by Audrey Neal

Has Audrey successfully piqued your interest in creating digital paper? If that is the case, then don’t miss her detailed instructions on the techniques used on all four layouts in The Best of Both Worlds.

in other words

• Using brushes is as easy as using stamps with traditional supplies. The concept is basically the same, and this technique can be used with either a photo editing program like Photoshop, or with a word-processing program such as Microsoft Word
• If you are using Photoshop, open a new letter-sized file with a transparent background at 300 dpi. Open the .png file and simply drag it onto your page. To recolour it (most brush files are black by default), select your foreground colour with your eyedropper tool, then select Layer>New Fill Layer>Solid colour. Click OK twice. Then “clip” this layer to your brush by selecting Ctrl+G, then Ctrl+E
• In Microsoft Word, open a new document. Select Insert>Picture> From File and open the .png version of the brush file. If you opt to resize the image, make sure to hold the shift button down as you resize it so that you can maintain the proper proportions. Use the colour tools on your drawing menu to add colour to the image

 

 

like you

• Adding text to background paper is really simple. Just open your word processing program and type out your text.  I usually just type a couple of lines and then copy and paste the rest. If you want to use dingbats, just highlight your text and change the font to a dingbat font. This technique works with multiple fonts as well. Don’t forget to experiment with multiple colours and sizes as well.

 

 

 

miz fancy pants

• Printing on patterned paper is another easy technique. Since you want the paper pattern to show through, you’re going to make some simple adjustments to your photograph. Again, this is a technique that will work with any kind of program.
• For Photoshop, open a letter-sized document, white background, 300 dpi. Open your photo and size it to your background. In the layers palette (on the right side of the screen), change the opacity of the layer to approximately 75%. Print onto patterned paper.
• For word-processing programs, open your document. Use Insert>Picture>From File. Double click on the picture. Select the Picture tab and then change the colour to Washout. Adjust the brightness slider to 50% and then click OK. If this doesn’t reduce the opacity enough for your tastes, then simply double-click the photo again and readjust the settings to your liking.

 

 

 

Hopscotch Fun

Holly uses Picture it! She began by filling in the background colours. Then she used the square shape within the program to create a somewhat haphazard hopscotch board. She used different colours for the squares' edges to compliment the colour scheme. Then she selected the arrow shape and chose the "insert gradient colour" option. She resized the arrow so it could be seen behind the pictures once they were placed.