Hi everyone! Welcome to this week’s Saturday Special. Have you ever had a picture that you wished was black & white? Maybe you have the perfect kit for your picture but the colors just don’t seem to work together. Or maybe you are looking for the elegant look that black & white pictures give. There are many ways that you can convert your color picture to black & white. One of the most common ways to convert it is to change the color mode to grayscale under the image menu. This tends to leave your picture fairly bland though. Today I’m going to show you a way to convert your picture without losing the contrast and making you picture look flat. (The screenshots and directions are in Photoshop Elements 5.0.) First open up the picture that you want to convert to black & white. Duplicate the picture by right clicking on the thumbnail in the Photo Bin and selecting Duplicate. This is so you are not working on the original and accidently save over top of it. Press D to set your foreground and background to the default black and white. Make sure that the black is in the top box. If it isn’t press X to switch them. Now go to the top of the Layers Palette and choose Levels from the Adjustment Layers menu. When the box pops up don’t change anything on it right now, just click ok. This will add a layer to your Layers palette named Levels 1. Go back to the Layers Adjustment menu and this time chose Gradient Map. Check to make sure the Gradient map is set on black to white. If it is not click on the arrow next to the gradient map and choose the correct gradient from the popup menu. Click ok. This will give you a layer in the Layers Palette named Gradient Map 1. Just going this far will already give you a better black & white picture, but we are not done yet. In the Layers palette, double-click on the Levels thumbnail in the Levels 1 layer. This will popup the Levels box. From here we are going to edit the individual colors, starting with red. So go ahead and choose the Red channel from the drop down menu. Grab the black (shadow) arrow under the Input Levels and slide it right. This will increase the shadows in the red channel. [IMG]http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm313/p_a_sandbulte/red.jpg[/IMG] When you think you are satisfied with this edit, go back up to the drop down menu and choose the Green channel. On this one we are going to slide the white (highlights) arrow to the left. Again when you are satisfied with this edit, go back up to the drop down menu. This time we are going to work in the Blue channel. Go ahead and move the highlights arrow to the quite a bit to the left. Move the shadows arrow just a little bit to the right. Not every picture you convert will have the same settings, play around with the sliders a bit until you get the effect you are looking for. When you are happy with how your picture looks go ahead and click OK. One last step and then we are done. Go to the Layers palette, click on More. From that menu choose Flatten Image. This will flatten the adjustment layers into your picture. You can also use ctrl+Shift+E to do this. Check out the pictures side by side. The one on the left I just used the grayscale mode to convert the picture. Look how much of a difference there is in the one on the right. Here is my page with my new black & white picture using LDrag’s Blessings of Life and Stolen Moments & Rosy Posy’s Here and Now. Check out these great pages by the ScrapMatters’ CT. Kayla made this cute page using WM Squared’s Inspired by Fran templates and Full of Joy and Add-on by Band Geek Designs. Here is a sweet one by Chel. This one by Ophelia uses Jennifer Labre’s Full of Life and True Blue Studio’s Summer Garden Templates. Here is one from Tamara using Amy Stoffel’s Make a Move. Challenge reminders: -For the month of September you will receive two points for posting in this thread & in the Saturday Special gallery. You can receive an additional two points for using new Scrap Matters products; please make a note of new products in your post. And at the end of the month you’ll be entered into a random drawing that could earn you some bonus points! -You have until the end of September to complete this challenge for September MOS points or wait to post in October for October MOS points! -Remember no double dipping… layout must be unique to this challenge. -You don’t have to use Scrap Matters products, but remember your SM gallery must contain at least 50% SM product beginning July 8, 2011.

Happy Saturday! I hope everyone’s had a great week! Day from Inspirations here and today I’m going to share with you one of my favorite tricks for making a quick title to coordinate with any page or kit you are working with!
I’ve worked this in PS CS4 but you should be able to do similar with other programs

1. Choose a chunky font and type out your title in the size you want. Don’t worry about color as that’ll be changing! Once you’ve got it, right click the layer in the layers palette and choose “Rasterize Type” (This is called “Simplify Layer” in PSE)

2. Pick a paper to fill your alphabet with and drag it onto a layer above your title. Right click the paper layer in the layers palette and choose “Create Clipping Mask”. (In PSE group the layers by pressing CTRL+G with the paper layer selected)

3. You should now see your paper in the shape of your title. You can move around the paper layer to get whichever part of the pattern showing that you like. When it looks the way you want it, right click the paper in the layers palette and choose “Merge Down” to make your title all one layer.

