Hi ya!! Zakirah here with Photography Phriday. This week we’re going to learn 4 different techniques to lighten up those dark, underexposed photos that we have using Photoshop. Yes, Photoshop magic to the rescue!

For this tutorial, I’ll be using this cute picture of my niece, Ika:

1. Our first technique is to use Curves. You can find it at Image>Adjustment> Curves. (Note: I’ve searched through PSE if it has this command, but Curves is not available in PSE, so this command can only be used by PS users).

Play around with the settings until you get the result that you like. Here’s an example:

And the picture will look like this:

Much brighter than the original, isn’t it? If you want to make the picture much, much brighter, pull the curve higher until you get what you like.

2. The second technique is to play with Levels. You can access the menu thru Image>Adjustment>Levels. (Note: PSE users can access this menu through Enhance>Adjust Lighting>Levels).

You have much more control using Levels. If you pull one of the sliders to the right, it’ll make the picture darker, and if you pull one of the sliders to the left, it’ll make the picture brighter. The slider on the left is for darkness, the middle one is for medium, and the right slider is for brightness. Here’s an example of the settings I did:

And the result:

You can make it lighter by pulling the right slider more to the left.

3.  The third technique is to use the Brightness/Contrast menu. Access it thru Image>Adjustment>Brightness/Contrast. (Note: PSE users can access this through Enhance>Adjust Lighting>Brightness/Contrast).

This one is the easiest but we have less control over the result. Here’s an example of the settings I did:

And the result on the picture:

4. The last technique is very versatile. You can choose which part of the picture you want to brighten up and which part to keep dark. We’re gonna use the Dodge tool for this technique. I highlighted the tool with red in the picture below:

For PSE users, the dodge tool is highlighted below in blue (Note: In your PSE, you might see a Sponge tool symbol there. Just click on the symbol and drag your mouse a little to the right to bring down a drop down menu, then when you see the Dodge tool symbol, select it):

Grab a soft circle brush. Use ‘Highlight’ for Range and try ’20%’ for the Exposure.

Now brush around the area that you want to brighten up. For this picture, I brushed the face and neck area. Brush until you get a satisfying result. Here’s mine:

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Isn’t it cool? There’s 4 techniques to choose, and you can even mix and match! For example, you can first brighten up your picture using the Curves menu, and then go to Brightness/Contrast and increased the contrast, and if you see any parts of the picture that needs a little extra brightness, you can use the Dodge tool on that area.

I hope you find this tutorial helpful! If you need any help or have problems with the steps or anything, don’t hesitate to send me a PM at ScrapMatters and I’ll do my best to help you!

Have fun playing with your pictures!

Hello everyone, it’s Sya here, with another post for Words for Wednesday. Hopefully it will be as inspiring to you as it is to me while I was getting ready to write it up.

Anyway, if you are like me, you would find it very hard to come up with titles for your pages. Sometimes, it was so bad that I had to take a break from creating layouts. After all, how many layouts do I have to do to say that my niece and nephew are so uber cute, that I love them so much and I would treasure them for always? That was when I couldn’t help realizing that every pages of mine seem so similar in terms of the titlework and it was really bugging me.

I really thought hard about this and here’s my Top 5 list of things to get inspired by to give your page that little bit of oomph and edge it needed.

1. Books
I am totally a booklover. Whenever I’m not scrapping, I would reach out for some kind of book to read. It’s a nice hobby where I just get to curl up and immerse myself in somebody’s invented world. You can go to the nearest bookstore and browse for titles or just go to any online bookstores.

Here are some title inspiration:
- A Charmed Place: perfect for scrapping those favourite places.
- Laws of Attraction: what attracted you to your other half?
- As I Was Passing: what lessons had you learnt in life… so far?

2. Music
Songs are great inspiration in my life. I listen to songs all the time and I just couldn’t live without it.
Go through your playlist or look up the current music chart and look at the song titles. Granted some of the songs have nothing to do with what you have in mind for the LOs, but take a closer look and you might have a winner in your hand.

Here are some title inspiration:
- Stop & Stare: perfect for those LOs that shows your child being relaxed and staring at something
- With You: declare your love for your other half.
- Here I Stand: perfect for voicing your opinion or your milestones.

