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Community > Articles & Projects > Thena's Article
Thena's Article
Thena Smith
Thena Smith
Getting Started with Digital
There are so many people doing digital work now, layouts, crafts, and cards, etc. At the moment, there is such an abundance of articles, software and websites to help people get started that sometimes it is overwhelming. That is one reason that I like to keep things simple here. A person new to the delights of digital can jump in and create and those who are old-timers and very PC savvy can perhaps find an idea they can use.
For some people creating the first digital page is simpler than knowing what to do with it after you create it. I like to print mine on Photo paper and put them in my (fake) leather 3 ring albums with top loading page protectors. If I create 8.5 x 11 pages, there is no problem but with 12 x 12 pages, I must use the bigger albums for full size or reduce the pages to 8 x 8 for gift albums. The 12 x 12 size gives me a lot of leeway when I create because there are so many cute albums available and usable just by the selection of print size. The square size translates well with these albums.
I also like to print poster size photos for the wall. We can frame these frugally with Costco, garage sale or flea market frames. There are also12 x 12 frames for sale at most scrapbooking stores awaiting your masterpieces.
One of the huge advantages for digital scrappers is the ability to make copies to CD or DVD and store them in various places in case of computer crash, fire, or flood. Having them stored online somewhere, in your blog, a photo site, or a storage space of some sort can be a good idea. You need a place where you can store them at high resolution so that you can print them out at the sizes you want in case you lose your files.
I also suggest printing out a hard copy of your favorite digital photos just to be safe. Even if you don’t scrapbook them, put them in one of the acid free photo containers and if worse comes to worse with your PC…..you can always scan the photo. I don’t suggest you need to do this with every photo, but some are just too precious to risk losing!
From the feedback I receive, it seems that the hardest pages for creating and finding the right image art is for the teen or preteen boy. I have asked my friend to share some photos of her handsome son, Derek.
Let’s jump into creating now with my photos.
Project 1: The Assignment
To create this page I:
  1. Added the photos to the background and then used the skew function in Digital Image Pro (DIP).
  2. Used the distort effect to make photos wavy.
Here is my project: Take this fun mixture of photos and create pages from them.
The advantage of working with photos of like theme but different ages is tying them together. This is fun because Derek has always loved to play baseball.
Finding the theme and building on it, I created:
Project1a
Project 2: The Beginning of the Dream
Tie the photos together by a title, interest or thought. The simple approach is to place the photo on a simple mat and use a baseball kid from Amy Dot’s Color Me Kids to enhance it.
  1. Create new page and add shape.
  2. Fill shape with color.
  3. Add photo and then add image from Color Me Kids.
  4. Add title. (How simple is that!?)
Project1a
Project 3: Derek's Dream
Tie the photos together with theme and color.
  1. Create new page.
  2. Add shape and fill with the background color of the main photo.
  3. I used the cut out shape, copied and pasted on to my background page.
  4. Add photos and add border using, edges, border, thin lines.
  5. I added the baseball from Play Ball and used the transparency tool to blend it into the background.
Project1a
Project 4: Play Ball
  1. Create new page in DIP. Add shape and fill with color.
  2. Add photo and then add border to photo.
  3. Add image from Play Ball.
  4. I used effects, burlap for the background texture.
  5. I used a plug in effect from the web to bevel the title and the ball and bat.
Project1a
Project 5: Creating an Embellishment from Photo
  1. Trace around figure with transparency brush.
  2. Apply effect …chrome.
Project1a
Project1a
Project 6: The Pain of the Dream
Creating a page using the embellishment
  1. Create new page and fill background with texture of your choice. (Fill page with color, then effects, custom effects)
  2. Add photos and shadows.
  3. Add embellishment created from photo and add shadow.
  4. Add journaling and title.
Project1a
Project 7: Derek at the Bat
  1. Create page and add color.
  2. Add photo cutout was taken from and make it transparent
  3. Add cutout and ball.
  4. Use gradual transparency function on ball for effect.
  5. Now add poem or journaling.
Project1a
*Other baseball images can be found in Busy Busy Bears, Busy Busy Bears V2, Play Ball, Bits and Pieces.
Thanks to my friend Derek and his mom for allowing me the use of these fun photos.
Your assignments should you choose to accept them:
  1. Hug someone
  2. Pamper your pets.
  3. Pamper your friends.
  4. Call someone to say hello.
  5. Buy flowers at the market and place them on a friend’s front steps as a surprise.
  6. Take lots of photos.
  7. Back up your pc.
  8. Hug someone!
  9. Meet me back here next month!
Hugs,
Thena
Golden Ladybug
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