Let's share some scrappy tips!

bcgal00

bcgal00

Active member
One thing I've learned over the years of scrapping is that no one knows everything, we all think differently, approach things in a different way, there are various ways to create a layout and use our digi supplies.

Can you share one tip here? Anything scrap related. Maybe we'll all learn something new.
 
I'll go first.

I look at an element in it's entirety and then look at it in its bits and pieces. For instance, I can look at a flower element and then on closer inspection will see how part of it might be extracted to use by itself (or alternatively, bits of it erased to use only part of it). I do this a lot. In photoshop, I often I use the lasso tool or magic wand or marquee tool to extract something, or will create a mask and use a brush to erase bits.
 
I will take flowers and change them to make them look different. For example, I will take a flower with six petals, duplicate it, rotate it and give it a little shadow, then merge it to make a 12 petal flower. I will also add a different flower in the middle, sometimes, to change the center.

I like blended papers, rather than solid papers, so I often blend two papers using masks or overlays.

I might also add a mode or a filter to an element to give it a different look.

With butterflies, I might cut the wing off one side and flip it to the other side, slightly offset so it creates a perched butterfly rather than a flying one.

I sometimes create a cluster that I can reuse and save it in the kit folder. I love clusters.

When I change or create an element, I generally save it as a separate element so I can reuse them.
 
Lynnie - love your tip of cutting off a butterfly wing to create a perched butterfly! Genius idea!
 
I will go have a look through my pages and try to find a tip I might share...my scrapping is spontaneous with no rhyme or reason or method or organisation........I'll be ba-ack...……………...
 
Jill said:
I will go have a look through my pages and try to find a tip I might share...my scrapping is spontaneous with no rhyme or reason or method or organisation........I'll be ba-ack...……………...
Click to expand...

Well here I am ba-ack but sadly I could not find a single tip to share. The only thing that might be of interest is using the blend If function in photoshop...I use it to make text settle into the bg more naturally and I used it on this page to blend the title into the ripples and the grunge photo border into the striped paper.

The-Ripple-Effect_webjmb.jpg


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A-M said:
Roxana... do you mean you fill the top layer with white before saving it as a PSD ?
Click to expand...

That's right, add a white top layer, and if you save the psds until it's printed as I do, what's lots of psd files LOL, it will sum up and save some precious space.
 
Jill said:
Well here I am ba-ack but sadly I could not find a single tip to share. The only thing that might be of interest is using the blend If function in photoshop...I use it to make text settle into the bg more naturally and I used it on this page to blend the title into the ripples and the grunge photo border into the striped paper.
Click to expand...

Jill, where do you find that function? I didn't know it even existed! Love the way it looks! I always have a hard time doing blendings.
 
I had to look up Roxana’s tip because I needed to understand how that could possibly be! It turns out that photoshop builds a preview that takes up loads of space. If the preview is a white layer, then it takes up way less space. There are a few other ways, like hiding all the layers, etc, but Roxanne’s Is my favourite. Great tip!! Here is more info in it https://creativemarket.com/blog/the-best-tricks-to-reduce-photoshop-file-size
 
Roxana - that is so interesting about the white fill layer reducing the size of a PSD. Never knew that. Thx for sharing that.

Jill - I use the "Add Layer Style" (FX icon at bottom of layers pallette on the bottom right of PS) a lot too (then select "blending options to get to "blend if". It's a great way to blend text into the background and it is my favorite way to blend backbround papers. Between using "blend if" and blending modes, I play around with background papers a lot.
 
roxana said:
That's right, add a white top layer, and if you save the psds until it's printed as I do, what's lots of psd files LOL, it will sum up and save some precious space.
Click to expand...

Thank you Roxana.

I also now only scrap in 8 x 8 as the pages I will be getting printed or print myself are 8 x8. It is easy to change a template when you open it, to 8 x 8. This also makes the file a lot smaller but now I am going to add the white layer at the top as well.
 
