::ANNA::

3 FotoBlendz Clipping Mask Techniques

Digital Supplies | Artsy Layered Template No. 31, ArtPlay Palette Scholarly (stained paper), Family WordTransers No. 1, FabricTextures No. 1, Family WordART No. 1, Abstract FotoBlendz No. 6

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What are FotoBlendz?

FotoBlendz are clipping masks enabling the artsy blending of photos into layouts by using the clipping mask function in Photoshop, Elements and Paint Shop Pro.

The basic technique for using clipping masks is as follows:

• Open the clipping mask and image of choice into your workspace.
• Drag both files onto your layout using the Move tool from the Tools palette.
• Move the image on top of the clipping mask and ensure the same order of layers in the Layers palette.  Note that the photo layer must reside above the clipping mask layer.
• Press CTRL + ALT + G (Photoshop) or CTRL +G to clip the photo layer to the clipping mask layer which will force the image to conform to the shape of the mask.

I used the Abstract FotoBlendz No. 6 clipping masks to perform 3 other techniques using clipping masks on a layout created with Artsy Layered Template No. 31.

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Technique 1 | Create a Border/Matte

Place a FotoBlendz clipping mask behind a focal image or prominant area of a layout, essentially framing that particular element which causes the eye to be drawn to it.

I created my page using my new Artsy Layered Template No. 31 making just a few minor adjustments.

A comparison of the page with and without clipping masks used as borders/mats:

Before

After

The clipping masks were positioned in a bold color behind a photo and the title to create emphasis and provide constrast.

I personally like to create brushes from the FotoBlendz masks when working with them for purposes other than standard clipping.

• Open the FotoBlendz clipping mask
• Ensure the mask has a width or height no larger than 8 inches.  Resize if necessary.  Go to  Image > Resize Image
• Go to Edit > Define Brush
• Select the Paintbrush tool from the Tools palette and select the newly defined brush
• Create a New Layer and stamp your brush in the color and size of your choice

Alternatively, you can open a FotoBlendz file into your workspace, drag the mask onto your layout and position according to preference using the Move tool from the Tools Palette.

Adryane used the same technique with a more subtle color to produce a similar effect. This technique is a great way to ground an element on a page and provide a solid area of color to a patterned background.

[supply list]

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Technique 2 | Create Texture

Use the same brush to stamp on a new layer and apply a blending mode to that layer.  You can experiment with both the color of the stamped FotoBlendz and the different blending modes.

• Create a New Layer
• Stamp FotoBlendz onto the new layer in the color of your choice.  I often select a mid or light grey. 
• Click on *Normal* at the top of the Layers palette and make a selection from the drop-down menu. I often use Soft Light, Overlay, Screen or Multiply.  Scroll through them with your up/down arrow buttons on your keyboard to test-drive them all, then select the best fit.

I like to apply texture on areas of solid color, such as the the solid black area in my photo, to create interest.

Kerry applied blending modes to her conventionally clipped images in the following layout.  She clipped the same photo to 2 different masks and applied 2 different blending modes.

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Technique 3 | Create a Journaling Block

Use a FotoBlendz mask to provide solid color and separation for a title or to house your journaling.

• Open a FotoBlendz file into your workspace
• Drag the mask onto your layout and position according to preference using the Move tool from the Tools Palette
• Recolor the mask using the coloring technique of your preference

If you're like me, you might not always leave enough room for your journaling and so this little technique comes in really handy, and often.  Notice how the white masks provide the perfect primer for both my journaling and my title.

Donna has performed her own rendition of this technique by using masks in different colors.

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Three different techniques with an infinite number of outcomes.  Please post your layouts in the AnnaGallery.  I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

Abstract FotoBlendz No. 6 and Artsy Layered Template No. 31 are currently on sale for a limited time here.

Download my free Instructions for Use eBook for more information on using my digital products.

Check out the NEW AnnaLift Challenge for this week. 

Selecting Colors for a Layout

I contributed to a blog post at The Daily Digi this week, about how I go about selecting colors for a layout. You can read the full post here.