3. Quotes
There are countless times when I was stuck with ideas for titles, I would turn to my collection of quotes, collected from all over the web.

Here are some of my favourite quotes:
- “The most precious love occurs without choice, and when you least expect it.” ~Author Unknown
- “Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war, love is a growing up.” ~Author Unknown
- A friend is one of the nicest things you can have, and one of the best things you can be. ~Douglas Pagels
- We know we’re getting old when the only thing we want for our birthday is not to be reminded of it. ~Author Unknown

4. TV Shows
Can you imagine a wordplay on Desperate Housewives and turn it into Desperate Scrapwives instead? I remembered seeing a layout using that title and literally laughed out loud.

Here are some other inspirations:
- Crime Scene Investigation: perfect for when your child had done something wrong. It can be used to show a series of events.
- Survivor: used to show how you have survived life’s many obstacles.
- American Idol: change American to something else and the title is perfect for singing-related LOs.

5. Movies
Next time you go out for movies and rent out DVDs, browse the titles and get inspired by them. Don’t spend the watching time itching to get to the the computer though.

Here are some inspirations:
- Pirates of the Caribbean: Change the word ‘Caribbean’ to the place where you’re living and team it up with pirate photos.
- The Chronicles of Narnia: Change the word Narnia to your child’s name or your family name. Perfect for multi-photo LOs where you used photos from various events that happened in your life.
- Sweet Home Alabama: Once again, change the word Alabama to the name of your hometown.

Well, what do you think? Are you inspired? Like I said, these are just SOME inspirations. There are lots more out there.

That’s all from me. Until then, happy scrapping and don’t forget to be creative!

Hi scrappers! Brittney here, hosting your next Tuesday Template Challenge. This template is a little different, so it might be a step outside the norm for some of you! But that’s what a “challenge” is all about, right?

No theme requirement this week, just have fun with the template and make it your own!!

Here’s the template:

I (obviously) created it from one of my own layouts! Look what our amazing CT has done with it!!

Our resident Queen of Scrap, Denise, scrapped TWO!

Linz really decorated it up and made it look totally unique!

LOVE this one from Stacy H!

Simple and pretty by Melanie (sassypixie)!

And last but not least, Tater and this ridiculously cute creation!!

Are you inspired??! Well, go ahead and download your template HERE.

(One tip to using the text path: With the sharp corners, you may need to add extra spaces to make the text flow smoothly through the sharp turns.)

My favorite entry, along with a lucky randomly drawn entry will win a $5.00 Gift Certificate to the ScrapMatters shop!

Entries MUST be posted in the ScrapMatters gallery and linked back to this thread in the SM forum BEFORE midnight (PST) the night of Monday June 23rd.

HAVE FUN!

xoxo,

Hi, Kate here with something a little different that we haven’t done for a while.. a Scavenger Hunt!

The answers to all of the questions can be found in the gallery, the shop, the blog and the forum. That’s right.. I’m going to make you work for it!

You have until Sunday the 22nd to get your answers to me. I will randomly select one person with all of the right answers to win a gift certificate to the shop and announce the winner on Monday 23rd June.

Ok here are the questions:

1. Who was recently crowned the Queen of Scrap?

2. Which designer has a Silver Bead Alpha?

3. Which day in the blog is dedicated to spotlighting a member or designer?

4. Name a new product in the shop by Ellie Lash

5. Name a quote that can be found for sale in the shop as word art

6. Which designer hosts the quick page exchange each month?

7. Name 3 of the colours in Britt-ish designs newest kit

8. Which designer has a kit called ‘Halli’?

9. In the thread “The ‘Did you See the LO’ Game”, who’s layout is the first one spotlighted?

10. What is the name of the magazine available in the shop?

Email me (kateypie@gmail.com) or PM me in the forum with your answers! Have fun!!

Hello and Happy Father’s Day to those of you celebrating today:)  Krista here to shine a spotlight on ScrapMatters’ member One Happy Mama… aka Ashley. 

   Here she is to put a face with a name…First off I wanted to show off some of her great layouts in the ScrapMatters’ gallery.  Images are clickable, so please go see the credits and leave her some love!

First up is “Tangle Fairies” – I love the humorous title and story!  Super pics too!

