Learning Curve vs. New Baby

Well, I'm starting to get a few moments here and there to scrap more, recently. We adopted an 8 month old baby in August and since I am a stay-at-home-mom (SAHM) I have been VERY busy. Did I mention we have a 3.5 year old, too? If you're a mom, I KNOW you can feel my pain! LOL! That said, my learning curve on GIMP has been virtually NON-EXISTENT! I sometimes wondered if I was ever going to digi-scrap again.... :(

Today I was playing around with a photo, trying to make it look like those old prints with the white border around them.... Well, I used the "rounded rectangle" feature on it under the "select" menu option (I think) and was able to make the corners of my photo rounded. It was very cool!

Here's the scoop on the rounded corners:

1. Place your photo or whatever in a new window by itself (mine was part of a LO that I was working on, so I did "copy" and then "paste as new")
2. Choose "select" from the drop down menus, then choose "rounded rectangle"
3. I chose 5% radius for my little photo and it turned out great, but you can fiddle around with the number to find what works best for you
4. Once you have the rounded corners on your screen, choose "select" then "invert"
5. Choose "edit" "cut" and this should cut off the rounded corners from your picture

Pretty cool, huh?

Happy New Year and happy scrapping!

My apologies...

I just added a link to some wonderful tutorials and must apologize to their author "laurarid" for not putting it up sooner. Hope you all enjoy!

Do you use overlays when you scrap?

Well, I will now, now that I've figured out HOW! Some girlfriends and I have used the overlay mode before when altering outdoor photographs for a more bright contrasty look. But it never dawned on me to use the overlay mode with an --oh my gosh!-- overlay! LOL! Let me tell you about the mode first. It is so cool! :D Overlay mode takes on the color of the paper underneath what is in overlay mode. Does that make sense? Here we go:

Open a plain colored paper for your background. Open a highly textured layer or overlay for your top layer. Open your layers dialogue if you haven't already, and make sure that the overlay layer is selected. Now go to the mode drop down menu in your layers dialogue and choose "overlay." An AMAZING THING will happen! :D

Now that you know this new trick, if you need some great papers and overlays, check out www.scrapgirls.com !

I've added a couple of links...

I hope these tutorials have been helpful for you all that already use the GIMP. I've found Photoshop tutorials online that have helped me tremendously in breaking new ground in my GIMP knowledge, but here you get it directly for GIMP. Please let me know if there is something specific you would like to see here, or if these tutorials have been helpful for you...

Here's a random thought: check out the latest issue of Simple Scrapbooks Digital Scrapbooking 5! It is amazing to sit in front of my computer with my magazine in my lap and learn so many new and amazing ways to scrap!

But I digress... this blog entry was supposed to be for those of you who scrap with something other than GIMP, or are curious about scrapping or who stumbled upon this blog and are curious. If you are interested in absolute FREEDOM in digital scrapbooking, check out the GIMP!

I think I need to not be so excited about this...but it's hard when I want to eat breathe and sleep digital scrapbooking! Are you like that, too? Post a comment and tell me about your passion for scrapbooking. And then post another one and tell me about your passion for the GIMP!

Ciao for now!

Tutorial for changing font color to pattern

I figured out how to make text take on a pattern.

1. Choose the layer you want (in the layers dialogue) and create a pattern from it
(script-fu --> selection --> to pattern)
2. Type some text that you want to change to pattern (you'll want to use a big blocky font for this)
3. click on select --> by color, then click on the black text
4. click on edit --> fill with pattern

There you go! This is so cool! I learn, you learn. Isn't this fun?

Our first mini-tutorial...

...otherwise known as "what I wish I knew about GIMP when I got started scrapping."

When you first open GIMP it's not very intuitive what to do first. I think the window that opens is called the "toolbox" or something like that. Also, some nice tips will pop up that you can scroll through, or close, whichever your pleasure. Some great reading material once you've spent a few hours on GIMP fiddling around with stuff tho! :D

Here is the first thing I would suggest. If you've downloaded some freebies or some nice "for purchase" kit, click on "File", "Open" and then find a background that you like and click "ok." Once your background is open you will have a new set of dropdown menus to choose from at the top of the new window. Click on "dialogue" at the top of the new window and then click on "layers." This will open a small window that will show you all the layers that you have created in your layout. Now, click on "file" on your background window, "open as layer", and choose a photo from your harddrive. Once it is open you will see in your "layers" window (also called a dialogue) that you have two layers: the background and your photo. :D Isn't that nifty?

Some fun things you can do with your photo now: click on the "move" button on your toolbox and then click and drag your photo around. Drop it somewhere, then click and drag and move it some more. Now, go to the layers dialogue and find the "opacity" feature. Right now it should say 100, but you can either click and drag the slider around, or click on the arrows to decrease the opacity of the layer. You can also click on the background on the layers dialogue, but for now, you don't really need to. Are you having fun yet? More to come, and questions are always welcome! :D Please leave a comment and let me know if this was helpful to you, too.

Would anyone here like a complimentary doodle?

Well, here ya go! These doodles are the best! Thanks DDE!

This is supposed to be a blinkie.

I'm still hoping for some design help here...

Could you, would you please! I don't want a bland blog. I don't like bland scrapbooking and I want this to be something other scrappers will enjoy. :D

I want something like this on top.


I guess I'll figure it out eventually.

Am I an artist?

Well, I don't know if I would call myself an artist--more of a "wife of a computer geek" who found the GIMP through her husband. I like to think I'm creative, and he will sometimes roll his eyes at me for what I think is cool! So, now a friend of mine wants me to make a blinkie for her website to link to my blog, and I have no idea how to do it. I guess just make a really tiny layout and call it good. Maybe 100pixels x 200 pixels? What do you think? Oh, and any suggestions would be much appreciated on the look of my blog, since I am completely HTML-illiterate, and not very blog-savy. Ciao!

the GIMP--it's not just for geeks anymore

I am having so much fun! Now I gotta figure out how to post a pic on here for y'all to see. :D

My wonderful 2 year old is yammering at me about everything trivial under the sun--it's a wonder I'm sitting upright these days. But when I get a chance (and the strength) I digi-scrap.

One wonderful community of scrappers I have found is at www.digitalscrapbookplace.com. They have wonderful forums and a couple of threads about using GIMP! One is in the beginners forum and one is in the software forum. Another resource I have found--and a new friend as well--is at www.digitalpapertearing.com. She added a tutorial for using her digital tears with GIMP. What a servant! :D Thanks so much to you!

Anyway, now that those little intro's are out of the way, off to play with the kiddo! :D

A Fabulous Idea!

Since no one else in the WORLD seems to scrap with GIMP why not start a blog about it and let the masses come to me?!

I must say, I was exagerating a bit by saying "no one," and will enlighten you all about my few but humble sources of aid and encouragement in another entry. For now I will bask in my glory.