DSD Course Outline – and music

Those of you that read my blog will know that I have been working on getting a “learn to become a digital scrapbook designer course” together. 

Just wanted to share a bit more information on what to expect in the course so that you can see what things will be touched on within the course. 

Here is a brief outline about the course.  Please note: This is not finished so things may be changed during the process of making the course.

1. Backgrounds

• solid colors
• patterned
• grunge
• dotted
• collaged

2. Elements

• brads
• ribbons bows
• journal papers
• paper strips for journaling
• hanging items
• pinned down items
• folded corners
• torn edges
• shapes
• hand drawn look
• frames
• bling bling

3. Word Art

• regular text
• text on a path
• quotes
• fancy
• miscellaneous

4. Picking a Color Scheme

• how many colors?
• how to choose coordinating colors
• breaking the rules with color!

5. Working within Photoshop

• your workspace
• the  move tool
• the rectangular marquee tool
• lasso tool
• magic wand tool
• the crop tool
• the brush tool
• clone stamp tool
• pattern stamp tool
• eraser tool
• paint bucket and gradient tool
• blur tool
• sharpen tool
• smudge tool
• dodge tool
• burn tool
• pen tool – in detail – multiple lessons on using it
• text tool
• path and direct selection tool
• shape tool
• eyedropper tool
• zoom tool
• working with swatches tool
• quick mask mode
• screen modes
• working with filters – multiple filters – each with its own lesson
• liquify tool – how mastering it takes time and an overview
• liquify tool – how its unmatched in its ability to make your elements look real
• overview of the menus – file, edit, image, layer, select, view, window
• quick overview of using bridge with Photoshop
• using the different palettes  - paths, history, actions, channels etc.

6. Working with your kit

• the process and workflow of designing
• where to start and how I setup my workspace to begin designing
• how to file your kits
• what you need to design
• saving our backgrounds
• saving your elements
• making actions to increase your workflow and save time
• working with layers

7. What is my style?

• Finding your design style
• working outside of that comfort zone of styles

8. Marketing yourself

• I'm a designer now what?
• starting a blog
• give it away and they will come
• joining top sites
• being consistent

9. Joining Forces

• finding a position
• what to expect when you apply

10. Your done, now what?

• keep designing!
• how long till i am there?
• what's the secret?
• where do i go from here?

Ok well, that wraps up the course outline so far.  Whew that was a mountain to type LOL.  Hope you find some of this stuff interesting enough to catch a lesson or two! 

Always grateful for any feedback or suggestions.

Oh, and please note, sometimes I have some awesome background music from the 3 yr old. 

She is highly advanced in percussion instruments (banging my wooden spoons on my table and chair while I am recording), as well as highly adept at singing (if you consider being serenaded with twinkle twinkle wittle star, often off key, to be singing.  Hey I do…its my midget. Kapeeesh?) and often times she comes to me wanting to eat something!  The nerve! 

Hellllo, I am working here midget. 

I hope you can forgive the sometimes in the background additions she provides, I do my best to make these videos as high quality as possible but sometimes all my efforts don't pay off and then I overdose on watermelon jolly ranchers and instantly I feel better about the world. 

That’s it.  The end.  I am dead tired.  Goodnight.

hmmm…speaking of jolly ranchers……

Free Video Tutorial – Realistic Drop Shadows

Whew….its finally done! 

Earlier in the week I mentioned that I am currently working on putting together a Designer Course that is chalk full of video classes and corresponding coursework to teach those of you wanting to become a digital scrapbook designer but just don't know where to start.  This class is going to be huge I have now realized and will definitely take longer than I anticipated to complete.  So to give you a taste of what's to come I have decided to put one of the classes up here for free!  This lesson in the course focused on making a realistic drop shadow by introducing you to the warp mode and create layer technique so that you can manipulate your shadow on its own layer giving you much more control how it looks without disrupting your element. 

Please give me some feedback and if you have any other lessons you would like to see, let me know and I will do my best to add them to the course and add them up for free. 

So without further ado check out how to make a quick realistic shadow in Photoshop cs3.

Please note:  I am still working out the kinks on how to get the full size video up here without having to change my blog layout again. 

Digital Scrapbook Designer Course :: In this lesson: Realistic Drop Shadows

Digital Scrapbook Designer Course!

Coming soon!  I am putting together a list of subjects and classes that I feel will benefit anyone wanting to become a digi scrap designer.  I went through the ranks learning as I went and getting alot of help and now looking back on it I wish that there had been a course that walked me through the process that a designer uses to make a complete kit, how the process of getting hired works, how to market my skills and how about getting a blog? 

There are many many things that are asked but never answered in the designing world when it comes to digital scrapbooking so here it is! 

The first ever ( I think….I hope!) complete course that takes you from wondering how on earth to  make a realistic ribbon to setting up your blog and marketing yourself and getting a job!

Any input or skills/classes you all would like to see be a part of the course please scream it at me while I get this thing together.  Its going to be huge ( I don't mean like I'm going to be a millionaire huge I mean the course is going to be very big with alot of information) with pdf files, word files, design files, freebies to get you started, tips, tricks and most exciting each major component will be covered in a step-by-step VIDEO tutorial!!!!

I am excited I hope you all are too!!!!!

 

love,

slaving away with carpel tunnel from writing this course LOL

Rounded corners TUTORIAL for PS CS2

Dont ask me how amidst all my designing that I ended up doing a tut on rounded corners but I did and so that it doesnt go to waste here it is. I hope it can help someone out there who is new to ps cs2 and or rounded corners.

Now please keep in mind that this is not the only way you can do rounded rectangles in cs2. Its just my preferred way and therefore how I chose to share it. My way is a bit longer than the other way but gives me more control over my final result as oppose to using the marquee tools.

Ok in the above photo I have opened ps cs2 and have two images open. My background image and my photo that I will put rounded corners on.

My next order of business is to drag my photo onto my background so go ahead and select your little arrow tool (I will assume you know which one I mean) and drag your photo onto your background. This will put your photo on its own layer and you can now close out your original photo layer.

This is what I have now. (Please keep in mind that my photo is much smaller than my background photo so that you can easily see both)

Now we need to select our rounded rectangle tool and give it the correct settings. So select your rounded rectangle tool which is highlighted in the below picture.

Great now lets give our tool the correct settings. In the picture below you will see that I have a few things pointed out. I have explained what they are in the picture itself. So go ahead and select those settings now. Please feel free to choose any radius number that you like. For purposes of this I chose a radius of 40 but you can choose whatever you like.

Below you can see my settings



Now go ahead and chose your paths palette and click on load path as a selection. See photo below.

Now that you have done that you will have the marching ants but only around your photo. We dont want that because it would delete your photo so we want to inverse our marching ants so they are around our background and our photo. This means that if we were to delete any portion of our layer it would be what is between the ants. If your lost dont worry now is when the magic happens. Follow the instructions in the next photo and you will have your rounded corners on your photo.

You will simply go to select>inverse (ctrl +shift+I) and your photo will match mine with marching ants surrounding both your background and your photo. Then be sure your photo layer is higlighted, then go to edit>cut or edit>clear.

Here is my final result with a drop shadow added. How did you do???



Any questions or problems? Just drop me a line and I will answer you as I can.