Second up is “Peek*a*Boo” -  What amazing pictures!!  I love the clean lines…which just all plays into the picture duo all the more.

Finally I spotlight “I *heart* My Dad” – I love the colors and the moment captured.  The title work and design work perfectly.

Here is her interview:

What is your main job/career?
SAHM, plus my mom and I own a preschool together, so I help out there part time…

Are you married/kids/pets?
Married for almost 11 years, 4 kids, 3 dogs and 1 snake

Where do you call home?
Beautiful, Sunny Arizona

What are your three favorite foods?
Only 3?? I love a good salad (especially if I don’t have to make it!), fresh strawberries, and Pizza from a local place right around the corner from my house.

What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?
Chocolate Malted Crunch from Thrifty’s YUM!

Do you prefer salty or sweet snacks?
I like them together, really…

What is your favorite beverage?
A Sonic Route 44 ice water with Extra Ice… Or I love a Shirley Temple when we go “out”

What is your least favorite food?
Seafood anything.

PC or Mac?
MAC…we have 5 at our house!

How long have you been digi-scrapping/How did you get into it?
I did my first LO in January of ’07, and have never looked back! My DH and I adopted three kids and got pregnant (after many years of infertility) with one of our own…we suddenly had 4 kids in 18 months! So there was no time and no place for me to paper scrap. I was blog hopping one night, and found Jenn Woodbury’s blog and her beautiful LO’s inspired me! I was hooked after doing a tutorial…

What program do you use to digi-scrap with?
I use Photoshop CS2

What are your hobbies besides digi-scrapping?
I love photography! I do a photo-a-day blog with my best friend. It’s tons of fun, and I always have a great photo to scrap!

What is the most challenging part of scrapbooking for you?
Being faster. I spend way too much time on each LO. I tend to be a perfectionist, so I have to keep on it until it looks just right!

What would you like to learn to do (or do better) not related to scrapbooking ?
Being more efficient with my time. I am not great at this…

What are your favorite books/authors?
I can’t get started on books! If I get going on reading something, I can’t put it down and the rest of my house and life suffers!!

What are your favorite movies?
I love romantic comedies. Movies that make me laugh!!

What is your favorite quote?
Be one who nurtures and builds. Be one who has an understanding and a forgiving heart…who looks for the best in people. Leave people better than you found them. -Marvin J. Ashton

What is one of your goals for 2008?
To simplify my home, to make it easier for me to live my life and spend more of my time with my children, instead of dealing with “stuff”! I’m working on it, and it’s getting better every week!

What is your favorite layout of your own?
My favorite LO…this was a HARD question!! But I would have to say “Create“.  I love the colors I used, and the photos are some of my favorites of my daughter.

Do you have a favorite non-scrapping website?
I love photography blogs. I look at them almost daily for inspiration or to answer questions I have. My favorite one is Tara Whitney! She’s amazing!

What is your favorite ScrapMatters kit in your stash?
I love Leave The World Behind by Britt-ish Designs. I use it alot. It’s HUGE and has so many bright, happy colors, perfect for my kids!!

———–

I hope you enjoyed getting to know more about One Happy Mama as much as I did! Thanks for exploring her layouts with me and have a great week!  Here are the links to her galleries at ScrapMatters and DST (since she is so new to ScrapMatters you may also want to catch Ashley’s inspiration there).

Shari here, okay before I announce the winners can I just say “Thank You” to all of you that participated. I know I’ve whined about our weather in WA State more than once. I also know that for some of you who are experiencing floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, my whining is probably rather annoying and we did finally see some sun yesterday so that was a nice treat. I’ll get to my point. I have really enjoyed coming to the forum, and the gallery, at ScrapMatters everyday and seeing such bright, uplifting colors. Thanks Andrea for choosing the palette and thanks to all of you that participated and filled my soul with some sunshine.

Now for the random pick winner…Chel with her “My First Crayon Experience” LO. Chel thanks for the darling LO of your little guy becoming a future artist and who knows, maybe even a future ScrapMatters’ member.

And my personal favorite (this was sooooo hard because I really have 5 favorites) but the LO that just kept jumping out saying, “Pick Me, Pick Me” is Captainoats, “3 Princesses” LO. I love th papers she used and all the ribbons and stitchings.