4. Now you can use your title as is if you like, but you can also play around with some effects to make it pop a bit more. In the effects menu (the little round f button at the bottom of the layers palette) inner or outer glow or shadow, bevel and emboss and stroke would be my main choices.

5. For this I’m using a stroke to give the alphabet a sticker-like look. Adjust the size of the stroke, the placement (in the letters, out or straddling the border) and the color.

6. Now add your title to your page, give it a drop shadow and finish your LO!

Here’s mine, I used the colab kit Vintage Surf Shop, a few elements from my kit Catchin’ A Break and my Tiny Alphabet

and here’s some inspiration from the SM creative team!

Kayla

Tamara

Ophelia

Happy Saturday to you all! Becca, aka becca372 here. Whew, I’ve been busy this week with all my back-to-school prep (I teach Kindergarten)! I know many of you have had children go back to school recently, and we’re almost ready to go back here in Michigan. Today, though, I have a lesson just for you!

I love to blend papers for backgrounds, because I L.O.V.E. patterned papers, but sometimes they can overwhelm a page, so I like to subtle them up…and then the reverse can be true-sometimes I love a solid background, but it just needs a little more texture to work for my layout…so, there are a couple of ways to do it-and a step-by-step with screen shots will follow, but the basic process is to layer your papers, and then change the blending mode and/or opacity, OR use a layer mask (if you’ve got them) or an eraser to create the effect you want.

So, here’s how to do it! Here I’ve selected a yellow paper from Jady Day and Kay Miller’s new collab, A Girl’s Life. There is a GREAT yellow paper with white polka dots in the kit, but I didn’t want quite that much yellow for my background. I opened this solid yellow… 

and then I layered this great polka dot paper over it (I’ve moved it over, here, so you can see my layers)

And now I’m going to play with my blending modes….click the little tab above your layers palette that usually reads “normal” and you get lots of other choices to play with. I tried several but settled on Overlay. I then changed the opacity to 72%…just play with yours until you like it! You can also create multiple layers, at multiple blending modes, to create a look you like…

Now, at this point you can either be done and move on with your layout from here, OR you can do a bit more… In the PSCS versions of photoshop, and in PSE9, you can apply a layer mask to your paper layers-put one over your top layer (click the icon under your layers palette that looks like a rectangle with a circle inside), and then select a brush (I used a large, soft brush, and also reduced the opacity of my brush so that the edges of my masking were soft and subtle), and make sure your color selector thingy is set to white (the trick with layer masks is this–white erases, black brings it back–I always remember “white out” and “back in black”, LOL). Anyway, then just erase away what you want. If you DON’T have layer masks as an option, you can TOTALLY do this with your eraser tool (you can reduce the opacity on it, too!), it’s just a little harder to fix if you do something you don’t like!

So, yeah, on my papers, I’ve used that large, soft brush to erase some of the top paper, letting more yellow bleed through. This space is where I will be putting my photo and elements, just giving another layer of oomph to my page.

And here’s my final layout, using Jady Day Studio’s new collab with Kay Miller, It’s A Girl’s Life

If you are really struggling with the layer masking or the erasing, you can always take the short-cut of using a pre-made mask, which many designers have available (there are quite a few in different packs/kits in our shop!) and use those to clip your papers to!

Here are some more fantastic layouts to inspire you from our fab ScrapMatters team!
By Ophelia:

By Day:

and By Sarah:

and just in case you need a bit more inspiration, here are a couple more layouts from my gallery-in this first one, I used two similarly colored papers from Steph.Designs A La Campagne kit (1 craft paper, then a wonderfully textured paper) and used the soft light setting to get that extra texture I was needing.

And on this layout, I used a clipping mask (originally made for photos) to clip one of Erica Zane’s great papers onto my layout.

