Totally Ripped!

Okay … by now, you are GOOD at ripping paper in the digital world … BUT … you aren’t quite sure how to go about tearing the paper on ALL FOUR SIDES … what’s a girl to do???

For this tutorial you’ll need:

1. a PNG file containing the “torn edge” (see my tutorial called, “A digital paper tearing???” for a link to a freebie torn edge)
2. a piece of digital paper
3. both items open and imported into a layout file (paper layer at the bottom of the layer stack, torn edge on the layer above it)

Let’s begin!

Duplicate the TORN EDGE layer. Activate the top-most TORN EDGE layer.

Using your Rectangular Marquee tool set to FIXED SIZE and settings as 12″ width and 6″ height, click once on your canvas and move the selection to the bottom half of the canvas.

Press DELETE.

Activate the other TORN EDGE layer.

With the Rectangular Marquee tool still active, click inside the selection area and move it to the top half of the canvas.

Press DELETE. Now, just so you can actually SEE that I’ve deleted the top half of the torn edge on this layer, I’ll turn the visability of the other torn edge layer off.

Change to the Move Tool and rotate the top TORN EDGE layer until it is perpendicular to the other TORN EDGE layer. Move them until you have them arranged so they make a right-angle corner.

ZOOM in and see if you need to make any adjustments (using your eraser tool, or the smudge tool, or the clone tool) to make the corner believable.  I won’t be covering the process of adjusting the corners…that is a topic for another day (or better yet … come to one of our weekend retreats! We always have time to cover “special requests”).

Now that I’ve zoomed in, I can see that I have a stray row of black pixels … I’ll be erasing those before I continue. The rest of my corner looks fine to me.

Once you are satisfied with the corner, MERGE the two layers (select both layers and press CTRL+E).

Duplicate the new “corner” layer.

My duplicated torn edge layer is on top and with my Move tool I’m going to rotate it until it creates a square.

IF YOU WANTED a rectangle…adjust the size of the cuts made at the beginning of this tutorial. The rest of the process is the same.

Check those corners (just like we did in an earlier step) and make any necessary changes.

Merge the two layers with torn edges together (remember how? Select them both, CTRL+E). Keep this layer as your active layer.

Activate your Magic Wand and turn ON the Contiguous option then click once outside the recently created “frame”.

Inverse your selection (tip: the quick keys for Inversing Selection is CTRL+SHIFT+I)

Add a new blank layer and move it to the bottom of the Layers Palette (under the paper).

Activate the new layer and FILL the selection (any color will do). This will be your CLIPPING MASK for the paper

Group this layer to the paper layer. (You didn’t seriously think I would do a tutorial that didn’t make use of a Layer Mask, did you?!!!) LOOK! You’ve create a TOTALLY RIPPED piece of paper!

HAVE FUN and thanks for stopping by!

A digital paper tearing???

You know how so MANY things are SO much easier to do in digital scrapbooking than they are in the “real” paper world? Like, resizing a photo, or making duplicates of a photo, or getting the paper and elements to match accent colors in your photo perfectly? Well, I’m actually confessing that there are a few tasks that are much more challenging in the digital world than they would be in the real world.

Such as … tearing a piece of paper! It is NOT a simple matter of grab and rip! But … let me see if I can help!

Here’s a quick little tutorial and a FREEBIE to get you started!

1. Begin by finding a “real” piece of cardstock…one that has a white filling and colored outside coatings (pick a piece that has deep, rich colors … not pastel). Lay it on the table.
2. While holding the paper down with one hand, begin tearing along one edge … make the tear interesting … alternate between pulling the paper up and in (toward your other hand … creating a wider margin of white center showing) and pulling the paper straight up from the table (this will minimize the amount of white center showing).
3. Place your paper face-down on a scanner and cover it with black paper or cloth.
4. Scan it at 300dpi and Full color (this way it will be an RGB file format.
5. Once it’s scanned, import it into Photoshop/Photoshop Elements and select all the colored areas (leaving the white torn area) and delete them.
6. Crop the image to include only the remaining “torn” edge.
7. Save the file in PNG format.

For your benefit, I’m giving you a FREEBIE torn edge that I scanned. DOWNLOAD IT HERE.

Now, to use this in a layout:

Open your digital paper.
Open the torn edge PNG file.
Create a new layout file.
Import items 1 and 2 (above) into your layout file.

Make sure the torn edge layer is above the paper layer and that it is the active layer (notice how mine is light grey? . . . over there . . .  the layers palette?)
Get your magic wand and select the area on the side of the torn edge that you’d like to remove
(the part of the paper below that you would rip off if you could!).

