the GIMP 4 Digi-Scrappers

My attempt at a regular blog

2008-11-08T19:49:00.000-08:00

I'm going to attempt some regularity to my blogging over at myheartbeats4jesus.blogspot.com. It's going to be theme-oriented as so many blogs seem to be now. You know...Monday Menus, Tuesday Trouble, Wednesday Walk-in-the-Park, that kinda thing. I hope you drop by.

Since I've left this blog dormant since May now (!) I will just leave it this way, and if people have questions or what have you, just drop me a comment in one of my posts and I'll be happy to help if I can. I haven't been digi-scrapping in quite a while. Kind of got out of the habit. Maybe I'll do a Scrapping-Sunday, or something like that.

Hope you all are well and enjoying your various pursuits! TTFN ~Jen

My favorite tutorial ever!

2008-05-26T14:49:00.000-07:00

I was browsing through the tutorials I have given you all and I realized one very important one is MISSING! I think this is my favorite because of a particular photo I used that I actually framed and gave to my husband.

Here is the photo I will use for the tutorial:

What I am going to do is highlight the colorful tulips in the photo and make the rest of the photo black and white. It really makes for a stunning effect when done with the right photo.

Step 1: Open the photo you want to work with.
Step 2: Make a copy of the photo. You should now have two images.
Step 3: Convert the copy to black and white. (Image-->Mode-->Grayscale)
Step 4: Convert the copy to RGB. (Image-->Mode-->RGB) This gives a richer depth of field for the grayscale.
Step 5: Copy the grayscale image to the original image. This will give your original image a floating selection. Choose "add layer" in your layers dialog box and it will anchor your layer in place. Now your original should look black and white, but that's only because the b/w layer is on top! You can now minimize your b/w image, or close it without saving.
Step 6: Now the FUN part begins! Reduce the opacity of your b/w layer to about 1/2 (this is optional). You image should look a little bit muted, but the colors will show enough.
Step 7: Zoom in to the part of your photo you want to have colored.
Step 8: Choose the eraser tool in the toolbox and decide the size you want to work with (In 4.4 you can adjust the size of your brush/eraser.)
Step 9: Start gently erasing the b/w layer where you want the color to show through. You might have to adjust the size of your brush a few times in order to fine tune your erasing. + will make a straight line from your last erase mark, too, which helps in this tutorial.
Step 10: Now, if you haven't saved your file already, choose "save as" and save it as a GIMP file. Then choose "save as" and save it as a .jpg file so you can print it, or whatever you want to do!

You're done, now here's my results:

Have fun with this, and please post a link to your results in the comments!

Happy Scrapping! ~Jen

PS. Can you tell the boys were THRILLED to have their picture taken? ;)
PPS. I almost forgot! Before you save your file as a .jpg, increase the opacity on your b/w layer to 100% (to regain the b/w once you're done erasing) then save your GIMP file again.

PPPS. I just noticed I missed something in step 10. By pressing the shift key then clicking the eraser, you can make a straight line of erase mark. Sorry that didn't come out right when I posted it. Blogger read it as html by accident.

More GIMP stuff for your surfing pleasure!

2008-05-21T15:04:00.000-07:00

Have you ever heard of www.digiscrapinfo.com? It is a search engine just for digital scrapbooking sites! And you can add your own site to the list, too, if you want. Go check it out!

I've also run across some new tutorial sites for the GIMP. This page, in particular, looked interesting, but I have yet to peruse the whole website.

This page and this page are translations which don't come across very well, but I'm going to play with them anyway, and see if I can re-translate it better.

Anyway, things have been busy here and I haven't had much time to scrap, but I'm getting ready to do a photo challenge over at www.scrapbooksgonedigital.com so I'm excited to look at these photo editing tutorials.

I hope you all are doing well and have some soothing scrap-time. ~Jen

the GIMP for Macs

2008-05-08T11:06:00.000-07:00

Here's a website I just found which has the GIMP for Mac. I know there are some Mac users out there who would like some free software for digital scrapbooking... :)

http://darwingimp.sourceforge.net/download.html

"Just Give Me Somethin' to Scrap About"

2008-04-16T15:21:00.000-07:00

Are you tired of the same old scrapping ideas that keep floating through your head? Well, here's a "top 10" list for my next scrapbooking slumps. I hope you enjoy them!

10. Laundry (aka. Mt. Washmore)
9. Dishes (Breakfast, Lunch AND dinner--does that count as 3?)
8. Getting the mail (and hoping that our box hasn't been vandalized, again)
7. Morning coffee (and praying that I will get some before the kids wake up)
6. Grocery shopping (on a budget of course!)
5. Garage Sales (wanting to sell all my kids' stuff at one, and wishing I didn't have to do my shopping AT them to GET my kids' stuff)
4. The clock on my living room wall (and it's constant NAGGING! LOL!!)
3. Library books (the one I've lost, and the ones on hold because so many people already want to read them)
2. Google recipes (my favorite "cookbook" in the world!)
1. Toys (stepping on them, tripping over them, skating on them (!), putting them in "time out", throwing the broken ones away, etc, etc, etc....)

