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July 10th 2008

Scrapbook Journaling with Your Handwriting

Last week I wrote about the importance of including journaling on your scrapbook layouts.

Well how about this for a scrapbook idea…

Increase the heritage and nostalgia value of your scrapbook layout by including your own handwriting in your journaling!

Now I can hear all the paper scrapbookers saying ” No no no! My handwriting is terrible. I don’t want to ruin my scrapbook layouts by scrawling all over them. And what if I make a mistake? I’ll be ruining my supplies trying to get my writing to look good.”

Meanwhile all the digital scrapbookers are sitting back smugly saying, ” Well I scrap digitally so I can’t use my handwriting (phew, thank heavens for that). The most I can do is use a handwriting font on my computer.”

Well I have the perfect solution for you, whether you’re a digital scrapbooker or a traditional one. Read on.

Why bother with journaling in your own handwriting?

First of all let’s think about why it’s important to journal in your own handwriting anyway.

If you are seeking to leave a legacy for your children in your scrapbook layouts then examples of your handwriting is an important part of that legacy. Unlike with previous generations, we are no longer a society that does very much letter writing. Especially handwritten letters. When we do write a letter we usually do it on the computer, or more likely we’ll just send an email.

But your handwriting is very much a part of who you are. And your children will cherish the few examples they have of it in years to come.

My Mother passed away nine years ago. I still miss her. She wrote herself a short affirmation on a scrap of notepaper which she kept stuck on the fridge.

As you can see it’s a scrappy piece of paper, the writing is fading fast and they’re not even words that she made up herself. But you know what? It’s one of my most treasured possessions.

And that’s how your kids will view examples of your handwriting, which will probably end up being rarities in their own right.

So here’s a fail-safe method for incorporating your handwriting into your scrapbook layouts.

Scan your journaling

You may remember June’s article on scanning objects to use in your digital and hybrid scrapbook layouts. Well the same thing can apply to your journaling.

And the big advantage to doing this is that you can practice writing what you want to say as many times as you like until you’re satisfied with the look of it.

Just write on a sheet of plain white paper (Tip: If you’re worried about keeping your writing straight, put your

paper on top of a sheet of lined paper so you can see the lines through it. You might need to rule over the lines to make them darker.) Write what you want to say and then scan it into your computer.

For those without photo editing software such as Photoshop Elements, you can import the JPG graphic into your Word program (or equivalent wordprocessor) as a picture and resize it to fit your journal tag then print it out. Cut it to size and glue it in place.

If you have a graphics editing program it’s even better. Scan your handwritten journaling into your software and then remove the background using the Magic Wand tool (or whichever is the equivalent in your own software). You now have your handwritten journaling with a transparent background.

You can layer it on a journal tag and resize it to fit the tag as I’ve done here in my You’re the Best layout of my daughter. Or you can put it straight on your scrapbook layout background.

Whichever method you choose, I hope you’ll give some serious consideration to including some examples of your handwriting in your scrapbook layouts. It adds and extra level of personality to them and I believe that it will increase their value to your kids enormously.

What do you think? Do you include you own handwriting in your scrapbook layouts or do you avoid it because you don’t like the way it looks?

If you don’t like your own handwriting, I think this scrapbook idea is well worth giving a try?

Let us know in the comments below how you go about your own journaling, or even whether you do it or not.

Credits for the elements used in my Your’s the Best go to Cheryl Barber’s Etcetera Kit from Scrap Girls.

Add a Great Effect to your Photos with a Layer Filter

Have you tried using Layer Filters on your photos?

There is a whole world of play available to you in the Filters Menu in Photoshop Elements (and of course in other good photo editing software packages too, but the names and menu directions will be different). Try giving your scrapbook layouts a little extra kick by applying one or more filters to a photo to create a different look.

My Gelati Days Layout is an example. (For those of you with good memories I used this layout in my Blend Your Own Backgrounds tutorial, so it demonstrates two techniques for the price of one. Good value eh?)

As you can see, the photo in this layout is of a cup of yummy gelato sitting on a sidewalk cafe table. I have made this a tradition as the very first thing I do when I arrive to stay with Seona and Phil in Sydney because they live in the middle of a fabulous cafe precinct.

However, for this scrapbook layout I didn’t want the clutter of the surrounding tables to detract from the subject, or for that matter from the gorgeous Renew Collection by Shalea Tippett.

There were several ways I considered going with this:
* turning the background to black and white, or
* desaturating the colour out of the background, or
* cutting the gelato cup out and using it without a background.

But I decided to use an Embossing Filter to recede the background but just leave enough of a hint of it to keep some context around the subject. Also I think it creates a slightly metallic impression to the cafe furniture by defining the edges, which goes with the gelato theme.

