share how I made them!

 

1. Start by using the square scallop Nestabilities and cutting 2 of the 3.5" squares.  (I'm not sure if these are in the big or small set....)

2. Score along all 4 sides in the middle of the first non-corner scallop.  This is about 3/4" in on all sides. Do this to both squares.

3. Cut 4 slits on score lines as shown below on both squares.

4. Tape up the box bottom by putting adhesive on the flaps and folding them to the inside (you are only doing this to one of them).

Now, we'll create the transparency body of the box.

5. Using a piece of 8.5" x 5.5" piece of transparency, score along the 8.5" side at 2", 4", 6", and 8" (like a 2-4-6-8 box)

6. Apply adhesive to the extra 1/2" strip of the transparency and tape the walls of the box together.

7. Line the sides of the box bottom with adhesive and insert the transparency box sides. Use a bone folder to burnish the adhesive down securely.

8. For the lid, use your ribbon to measure the length of the slit you'll need to cut in the box top for the ribbon to go through. Punch a hole at either end and then use a straight edge to cut along the top and bottom of each hole to create this slot (If you have a slot punch you could use that instead).

9. Now tape the box top back together like you did the bottom in step 4.

10. Cut about 24" of ribbon and wrap it around the bottom of the box and through the slits on the lid.

Then just tie it all up and add some tags!

Supplies

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Snowfall, Papertrey Ink 2008 Holiday Tags Collection

Ink: StazOn White

Paper: PTI Pure Poppy, PTI Aqua Mist, PTI Stampers Select White, Transparency Sheet

Dies: Nestabilities Square Scallops, Nestabilities Circles and Circle Scallops, EK Success Whale of a Punch Circle

Other: PTI Aqua Mist Grosgrain Ribbon, String, Scor-Pal, 1/8" hole punch

Repackaging

I bought this adorable gift set the other day and while the packaging was already pretty cute, I thought it could use a little gussying up :)

I'm not quite sure what the spoon is for.. the brand is Organic Kitchen so I guess that kind of explains a spoon but not totally... oh well, it's cute!

So I started by stamping a focal piece, doing some cutting and embossing with my nestabilities, and then stamping up a background sheet by pulling polka dot stamps from every set I could find.

The strip that wrapped around the package was 18" long so I had to tape two pieces of cardstock together. 

Then I taped the original packaging to the back so the recipient would still have all the information they might need about ingredients, the contents, etc.

Here's the finished repackaged gift set:

Supplies:
Stamps: Papertrey Ink Merry & Bright, various sets for the circles, the 2 largest circles are from Technique Tuesday, the rest are PTI.
Ink: PTI Pure Poppy, Ripe Avocado, Dark Chocolate, Summer Sunrise
Paper: PTI Stampers Select White, Pure Poppy, Ripe Avocado
Other: Nestabilities Scallops, Circles. Martha Steward Border Punch

Transparency Flower Card & Tutorial

Here's my card  I made for the PTI blog hop. I've never played before so I hope I did it right and can't wait to be inspired by everyone!

And here's how I made it!

To start I stamped up a background using PTI's Remember set, Ripe Avocado, Berry Sorbet, and Summer Sunrise Ink.

Then I stamped the detailed image from the set onto a transparency in the new Vintage Cream Ink. I had to heat set it pretty well so it wouldn't smudge.

Then I cut the transparency images out

Once they were all cut out, I added a button to one side and a pop dot to the other (the button hides the pop-dot)

Then I started to assemble my card adding leaves from Prima

Voila!

Credits

Ink: Berry Sorbet, Vintage Cream, Ripe Avocado, Summer Sunrise (all from Papertrey Ink)

Paper: Berry Sorbet, White, Bitty Baby Blessings Patterned Paper (all from Papertrey Ink)

Stamps: Remember, Mixed Messages (all from Papertrey Ink)

Ribbon: PTI Berry Sorbet

Other: Jump Ring, Buttons, Transparency

Mass Production

I've slowly been accumulating all of these bits of cardstock with plans to turn them into my Christmas cards

I cut all of the colored scallops and circles with my Wishblade. I stamped all of the focal images using PTI's 2008 Holiday Tag Collection and then punched them out using an EK Success Whale of a Punch.  I then accented the stamped pieces with stickles. The backgrounds were stamped with PTI's Snowfall as were the accent strips. I also ran a bunch of leftover strips through the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder. I used basically every scrap of paper from every sheet I cut.

