How to Create Simple, Uncluttered Digital Scrapbook Pages

Want to create simple, uncluttered digital memory book layouts that highlight your photos without all the embellishments? This style of layout can be inserted in a scrapbook, or framed and hung on the wall, or shared by emailing or uploading. I'll show the steps using both Photoshop 6 and PhotoPlus (freeware).

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Digital camera or scanner
• Photo editing software that supports layers: PhotoPlus (freeware); Adobe Photoshop Elements; Adobe Photoshop

1. Create a blank picture with a transparent background. 8x10 is most flexible size for scrapbook pages or frames. You could use 5x7 or 4x6, too.
2. Grassy backdrop Open a photograph to use as the backdrop. You might use a shot that was maybe a little out of focus. Don't worry about that now, you can adjust the transparency of the backdrop layer so the blurriness will be a plus. Copy and paste it into your new picture as a new layer. You can also download lots of "paper" files from scrapbooking sites. Or you can take pictures of the sky, grass, flowers, etc., and save them for backdrop layers. That's what I do for many of my grandkids' soccer pages.
3. Central image Open another photo. Copy and paste the photo into your new picture.
4. Resize & rotate layers Size and rotate that layer with the "Transform" (Photoshop) or "Deform" (PhotoPlus) tool. Then place it in your layout. Setting photo layers at various angles and "scattering" them on the 'canvas' gives the whole page a dynamic feeling.
   
   In Photoshop use Edit>Free Transform.
   In PhotoPlus use the Deform tool on the lefthand toolbar to select the layer, then Image>Rotate>Layer
5. Drop Shadow & Stroke (Edge) Create a drop shadow and a white edge on that layer. In Photoshop click Layer>Layer Style>Blending Options>Drop Shadow and Stroke. In PhotoPlus click Layer>Drop Shadow or Bevel.
6. Save your your project with the layers active. In Photoshop save as a ".psd" file, in PhotoPlus save it as an ".spp" file. This is important, because you need to be able to edit the layers, but you want to save it often.
7. Copy & paste layer styles Open another photo and copy & paste it as another layer. Adjust, shadow and edge as above.You can copy & paste the shadow and edge effects to each layer. Select the layer with the shadow, then click Layer>Layer Style>Copy Layer Style. Then select the new layer and click Layer>Layer Style>Paste Layer Style.
8. Create text layers to caption the pictures and for journaling. You can put shadows and other interesting effects on your text layers, too. Use a font that fits the style of your page, but remember, we're going for simplicity here. Use no more than 1 or 2 related typefaces. Photoshop, etc., does not let you see what your fonts will look like until you select a font and type something. Software like FontView which is freeware lets you see all your fonts. You can even print out a sample set of some or all of them. See the Resources to go to the FontView download page.
9. Insert more picture & text layers. For 8x10 you can use 3-7 shots, fewer for 5x7, etc. For anything smaller than 5x7 you probably want no more that 1-2 shots with a little text.
10. Adjust the transparency and blur the backdrop layer slightly.
11. When you're sure you've made all adjustments, save it one last time with the layers active.
12. Merge the layers together and save it as a ".jpg" Be sure you don't save it over the version with the active layers. You might want to change some of the individual elements later and you won't be able to after the layers are merged.
13. Print it out or upload it to one of the photosharing or printing sites. Photo printing services will treat each page as one photograph so you'll get several pictures for the price of one!
    
    As you make more pages, you'll create a photobook. You can even use one of your photopages as the background for a webpage - more on that in my next eHow article...

Tips & Warnings

• After you've added and positioned all your layers, you may want to adjust the drop shadows - making them a bit smaller and lighter on the 'lower' layers and larger and darker on the 'upper' layers. This enhances the impression of depth.
• Many of these steps can be automated by creating Actions (sometimes called "Macros"). There are LOTS of good eHow articles on Photoshop Actions, etc.
• PhotoPlus6 is free, Adobe Photoshop Elements is about $80, Adobe Photoshop CS3 is about $650
• You can upload your picture to Wal-Mart, Target, Shutterfly or Webshots, etc., and have them printed and mailed to you or pick them up at the store.
• It's actually no more expensive to have an 8x10 page printed at a commercial service than it is to print a good-quality copy on your home printer when you consider the cost of ink and paper.
• If the resolution is high enough you can even have it made into a poster.
• Save often, but be sure you don't lose your layers.
• These picture are very large so you may want to scale them down before sending them in emails. You can do that in your photo editing app or use a photo-resizer like PIXresizer.