So, what do you think, a good how-to today? I hope you try it out!

Here are all the details for this challenge, please read carefully!

Challenge reminders:
-You will receive one point for posting in this thread & in the Saturday Special gallery. You can receive an additional point for using new Scrap Matters products; please make a note of new products in your post. And at the end of the month (August) you’ll be entered into a random drawing that could earn you some bonus points! The same is true for those of you who scrap along with me in September!
- You have until the end of August to complete this challenge for August MOS points, and if you can’t get it done by then, you get the added bonus of having until the end of September to complete this challenge for September MOS points!!

-Remember no double dipping…your photo and/or layout must be unique to this challenge.

-You don’t have to use Scrap Matters products, but remember your SM gallery must contain at least 50% SM products as of July 8, 2011.

Can’t wait to see what you create!

Hello fellow scrappers,

Kayla aka keepscrappin here with today’s Saturday Special Challenge.  I love to have a title on all of my layouts; however, sometimes coming up with a new title for every layout can get hard.  I like my title to convey a message or reinforce the theme of my page, so when I’m stuck for a title one of the places I turn to for inspiration is word art.  Plus using a piece of word art for my title can be an easy and quick way to finish off my page.

So the challenge for today is to use word art for your title.  You can make your own word art or use a premade word art as is or combine it with a font, alpha, or embellishments.  The choice is yours – just have some fun and make your title really shine on your layout.

Many kits come with word art but if the kit you’re working with doesn’t have the perfect one for you, check out the special section for word art here in the ScrapMatters store.  Below are just a couple of the many word art packs available.

Here’s my layout using a word art (part recolored) from Little Princess Sighs Word Art by Graham Like the Cracker for the title and Fairytale from The Design Girl.

And here’s some inspiration from the Fabulous SM CT.

Becca used the Fresh Fun kit and Word Art from KimB for this understated beauty.

Ophelia used WM[Squared]‘s NEW Great Escape California for this Hollywood Blockbuster.

Kim used For the Love of Girls from Stolen Moments and Jady Day Studio for this sweet page.

Melissa used Mulberry Fields Family Word Art By KimB Designs and Lazy Days-E By Erica Zane for this cute family page.

Heather also used the NEW Great Escape: California Bundle from WM [Squared] for her star-studded page.

and Trista used the Fresh Fun kit and word art from KimB for her playful page.

Challenge reminders:
-You will receive one point for posting in the Saturday Special 8.6.11 forum thread & in the Saturday Special gallery. You can receive an additional point for using new Scrap Matters products; [COLOR="Red"]please make a note of new products in your post[/COLOR]. And at the end of the month you’ll be entered into a random drawing that could earn you some bonus points!

-You have until the end of August 2011 to complete this challenge to earn MOS points.

-Remember no double dipping…your layout must be unique to this challenge.

-You don’t have to use Scrap Matters products, but remember your SM gallery must contain at least 50% SM product beginning July 8, 2011.

PRIVET everyone!
This is Maria with this week’s Saturday Special. I have a couple of little tips for you when working with masks, especially resizing using short cut keys in Photoshop CS3.
Hope it’s useful for you!
Here’s what we are going to do:
- clip a photo to a mask (template shape)
- resize and rotate photo (paper)
- resize and rotate mask (template shape)

First of all open up your photo and drag it to you page.

Find a mask you want to use and drag it to your page too, be sure that mask layer is under your photo layer. Now you are ready to clip a photo to a mask. Shortcut in CS3 to do that is CTRL ALT G. You can try to move your photo and only one part of it will show up to you – repeating the mask shape.

Now to resizing. I will start with resizing of the mask, since it’s size of the mask is what matters on the page. Make sure that mask layer is active and hit CTRL T (free transform tool). To save the mask from distortion, hold down SHIFT key when resizing. Or you can push ‘constrain proportions’ button in the upper menu bar (this button looks like a paperclip in PS7). You can also type in the percentage of difference you want as compared to the original.

OK, now I think I have the right size of the mask (you can always adjust it again using the steps above). Now you see that the photo looks too big. Before you start to change it’s size, make sure the photo layer is active.