The results:

Each card is just a little bit different.  Now that I'm done, I'm worried that I didn't make enough of course....

So remember that hot tub bar we started building almost 3 months ago. Well we finally finished it and put it in it's new home!

isn't it pretty?

Shake It Up, Baby!

I've been a little addicted to shaker cards lately.  They are so fun to make and give!

Here's the latest one I did

Credits:
Stamps: Papertrey Ink TextBoxed
Paper: Papertrey Ink Aqua Mist, Club Scrap Mosiac Twist blue, Club Scrap Black
Paint: Folk Art Metallic
Ribbon: Papertrey Ink Aqua Mist
Other: Glitter, Beadazzles, Acetate, Cuttlebug Embossing plate, Fiskars Threading Water Punch

And here's a few others I've done, for both of these I removed the paper from a metal rimmed tag to create the frame for the shaker.  Stamps are by Cherry Pie Art Stamps

and then you remember this Hybrid one I showed you the other day:

In case you missed it, I put up a video tutorial showing how to make this one! Check it out right here:

You can grab the free download that goes with it right here.

Hybrid Layout & Tutorial

I'd been itching to do more hybrid pages and since I had the day to myself today, I finally got to play!

I started out with this sketch I created for the SBG Impressions of Motherhood collab.

I picked my pictures and clipped them in the template just like if I was doing a digi layout.

Then I dragged all of my clipped and sized photos into a new black document and printed that out.

Now I also wanted to have some swirlies and since I have a fancy Wishblade machine, I decided to convert some of Holly McCaig's brushes to a GSD file to use on my layout

I put it all together with some goodies from the April It Kit Studio kit.

Which includes papers designed by digi gals Holly McCaig (for Pink Paislee) and Corina Nielsen (for Prima)

And came up with this:

Another Video Tutorial!!!

Wow, I'm so excited about the response to my first video tutorial, so I decided to do another one! This one is much longer and includes some advanced and novice techniques.  I explore more options of the transform controls, lots of cool keyboard shortcuts, and a great introduction to using layer masks (even in PSE!) to tuck elements into a page.  All of this, while showing my newest in the torn line as well as lots of inspiration from my Creative Team!

http://www.scrapbookgraphics.com/xcart/product.php?productid=18503

http://www.scrapbookgraphics.com/xcart/product.php?productid=18503

The survey was pretty decisive on most points but there was still a good amount of people that couldn't see the whole video in 1024x768, but those of you who could, didn't want them any smaller, so I decided to publish this in both sizes!

Watch the 1024x768 Sized Video

Watch the 800x600 Sized Video

As always I would LOVE LOVE LOVE any feedback you have to offer me!

Tutorial: Creating an Action to Save your digital pages

We were talking about Photoshop shortcuts over at ScrapArtist and Happy Robyn suggested I post a tutorial so here we go....

Now, I did this tutorial in Photoshop CS2 so keep that in mind if your version is different.  I don't think you can record actions in PSE.

Background:  When I save my digital layouts, I save 3 versions of them.

1. The unflattened PSD in case I want to make modifications later.
2. A Full-resolution JPEG - ready for printing
3. a 500x500, 72 ppi version for posting on the web.

I store them in 3 folders inside one "Digital Scrapbook Pages" folder (which lives in my Scrapbook Folder which lives in a Crafts folder):

   

You should set up three folders like this now if you want to follow my system.  Otherwise, pick a system that works for you!

Ok, now let's create the action - in Photoshop open your unflattened PSD file so we can record the action. You need to have your actions palette visible.  It's usually down by History but if you don't see it, you'll need to open it up (I closed Photoshop already for the night but I think it's under Window.)  Here is the actions Palette, click that triangle where my mouse is.

Click on "New Action" (it's way up at the top)

Name your action, assign it a category, and an assoicated key if you want (if you assign it F3 and shift, everytime you hit shift-F3 the action will run)

Ok, now whatever you do from now until we say stop will be recorded, here is what I do at this point:

1. Save the PSD to my PSD folder
2. Flatten the image.
3. Save it as a JPEG in my high res folder
4. Resize the image to 72 ppi, 500 pixels in width, constrain proportions
5. Save it to my web folder.

Now that I'm done recording my action, all that's left to do is hit stop!

Now my action is saved.  In my action palette this is what I have:

Everytime I complete a digital layout, all I have to do is hit Shift-F3 and the 3 versions of my layout are automatically created and stored in the right spot!

Have fun!  Feel free to leave a comment or email me if you have any questions!