Tutorial #6 For CraftSassy
By Kristen Carter
Hi there! I'm Kristen and I'm very excited to be a new DT member for CraftSassy; I had a great time putting together this month's tutorial. We're gonna be working with digital kits for this one. (You know you've downloaded some just because it was free, and now you're thinking, "Hmmm... Ok, what do I do from here?") I'm going to show you how to alter a kit to fit your layout, by adding text to it. This can be done on any paper, but I'm going to use one that has stripes because it's easy & it adds another dimension to the paper once it's printed.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Altering Digital Kits Using Text
Step 1: Open your digital paper (Mine is from Jady Day Studios Bloomin' Friendship line available here) into your photo editing program (I'm using Photoshop Elements 6.0). Open a new file, sized 12X12 at 300 ppi (pixels per inch). The ppi is important when printing. You'll want to have a nice crisp image, and 300 ppi will give you that.
Step 2: Make a text box the size of the stripe on your paper. In PSE, click the text button, and using the text tool click and drag your cursor the size you want your box. Don't worry if it's not perfect, you can resize later if you need to.
Step 3: Choose your text color & size. You'll want to choose your font type as well, but all these options can be changed later if you're not satisfied with the final result. For now, I'm using a size 18 font, in a teal about 3 shades darker than my paper color. (TIP: When using PSE, take advantage of that eye dropper tool. Use it to locate a color you like, then feel free to adjust your shade by sliding the bar on the right up or down accordingly. This way, you'll get the correct temperature & color, but change your shade to fit your design)
Step 4: Start typing. I'm repeating the word "FRIENDS". I actually only typed the word about 5 times before I just started highlighting text & using copy (CTRL + C) and paste (CTRL + V). Once I've copied it enough times to fill up the box, I go back through and add extra spaces here & there to create a more random look to the words, so my top text row is not directly lined up with my bottom text row.
***Now is a good time to play with font types, sizes & colors. Maybe yours is too formal, try adding an italic or switching to a sans serif to add a more modern feel. Just play until you like the look. I have over 500 fonts loaded in my computer. (TIP: For some awesome free fonts check out http://www.kevinandamanda.com/ or http://www.1001freefonts.com/ .) ***
Step 6: Once you are satisfied with the look of this stripe, it's time to do the rest! And no, you do not have to repeat steps 1-5. Here's the easy way to do it. Click on your bin (right hand side of the screen) and simply duplicate your layer. Once you've duplicated, move your text into place on the next stripe. You can repeat this for as many stripes as you have. Or, if your text is going to be evenly spaced, like mine. Simply select your new layer & your first layer, and again duplicate. This will create 2 new layers directly on top of your previous ones. Move to the correct positions, and repeat as necessary. You may be finished here and this is what your paper would look like:
Or you can go on... And do a little more!
Step 7: For my paper, I also wanted to add another word, "BUDDIES" to my pink stripes. So I simply repeated steps 1-6 on the pink stripes selecting my pink shade with my eyedropper tool but instead of going 2 shades darker, I chose a few shades lighter creating contrast on my paper between the text lines.
Step 8: Save your file as whatever you want to call it. I chose to call my Jady Day Studios Text Edit. So that way I can still save it in my digi files, but know that it has been changed from the original design. Log in to your account at CraftSassy and simply upload your file. I chose to make mine double sided with one of the solids in the line, as I tend to cut up my paper, but of course that is all up to you!
For another tutorial (just a warning, it's a little more advanced) on altering digital papers and a giveaway, log on to my blog at http://scrapnerdiness.blogspot.com/. Thanks for following us and can't wait to see what creations you make with CraftSassy!!
Finished Layout using the above tutorial
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3 comments:
This is super cute! What a great idea!
What a wonderful tutorial! Love the paper!!!
I can't believe I've never tried this before! I love it!!! Now.. trying to find the time to put it to the test... that's the difficult part. :)
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