Now, if you dare, post your "top 10" in the comments. I'd love to see what is going to motivate you to scrap your next page!

Happy Scrapping!!! ~Jen

GIMPShop

2008-04-10T18:50:00.000-07:00

Have you ever looked at GIMPshop? It's a flavor, or variety of the GIMP. Someone decided to doctor up the GIMP to make it look and feel more like Photoshop, especially for digital scrapbooking. It's also free, just like the regular GIMP. I haven't looked at it myself but I'm curious to hear more about it, especially from someone who has used the GIMP as well, to hear a comparison.

Here is a link for more info if you are interested: http://www.gimpshop.com/

Happy Scrapping! ~Jen

I've been sprucing a little bit around here...

2008-04-03T16:30:00.000-07:00

Just thought you might want to know I've been sprucing up a bit, making this easier for you (hopefully!) to find what you're looking for.

I've added tags to most of my posts, so you can search for tutorials now--and find them! There are many other tag words that will help you find exactly what you're looking for. I hope they are useful! I try to distinguish between beginner, intermediate and advanced tutorials also--I want to make it EASY for you to scrap with the GIMP! :D I've also added an RSS feed. You'll find it in your address window as a little orange square. Just click on it and then follow the directions. Let me know if you find it useful.

I also added a feature so that I can post here from an alternative id, when I'm logged with my other email address. I hope it's not confusing. I have a team now--but it's "me," and my other "me"! :D I'm posting this entry with my new id.

Well, that's about all for now. I've been starting to download some more kits and scrap a little bit more. Remember--YOU learn when I learn!

Happy Scrapping! ~Jen

Quickmask tutorial

2008-03-29T16:08:00.000-07:00

In so many ways I am only a beginner when it comes to what the GIMP can do. I really want to learn more to make my scrapbook projects really look special. So, in my searchings, I have found a tutorial that is really simple and will give your photo a really cool look! The tutorial was written for an older version of the GIMP, so if you have any problems with it, let me know and I'll be happy to help.

Happy Scrapping! ~Jen

Try THIS on for size!

2008-03-28T13:57:00.000-07:00

Did you know that you can adjust the size of your draw/erase tool? No, you don't have to CHOOSE a different size. You can actually ADJUST the size of the one you are currently using!

(I was just reading a review of the GIMP vs. Adobe Photoshop and the reviewer was not impressed with the GIMP's capabilities. The reviewer admittedly said that s/he had not tried the newest version (2.4) yet, so s/he will certainly be in for a surprise when they see this! )

It is so freeing! It's the "scale" slider in the toolbox and it is especially nice when you are trying to fade photos into the background for a hazy, misty effect. Check it out! It's in the toolbox when you choose one of the drawing tools or the erase tool. Oh, and try the opacity tool there, too, while you're at it.

Happy scrapping! ~Jen

Did you know that GIMP is FREE?!?

2008-03-27T08:41:00.000-07:00

I was talking to my cousin yesterday about this blog and the fact that I have this blog to brag about the great things that the GIMP can do. And the fact that it's free means you don't have to spend a lot of money to start digital scrapbooking. The GIMP is FREE! Yes, you read that right. And you can download it to your computer right now if you want to.

The GIMP is available for Windows, Macintosh and Linux.

I hope this is not new information for any of you, but in case it is, let me know in the comments! I'm always happy to help people who are just starting out with the GIMP.

Happy Scrapping! ~Jen

Do you hybrid scrap?

2008-03-26T09:12:00.000-07:00

My cousin and I have a hybrid relationship when it comes to scrapbooking. She scraps paper; I scrap digi. And the crazy thing is we each LOVE our respective method and respect the other's preference. It's fun to see what she comes up with that I could NEVER do with digital--like little flaps that open! So amazing.

I turned my back on paper scrapping a long time ago and have never looked back. All the paper and scraps everywhere just was too overwhelming and I had no place to stash it all that was anything CLOSE to organized. (Keep an eye open here for a post on organizing your digi-stash.) Do any of YOU paper scrap? Or hybrid scrap? I would love to hear about your experiences!

Happy scrapping! ~Jen

Let's get CREATIVE!

