My favorite tutorial ever!

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.

Quickmask tutorial

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

Just found a new tutorial site!

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

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

Using Your Mouse in GIMP

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

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 !

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.