So here’s how to apply effects to your photo backgrounds:

Drag your photo onto your layout and size and position it the way you want. It doesn’t really matter if you need to move it later but I find it easier to decide whether I like the look if I can get it roughly into position before I start playing around with it.
As always, create a duplicate layer of your photo by highlighting the layer to be duplicated and dragging it up to the New Layer icon at the top left of the Layers Pallet (or highlight the layer in your Layers Pallet and choose Layer>Duplicate Layer from the top menu bar).
Note Steps 4 to 9 only apply if you want to apply your effect to a background and leave the subject of the photo ‘au natural’ so to speak. Skip them if you’re applying your effect to the whole photo.
Highlight your duplicate layer in the Layers Pallet. Zoom in so your subject fills your screen.
Choose the Selection Brush from your Toolbar and set it to Mask.
Paint over the area that you want to remove from the layer (in my case it was the gelati). When you’ve finished select the Move tool and you’ll get marching ants around the outside of your selection.
If you want to remove the area that you have masked, click on Select>Inverse from the top menu bar. Then press Delete. You will have now cut a hole in this layer the shape of the ares of your photo that you don’t want to apply the filter to. It doesn’t look any different on your layout because you can see through the gap to your original layer.
From the Menu choose Select>Deselect. This will remove the ‘marching ants’ around your subject.
You can play around with many different filters on this layer and your subject will show through the ‘hole’ you have just cut in its original form. Note Filters are cumulative. So if you try out different ones on the same layer, make sure you undo the previous action first as they will just keep applying the next one on top of your previous filter.
Choose Filters from the drop down list at the top left of the Special Effects Pallet and select from the filter categories in the drop down menu on the right of the pallet. Select your category (the default is All) and away you go. I would recommend making a duplicate layer each time you try a new filter so that you can easily discard them if you don’t like them and not have to retrace your steps with the CtrlZ each time. Also I often like to make several layers with different filter effects and then toggle between them using the Eye icon in the Layers Pallet to decide which one I like best.

For this photo, from Special Effects Pallet I selected Filters in the drop down menu and chose All from the categories menu. I double clicked on Emboss and then I boosted the height of the embossing to 16 pixels and the amount to 200% in the dialog box that appeared. The entire layer went grey with an embossed metal effect.

I then reduced the opacity of this layer in the Layers Pallet to a level where I could see my photo background clearly enough but still kept that slightly embossed finished.

Because I didn’t want the grey tinge, I selected Enhance>Adjust Color>Color Variations from the Menu bar and played around with the colour options until I achieved a green that I liked.

Then I applied a drop shadow to the photo background layer and I was done.

To make sure everything stays in place and you don’t accidentally drag one of the layers out of sync with the rest, select all your photo layers in the Layers Pallet (click on each layer whilst holding down the Shift key to highlight them all, then click on the Chain Link icon at the top of the Layers Pallet. I usually leave it at that because I like to be able to go back and fiddle later sometimes, but if you want to reduce the file size, you can merge all your photo layers together by choosing Layer>Merge Linked from the Menu Bar. Just remember that after you have saved and closed your file you won’t be able to return to the component layers once you do this.

There are many Filters you can choose from in the Special Effects Pallet. Artistic, Blur, Brush Strokes, to name just three. And each category will offer you a range of filter options to try.

So as you can see, using Filters can be a lot of fun and give you some very cool scrapbook layouts.

I know that many of you have played with Filters? What do you think of them? Why not share some of your favourite Filters in the comments section below?

If you haven’t tried using Filters on your scrapbook layouts I recommend you give them a go. They are a whole lot of fun and you can create some very unique looks.

Why Journaling is Important on your Scrapbook Layouts

A picture paints a thousand words!

But do you know what?

Sometimes that’s just not enough!

Often we create our scrapbook layouts as visual pieces of art with our photo as the centerpiece. And we leave the photo to tell the story. That might work when the event is still fresh in our minds. But what about when we (or some other members of the family) look at it in a few years? What about when your child looks at it in ten years time? Will he or she remembers the story of the event? Or will you need to be there to explain it to them and prod their memory?

We really need to provide some journaling ‘back-up’ to our scrapbook layouts. It forms the foundation, if you like, for our creative presentation of the moment.

Sometimes the story can be long and detailed, and your journaling will need to be an integral element in your scrapbook layout design. And sometimes you will just place a few factual anchors, like who the people in the photo are, when it was taken and where.

That may not tell the story of the photo but at least there’ll be a little context. This is especially true with a lot of your heritage photos, where you may well not know the story and sadly those who did may no longer be with you. I know I have this frustration. I have a bunch of old photos that my parents have kept over the years. When I was younger I didn’t really care much about them, but now I want to know more about those moments and people. Who they were and how they fit into my own history.

And sadly it’s too late. I didn’t capture those stories when my parents were alive and now there’s no one to tell them.

I don’t want that to happen to my daughter. I know that when she is older she too will want to know about life in the ‘olden days’ and I may not be there to explain the significance of the people, places and moments in the photos, and more importantly, what they meant to me. So, although journaling does not come naturally to me, I have to find ways to add some verbal back-up detail to my layouts.

So I urge you to try to include some journaling on your own scrapbook layouts. Try this scrapbook idea if you are struggling with what to say after writing the who, when and where:

Look at the photo. What’s your initial emotion? Write it down on a scrap of paper.

Then journal this:

“Looking at this photo always makes me feel………….. . You look so ……………. that I have to smile, even when I’m feeling down.”

You can use variations on this for a few of your layouts and before you know it, you’ll start to find journaling will come easier to you.

Just think how you would feel if you looked at your Mother’s or Grandmother’s scrapbook and you read something like that. Wouldn’t it move you? Wouldn’t it be really special?

Don’t your kid’s deserve to feel that too?

This is the first in a two part series on Journaling. Stay tuned for the second installment next week.

If you think this would be of interests to other scrapbookers, I love it if you would link to the article in your own blogs and maybe give it a thumbs up on StumbleUpon.

Part 2: Scrapbook Journaling with Your Own Handwriting

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