2008-03-24T13:09:00.000-07:00

Do you ever wonder where the designers come up with their fabulous color schemes? Some of them are just beautiful, aren't they? I love what they come up with! Well, in your moment of inspiration, try out this little trick:

Open a random photo in the GIMP. Click on Colors-->Info-->Smooth Palette. Choose the default size for now and click "Ok". Now you have a color palette based on the colors in the photo. There's lots of colors to choose from, of course, but you could simplify your selection by choosing the ones you like best. Pick at least 4-6 to get a good variety. Now go create some new papers or elements with those colors--the possibilities are endless! You can also recolor ones that you already have, but be sure to follow the terms of use and give proper credit to the original artist

Happy Scrapping! ~Jen

A discussion about sketches

2008-03-19T08:10:00.000-07:00

First I'll start with some questions: What do you like about sketches? Do you use them? Do you stick to them closely or do you tend to get creative and veer off a little? HOW do you use sketches? Do you just use them for ideas and then create your own LO? Or do you blow them up to full size and use them as a sort-of "template"?

There are a couple of websites I have rediscovered that made me wonder about this tool. You can see them here and here. In these websites they use the term "maps" instead of "sketches". Do you consider these the same? From what I can tell, they are. There are also sketches you can purchase--seemingly everywhere! As a GIMP user you are probably trying to be thrifty like me. Is buying something like a sketch a necessary part of your digi-scrapping routine?

Sketches, or maps, are basically LO ideas in shades of grey with journaling and title positioning ideas that are created to help you get started on your own LO. They are 1(one) layer only. These can be very simple to use in the GIMP because there is no need for converting anything. Just open up the sketch in an image window to have it as a reference, then start building your LO in a separate image window.

More in my next post. Now find a sketch and get scrapping! I would love to see what you all are doing, too! Happy Scrapping! ~Jen

For posterity...

2008-03-16T20:27:00.000-07:00

I decided to sign up for the Scrapbooking Top 50 group today and my rank doesn't even fit on the little image they gave me! So sad... I'm #4506. Give me some love and tell others out there about me so I can improve my ranking--I KNOW I can get in under 1000 if we all spread the word. Pretty please?

Happy Scrapping!

GIMP tour Part 2

2008-03-10T10:30:00.000-07:00

Okay, let's pick up where we left off. Open the GIMP and then close any extra windows that might pop up, leaving only the toolbox open. Click on "File", then "Preferences." Now, I have GIMP 2.4 for Linux so yours may be different, but some defaults did not translate to the new version for me. First is the Toolbox appearance. Go down to the Toolbox option in your preferences window. Here you can select or unselect information you want displayed in your toolbox, such as foreground/background colors, active brush, pattern, gradient, etc. Not a HUGE deal, but one that I am going to change so it suits me better.

Next is Default Image. If you create a lot of elements or papers, you may want to adjust the default image size. Keep in mind that the bigger you make it, the more memory the GIMP will use--in fact, the GIMP has actually told me I am using too much memory in the past and I have learned this the hard way. :-)

Default grid is something that is very important to me and I was happy when I discovered how to change it. When you are trying to align photos or squares of any kind, using the grid can be an amazingly big help! My preference for grid default is a solid line style with 100 pixel spacing. Set what you think you want here, and then try it out. You can always change it from your image window, or come back here and change the default.

Appearance, under Image Windows, may or may not be important to you. The defaults that I have seem to be enough. I might change them on a case by case basis in the image window but you can decide what is best for you. I would suggest changing the settings in the image window to see what you like, before changing them in the defaults.

In the Display settings, you can change what the canvas looks like when your image is transparent. You can change the size and style of the checkerboard you see. You can also select your monitor resolution here, but I just let the GIMP do that for me.

That's all we're going to get to today. Hope that tides you over 'til next time!

Happy Scrapping! ~Jen

Get Your Party On!

2008-03-08T18:54:00.000-08:00

I just heard from a friend that there's a blog PARTY goin' on! Come join the party! We're going to party about the GIMP and all it means to us girlies when it comes to our digi-scrapping passion!

Here's a great link to some lovin' about the GIMP. What have YOU got to say about the GIMP? Tell me the good and the bad, because we can make it better if we let the programmers know. Leave a note in the comments--please! I need some comments!

Happy Scrapping!

What annoys you about the GIMP?

2008-03-03T09:31:00.000-08:00

I decided I'm going to spend a few posts talking about preferences set-up. I want my GIMP personalized--don't you?? Well, you can do it--to an extent--and I want you to learn how to do it, too.
===================
First of all, open the GIMP. (If your layers dialogue opens, go ahead and close it because we aren't going to do a LO right now.) Now toodle around the menus in the toolbox. There's a LOT of stuff in there that I never used to use--in fact, I didn't even know it was there! But now that you've glanced around, let me give you a tour!
===================
First, left-click on the little GIMP guy in the top left corner. He's above the "File" drop down button. The first option is "Advanced." Choose "Advanced" and then choose the first option "Keep above others". When I do this it will allow me to look at the tool box while I am typing this blog, AND always have the toolbox visible while I am working on a LO. This is nice for me because I always seem to need it when it is buried! Ugh. Now it won't be buried anymore! To turn it off, go back to the same button and click it again. It appears that I will have to reset this feature every time I open GIMP. However, as we explore more menus and more options, this might change.