I use photoshop CC Roxana and that function appears under the fx buttons, right at the top of the list and is called Blending Options. When you click on blending options you will find sliders at the bottom of the window. There are lots of tutorials, just Google Blend If to find them. Hope that helps.

Oops, I answered before reading the new posts. I see Rae has already answered the question. Thanks Rae x
 
bcgal00 said:
Roxana - that is so interesting about the white fill layer reducing the size of a PSD. Never knew that. Thx for sharing that.

Jill - I use the "Add Layer Style" (FX icon at bottom of layers pallette on the bottom right of PS) a lot too (then select "blending options to get to "blend if". It's a great way to blend text into the background and it is my favorite way to blend backbround papers. Between using "blend if" and blending modes, I play around with background papers a lot.
Click to expand...

Jill, Rae, that is SO interesting. I use modes a lot to get the same effect. The different modes (next to opacity at the top of layers) can create such interesting effects.

On this layout, I used different blend modes to make the doll layer look different: The image of Karen I used a keylight to remove all depth and shadow, but then the background was white. I used darken or multiply (I forget which) to make the white disappear.
20130000-Boho-Girl-20190927.jpg
 
Oh - Oh, I thought of another great tip! When you have a dark photograph that you need to brighten, but you don't want to lose any detail, you can duplicate it, then used the "Screen" mode on the top layer to brighten it. You can then use the opacity on that top layer to reduce the opacity until you get it to be perfectly as bright as you like. This is one of my favourite tips of all time - taught by a very famous scrapbooker - Mars!
 
Lynnie - I do something similar, I often duplicate the layer, change the blend mode i.e. screen, create a mask and brush it where I want it to go.
 
roxana said:
Rae and Jill, thank you! So many years digiscrapping and had no idea about blend if LOL
Click to expand...

Roxana....and everyone else too....

That is why these kind of forum threads are so great b/c we all have different bits and pieces of info and ideas and can teach each other new things or different ways of doing things. I hope everyone keeps adding to this!
 
I just noticed a new addition to your avi stats, Rae...Gingerbread Girl...congrats!
 
I have one to Defog/sharpen photos..I think this one was told to me by PQ Fran, a very good digi friend of Lynnie and myself from our previous home.

Filters-Sharpen-Unsharp mask
Set values to
Amount 20
Radius 60
Threshold 0

Go to Edit/Fade Unsharp Mask and adjust slider to your liking
 
My favorite shortcut key is "Control + Z" to undo and my other fave is the shortcut key "V" to select the move tool.
 
Very cool tips, I’ll have to see how some of them apply in Affinity Photo. I love the background ripples effect using blend if and that boho page. I need to learn how to brighten without losing detail too.

My tip is, don’t be afraid to try something new. Break out of your normal and try something new.

I only scrap on my ipad, have never used photoshop, but find you tube videos can teach me almost anything.
 
Just stumbled upon this thread and found a few great tips. Would love to know more as I am diving back into scrapping, using PS after years ago using PSP
 
One of the best tips I heard when I first started digi scrapping was setting up a way to organize your digital stash. Ha! For me, I name the folder of each product with the designer, name of the product, and then I add GS for Gingerscraps at the end. I've also learned to not grab every single freebie, but only take what I know I will use.

The tip I had to learn the hard way is to have multiple backups. That way, if one external hard drive crashes, you still have your photos and digi scrap stash saved someplace else.
 
Ooooh great thread!

Breoni's tip reminded me of something I WISH I'd done from the beginning- have a consistent file naming system for your LO's. I didn't figure this out until I'd been scrapping for years and I STILL have mixed up filenames on earlier LO's.

My structure is date-based, but you can go by subject or whatever works for your brain. So my layouts are always named
Year-Month-Day LayoutTitle

and if it's a trip, or a day where I know I'm going to scrap many pages I'll call it
Year-Month-Day-Time LayoutTitle (time is military time)

That way they all sort properly :)
 
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