Don’t forget to hold down SHIFT key to maintain the original proportions! With the free transform tool you can also rotate your photo to fit your mask perfectly. You can also move the photo to find the perfect crop.

Now, if you want to resize both photo and your mask you should make sure you have both layers active. Just click on layers icons in layers menu holding CRTL key. You can also link those layers together. Don’t forget about proportions while resizing and now you can also move the photo and the mask to place it where you want it on your page.

OK, now I’m finished with resizing and will continue to make a page. If you need more adjustments with photo or mask only, remember to unlink the layers. Here’s my final page.

Don’t forget that you can use this tips when working with templates.Hope you’ve learned something new today!
I used Carry My Heart collab by Graham Like the Cracker and Stolen Moments.
I used some wordings from tuts on ehow.com

Here are some examples from ScrapMatters fabulous CT:
This one is by Heidi, she used a template and shrunk the paper down to 6×6 to clip to the template shapes, so the pattern in the paper shows. She used “Making Waves” by Jenn Barrette and Graham like the Cracker and Bella Gypsy’s “Double Dibbed” Template.

Here’s one by Amanda, using a bunch of products by Britt-ish Designs. She clipped her pics to custom shapes and the paper to scallops:

This one is by LeeAndra using Happy To Be kit by Scrapmuss Designs and Masquerade Vol. I by Jenn Barrette.

And another one by Jaime, using Splish Splash by The Design Girl.She clipped her photo to the mask and then added a stroke to give it a “bubble” effect.

Here are the official rules:
You have until the end of the July to complete this challenge.
You will earn 1 point for your LO and a bonus point if you use a new release (within 7 days of release – be sure to mention this in the forum and in your credits).
You don’t have to use ScrapMatters products, but we love it when you do!
No double dipping, your LO must be unique to this challenge.
At the end I will pick a random LO as the winner to receive an extra bonus point.

Hello all! Welcome to the Saturday Special for June 12, 2010. I’m Kat (ktanker) and I am thrilled to be hosting this week’s challenge for you. I am going to be offering a “time saving tutorial” for you. This is something I learned a while back and it has been a been a huge time saver for me and is one of my favorite techniques. I will be working in Adobe Photoshop CS4.

Please Note: These scripts only work in Photoshop Versions CS3 and above.

Today, we are going to learn how to “Load layers into a stack”. This is achieved using Photoshop Scripts. Scripts are described as “actions on steroids” and can increase your productivity so you may make the most of your scrap time . Many of us use actions on our scrap pages or photos and scripts are similar yet they allow more customization. There are numerous scripts that can be bought and found on a variety of websites for free. Loading layers in a stack is included in your program and extremely easy to use. Follow along with me below.

Today I will be adding a title to my scrap page. Normally, I would open all the individual files in my scrap program and have a lot of open windows. I would click on each window and drag the letter to the scrap page. This slows my computer because I am using a lot of resources by opening numerous “images”. By loading layers into a stack, I am only opening ONE image in my program and each alpha letter (or element/paper) is in that one file. ***If you are using elements from multiple kits, this is a great option to help you track your credits. You will be able to see the name of each element!***

Follow along with me below.

Step 1: Click on File, Choose Scripts and click “Load layers into stack”

Step 2/3: You’ll see a dialog box like below come up. Choose “Browse” and locate your files. Remember that all your files will load into ONE image. If you have files in multiple folders, choose your files from one folder, click ok and click browse again to add more.

I made a special note here that by changing the drop down from files to folder, you can load an entire folder at once.

Once you have all your files chosen, your script box will look like this.
Step 4: Click the OK button to add your layers to an image. (Note: if your files are open in your program already, click on the add open files button instead of browsing to add your images.

Here’s your new ONE image holding your numerous images.

Now, what I do next is set up my windows so I can do easy drag and drops of the layers to my layout. You can use any variation on this that you’d like.

Step 5: Drag and Drop. Drag your image to your layout, shadow and arrange as you please.

Here’s my final layout using this technique.
Credits: Blessed and Sweet Sayings by Sahlin Studio

Here’s some inspiration from the Scrap Matters Creative Team!