The Daily Digi has a great membership program where you can enjoy $50 worth of digital scrapbook supplies and a 30-50 page interactive ebook, automatically each month for ONLY $7.50 a month, with additional exclusive collaborations every four months you are a member.  You can find out more about the program here.

Photo Inventory

Dated | June 2005

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Today is the first day of June, which means we're not quite half way through the year, but almost.

It's that time of year when I like to take what I call a photo inventory.  The children are not quite out of school and I'm in that let's make sure I'm organized before all chaos breaks loose mode.  It's a great opportunity to look at the photos I have so far this year, reassess and examine my scrapbooking goals, and implement any necessary changes.  

Much better to do this now than wait until December when the year has passed by and you're thinking about the year ahead.

I generally go through all my photos one month at a time and I look through all my subfolders.

As I go through this process, I my asking myself the following questions:

• Do the photos represent us and our life?
• Is there a good mix of event and every day photos?
• Are there any gaps that need to be filled?

I make note of these answers so that I can be more mindful about the photos I'm taking.  These days I'm all about quality over quantity, where quality represents how expressive a photo is as opposed to it's technical merit.  

Technical photos are always a nice to have but not a must for me.  

The answers help me move forward into the second half of the year with renewed intent on exactly what aspects of our lives that I want to capture in in my pages.

The other part of this process is to assess how many photos haven't made their way onto pages and consider which ones need to be.

How do I decide?

I have adopted the same mantra as Kristen Rutten, and ask myself with each set of  photos:

Why do I care?

Kristen and I were on the Paperclipping Digi Show in February and I was was really inspired by what she had to say about her approach to memory keeping.  As I anticipated back in February, her words have had a huge impact on the criteria I use for selecting the photos I will scrap and those I won't.

Long gone are the days when I would feel the need to showcase every photo and therefore feel terribly behind in documenting our lives.  Nowadays, if a photo is not meaningful to me in some way then I'm happy for it to just virtually exist on my hard drive.  Only if the image, or the story behind that photo, has significance or importance to me, does it make it's way into my albums.

The process I use for keeping track of my *to do* pages is rudimentary, but it works.  I create a folder under each month with the name Layouts, and then create subfolders which house the photos and stories that have yet to be told for this year, a single starting point when I find a little time for scrapbooking over the next few months.

Forgotten Unfinished Layouts

Digital Supplies:  ArtPlay Palette Celebrate

I came across this layout yesterday morning.  It was unfinished when I found it and so I promptly finished it.  

As a general rule, I only have one scrapbook layout or project in the works at any given time.  I finish one before I start another.  This system helps me avoid a huge folder of unfinished pages and is a practice that works for me most of the the time. Once in a while, one will slip by, but it's easily detected because it's one of very few, if not the only one.

I have a WIP (Work In Progress) folder to keep track of ideas for pages that I want/intend to create.

How to you handle forgotton or unfinished pages?

Renaming For Print

I'm crossing a few items off my to-do list this morning, which includes finishing my ready for print preparations, in light of the big Persnickety Print NSD sale this weekend.

I was reminded in the comments section of this post that Persnickety Prints stores layouts alphabetically instead of chronologically.  In the past, this has resulted in a few duplicate prints, and so I've come up with a strategy that will overcome this small glitch.

I'm tweaking my ready for print process by adding a file renaming step which I want to share with you.

I store my layouts chronologically and this time I have layouts to print from both 2010 and from 2011.  I created a To Print folder in my 2011 folder and created sub-folders for all the years need to be printed.  

1.  Create similar folder in a location that works for you.  If you print according to theme or person you can create your sub-folders as such.

2. Begin transferring full resolution .jpg files to the To Print folder and begin renaming process.  I used the following formula to ensure my layout remain in chronological order.

Letter + Year + Month_Letter (single pages) or Letter + Letter (double pages)

e.g.  A + 2011 + Jan_A (single pages)

or A + 2011 + Jan_AA andA + 2011 + Jan_AB (double pages)

3. Copy and paste the renamed files to the appropriate sub-folder and repeat the steps aboves with the remaining month, theme or person folders.  For example, once I have done January, I move on to February and so forth, until I have all the renamed layouts in the designated folder.  

They should all now appear chronologically because they have been renamed alphabetically.

