Creating Digital Scrapbooking Layouts - Resizing Your Photos

If you are new to creating digital scrapbooking layouts, there are a few skills you will want to master early on. One of these is: How Do I Resize a Digital Photograph to fit the digital template I've chosen?

Let's look at a typical scenario:

• A new mom has taken tons of pictures of her child (what new mother doesn't?)
• She loves scrapbooking, and wants to create a mini-album with digital layouts featuring several small photos, or just part-photos, on each page.
• She plans to use mostly head shots, and the standard 6x4s are too large for use on her page.
• She wants to be able to print the multi-photo page(s) as a part of her mini-album.

She already has Photoshop Elements, but you'd follow the same overall process for most photo-editing software.

First, Open a Blank Canvas, then

• Define the size and resolution of the page (250-300 dpi should give a good result when printing the page)
• Choose RGB color mode, unless you want a monochrome grayscale finish
• Set background color to transparent

You now have a canvas and are ready to start scrapbooking

Side Note: I find the checkered background you see (when color is set to transparent) makes it very easy to align photos and embellishments.

In PhotoShop each part of your design will be placed on a separate layer and you can adjust how far forward an item is by moving it up and down the layers.

Next, Open the Photo File to be resized.

There are now several options to resize your photo:

1. Simply make the whole photo larger or smaller.
2. Crop to a section of the photograph, thereby removing all that extra sky or foreground, then sizing the cropped image to what you need.
3. Use a mask which is an easy way to create identically sized photographs in a multi-photo layout.

1. Resize your whole Photograph:

• Go to Image, resize, image size
• in the 'Document size' section select your units (inches, mm, cm, pixels, etc) and enter the width or height you want
• you will want a resolution of 250-300 dpi to get good printing results

2. Crop a Section of the Photo:

• Select the crop tool and define the area to be kept
• Drag the crop 'window' around your photo to make the best selection

Side Note: if you want several photos exactly the same size in a layout I recommend using one of the fixed options instead of the freehand ones.

3. Use a Mask to Reveal only the Part of your Photos You Want to Display:

This is a technique I wish I'd learned about much earlier in my journey into Digital Scrapbooking...

• Create a new layer and select the Marquee Tool
• Select the size you want (choose from freehand, fixed ratio, or fixed size options)

if you chose either the fixed ratio or freehand option:

• Draw your mask shape on the new layer while holding down the left button on your mouse;

If you chose the fixed size option: (good when you want multiple images the same size)

• Click on your new layer, and the fixed size you've chosen will appear in outline with the 'marching ants'

Whichever style you used, the next stage is to

• Select the Paint Bucket Tool and fill the shape with color (just so that its easier to see while you are working)

Now you have a photo mask layer ready for use in your current project. You can also duplicate the layer for as many photos as you plan to use.

• Place your photo on the layer above the photo mask, and clip the two layers together. You can still move your photo to select the best part, and you can grab a corner to adjust the size.

Do this for each photo until you have all you need for your digital scrapbooking layouts.

Genie Balfour: As a paper crafter and scrapbooker for many years, Genie is well-versed in the ins and outs of paper and digital scrapbooking. As the founder of the popular website ScrapbookingGems.com, she writes regularly on paper and digital scrapbooking topics. Click this link to read Genie's step by step photo resizing instructions and other digital scrapbooking layout tips. Or click here and check out her free scrapbook sketches and layouts series.

Scrapbooking Websites - Some Of The Best Ideas Can Be Grabbed Online

Looking at your marriage album? Found good snaps that tend to bring back fond memories? Retaining the photos in the same album doesn't distinguish itself from the others. Such pictures need a special place. Scrapbooking these photos can make it exceptional. Worthy!

When scrapbooking strikes you, you are automatically attracted to provenances such as journals, websites, magazines, newspapers, print ads etc... Such provenances are always reliable as they portray very well what the determined product exactly brings out!!

Details regarding the start of a project, required materials-that are worthy and how to proceed with scrapbooking are elaborated well.

Hearing your friend's talks on what they actually do with their scrapbooks, you must have imagined more on how to explore it yourself. Your interests may be boosted with the photographer's ideas of preserving the pictures in a impressive manner.

Don't be afraid if you are new to scrapbooking. One does not require professionalism in photography for this. There are ample quantities of websites that provide you with scrapbooks. So what improves the quality of your scrapbook? What makes the photos prominent? What are the steps to be followed to create a scrapbook?

Basic Thoughts:

Wondering how your start can stay for days? In the end, the difficult thing in scrapbooking is the optimization of the design and the preferred design. You can then move on to think about the products that can be utilized for scrapbooks after the opinions are recognized. With all these confusions, the required help and guidance can be sought from the websites that you consult.

Behind every remarkable scrapbook are highly refined supplies for it that has been mixed and matched artistically. Nothing would cherish in a scrapbook when the supplies are not considered. You can get amazed when you look at scrapbook supplies that online stores sell.

They are available in many colors and designs. They come in different shapes and sizes too. So when you are ready for scrapbooking, what you have to do is just choose and conclude which scrapbook supply to put in use.

Now your caption for your scrapbook is your wedding day. Select the colors that perfectly suit your theme. Take special care that it should also match with the garments in the photo (worn on that day). The color combinations of the material should correlate the colors in the picture.

Some colors that would fit a wedding album are gold, silver and white. But you can have it as per your wish. Dealing with the content you can start the first page with the wedding invitation narrating the story to give it a good start followed by the remaining pictures.

Decorate the borders and male it attractive. You can choose your favorites and leave the remaining. Exceptions arise when you would like to have your scrapbook, a worthy of remembrance.

Scrapbooking websites-in the round:

People often surf the internet for scrapbooking websites. On visiting them, you can come across loads of ready-made designs and contents you need for your scrapbook. Some websites allow you to print them. Some do not. If you can utilize the internet to its maximum then you can extract very good ideas from such websites. In the end, it's their service for our purposes.

Scrapbooking websites teach the beginners on how to use its supplies to bring out an outstanding product. It also teaches the steps to be followed, and designs to make it stylish. In short they can be merely called tutorial websites.

Abhishek is a Scrapbooking expert and he has got some great Scrapbooking Secrets up his sleeves! Download his FREE 73 Page Ebook, "Scrapbooking Made Easy!" from his website http://www.Fun-Galore.com/821/index.htm. Only limited Free Copies available.