Thanks again to everyone that played along. You guys are the best. Now keep reading so you can catch this week’s The Saturday Special challenge.

Hiya ladies! Bev here to bring you this week’s Saturday Special challenge!

I love love love journaling on layouts, so for today’s Saturday Special challenge I would like you to choose “10 Things About You” as your theme.

We’ve all got a special someone or something (perhaps a pet) that we can’t live without. It doesn’t have to be you personally, it could be one of your children’s friendships, or friends relationships. Whatever you decide, think about the strong bonds that connect them and then journal about 10 things that make that friendship/relationship special.

Here’s a few layouts the team have made, don’t you agree they have done a fantastic job?

P.S. Everyone who participates will receive a goodie bag and I’ll pick two winners to receive a $5.00 coupon to spend in the ScrapMatters shop.

Hope you’ll find time to join in on the callenge, have fun and happy scrapping!!!!

Hi everyone, Andrea here with a quick post to let you know that we are having a 25% * off sale starting Saturday morning at midnight and ending Sunday evening at 11:59 pm.  I love a good sale, hope you will have fun at this one!

*Everything will be 25% off except for Bella Scraps Magazine.

Hey ya’ll! It’s Jeni (j_hopewell) here with your Theory Thursday post for the week. I wanted to do something hybrid and since Father’s Day is coming up I decided that should be my theme. I really wanted to try a chipboard album but there are NONE to be found around here. Grrrrrrr. And I didn’t have time to order one online. Grrrrrrr. What to do? Well, I finally decided to use something I had on hand. Little paper bags – like you take your lunch in. I used to make these little mini-albums all the time back when I was a paper scrapper. I love them and they are sooooo easy to make. Here, I’ll show you:

First, you need to gather up your supplies. You’ll need three paper bags, scissors and/or a paper trimmer, a hot glue gun, a ruler, and your scrapped pages that have been printed out. You’ll also need something to punch your holes through the finished book – I used my trusty (and HUGE!) Crop-O-Dile but you can use an eyelet setter too. A regular hole punch probably won’t be able to punch through the doubled up paper bags and the cover. Just make sure that it’s the large eyelet setter hole or the large hole on your Crop-O-Dile. You’ll also need some ribbons to finish the binding.

Lay out your paper bags (you can use brown too!) so that you have one top facing left, one bottom facing left, and another top facing left. Leave the bags flat – you don’t need to open them. Stack them all together.

Fold the bags in half while they’re all together. Can you see how this is shaping up to be your little mini album? You can save yourself a step later on by opening up the fold now and getting out your sewing machine to stitch down the inside fold. This is what I usually do, but I didn’t feel like cleaning off my cluttered scrap table to get out my sewing machine so we’ll just make do without it this time.

Now, open up the album to the center fold and get out your ruler. You need to measure the size of your bag (I’ve found they’re all a little different). You need to leave about 1/2 inch on the inside near the fold where you will punch your holes later. My pages ended up being 5×5. Perfect for using reduced Quick Pages!!! Which brings me to my next step. . .

Scrap!!! I just used some Quick Pages from the {When Daddy Comes Home} kit by GG Digital Designs. I have to give a shout out to my good buddies that made Quick Pages from their own LOs and gave me permission to use them for my book. Thanks Megan and Rhonda (aka my lifesavers!) Their QP’s were 12×12 and I just inserted my pictures and journaling/titles and then reduced the size to 5×5. Perfect!! Don’t forget to make a cover. I made mine 5×12 so that it’s one continuous cover. I printed them all out on matte photo paper just here on my home printer. I love using matte photo paper because then they look like cardstock and match better with my real paper scrapped albums.

Next, trim your pages. You can also use your scissors if you don’t have a paper cutter. This way is just much faster.

After you’ve got everything trimmed, you can start figuring out where you want your pages to be in the album. I go ahead and stick them right in the book and keep them in their place until I’m ready to glue. You’ll also want to get your cover folded. Using the paper bag album as your guide as to where the fold should be go ahead and fold and crease your cover. It may or may not be exactly folded in half depending on how you decorated your cover. Mine wasn’t exactly in half and I knew I would have to trim some of it off. I wanted to make sure I trimmed off the back and not the front.

