Great PSE Shortcuts!

I just found this site that had great shortcuts for PSE check them out!

http://www.webdesignerwall.com/tutorials/photoshop-secret-shortcuts/

Load Brushes in PSE8 on MAC

Ok to load the brushes you can do it via:

Applications>Adobe>Photoshop Elements 8.0 >Presets>Brushes

Free Actions

Check out the following for free actions:

http://www.cavesofice.org/~grant/Challenge/Tools/index.html

http://coffeeteaphotography.blogspot.com/

Have a great site for free actions? Let me know :-)

Installing Styles PSE8 on MAC

Here are the steps to installing Styles with PSE8 on a MAC:

You will need to copy the .xml and the .asl files both into the following folder:

From the top level MAC HD Folder --> Library>Application --> Support>Adobe>Photoshop Elements>8.0>Photo Creations>Layer Styles

If your style does not come with a .xml file you can copy one that is in the folder and rename it to the style you have...just delete out all the item stuff as you don't need that. Then rename the Mediadatabase.db3 to MediadatabaseOLD.db3 (that is located at Library\Application Support\Adobe\Photoshop Elements\8.0\Locale\ en-US).

Restart PSE8 and you should be all set!

Installing Actions PSE8 MAC

Great Resource for installing actions on Mac:

http://www.texaschicksblogsandpics.com/photography-page/installing-actions-in-photoshop-elements/install-actions-in-photoshop-elements-8-on-mac/

Also, if you are wanting to organize them in "folders" then check out the following on how to modify the metadata.xml file associated with each action:

http://www.texaschicksblogsandpics.com/organize-actions-by-category-in-pse-7-and-8-free-template/

Organizing with Picasa

2 posts in one day!...what can I say its been a long time. But with the three little ones and summer...its been crazy. Anyways...I made the move over to a mac from pc a month ago. I am still getting adjusted...I think the biggest change for me scrapbooking was moving from ACDSee to Picasa. ACDSee is beta on mac...and I didn't want to install a beta and risk all my organization not transferring once it was released. I also didn't want to wait forever to organize. Let me just say I am a HUGE ACDSee fan. I am a organizing fiend. I have to have everything in a certain place or it drives me crazy...so changing to a new organization style I did not take lightly. I researched lots of different options...and for me it came down to iPhoto and Picasa (everyone is different...this is just my opinions). In ACDSee I used categories to organize and didn't use the tag features and search that much. I just organized down to the detail with categories. With Picassa I didn't really have that choice (or iPhoto) for that matter. The two programs IMO are very similar. They both search quickly, use tags and you can create albums. The reason I choose Picasa instead of iPhoto was that you can search on color without tagging...which was huge for me not to have to tag all that stuff (as I did in ACDSee). The only thing I didn't like about Picasa was it was all single level for the albums...you can't have sub-albums.

How I organized Picasa to make it similar to my ACDSee style:

I have high level albums only (I use the create album using tag feature...love this!). So for example my main albums are: Kit Previews, alpha, design tools, embellishment, frame, image, journaling, paper, quick page, template

Then I have tons of tags off of these, I tag for example template, 2photo, square If I have a template that has 2 photos and is a 12x12 format. The more I tag the easier it is to find stuff. So now I can click on Kit Preview and see all my kit preview jpgs. Or I can search on 2photo and see all templates that are 2photos.

This way of searching is so fast! I have lots to still tag and just have been using this for a month but I like it a lot. Only thing that I had to go through and redo ...was I listed it 2 photo (with a space in between) it doesn't search well like that so I had to remove the space and tag them as 2photo. Otherwise it would pull anything with photo in the tag...make sense?

Anyway I hope this helps others as I searched like crazy and nothing that I could find organized the way I did in ACDSee so this way is at least similar so my brain can function :-)

Hi All

Its been a while since I posted...but I have been busy working on my son's 1st year book. Here are the latest two layouts I have done. I have his 12 month birthday one and then it is complete...Im so excited that it is done. Ive gotten a little behind. I still haven't started on 2010 at all..so that is next and I have my daughters preschool artwork I wanted to put into a book for her. Usually for my year books, I print out the layout at costco and then put in a creative memories book...but after the last year...I just decided that was too expensive to keep doing. I really only did it as the kids could then look at the book as the year progressed...but I am going to try this year and just bind the book. I have to figure out where I am going to get it printed at. Costco has new books and I am hoping they have a 12x12 size as that is what I scrap in....so Ill have to figure that out soon. Other than that I have made the move over to a mac. My next post will be organizing with picassa on a mac after I have been using acdsee for so long...it was an adjustment. :-) Enjoy the layouts!

Template : Kresta's template - Traci Reed - HAWT Mammas Jan 09Kit - Stealing Prince Charming (SSD) treed

treed bad sewing machine xii
lweifenback - paperclips - alphastitches
Pea - ScrapBrandy font
Pea - Stacy Tunibug
Staples - Wild Sorbet Kit (MCO)

Kit - Traci Reed Bare Feet and Blue Jeans (SSD)
Misty Cato - Freebie Say What word bubble
Pea Glo Girl Script - font
Pea Jenna - font

New Layout

I am working on my son's 1st year book and this is the latest layout I have done:

Credits: Kit- Rambunctious (JBillingsley), Alpha Pea Anderson, Traci Reed's Edgy and Matted

Found a new shops!

Here are some cute shops that I just found:

• The Shabby Shoppe
• Scrap Orchard

Hybrid Project Ideas

Here is some hybrid project ideas I have found:

• Calendars

Paper tutorials

Different techniques to make paper:

• Wavy paper out of stripped paper (video)
• Simple striped paper
• Create Multiple sized striped paper

Color Swatch Tutorials

Making Color Swatches for layouts:

• Color swatch from photo
• Using Art to make swatch
• Color Palette in PSE7 (video)

Textures

Site for textures:

CG Textures

Brush and Pattern Resources

Good Resources for free brushes and patterns:

brusheezy

Using Doodles to create pages

Ive been on the hunt to try and figure out how to use thoes cute doodle brushes to make my own paper. I found the following tutorial with some useful info:

Doodle Overlay

Brushes Tutorials

I came across this site that had great tutorials on brushes!

http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/design/tutorials-photoshop-brushes/

Freebies

Found this site with cute freebie kits...check it out :-)

http://scrappingsisters.blogspot.com/

New Tutorial Sites I want to check out

In my searches I found some new tutorial sites I want to check into further:

http://emptyeasel.com/art-tutorials/photoshop-tricks/
http://www.absolutecross.com/tutorials/photoshop/
http://blog.lorrifreedman.com/

Adding Color to Black and White photo in photoshop

So I was searching around and found some cool sites that gave tutorials on how to add color back into a black and white photo. Check out the following:

http://www.astahost.com/info.php/Photoshop-Tutorial-Adding-Color-Black-White-Photo_t7741.html

http://emptyeasel.com/2008/04/29/how-to-add-color-to-black-and-white-photos-in-photoshop/

http://www.absolutecross.com/tutorials/photoshop/photos/colorizing/

http://blog.lorrifreedman.com/index.php/2008/09/24/bringing-color-back/

Cute Site

I found a cute site today when I was searching around. She has freebies and a store with cute things:

http://hereascrapthereascrap.blogspot.com/search/label/freebie

Good site for tutorials

Here is a good site for tutorials I found for PSE:

http://scrapbook-bytes.com/cgi-script/tutorials/publish/index.shtml

Check it out :-)