Look what I made!

Well, I am making progress with this Adobe PhotoShop thing.  I have a LONG way to go, but I have learned how to do a couple of things.

First, I did a project for my boss, which was a great learning experience -- and I got $25 for it!  Yay me!  She brought me this picture of her granddaughter -- a great picture, but very distracting background.  I took it home and scanned it at a high dpi so I had a digital file to work with.  I figured out how to remove the background all around her and make it transparent.  Then I bought a cool background on a website -- it cost $1.25, and I can use it again and again (and it downloaded IMMEDIATELY -- talk about instant gratification!  I love the internet!)  Then I layered the picture of Ashle*gh onto the background, inserted text, and voila!  I'm a genius.  I printed it at a Kodak kiosk, which prints 8x10 -- before I left for Walgreens, I put the square image on a bigger white background so I'd be able to crop to exact measurements, then burned the file to a disk.  The square picture ended up being 8x8 (which is one size people use for scrappin', BTW.)  (Boss) was thrilled to death with it.  (Click on pictures to see in detail.)

I ALSO figured out what digi-scrappers are doin', and was able to make a page banner for my new Scrappin' with Jen website, and I am so proud of myself!  I have a lot of topics in mind for entries, so if you want to learn about scrappin', stop by!  (If any of you are seasoned scrappers and have something to share and want to "guest" blog, that would be fun too.)

Comments

[Ninotchka]

Good job, Jen. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the banner for your website. It looks AWESOME!

[Sue]

Very impressive Jen! Bonus points for getting in the Boss' good books :) I'll be checking out your scrappin' site today.

[Kate]

Oh man, you do such cute banners. My blog is so boring looking. LOL.

[Sandi P]

You are soooo creative, Jen! Mind sending me some of that characteristic??

Great job!

[Kelly]

Really beautiful Jen!!!!!!

[Shelly]

Way too cool! How do you do this?! I would love to learn. I have elements and haven't a clue how to use it. I am going to ask someone from church how uses it to teach me. I know I could have fun.
thanks for sharing! Absolutely beautiful!

[Jen_Jake'smom(FOR SHELLY)]

hmm . . . Photoshop is kind of complicated to learn. I'm learning little by little, as I find tutorials on the web. (But I'm still clueless!) For the banner, I clicked File and New and that gave me options of what dimension I wanted to create. This particular banner was 800 pixels wide, at 100 dpi (made it two inches high so I had room to work with, then cropped it later.) Then I'd open each element (starting with what I knew would be the bottom layer), resized it (when one file is selected, even if there are others open, you can go to Image and Adjust Size and it will only affect the selected file. Then when you close it, it's only permanent if you save it.) Anyway, then I just drag the element I want on to the empty work space and move it around. When I open a new element and drag it over, it creates a new layer. You adjust one layer at a time. There are some great tutorials out there, just gotta do some searching for them. Honestly, if you have a friend who can sit down with you and show you a few things, that will work wonders. There's a link on the Scrappin' site to where I got the elements -- there are lots of freebies out there and even more cool page elements you can BUY on the internet. Hope you figure it out!!! ;o)

Jen

[Shelly]

Thanks! I will get someone to teach me!