By Suzanne (iisuzieii)

Credits: Template from My Personal Favorites v.3 by Denise Beatty Originals, Papers and elements from Season of Giving by Sahlin Studios (Season of Giving Bundle here), Frosted Acrylic Alpha by Sahlin Studios

By Lori (loribear)

Credits: Polka Dot Bikini by Stolen Moments & Jessica Edwards

By Heidi (scrappurple)

Credits: Summer Reading by Jennifer Barrette Designs

By Kendall (kendallt)

Credits: If You Give a Girl a Castle by Erica Zane

By Jaime (azrood)

Credits: “I’m Back” Grab Bag” and Hopeless Romantic Kit by Sya’s Blueprints

By Jen (GrahamLikeTheCracker)

Brain Freeze by Connie Prince and Fabulously Negative – Templates V.5 by WM Squared Designs

Last but not least… here’s the rules to play by…

The deadline for this challenge is June 30th, 2010.

You will earn 1 point for your LO and a bonus point if you use a new release (within 7 days of release – be sure to mention this in the forum and in your credits).

No double dipping, your LO must be unique to this challenge.

Please note in your credits that your LO is for the June 12th Saturday Special.

At the end I will pick a random winner to receive an extra bonus point to go toward their July total.

Be sure and stop by tomorrow for the Sunday Spotlight! Have a great weekend!

xoxo-Kat (ktanker)

{posting this for Stefanie}

Hi All…Let’s talk about Blending

Blending is a technique that I love to use especially when I feel like I’m in a scrapping rut and need a little oomph to my page. Blending also works well on pictures that are slightly out of focus. Blending is something that can be done in so many different ways and today I am going to go through my blending technique that I use…this would work in Photoshop or Elements.

Open your background paper that you want to use and place your picture. If you decide on a patterned paper make sure it’s subtle and won’t take away from the blended picture. I usually chose lightly textured papers which to me seem to blend better. Enhance your picture as you would if you were using this version in your layout.

Next make sure your picture layer is selected and change the setting to either soft light, overlay or screen. I chose soft light since I wanted a more subtle blend. If the picture is too light (depending on the background paper you picked also) you can duplicate the picture once or twice if that helps also.

Much better but now I have to get rid of the lines around the picture and make it blend. Merge your layers of pictures together. Take your eraser on a soft brush with a lower opacity. I used 40% opacity for my brush. Lightly go over the edges to “blend” the picture into the background. I also used the Dodge tool to lighten up the areas in from the edges alittle so the picture blends better.

If you are not happy with the picture being in color and blended you can always desaturate the picture by going to image – adjustments – desaturate

and here is my final layout using Britt-ish Designs edge to edge wordart V4 and Bright Happy Funny

and for some inspiration look at what the wonderful CT has done:

Tanya using the NEW Got Curves Templates by WM [squared] Designs, along with Viva Fiesta, Messy Stamped Alpha and Simply Dated v.5 all by WM [squared] Designs.

Cristina using Lean and Green and EZ Date Spots by Erica Zane:

Michelle using Sunday Afternoon by Trixie Scraps and Sarah Bennett:

Melissa using Got Curves Templates-Vol 1 and Shabby Chic from WM[squared]; and Mr. & Mrs. from WM[squared] and Haynay Designs:

and Bonnie using EZ Elegance & Lazy Days-E by Erica Zane; Cut It Out Alpha & 2 Page Party Pack Templates by Denise Beatty Originals:

Remember the MOS rules:
*ONE point for a LO that is posted in the Sat Special Gallery and here in the forum; TWO points if you use a product released at SM within the last seven days. Please state in the thread that you used a new product.
*No double-dipping; your LO must be unique to this challenge
*This challenge will end May 31.

Can’t wait to see what you create!!

