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Review by Jo Corne
Note: This product review was written using Photoshop CS2 on a PC.
To be honest, when I first got the assignment to write a Way Cool Stuff review on the ScrapSimple Alpha Templates, I was somewhat apprehensive. What will I do? What can I do? What is there to do? Well, let me tell you that there is so much I did, that I learned how to do and that I wanted to do, that this assignment turned out to be a wonderful learning experience for me, and I hope for you, too.
Since I had a fair amount of time to think about this assignment, the perfect photo had time to appear in my camera and once it did, I thought, that’s what I will do for my assignment. There was no stopping me.
I started with my main letter “P” from Erica Hite’s ScrapSimple Alpha: Enchanted and placed each layer of the template on top of the other to get an idea of how it would look.
Then, I started playing with different ways of coloring it. First, I placed a colored paper over the P and clipped the paper to it with my clipping masks.
Another way of colorizing the ScrapSimple Alpha is to use the Hue/Saturation menu, playing with the sliders until you are happy with the color.
Next, I wanted to give the flourish some color and texture, so I played with a number of Styles until I was happy with the result.
Next, I opened up Mandy Steward’s ScrapSimple Alpha: Scribbles and started playing with the different templates. There are quite a few for you to play with. You will get a different alpha every time; you just have to love that versatility!
To color the other letters, I added a beautiful paper from Amanda McGee’s Cottage Quilt Paper Biggie and clipped the paper to the letters to give them their color.
My third way of playing with the ScrapSimple Alpha Templates is to make an alpha tag. I used Durin Eberhart’s ScrapSimple Square Tag as my tag base and then I placed the number four from Melissa Renfro’s ScrapSimple Alpha: Antique Rose. Once again, I played with my Styles until I was happy with the effect I wanted for my tag. You can colorize your tag the same way that you colorize your alpha, with clipping masks, Styles, the Hue/Saturation menu and even with the Blend Mode Options found at the bottom of your Layers Palette.
Now that I have all of my alphas in a row, so to speak, I am ready to put my layout together using all of these wonderful creations.
What I find to work well when placing my ScrapSimple Alphas onto my layout, is to group them together in a folder and rename the folder accordingly. This helps when you want to move your alpha around your page for positioning purposes. You can also link the layers together so that they move as one. And, you can, of course, merge all of the layers together and then only have one alpha layer to play with, but then you must be completely happy with what you have created. Once those layers are merged and saved, there is NO going back and refining them without going back to the beginning of the whole process.
So, I hear you ask... am I still apprehensive of the ScrapSimple Alpha Templates? Well, what do you think? I think that once you get your hands on them, there is NO going back. Just think of all the wonderful things that you will be able to create with a ScrapSimple Alpha Template!
Layout by Jo Corne
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Jo Corne lives in Australia with her hubby, Big Al, and her daughter and son, who at times drive her nuts, but without them she would be totally lost. Now that summer is slowly making its way Down Under, she hopes to spend more time in the warm sunshine after a very cold winter.
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