NOTE: If your selection includes all the transparent pixels … make sure the “Contiguoss” option is turned on (see your Options Bar at the top of the screen). If that doesn’t help, then you may need to “stretch” (resize) the torn paper layer so it is taller than your canvas … zoom way out so you have grey workspace all the way around your canvas, then stretch the torn paper layer to 104%)

Once you have your selection, you’ll need to inverse the selection. (use the menus, use the pop-ups, or use the short keys to Inverse Selection … whichever you prefer)Now, insert a new layer and move it so it is below your paper layer.
With your new empty layer active, FILL the selection (again…lots of ways to fill the area…use the method you prefer!)
You are ready to RIP!  … CLIP, I mean!  Go ahead … group the paper layer to the layer you just made (by the way, the layer you just made is called a “Clipping Mask”)
Your paper will now appear to be RIPPED/TORN. Pretty cool, ay?

Now, let’s say you want to tear all four sides of a piece of paper. Any idea on how to do that?  I shall post another tutorial … just in case you’d like some guidance for that.  Look for a tutorial called, “Totally Ripped!”  … see you there!

Wee little cowboy

While his sister will resist wearing a hat of any sort, William LOVES them! Even at six months old he was happily wearing hats. Just check out the happy little cowboy!

CREDITS:  Lil Cowboy by PixieMama Designs

Family Time

More reminiscing . . . Pictures from Savannah’s first big road trip! December 2005 she and her mama drove 7 and a half hours to spend a weekend with Auntie Sara and Uncle Ken. I’ve always loved the photos from that visit … just now getting around to putting them into the scrapbook.

and here’s the facing page from the scrapbook:

CREDITS: Holiday Sugar Cookies by PixieMama Designs

Got Milk?

With the arrival of the recent winter storm, I’ve been doing some reminiscing. Ran across these adorable pictures of Ms. Savannah when she was 10 months old. She and her Mama flew out to Iowa to spend a few weeks with us. What a wonderful visit we had!

One day Tara wanted to teach Savannah how to drink milk from a saucer … LOOK at the fun!

Page 2 (the right-hand page for her book):

CREDITS:

December Desktop

Couldn’t resist playing with the recent photos of the California grands! The silly Ms Scarlett climbed onto my desktop’s title frame and tipped it over!

CREDITS:

A Christmas Carol QP freebie from Verena Karoyli

Best Wishes kit from Sev Designs (for the paper behind the letters in Merry Christmas)

Countryside Christmas freebie from Studio Rosey Posey (the frame)

and a variety of fonts!

The start of an epic journey

Our son, Paul, is about to begin an epic journey … the journey to becoming an incredible Dad. His journey began years ago when he and his wife were touched by their experience at an orphanage in Ethiopia. His heart ached . . . seeing the little children missing so many blessings for the lack of a mom and dad . . . humbling and sad, the beginning of a personal challenge . . . to find a way to change the world.
One week ago, he and Andrea got word that they are now, officially, the parents of Elijah! A beautiful baby boy currently living in an orphanage (a transition house, technically) in Ethiopia. Gracious people who’ve recently been there have taken photos of Elijah and shared them with Paul & Andrea. While in Birmingham recently we got to see the collection of images . . . what a beautiful little boy he is! Big brown eyes and smiling happily in most of the photos (if he’s awake, he’s smiling! a few photos were taken when he was sleeping!).
We are so happy to see Paul become a parent! Just you wait and see . . . it’s going to be amazing! God has His hand on Paul’s life. Great things are in store! Bruce and I are really looking forward to meeting Elijah . . . beautiful Gift from God!

Fast Fun!

Page two of the brief visit with Auntie Katy in Boone (when the Schields’ babies were here last fall)

CREDITS:

Effervescence Mini Kit

Auntie Love

During their visit to Iowa this past fall, Katy had a chance to play at the park for just an hour or so in Boone. It was fun to see how easily the children warmed up to her and enjoyed getting some Auntie Love!

CREDITS:

Effervescence Mini Kit

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Thankful for You!

There are SO MANY reasons I’m thankful for my sweet husband! He’s a treasure (even when I can-not-for-the-life-of-me figure out which side of the planet Mars he hails from!) He has a smile on hand all the time! He has a crazy sense of humor. He takes great care of me and our family. He is a ROCK, once he’s decided something! … Well … I think you can see … I have lots of reasons I’m VERY thankful for him!

CREDITS:

GIVE THANKS STORE MEGA COLLAB (Scrapable.net)