This step is completely optional. If you don’t want the rough edges from the top of the paper bags to show then go ahead and trim them off before you start gluing.

Get out your glue gun and start gluing!!! I add glue to the paper bag and not my printout – that way you don’t get hot glue all over your fingers – OUCH!! I don’t add a ton, I usually just draw a square around the edges (not too close) and then a circle in the middle. Don’t forget to keep away 1/2 inch from the inside edge (fold.) Gluing your pages on in order helps keep them in order too.

Add some glue to the inside of the tops of the bags to keep them closed. . . UNLESS you have a bunch of pages you want to put in this album. Then, this is the perfect little pocket for a double sided LO! I usually do this, I just didn’t have enough time (or Quick Pages!) to do it this time.

After your pages are all glued in you can glue on your cover. Start with the front (staying away from the folded edge) and then do the back. Trim off any extra paper from the cover if you have any.

Since I was lazy and didn’t get out my sewing machine I have to do another step now. I added a LITTLE bit of adhesive (not the glue gun – just a tape-like adhesive) to the inside fold of the album to help keep all the page folds where they’re supposed to be when I punch the holes.

Get out your Crop-O-Dile or eyelet setters and punch holes in the edge of the book about 1/4 inch up from the fold. I only punched three but you can do more if you want. The Crop-O-Dile makes this SOOOOOOO easy. It was like I was punching through 1 sheet of typing paper and not the whole book. The eyelet setter works great too – just takes some more effort and lots of pounding!

Yay! The fun part – picking out ribbons! I’m so addicted to ribbons – I love them! I picked out a good mix of sizes and styles and colors. I’ll tie 3-4 ribbons in each hole next to each other – not one on top of the other. I only tie them once, since a double knot is too bulky. They have always stayed in place without a problem.

Just trim your ribbon edges now and . . .

that’s it!!! You’re finished! I hope I explained all of this well enough for you guys to understand it, if not please feel free to PM me with any questions! Sorry for the blurry pictures but it’s not easy to hot glue with one hand and take a picture of it with the other! LOL! Hope you guys have a great week and a Happy Father’s Day! Don’t forget to unplug your glue guns. . . until next time! : )

Hi all, it’s Monica! it’s been a while since I’ve done a Words for Wednesday and i’m glad to have the chance again.  I love doing this blog entry, but I always get stumped on what I want to write about. This time was no different. I thought and thought and thought about it and nothing came to mind. Last night I was working on a layout and finally an idea hit me. Once again I am going to discuss Digi Journaling.

The other day I noticed that some asked if we were still using the digi journal section of the forum. It’s been months since anyone posted anything in it. Oh no! I’m a huge fan of the digi journal, but I tend to keep mine private. To many tears and such. But today I’ve decided to share.

Digi journaling is not a difficult thing. It’s actually really easy.  just let your words flow out of you. A trick I like to use is writing a note. You know back in high school you used to write notes all the time to your friends (well, at least I did). This is no different. You choose your photo focusing mainly on a single person and write that person a note. Maybe the two of you went to dinner the other night and you just wanted to thank him or her for the experience. Maybe your child has had another birthday and you want to give them some advice about being another year older. Maybe you have fallen in love and you want that special someone to know it. There are so many possibilities. You could be journaling for years, although that’s not necessary.

So I’m going to issue this little challenge.  When i finish this blog entry I’m going to post another in the forum under the digi journal category.  You write someone a note and then post that note layout in the gallery and link to it in the forum. Simple as that.  You have until next week to complete this mini challenge and I’ll send you a pm with the link to my Spoken Softly Mini Kit.  (For you CT members: You can join in on this challenge as well, but I won’t be sending you a pm since you have access to this kit anyway.)

To help you guys out a bit here is a look at my layout. My son had a tough year at school and I wanted to let him know that things will get better. We’ll do it all together.

Here are a few layouts that I found in our ScrapMatters’ Gallery.

This one is by Linz.

This one is by Sya.

And this one by Christy.

See, it’s not difficult.  Put your heart into it.  Bring up some of those forgotten memories.  Most of all, HAVE FUN! I’ll see you in the forum.  You can find the thread here: http://scrapmatters.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?p=8571#8571