Let me start off by saying, I am no photographer by any means. I did have to take a photography course in college though, and I do remember my professor saying some useful stuff. Some of it still sits in the back of my head and occasionally I think to myself: “You know your picture would be better if you would just do this… or that…” but then reality jumps in, and I am hurrying trying to capture a moment in my crazy 3 year olds life and all I can do is just try and push the shutter button, hoping that he will stay still long enough to get a shot that is in focus. (And that’s just with a point and shoot camera- I can’t imagine trying to use an SLR!!)
Fortunately, unlike my college days where we were shooting with slide film- we have a huge advantage with our digital cameras. I may not be able to take an amazing shot straight out of my camera- but with the help of some post editing, I can turn my photo into one.
One of the greatest “tricks” of digital editing is how easy it is to crop your picture. Some of you might have heard of the rule of thirds- today I am going to show you how to use it to help your pictures pop.
The basic idea behind the rule of thirds is if you were take your picture and divide it into thirds both horizontally and vertically, then place points of interest where those lines intersect, your photo becomes more balanced and pleasing to the eye.

Ideally it would be great if you could have this rule in mind when actually shooting your photographs, but as I illustrated above, that is not always possible. Enter your cropping tool.

Here I have a picture of my son – it’s not a bad picture, but his head is just almost in the exact center of the photo, which doesn’t make it very interesting. To help you with your rule of third cropping I am including a grid (.png) that you can download to help play around with on your photos.
Click HERE to download.
To start I open the grid and drag it into my photo.

Now I think this picture would work better horizontally so I am going to rotate my grid 90 degrees. Then I am going to play with moving it around- and resizing it until I can get my point of interest in the photo (my son’s face) to be in one of those intersecting points (or near as I can get it). Don’t worry about keeping the proportions of the grid the same as you re-size it, even if you widen it, it will still keep those lines dividing it in thirds. Finally this is what I come up with.

Now all I have to do is select my crop tool and crop along the outside box of my grid. Once I have cropped my picture I can delete the grid layer. And here I have a picture that is much more interesting.

And here is the layout I did for the Tuesday Template challenge using Storytime by Designs by Sarah Bennett, Lil’ Digi Bits by Jude, and Stacey’s Backdoor Designs.

Here’s what QuiltyMom created using Dandelion Wishes, Mask-querade, My Heart Soars & Newspaper Clippings alpha by Jennifer Barrette

And this last one is by Julie Momof4- she used : Dood by- Simply.Scraps, Fill in the Blank by- Erika Zane, Simply Dated by- WM [Squared] Designs, Cool Kid Alpha by- Jennifer Barrette, Just a Little Punchy Template by- Sya’s Blueprints.

Your challenge is to create a page where you crop your picture(s) using the rule of thirds.
Remember:
*You will receive one point for completing this challenge and posting your finished layout in both the challenge gallery AND in the challenge thread.
*You will receive one EXTRA point if you use a new release product within the week of its release. (Be sure to note that you used a new release when you post your layout in the forum and in the gallery.)
*Because this challenge is during the last week of the month you have until the end of March to complete your page. (If you complete it in Feb. you will receive your point in Feb.)

I can’t wait to see your awesome cropped pictures!

Mary here with today’s Saturday Special. Last year sometime, there was an Everyday Magic challenge about our favorite websites. I wasn’t able to complete a LO for that challenge, but I’ve wanted to scrap that subject ever since then. Recently, I stumbled upon some free avatar making sites. The two ideas merged, and now we have a Saturday Special!

For this challenge, I want you to create an avatar of yourself (or the self you want to be ) and use it in a LO. There are plenty of free avatar making sites out there. I have a few suggestions, but please feel free to use and share other sites!

These three avatars of myself were made at the following sites (moving left to right): www.doppelme.com, for you lego fans… http://www.minimizer.com, and http://www.meez.com.

For my LO, I used the site http://www.moeruavatar.com. Please be sure to mention the avatar making site in your credits too!

Digital scrapbooking supplies: Love Bytes by Britt-ish Designs, alpha-bits by Plum Dumpling Designs, and alpha from Enjoy the Moment by Sahlin Studio.

kimbytx created this adorable avatar at http://www.blessthischick.com. Digital Scrapbooking supplies: Sya’s Blueprints and Juno Designs A Different Kind of Love

And I love Amanda’s avatar and how she included her real life self in the LO too.