You could also select "Keep below others" if you prefer using the "tools" dropdown menu on the image (or LO) window.

NOTE: DO NOT click on "no border" or "full screen". They are annoying, at least to me, and seem to have no useful purpose in the realm of digi-scrapping.

I think that's all I'm going to cover in the "Advanced" section.

Now click on the GIMP guy again. Go down to "shade". If you REALLY don't like looking at the toolbox, and selecting "Keep below others" is not enough for you, you could use the "shade" feature. This treats the toolbox window like a window shade. You reverse the feature by de-selecting it.

ANOTHER NOTE: Closing the toolbox will shut down GIMP.

Okay, that is all we will be doing with the GIMP guy. And if all of that was confusing to you or did not make sense or you could not find any of it, do not dispair. GIMP runs on different operating systems, and yours just might be different than mine.
==================
Now to the "File" drop down menu. There are several options here, as I'm sure you have noticed before. Here's the list I see: New, Open, Open location, Open recent, Acquire, Preferences, Keyboard shortcuts, Units, Dialogs, Close all, Quit.

"New" gives you a window to create a new, blank image. You can decide the size manually, or use a template. In digital scrapbooking, I find that I never use this feature. It may be useful if you find yourself creating your own blinkie, digi-elements or digi-paper, however.

Next is Open. Open takes you to a window where you can open any file on your hard drive, disc or memory card. Choosing this option limits you to opening the file in the size that it already is. For instance, I scrap in 12" x 12" or 3600 x 3600 pixels, with 300 dpi. If I open a file with these dimentions, my resulting image (or LO) will be those dimentions. So, I always open my background paper first when I do a LO. More on this later.

Next we will skip to "Open recent." When you click on this it will give you a list and tiny thumbnails of your recent files, whether they be photos, LO's or anything else you might have opened. If you want to dock this list for frequent reference, you can click on the very bottom item which is a folder of your recently opened history.

I think I'm gonna stop there now. I know we haven't gotten to many "preferences" yet, but we will so hang in there. I have to get some laundry started and go pick up my son at preschool. A mother's work is never done ya know! :D

Happy Scrapping! ~Jen

Just found a new tutorial site!

2008-03-01T08:38:00.000-08:00

I just found out about a website dedicated to software tutorials and they have GIMP! I glanced at one tut about editing a photo and it looked really good! Can't wait to try it out.

Here's the website: http://www.tipclique.com/tutorials/gimp/ You'll also find it in my sidebar very soon! ~Jen

Tutorial: Making one photo look like a pile of photos

2008-02-29T18:11:00.000-08:00

Since this is a pretty low-tech blog, there will be no pictures to follow, so I hope that my explanation and the sample above will be enough. It's a pretty cool technique so I want you all to learn it!

In choosing a photo for your LO, you want to choose one that has multiple subjects, like a family photo, a landscape photo with lots of different objects, or a "still life" kind of photo with many objects. You want to be able to create separate "snapshots" that will lay together to form one "subject" in your LO.

Decide on at least two areas of your photo you want to make into new "photos". Here are the instructions to create a new photo for your "pile". After you finish these directions, you can repeat as many times as you want within your LO. One step that is helpful to make your finished product look realistic is to make sure your stack of "photos" are each the same ratio as a 4" x 6" or a 5" x 7" would be. This will mean more as you go through the instructions.

Here we go:
Add a new transparent layer to match the dimensions of the area you selected (Layers-->New Layer). Move the layer to where you want it. Fill the area with white, or whatever color you want the border of your photos to be (Edit-->Fill with BG color). In the layers dialogue, lower the opacity of this white layer so you can see through it. Rotate until it is at the angle you want (Tools-->Transform tools-->Rotate) . Select by color the white area of your layer (Select-->Select by color, then click on the white area). In the layers dialogue, switch to your photo layer. Select "float" (Select-->Float). Then in the layers dialogue choose new layer (or Layers-->New). Now select your white layer in the layers dialogue and scale it bigger so that it shows from beneath the photo layer you just created. Change the aspect so that the white shows up exactly how you want it. At this point you may want to change the opacity back to 100% so you can see the layer better as well.

Now, take two of these and call me in the morning! LOL! Actually, repeat instructions above as necessary until you have as many photos in your pile as you want. Then, click on the eye next to your original photo in the layers dialogue, and your LO should now look like the one above, with a blank or transparent background. I actually did all of my work on top of a pretty background paper so I didn't have the GIMP grid to look at, but blacked it out for this tutorial.

Once you have created your photo stack, you can merge all of the different layers together so you can save it as it's own file, cut and paste it into a LO, or whatever suits your fancy! I hope you have as much fun with this technique as I have!

