[Weekly Mojo Series] Tutorial: Cutout Text

Here in the South, we're finishing up our final vacations of the summer season and getting ready to head back to school. As you get your vacation prints ordered, here's another great idea to put panoramic or landscape photos to use in your home decor.

I really love the look of these canvas projects; Amy Lou offers an awesome tutorial for creating a text-based home decor project on her blog. However, you can also duplicate the look with digital papers and a photo-editing program like Photoshop Elements. Here's how to make it work in just a few easy steps:

Step 1: Open up a 12x12 canvas in your program. Resize a photo to 12x12 on this canvas and then place a painted digital paper on top of it (I used a paper from my Be You digital kit.)

Step 2: Choose a bulky font (I used Lemondrop) and type your message on a new layer. I used a quote from one of my favorite books -- it's one that always reminds me of the beautiful colors of fall.

Step 3: Use the Magic Wand Tool to select one of the letters in your text. Right click and select "similar." This will select the rest of the text.

Step 4:  With the text still selected, make sure your painted paper layer is the active layer. Choose "Delete" on your keyboard. This will delete the spaces underneath your alpha layer, creating a cutout text look. Follow up by deleting the entire text layer.

            

I finished up my project by adding a couple of extra pictures in dimensional photo frames, but you can just as easily order 12x12 prints of the plain image.

Make sure you check out our printing options in a variety of sizes. 

Until next week, keep the mojo flowin'!

Getting that "Sketch" Look in Photoshop

I have been seeing this new "sketch" technique around digi-land and tried to accomplish it myself.
No luck with my current Photoshop filters.

Then, I saw Kami's layout that we printed for her on our metallic photographic paper at the Scrapbook USA Expo:

Kami's layouts just amaze me!

This Sketch Technique is awesome, and there are so many ways to use it!

Here Kami takes a photo of a brick wall, creates a sketch, and extracts it onto her background paper:

Kami is the genius behind the store, ScrapOrchard, and is well known as designer Ziggle Scraps.

She assured me that she would be working up a tutorial on how she acheived this layout.
And that she did: Click here for Kami's Tutorial using the Plugin Akvis.

I just got around to playing with this plugin myself:

 

Super Easy-
Thanks Kami!

Creating a Digital Scrapbook Page with Google Picasa - Step 2

How much would the average scrap/memory book person spend on something like this 12x12 scrapbook page?

• 11 separate pictures (11 4x6 prints x .29¢) = $3.19
• 12x12 Cardstock= .50¢
• Elements, Glue, Background paper=  $1.00

You are looking at spending an average of $4.69 on a simple 12x12 scrapbook page with 10 or more photo's.

Am I close?

Should we figure in the time it would take to order all of these prints, cut them, glue them, etc, etc?

The above digital layout took 1 minute and 22 seconds! 

all in Picasa

This is step 2 of our series on how you can create a layout in Google's Picasa.

It is Free- It is Fast- It is Easy-

Best of all, it is ONLY $1.99 for a 12x12 super duper archival-

even waterproof- Persnickety Print on fuji crystal silver halide photo paper!

Do you have those friends that may want to "try digital" but don't want a huge learning curve- You really need to tell them that there is a way out of digital darkness! :) This could change their lives!

Step ONE Here
Step THREE Here

Here is a Picasa Collage I have printed at Persnickety Prints- notice how thin my "grid" is. 

For printing, the thicker your grid the better.

We work very hard to keep your borders and make them even. Our lab techs watch every single image and layout that is ordered.

I will bet $ that if you had an image with a thin border printed somewhere else, it would look just like this one on the bottom.

Step 2 Video Tutorial

Here is the video tutorial for creating a digital scrapbook page with Picasa- Step #2.
Forgive my voice.  You may also watch it on our You Tube Channel here: http://www.youtube.com/persnicketyprints

For those of you that would prefer a "written" tutorial, I am working with Sarah from Clover Lane to bring those to you!

 by Sarah at Clover Lane

• Using Digi Papers in Picasa
  
• Making a Photo Card with Picasa
• Caught up! 6 Years in 3 Weeks with Picasa
• Organizing Photo's

Visit our You Tube Channel for all Persnickety tutorials.

> Move onto Step 3

Scrappers' Workshop

New item on Bucket List: I hope to meet Stan and Jenn someday.

We are in Utah, they are in Tennessee.

The most difficult part of my job is explaining to people in a nice, calm, and unbiased way WHY they should be printing their cherished memories on professional PHOTO PAPER. Not the photo paper that you buy at Target or Walmart and insert into your inkjet printer. Real, true photographic, silver halide photo paper...

Stan did just that. Stan is my new hero.

Without our knowledge, Stan writes this beautiful blog post about this very thing, why it is so important to be educated about your prints. It's an exquisite piece.

Do you know what an electrostatic print is? Find out here... in all of its beauty.

P.S. Stan and Jenn have been in this business for longer than some of you have been alive (sorry guys). Not only do they know their stuff... they teach it too! Try one of their interactive classes at Scrappers' Workshop! You will love it.

-Chari