Digital scrapbooking supplies: Sahlin Studios Innovation, Alpha from Enjoy the Moment and Date Stamped by Brittish Designs

You have until February 28, 2010 to create a LO and post in the Saturday Special Gallery as well as in this thread in the forum. For a complete list of Matter of Scrap Rules, please visit this thread.

Have fun and create a little virtual you!!!

Happy New Year everyone!! I hope everyone is ready to jump into a new year of Saturday Specials!!  I love to use extractions in my LOs.  Alot of times I use them for blending a big picture into the background and I want to get rid of the background of the photo and highlight just the main subject, or to put a person just hanging out with my elements.  Or you can even create a 3-d look and pop a person out of a picture frame like I am going to do in my LO today.
I used to struggle with extraction and used the magic extractor tool in PSE but it never was very magical for me.  One day I stumbled upon the technique I am going to show you today.  It works the best if you have a fairly uncomplicated background that contrasts with your subject (these are the best photos to extract anyway..) So lets get to it shall we?

Here is my original photo..

Now the tool I want to use is the “magic eraser”.  You can find it by left clicking your eraser tool.

Hover your eraser over the largest spot of the background and click.  See what happens.  (If the eraser chooses to select too much just undo and click somewhere else.  It is erasing similar colors here.  So in my case, it is going to get all the blues until it hits something different.)  Here is what happened:

Notice my problem areas.  There is blue line around my DH and DD and the tree is still there.  First I will first get rid of the tree by simply drawing a box around it and pressing control X (or Cut). 
Now I have to get rid of the line.  My first tool will be the magic eraser again.  We will see if this will work.  You want to zoom in pretty close to make sure you are clicking in just the right place.  You will also want to make sure the eraser is not picking up too much of the subject by mistake.  (Remember there is always the undo button!! Nothing is permanent here!! LOL!)

Voila!  The magic eraser tool worked for me this time. And just so you are aware getting rid of the smaller details takes some patience and alot of clicking.
But if the magic eraser wasn’t doing the trick (because the background colors close to the main subject are too similar) I also use the magnetic lasso tool to drag around the image like this..

(obviously for example only.. there was nothing to clean up there!)
Now all I have to do is clean up the image a bit.  I want to get rid of the fly aways on my DDs hair because it is impossible to get the blue out of those.  So I use the regular eraser tool and a dry media brush (or any brush that will look more natural and not have harsh edges) to erase that and any other rough edges.  Here is my finished image:

To use this in an layout you will want to save it as a PNG (so the background will stay clear).  Here is my finished LO.  As I said in the beginning of this post I wanted to pop her out of the frame. So I put the original photo under the frame and matched my extraction on top of the frame.  Then I deleted the part of the regular picture that wasn’t in the frame.  I did have to duplicate the frame and drag it on top and do a litte erasing to make it overlap correctly.  You can check out a tutorial on how to do that here. Feel free to ask in the thread if you have any questions on how to do this!

(Credits- Land of Fantasy by Sahlin Studios and Brittish Designs, So this is Love by Sahlin Studios and Foam Stamped Alpha Sorbet (recolored) by Sahlin Studios)
Here are a few examples from my gallery to show some other ways to use extractions:
Give your extraction a shadow and make it look like the person is standing in the LO.. in this one my DD is holding onto the Balloons!

(Credits: Let them Eat Cake by WM Squared)
Another great thing about extractions is you are free from the original composition of the picture. In this blended extraction I was able to move them closer together to really play up that look of adoradation my DD has in her eyes!

(Credits- A Knights Tale by Brittish Designs and Man in the Moon Designs)
And finally here is some great inspiration from our CT member Li!

(credits – Bumps and Blahs by Kaye Winecki)
Please upload your LO to the SATURDAY SPECIAL GALLERY and link back to this thread in the forum so we know you are playing along. 

This challenge will run through January 31.  No double-dipping… your LO must be unique to this challenge.  Everyone who participates will receive one point.  You’ll also get an additional point if you use a NEW ScrapMatters Product (released within the last week.)  Please let us know in the forum that you’ve used a new product.  Also, one special LO will be awarded another point.  That’s 3 possible points for this challenge!

Now get to extracting!! I can’t wait to see what you come up with!!

-Amanda (Panders77)