Happy Scrapping! ~Jen

2007-12-16T13:49:00.000-08:00

With my head slightly above water for a moment, I'm posting to say hello. :D I finally upgraded to 2.4.something and have used it a teeny bit, but haven't found any significant difference yet. It might make a difference though, that I use Linux for my operating system, as opposed to Windows, so it may look way different in Windows, I don't know.

Been mainly scrapping for therapy lately (LOL!) and haven't printed a thing (or finished a page!) in months, but I'm coming back little by little and you'll see me around regularly soon. And as my motto should be: you will learn (ie. tuts) as I learn. :D

And to answer the question posted in the comments, here is a page I found that explains the brightness-contrast tool. Haven't tried it yet, but I think I'm gonna keep the site bookmarked for future reference! :D

Happy Scrapping! ~Jen

I haven't fallen off the planet...

2007-09-18T12:07:00.000-07:00

We're just discovering them... heeheehee. My 4 year old is so cute! My husband gets up earlier than me and lately even THEN the sky is a little dark. Well, the other morning, after I got up, my sweet little boy told me that Daddy had shown him a planet! It's just so cool to see him discover his world. Now he wants to go somewhere to see planets close up, you know, like we went to the air museum to see airplanes close up? LOL! What a hoot! On top of this great discovery, we started MOPS, AWANA and preschool in the last couple of weeks! Yikes! And a great class called Financial Peace University. Can you say "hectic?" Heehee! So, that said, I am STILL HERE... just a little quiet right now. That tut I promised you all has NOT been written yet... sorry. Hang in there with me. It will be worth the wait. And here's a big welcome to all the new people we have visiting! WELCOME!!!! :D Later, Jen

Be watching for a new tutorial!

2007-08-14T19:54:00.000-07:00

I don't know what your favorite digi-scrapping website is. Frankly, I don't know what MY favorite digi-scrapping website is. But I know who sends out the coolest newsletter! It's ScrapGirls! They send out a newsletter about 3 times a week and it is LOADED with cool stuff! The CEO of the company writes a MUSE that is thought provoking, funny, serious, light-hearted or just plain entertaining. There is always lots of great inspiration in the form of layouts that customers have done. There's always a freebie. And there's TUTORIALS! Alas, none for the GIMP, but we all cope, don't we. ;) Oh, and did I mention? The newsletter is free, too! LOL!

Anyway, one thing I have tried to do is learn from the methods explained in the tutorials of other software (both SG tuts, and others'), and not the specific instructions themselves. This has proven fairly productive and has resulted in some of the GIMP tutorials here in my blog.

So, to make a long story even longer, I'm gearin' up to give you all a really cool tutorial. But in the mean time, sign up for the ScrapGirls newsletter--I highly recommend it!

A quick backtrack...

2007-08-10T12:53:00.000-07:00

I took some time last night and this morning to review what I've blogged about, and what you all have commented about, to see what I might have missed and make sure I don't double post! LOL!

Well, I ran across this comment and wanted to draw attention to it for a minute. Sílvia said...

"Hi!

Well, I know about that "New window" view, though I think I've never used it. Might turn to be very helpful, will have to give it a try!

However, if you ALWAYS want the "other window" to show the full size image, the easiest thing to do is add the "Navigator" tab to the "right-panel" (the one that contains the Layers, History, Brushes.... tabs. I have customized it in a way which quite resembles Photoshop, and it works great for me!"

Well, I have not decided if I want to even USE the other window all the time, but I have learned a little bit more about the dialogue windows. Thanks Sílvia!

I think I'm gonna scrap zucchini

2007-08-09T18:52:00.000-07:00

Okay, a BIG GRIN here. I LOVE the versatility of zucchini! And I grew some in my garden this year. Okay, I HAD a garden this year, and zucchini was one of the first veggies on my list to plant. So, in my attempt to keep this scrap-related, I'm going to scrap a page about my obsession with zucchini and all the ways I love to cook it! Here are some of my favorites:

zucchini bread
zucchini pancakes
BBQ zucchini slices
Mousakka with zucchini (instead of eggplant)
shredded z in salads
shredded or cubed z in caseroles of all kinds
shredded z in spaghetti sauce
cubed z in fried rice (I tried that last night!)

Wow. I think I might try z pickles this year, too. Zucchini makes me so happy! :D

So, what's your favorite food of the summer? Or for you Southern folks, what warms your tummy this time of year?

I'm still here...

2007-08-04T20:22:00.001-07:00

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted. I'm still here. Not scrapping very much, mostly quick pages. Life has been kinda busy lately, and complicated. You don't wanna know, so I won't bother you with the details, but I AM alive and well, and will post some more useful information eventually. Thanks for visiting my blog, and I hope you find something useful while you're here. :) Happy Scrapping! ~Jen

Retraction...