4.  The situation may arise where you have more than 26 layouts for a particular month, theme or group and therefore you will have requirement for more letters than are in existence in the alphabet.  This was the case in December 2010 and so I modified the formula as follows:

Letter + Year + Month_Letter+Letter (single pages) or Letter + Number  (double pages)  

e.g.   J + 2010 + Dec _ ZA (single page)

or J + 2010 + Dec _ ZA1 and J + 2010 + Dec _ ZA2 (double pages) 

You will also notice that I have a gone on to include a misc category using the same formula for miscellaneous layouts for which I did not see the benefit of creating a new subfolder.  These layouts are labeled K2010Misc_A and K2010Misc_B (not shown).

I hope this helps.

Ready to Print

I'm spending some time this week getting layouts ready for print.  

National Scrapbooking Day is this Saturday and my go-to place for single prints, Persnickety Prints, is having their biggest sale of the year this weekend.

I generally don't print very often because the task is so much less interesting to me than creating new pages, but I also love having my pages in albums.  It's one of those tasks that just has to be done every 6 months or so, and so I have a few strategies in place to make the process as painless as possible:

• Create layouts at 300DPI in the largest printable size.  Layouts can easily be resized from to 12 X 12 to 8 X 8 inches, but it's not as easy to reverse this process without loss of resolution.
• Always spell check journaling.  If you do not have a spell checker in your digital scrapbooking program, copy the text to a word processing program, and perform a spell check before you paste the text back in your layout.
• Check that there are no important details within 1/4 inch from the edge of my page.  You do not want to have journaling or dates for example cropped from your layout during the printing process.
• Save a layout in 3 formats: Layered .PSD file, should you need to make changes after original creation; Full-size .jpg for printing, and a 72DPI low-res .jpg for emailing and uploading on-line.
• Organize in a fashion that works for you.  This could by chronologically, by theme or using your preferred organization software program.  You might think about storing them exactly how you envisage them to be displayed in your album.  For me this is often according to the months throughout a calendar year.
• Store these files on at least two different hard-drives or upload to to an online storage facility to prevent accidental loss.  Backing-up your work is so important.
• Find a way of keeping track of the layouts you've printed to prevent re-printing.  I tend to delete my full resolution .jpgs after I have printed to reduce my storage requirements for each layout and to prevent printing the same layout twice.   If I need a deleted file in the future, I can easily recreate it from the .PSD.

If you can cross these do-tos off your list as you create your pages, then it's just a matter of locating and uploading them.  

What's your process for printing layouts?

Technique: Elements + Blending Modes

Digital Supplies:  Easy Torn Edges No. 2, Sketchy LoopDaLoop ArtStrokes No. 1, ArtsyBlendz Origins Paperie, ArtsyBlendz Origins Elements, Magic Sparkles No. 7 BrushSet, DifferentStrokes No. 1 BrushSet

One of my favorite techniques lately is to take a dimensional element such as a flower or a clock, and instead of applying a traditional drop shadow, I incorporate it into my background paper using blending/blend modes.

Blending modes are located in the Layers palette in both Photoshop and Elements, and are denoted by the word *Normal*.  Double click on this word to activate the fly-out menu and select any of the blending modes to apply it to the layer selected in the Layers palette.

Experimentation is key when using blending modes.  The more you use them the more you'll learn about them.  I like particular find myself using Multiply, Color Burn, Soft Light and Overlay most often.

Try this technique in your next layout.

Want Inspiration?

Inspiration can be found everywhere and you never know when it will strike.

I was taking my Oxygen magazine out of it's plastic mailer this afternoon and a whole load of those *subscribe cards* fell from within the pages.  It irritated me.  In fact, every time I pick up a new magazine, it's a snowfall of paper, and it annoys me every time.  There are a number of things I don't like, so why not turn this moment of negativity into something more positive?  Why not create an All About Me page documenting all the things that I'm not all that thrilled about?

I grabbed a paper and pen from my desk and spent just a few minutes jotting down all the things, I could think of, that are far from being on my favorites list.  I found that the process was remarkably therapeutic and, again to my surprise, my irritation completely dissipated.

