Overview

In this simply-written but extensive online PPSOP course you'll learn how to create professional looking scrapbook pages and fabulous photo album projects using nothing more than standard photo-editing software, your own pictorial 'assets' and lots of creativity.

Scrapbooking is all about taking a range of everyday products and putting them together to create a glorious pictorial story. We use anything and everything at our disposal, from 'found' objects to carefully researched, selected and preserved visual assets.

While traditional scrapbookers might turn to many out-of-the-ordinary commercial products for their raw material and inspiration, digital scrapbookers are no different other than the fact that they work with 2D electronic files with the assistance of traditional photo-editing techniques. But we won't let that limit your creative horizon!

The skills you'll pick up in this four-week class not only set you up to create awesome, perfectly-retouched digital scrapbook art, you'll also pick up a range of very powerful editing and design techniques that can be applied to your 'regular' digital photography.

Besides designing amazing scrapbook pages, Robin demonstrates the skills necessary for setting up a collection of scrapbook assets in a library, how to convert them into easily-useable electronic files with a ne, how to work with, and file everything, so it can be reused in other projects. Finally, we show you how to assemble the entire project into a real work of art.

Not familiar with photo-editing software? Adobe Photoshop or Photoshop Elements? No problem, Robin goes through the basics for setting up and using these photo-centric retouching programs to get impressive results with the least drama. Take the fun, creativity and art of scrapbooking to a new level with these easy-to-follow electronic scrapbooking techniques and video tutorials.

Brief Outline

1. Overview. What's it all about? Tips, tricks and techniques for the new digital scrapbooker.

2. Overview on the software needed for the ultimate digital scrapbooking results.

3. Problems, and solutions facing the electronic scrapbooker.

4. Getting your scrapbook picture assets digitised. We cover easy scanning and copying techniques.

5.Selections: All about making those all-important selections. The tools, techniques and tricks for making the perfect selection. Plus tips on combining selections and saving selections.

6. Comprehensive information on using Photoshop Elements and Photoshop CS, including techniques for making your digital photos 'jump' off the scrapbook page.

7. Plus software retouching techniques. Learn how to repair, fix and radically change the appearance of your digital files.

8. Learn the basics for working with layers. Create awesome effects using simple digital photos combined into multi-layered album pages.

9. Text: Learn how to include text into your scrapbook designs. As captions, commentary and as a design element.

Course Outline:

Week 1: Start with a plan
The first session looks at how to start your digital scrapbooking projects. Making a plan, designing a project and mapping out your course of action. We also look at all the places you can source your electronic scrapbooking material from: home, digital camera, scanner, libraries, 'found' objects. We also look at the software requirements including the software that you might already have on your computer and the cool stuff you can do with it. Basic scanning and copy stand is covered in this section, along with other quick and effective methods for gathering your own unique asset library.

Week 2: All about selections
In a session that will satisfy all scrapbookers and photographers, we explain how to select the stuff that you want so they can be cut out of your visual assets using the fastest and most effective tools and techniques. Includes tips on making rough edges, postcard edges, textured edges, fabrics, deckling, stamping, embossing, shadows, 3D relief effects and much more.

Week 3: Layers and effects
Layers offer tremendous potential to the digital scrapbooker. We learn how to handle this powerful tool, how to add multiple assets to the document, how to move everything around the 'canvas' to make perfect designs, and how to edit the embellishments once on their respective layers.

Week 4: Working with Text
We run through the basics of using the text tools in Elements and in Photoshop (very slightly different) also describe the ways text can be added and modified inside the album page layouts. In fact, we cover pretty much all you need to know on making awesome looking scrapbook pages on your computer.

Class consists of 17 tutorial videos and more than 100 pages of reference material that can be downloaded, read onscreen or printed...

Course Requirement:

• Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0 or 7.0 for PC, and version 4.0 or 6.0 for Mac. Instruction is compatible with Photoshop CS2/3/4.
• A PC or Mac with plenty of RAM (at least 2Gb RAM is essential, more is better) and a fast processor (Pentium 4, 2Ghz+ CPU or Dual Core is recommended).
• We cater for users of Windows XP, Vista and Mac OSX+