2007-06-26T08:32:00.000-07:00

Okay, that last post was NOT very well written, and I didn't try those instructions before I published them. Can you all just pretend I didn't write them??? And..... duh..... there was a layer in the file titled "delete this layer" which just happens to be all those titles. And if you really DO have titles imbedded in your template or template layer, use the color picker, not the "select by color" option and things will go much better. :D

Happy Scrapping! ~Jen

How obnoxious!

2007-06-25T12:50:00.000-07:00

I finally discovered what an earlier reader was complaining about when she said she couldn't remove the words from the templates she used. Oy! now I see what she was talking about!

Well, here's how I am going to fix the problem. Start over.... whaaaaa!!!!!! And then I'm going to use the "select by color" tool, select the color of the layer I want to erase a word out of, change my eraser tool to that color, and erase the word! Yuk. Why do they have to create templates that way?!?!

Happy scrapping!

Using Your Mouse in GIMP

2007-06-22T15:00:00.000-07:00

I got a new computer for myself after Christmas and now get to use a roller "middle button" on my mouse. It's an interesting little feature that I have been learning more and more about. Well, I've also learned more about using it in GIMP and I thought I'd share my discoveries. There are three ways that I've discovered to use my roller (with numerous others, I'm sure, that I either haven't discovered, or don't feel worth mentioning here):

1. Scroll up and down in my layout. I do this by rolling the roller button while inside my layout window. Useful when my image is scaled bigger than my window.
2. Scroll side to side in my layout. I do this by rolling the roller button while at the bottom of the image window, where the slider is to go left and right. Also useful when my image is scaled bigger than the window it is occupying.
3. Scale bigger and smaller scale in my layout. (This, my friends, is why you get this post today.) :) To do this, hold your pointer over the scale number at the bottom of your window. It might say 18% or 25% or something like that. Well, if you hold your pointer over that number, then use your roller button, it will scale your image larger or smaller, depending on whether you roll forward or backward! I KNEW you'd like that as much as *I* do! :D

Happy scrappin'! ~Jen

Summer Vacation!!

2007-06-13T20:55:00.000-07:00

My 3 year old son's last day of preschool was last Thursday and summer vacation is HERE! I'm still trying to put together a little scrapbook for my 12 y/o niece for her graduation from elementary school LAST YEAR and have actually seen some success. I also ended up getting a Costco membership and am going to try getting some pages printed there. Seems like I hardly have printed any of my scrapbook pages--me who loves to sit down with a good book and just hold it in my hands and read it! The computer just isn't the same! I really have to print some pages and get them in my book asap! Okay, enough exclamation points. I'm rambling a bit. Gearing up for a vacation to see family, too, and have to make sure the camera is ready for the trip. I can't wait to take all those pics and scrap them! :D There will be 7 kids together all under the age of 7. It really sounds exhausting, but fun, too.

Do you have any older projects still on the burner? What are your photo ops going to be this summer? What will you scrap to remember this summer by? Toodles! ~Jen

What version do you use?

2007-05-22T15:43:00.000-07:00

It has come to my attention that I am not using the most current version of GIMP thanks to Silvia, one of my readers. Although 2.2.13 is fairly recent(this is the version I use), there is now 2.2.14 which corrects several bugs in the program. And, although I read through the list of "bugs," I didn't see anything that was affecting my scrapping so I decided to stay with 2.2.13 for now.

GIMP, however, has CONSTANT development going on and occasionally a "development" version is released for download. Right now is a current example of this. 2.3.15 and 2.3.16 are both development releases and apparently present a fairly different kind of GIMP to its users.

But for those of you who are new to GIMP, or if you are considering upgrading to the development version 2.3.16, heed this warning from gimp.org:

"GIMP 2.3 Release Notes

This is an unstable development version of the GNU Image Manipulation Program. Please realize that this is just a snapshot of the development tree. We are about halfway up the hill to GIMP 2.4, the next stable release. GIMP 2.3 is in no way a final product. A lot of new features are incomplete and some things may even be completely broken. If you need to get work done, please use the stable version, GIMP 2.2."

You can find more at http://gimp.org/release-notes/gimp-2.3.html but with that kind of warning, I don't want to upgrade yet. I haven't learned to hit the save button often enough in my digi-scrapping yet!

So, now that you know what version I use, what version do you use?

Reading not writing?

2007-05-21T13:37:00.000-07:00

Sorry I've been a little quiet. I'm on chapter 3 of Grokking the GIMP. It is pretty heavy stuff, and after over a year of using GIMP, in it's various versions, I finally have enough GIMP experience to read it without getting completely overwhelmed. Sorry you had to read that--yes, I get overwhelmed! :D LOL! And I've been so busy hangin' out here on the blog, and reading "Grokking..." (on the web) that I haven't had much time to do any scrapping. I guess it's about time I do some, isn't it. If you want to see my meager attempts at scrapping--you all are so far beyond me!--check out my gallery here. At least this is my biggest public gallery where I have given all the credits I'm supposed to. And some of them are older pages I did, before I knew how to do drop-shadows and stuff like that. Can you tell I've learned a lot since then?

