You can do tutorials for more sophisticated layouts using Photoshop or Photoshop Elements at the TheShabbyShoppe.com (www.theshabbyshoppe.com/tutorials/software_tutorials.asp). Using Photoshop/Elements Filters to Make Art from Photos Both Photoshop and Photoshop Elements have filters (such as Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur) as individual commands and filters in a Filter Gallery (Filter > Filter Gallery) to work with in creating effects for your photos. It’s best to apply the filters to copies of the Background image layer (Layer > New > Layer via Copy) so you don’t destroy the original. Use a copy of the image each time you add a filter— that way, you can click and drag a layer to the Trash in the Layers palette if you don’t like it. Scrapbooking Bug Gotcha? ■ 81 Figure 5.3 A simple layout for a patriotic-themed scrapbook page. After you’ve added a copy of the background, use the Filter Gallery by navigating to Filter > Filter Gallery. A window that is divided into three parts will appear. On the right is a preview of your image, in the middle are filter icons, and on the left are sliders where you adjust the filter effects. Each time you click on a filter icon, your preview image changes. Each time you move one of the slider controls, it also changes. Each time you click on a new icon, your picture resets, and the filtering process starts all over. So what filters look the coolest, giving you the best bang for your buck? That can be a matter of opinion, and it also depends on what kind of photograph you are changing. Some filters look great with landscapes, and others look good with portraits. Generally, I like to get my image to look like a painting. For this, here are two of many choices: Watercolor and Rough Pastels. Neither does much to your image the first time, even after you adjust the slider set of controls. Figure 5.4 shows a picture in which the Watercolor filter was applied several times. 82 ■ Scrapbooking Bug Gotcha? Figure 5.4 Before and after pics where the Watercolor filter was applied several times to get the effect. To apply the same filter again or apply one filter on top of another, you have to close out the window by clicking OK. To apply the same filter again for more of the effect, navigate to Filter > Last Filter. To apply one filter over another, open the Filter Gallery again and choose the filter you want. Finally, there are some filters, such as Poster Edges, that in one tweak will turn your image into what looks like a drawing. Watch out! You can start combining all kinds of filters and find that hours have passed without you really getting what you want. Making a Theme for Your Scrapbook Page Whether your scrapping is paper or digital, before you start, you can go through your photos and pick out the very best ones. Then you can pick a few themes and label folders for each theme, into which you can sort the photos. After that, you can shop for kits or quick pages by theme, and you’ll already have photos selected for that theme. As for themes, there are many. Consider holidays, birthdays, weddings, seasons, family reunions, trips, and other events for making a scrapbook page. Good themes for kids are dinosaurs, space travel, fossils, Native Americans, the 50 states, your community, life downtown, your culture, your state, patriotism, scouting, and camping. Around the house, consider themes of gardening, pets, swimming, cooking in the kitchen, and reading books (great for kids to see), as well as making pages for any hobbies in which you or your family might be engaged. For travel, the sky is the limit (so to speak). Try putting pictures on a map to give a picture story of where you traveled. Print and include flags from the countries you visited with your images. Jot down mini-histories of monuments you’ve visited on luggage tags (white cardboard with string attached) to accompany pictures of them. Include funny quotes with pictures taken on a trip. Finally, don’t forget daytrips, such as to the local farmers’ market or going fishing (see Figure 5.5). Or consider “a day in the life of…” pages. Scrapbooking Bug Gotcha? ■ 83 NOTE For some filters, such as Watercolor and Rough Pastels, you have to apply the filter several times. Looking at What Other Scrappers Have Done Don’t reinvent the wheel; take a look at what other scrappers are doing. In any given minute at scrapbook.com, someone is uploading an image of his or her scrapbook page (see Figure 5.6). The scrapbook.com Gallery has hundreds of thousands of people’s scrapbook pages. Themes such as the following grace the scrapbook pages on the webpages of this site: kids playing in the dirt, a trip to a volcano, being lost in the wilderness, being silly, puppy love, chewing gum, building sandcastles, sisters, candy, and encouragement. Titles such as Mr. Adorkable, Real Men Ride Scooters, When Grandma Was Young, My Addiction (diet soda), No Shirt… No Shoes…No Problem, My Monster (sweet kid, right?), and so on make pages containing everyday photos innovative and fun. 84 ■ Scrapbooking Bug Gotcha? Figure 5.5 Fishing’s a great theme for a scrapbook page. Page courtesy of Crystal Brothers. The scrapbook pages in the gallery are categorized by tabs. The first two—Layouts and Digital —are for viewing paper-made and digitally made scrapbook pages, respectively, in the View the Gallery frame. At the bottom of the View the Gallery frame are categories that apply to all tabs (Layouts, Digital, Cards, Scraprooms, Other Projects, Photos). On the homepage, they include Stars, Favorites, Inspirational, Funny, Innovative, Heartwarming, and Cute. If you click on Themes (click on All Layouts at the bottom of the View the Gallery frame, and in the next window, click on Themes—the last category underneath the tabs at the top of the page), you’ll see some of the most popular as subcategories, each of which contains thousands of samples: Animals, Baby, Beach, Birthday, Book of Me, Children, Disney, Family, Floral, Food, Friends, Heirloom, Hobbies, Holidays, Inspirational, Love, Memorial, Military, Moods, Nature, Party, Religious, School, Seasons, Snow, Sports, Teens, Travel, Water, Wedding, and Western. Scrapbooking Bug Gotcha? ■ 85 Figure 5.6 Many scrapbooking websites have galleries where users post scrapbook pages. . Theme for Your Scrapbook Page Whether your scrapping is paper or digital, before you start, you can go through your photos and pick out the very best ones. Then you can pick a few themes and label. label folders for each theme, into which you can sort the photos. After that, you can shop for kits or quick pages by theme, and you’ll already have photos selected for that theme. As for themes,. trips, and other events for making a scrapbook page. Good themes for kids are dinosaurs, space travel, fossils, Native Americans, the 50 states, your community, life downtown, your culture, your