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Review by Ariadna Wiczling
Note: Review written using Adobe Photoshop
CS3.
What is a transparency? Well, it is something transparent,
isn't it? Yes, it is.
Transparencies are very versatile and differential products. What
they have in common is a transparent background.
You may use them in many ways:
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as an overlay
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as a paper template
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as an embellishment template
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as wordart
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as a frame for a photo
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even as a digital layout template (the Esprit
Transparency, for example)
Let me show you a few tricks using different types of
transparencies. First I used a transparency as an overlay and as wordart.
To make this layout I opened up a new document, dragged
and dropped Thao's Affection Paper and recolored
it a little bit. Next I added Thao's Merry Mine Transparency.
I created a new layer, selected the transparency and hid the "marching
ants" by pressing Ctrl+H.
I turned off an original
transparency layer visibility. I chose a very soft and large brush
(Hardness 0%, size 700 px) with a light blue color. I started painting
on a new layer with a very low opacity of 10%. I made a few strokes,
then I changed the opacity to 40% and just clicked in few places.
This technique gives a soft, blended look.
Next I dragged and dropped my photo. I added Shalae's
Harvest Word Art Transparency (retired) to the upper-left corner.
I wanted this to have a soft blended look too, so I recolored it to
brown and added a layer mask by pressing the "Add Layer Mask"
button at the bottom of the Layers Palette. I reset my color swatches
by pressing the "D" key. I then chose the Gradient Tool
(default settings - Foreground to Background Color - black
to white). I dragged a short line, so the bottom part of the wordart
was still visible.
I didn't want this layout to be overloaded, so
I added just one more element - Brandy's Expedition
Passport Stamp with a date and city name. I also recolored
it to white. Finally I added shadows for more depth.
Layout by Ariadna Wiczling
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The second page was a little bit more complex. I took
a few of my daughter's pictures in her "rocking"
bodysuit, and I wanted the layout style to match that. I started a
new document and recolored my background layer to orange. I then dragged
and dropped Syndee's Streaky Transparency,
Brandy's Street Grunge Transparency and Mandy's
Angles Transparency and changed the Blend Modes
of each layer to "Soft Light." Look what an interesting
background paper I got!
Next I opened Erica's Rock and Roll Transparency
file. In order to color this transparency and create my own embellishment,
I needed to open a new document. Here's what I did:
I selected all the parts that I wanted to color with
the same color by clicking with the Magic Wand Tool and Shift+Clicking on parts that were separated by black outlines (you should get a little
"plus" sign near your cursor - that means that you're
adding to an existing selection). I wanted to make sure that I wouldn't
get a narrow white space near outlines, so I expanded my selection
by going to Select> Modify> Expand and chose
3 pixels. I created a new layer UNDERNEATH and filled the selection
with the color of my choice. I repeated those steps for each color.
When I was done with coloring I merged all the layers.
I wanted to give my embellishment a "drawn on
the paper" look, so I selected it and expanded the selection
by 50 pixels. Next I smoothed the selection, because I didn't
want the corners to appear too sharp (go to Select> Modify>
Smooth). I chose 50 pixels. I got some holes inside of the
doodle, so I added those areas to my selection using the Marquee Tool
(Shift+Drag adds to the selection).
I created a new layer UNDERNEATH and filled the selection
with white. It looked great, but flat - I needed some texture. What
I like to use in this case is Erica's White Linen Paper from
her Just the Basics Paper Set. I dragged it onto
my working document and chose the "Multiply" Blend Mode.
Here's what I got.
Next I created a clipping mask by pressing Ctrl+Alt+G
and merged all the layers. My embellishment was ready, so I dragged
and dropped it to my layout.
I wanted to create another embellishment using Mandy's
Measure Up Transparency. I dragged and dropped it
to my layout, used the Rectangle Marquee Tool to draw a tape shape,
created a new layer UNDERNEATH and filled the selection with blue.
That looked great but... flat! This time I used Lori's Grunge
Textures to give it a little bit of texture. I also added
some bevel and emboss. Here's what I got.
Doesn't that look awesome?
Next I added photos, the rest of the embellishments,
typed the journaling and added Thao's Affection Alpha
which matches my daughter's bodysuit perfectly!
Finally I added shadows.
Using transparencies, I finished two layouts with my
very own embellishments and got a custom look. So get yourself to
work today and create something special for your pages using transparencies!
Layout by Ariadna Wiczling
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Ariadna is a devoted digital scrapbooker
and spends almost all of her free time on the computer. She hopes
that her face will look just like it does in this picture when she
sees your layouts with transparencies!
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