This piece of paper will sit on my desk for a while.   I'll continue to add to the list if and when I think of more.  There is no pressure to this process.  There can't be.  Stress totally quashes the feeling of being inspired. You kind of just have to go with the flow, and then when you have a little free time, it's a matter of pairing the list with a suitable photo and some CoolART.  Life for me is beyond hectic this week between medical/orthodontist appointments, sports and 2 days off school, I'm pretty happy at this point just to be jotting some thoughts down.  

Documenting something is better than nothing at all.

You may also be interested in the following related post: Pomegranates and Memories.

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Today is the March 1st, which means a new topic of conversation at Masterful Scrapbook Design.

Inspiration happens to be the theme for the month.  I am one of the guest teachers again and will be sharing more of my process for finding and applying inspiration to scrapbook pages.

It's not too late to join in.  You can learn more here.

Why + How: MonthDividers 2011

This year will be the third year that I have divided my annual albums into chapters using, what I call:

MonthDividers.  

These pages are a set of 12 cohesive layouts that introduce and separate the layouts I create for each month of the year, much like the chapters of the book.  

Last year I created the first collection of MonthDivider Layered Templates:

Here are some of the MonthDivider pages I created using this collection.

I have created a new set of MonthDivider Layered Templates with a different design for year 2011, which were released into the store last week.

I'm aiming to stay on top of this project a bit better this year, hence the much earlier release of this collection.  Last year it was more of an after-thought and I ended up having to create all my pages at once at the end of the year.

• Breaking up the task makes it less monotonous and more manageable, and therefore more enjoyable.
• I'm also expecting that I'll remember more meaningful details about each month if I create these pages as soon as I have lived through them.

What I love most about this concept is the overall *neatness* of the system, with the added bonus that the pressure is off for adding a date to each and every layout.  I prefer to have a date on all my layouts but sometimes I forget to add them, and with this system, it's no big deal.

January 2011 MonthDivider

Digital Supplies:  ArtPlay Palette Celebrate, MonthDivider Layered Templates No. 2; Transitions Paper Pack (recolored), Little Bit of Messy Love by Ali Edwards.

February 2011 MonthDivider

Digital Supplies: ArtsyBlendz Origins Paperie, MonthDivider Layered Templates No. 2; Transitions Paper Pack (recolored), Little Bit of Messy Life by Ali Edwards.

Much like the 365 Project I am pursuing this year:

I'm keeping it very simple.  

I love the creative process of transitioning back and forth from simple to artsy and then viewing those pages in contrast to one another.  It keeps me interested and prevent monotony setting in.

The Plan

• Select 4 random photos from each month.  So far these have been photos that didn't make the cut for Project 365 and didn't find their way onto any of my other layouts for that particular month.
• Convert one of those photos to black and white.  I love the contrast of color and black/white photos together.
• Clip Ali's new painted *Transitions* paper to the month number and the middle strip.  I will use different parts of this painted paper each month to keep it interesting, and change the color to co-ordinate with the prominent colors in my photos.
• Select papers from a different ArtPlay Palette, or similar, to co-ordinate and finish the layout.
• Add a drop shadow to the paper pieces and some stitching to create dimension.
• Optional:  Add additional wordART.  I'm still undecided if I will keep the handwritten words on these pages.  I will likely come to a decision on this as my pages progress.

Read more about my Layout Organization Process.

How do you organize your layouts?  I'm interested.

NewART + Paperclipping DigiShow

A peek at some of the new products coming to the store this weekend:

Co-ordinates with ArtsyBlendz Origins Paperie.

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I also joined the discussion about scrapbooking events on this weeks Paperclipping DigiShow.

The conversation is still resonating with me.

I am very inspired by Kristin Rutten's approach.  In deciding which photos to scrapbook and which stories to tell, she asks herself on each occasion:

Why do I care?

A question that is completely to the point and very blunt, much like me.  It has been on my mind since, and I think it has the power to change my scrapbooking completely.  Over the past few years, I have been edging away from feeling the need to scrapbook every photo and tell every story, but this question is the icing on the cake for me.  The last piece to complete the puzzle.  

Applying this question to my process definitely changes things...

Read more about Kristen at Log your Memory, and check out the podcast here.

Have a great weekend!