TTFN! ~Jen

A new discovery!

2007-05-17T20:03:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'm still working on trying to find out how to un-skew a picture, which someone asked about in the comments. BUT I have been reading "Grokking the GIMP" and found something VERY COOL that you scrappers are going to LOVE!

I don't know about you, but I just love to fine tune things when I am erasing some b/w to make a photo colorized, or erasing some of a paperclip to make it look realistic. I always want to see what it will look like when I view the whole image, so I go back and forth a lot, zooming in and out until I'm happy. Well, I found a way to not have to do that anymore!

While you have your layout open, do this: In the "View" drop down menu, click on "New View." This will open up a new window with a duplicate view of your current image (layout). Now you can zoom in on one, and not the other and do all the editing you please, close up, while watching the full sized view in the other window! Isn't that cool? I am way excited! Have fun playin' around with the new toy! :D ~Jen

More updates?!?!?

2007-05-15T13:29:00.000-07:00

Yeah. I just added a counter at the bottom. I really hope it works. The last one I had didn't do squat and I was really bummed, 'cause it had worked on another blog I had. So...visit a LOT and send your friends over! :D I want to feel the heat from that counter spinning! teehee!

Update to blog links

2007-05-14T21:37:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to let you all know there are some more tutorials in the links on the right side of my blog. I updated laurarid's link so it should be good now. :D ~Jen

A shift from Photoshop to GIMP

2007-05-12T15:48:00.000-07:00

[Commentary]: It seems like whenever I read conversations about Photoshop I discover something that bugs me. You see, I'm a part of a great group of gals on a private, online, moms group that is all about digi-scrapping. But it seems like about 95% of them use Photoshop and they always start their digi-scrapping projects with a BLANK DOCUMENT. I'd like to take a peek at Photoshop sometime, to see if they could start a page the way I do in GIMP, but I just haven't been curious enough. [End Commentary]

If you are shifting from another software program to using GIMP, OR if you're just starting out in the digi-scrapping world and decided to use GIMP from the get-go, here's how to get a project started.

1. From your tools window, choose "File" and then "Open" from the drop-down menu.
2. Find the background paper you want to use for the major portion of your layout, select it, and then click "Open". You will now have a page that consists of one layer, your background paper, that is the same size as your background paper.

Note: most people I've run across scrap square pages and will either buy 3600 x 3600 pixel digi-papers (a 12" x 12" book), or sometimes 1800 (6") or 2400 (8") pixel square papers. If you like to scrap for an 8.5" x 11" notebook-style scrapbook, I am not familiar with the pixel dimensions for that size paper, but it would be easy to figure out. If you need more help with this please ask.

3. In your image window, from the drop-down menu, click on "File" and "Save As". Rename the file to something relevant to you, such as the topic for your scrapbook page.
4. Make sure it is going in the appropriate folder. If not, find the right folder by either clicking on the drop-down window, or click on "Browse for other Folders".
5. Now click on "Browse for File Type". Here you will change the file type (likely from a .jpg extention) TO a .xcf extention. This will allow you to save your file in the middle of working on it, close it, and come back to it another time, with all of your layers still in place. This is VERY important!
6. Now click "Save".

FYI, when you layout is complete and you have no more changes to make, save your file one more time as a .xcf. Then go back and choose "Save As" and save it as a .jpg. This will give you a file format that can be printed out for later display in your book. Then, if you want to show your page off in an online gallery, choose "Image" in the drop-down menu, then "scale image" and shrink it down to about 800 x 800 pixels. Then choose "Save As" one more time from the "File" drop-down menu, and save it with "small" added to your file name so you know it is the small version of your layout. Now you will have 3 files all virtually the same. One GIMP file, and two JPG files, one smaller than the other. :D

I hope this helps some. I really gotta go feed the kids! ~Jen

Working with templates (and a "freebie!')

2007-05-11T19:04:00.000-07:00

I just LOVE specific requests! Especially when I know how to fill them! :D I'm going to try more of a bullet point type of instructions this time and see how that goes.

About Templates
With templates, the layout of your page is done for you. All you do is fill it in with the photos, papers and (sometimes) extra embellishments to make it uniquely yours. That being said, it may seem harder than it really is, once you try to do it. For some reason, in GIMP, the "select" feature can combine specifics of different layers to accomplish one goal. And that is necessary when using templates (apparently) in GIMP. It's the only way I've figured out how to get the job done. So... here goes:

Instructions
1. In your layers dialogue, position your paper underneath the template layer you want to use.
2. Select the template layer.
3. From the drop-down menu, choose "Select" then "by color"
4. Click on the layer, in your layout. It will now have a dotted line around it that looks like it's floating a bit, or, as someone else said once, like ants marching around your selection. :D
5. Go back to your layers dialogue and choose your paper.
6. From the drop-down menu, choose "Select" then "Invert".
7. From the drop-down menu again, choose "Edit" then "cut"
8. In your layers dialogue, raise your paper layer so that it is ABOVE your template layer.
9. DONE!

Okay, now here's the freebie! It's not really a freebie, but it's something I feel worth mentioning here. When you've cropped a layer, like you just did, the "outline" of the layer remains the same size, even though the content of the layer is drastically smaller. What I do, for visual clarity, is shrink the size of the "outline" or "layer boundary" as GIMP calls it. Here's how: From the drop-down menu, click on "Layer" then "Auto-crop". Unless there is some of your layer outside of the image boundary (which I can address later if you like), your layer boundary should shrink to the new size of your layer. Also, try playing around with "Layer Boundary Size" in the "Layer"drop-down menu. It's pretty fun!

Well, that's all I have for today. I'm thrilled with the feedback I've been getting so please keep the questions and comments coming. They make my day! :~) ~Jen

Ooooo, Drop Shadows!

2007-05-08T16:32:00.000-07:00

When I was learning how to create drop shadows, a friend of mine said to me, "once you figure them out, you'll be addicted!" Well, she was right! And drop shadows are SO EASY!

GIMP has two ways to create drop shadows that I like. You'll find them both in the same drop-down menu: "Script-fu". I have no idea what script-fu means, but there is a lot of cool stuff in there, drop shadows being one. (Now, if you don't see the script-fu drop down menu, you've got a little bit more learning to do. I'll get to you in a later post, since I'm on a roll right here with the shadows. ;) For now, try looking at a different GIMP window to see if that helps.)

Now I'm not going to get fancy and try to include screen shots so bear with me in the descriptions and please let me know if you need more help! Click on "Script-Fu" and then go down and click on "Shadow", then click on "Drop Shadow". GIMP has already entered some numbers for you which will be the degree of shadow and darkness of shadow that will appear on your layer. Did I forget to mention you need to choose a layer you want a shadow on? Well, click cancel on the drop-shadow window and go back and do that. We'll wait for you!

So you've got your layer highlighted in the layers dialogue, and you're back on the drop-shadow option. No click..... "OK"! Wasn't that easy? Really--it's THAT easy! What you just did was create a new layer (take a peek in your layers dialogue!) that is JUST shadow. If you don't believe me, try this: see the little eye next to each layer? Click on the eye next to the layer that the shadow is behind. Now look at your layout. You should just see that shadow! Now click on the eye again and your layer will be back. Now try drop shadows on text, photos, ribbons, etc--your layouts are going to POP!

I'll go into more detail with drop-shadows in another post. I'll also show you another way to create drop shadows. For now, have fun scrapping! ~Jen

A goal for myself...

2007-05-07T12:14:00.000-07:00

I want to set a goal for myself. Do you have any scrapping goals? I think mine is going to be to start participating in some challenges. I'm going to start with the freebie challenge over here and hopefully get over this block I have of not posting LO's on public galleries. What is YOUR current digi-scrapping goal?

Did you hear that?

2007-05-07T12:12:00.000-07:00

There was some serious partying going on this past weekend! It was National Scrapbook Day on Saturday and some of the digi-scrapping sites were hoppin'! I hope you got in on some of the goodies they all were giving away. :D

Did I speak too soon?

2007-05-03T07:56:00.000-07:00

My poor baby is suffering miserably from GI problems, and I have not had ANY time whatsoever to devote to digi-scrapping for what seems like forever. So I'll just throw a few of my favorite sites out there, in case you all need a creative pick-me-up. Here's a partial list of my favorite places for FREE digi-supplies:

www.digitalfreebies.com

www.scrapgirls.com

www.oscraps.com

www.digitalscrapbookplace.com

Most sites have newsletters to sign-up for where you can get lots of freebies, or blogs where they often will post links to freebies as well.

So, there, I wrote something. Not a tutorial, which I would like to write more of, but at least it's something to whet your appetite. :D

More later! ~Jen

Writer not Reader

2007-04-19T11:42:00.000-07:00

I want to be a writer, not a reader. At least I want my emphasis to be that way. Look forward to more posts from me soon!

Learning Curve vs. New Baby

2006-12-27T14:38:00.000-08:00

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...

2006-07-19T20:49:00.000-07:00

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?

2006-07-19T20:35:00.000-07:00

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...

2006-07-01T21:09:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-25T22:17:00.000-07:00

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...

2006-06-17T14:50:00.000-07:00

...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?

2006-06-16T15:08:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-12T10:55:00.000-07:00

This is supposed to be a blinkie.

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

2006-06-09T21:30:00.000-07:00

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?

2006-06-07T16:43:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-07T09:55:00.000-07:00

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!

2006-06-04T19:45:00.000-07:00

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.