Friday Freebie #5

Welcome to week 5.  This means I've gotten 10 pages done on my Disney album.  It's not too late to join the fun.  Let me know how you like this feature and if you want to play along. 


This week's free kit  has beautiful shades of soft green.  At first it reminded me St. Patrick's Day, but then I thought how perfect they would be for Animal Kingdom pictures.  


Remember, all of the files are .png so you can use them in Photoshop or other photo editing software.
However, if you do want to purchase My Memories software, my affiliate code is: STMMMS78326. Using this code will save you $20.00. 

Friday Freebie on Saturday - with Bonus Tips!

I had trouble again with this week's freebie kit.  I like the colors and had no problem finding pictures to use with them.  They just weren't from my Disney album and that is what I really want to work on.  Here is the quick page I chose:

and here are  a few of the pictures I wanted to use:

See what I mean?  Not good.

PHOTOSHOP PHUN:

OK,  Photoshop to the rescue. After experimenting with Photoshop, here's what I came up with:

This, I love.

Want to try it yourself?  Here's how to do it.

1. Open your pictures and quick page, each in its own layer.  Layer 1 is your focal picture (my DD), Layer 2 is your quick page, and Layer 3 is your overlay picture (the beach.)

2.  Hide the overlay for now and center the focal picture in the opening of the quick page.   If you were using my pictures, it would look like the page above (the "not good" one.)

3. Now change the visibility of the overlay picture so you can see it.  Enlarge it until it fills the whole canvas.  At this point, it looks like just the beach picture, but that is easy enough to fix.  The magic is in the blending modes. Change the blend mode to Color and watch what happens.   Here is what I got:

Using only Color overlay

Aren't the colors gorgeous? Try playing with them to see if you like something better for your pictures. 


The only problem is that you can't see the beach picture at all.  This is an easy fix.  Duplicate the beach picture layer and change the blend mode from Color to Multiply.  Also, reduce the Opacity to give it a misty watercolor feel.  For my final step, I masked out the opening of the original template so that my beautiful daughter is shown in realistic colors.

Here is another page I did using the same technique.

BUT, I DON'T HAVE PHOTOSHOP

If you like this, but don't have Photoshop, here is a cool technique you can use to get a similar effect in My Memories Suite.

1.  Create a new blank page.

2.  Click Add Photo and browse to your quick page to open it.  It will be resized to photo size, so you will need to resize it to fill the page.  (Note, I get an error message when I do this, but just click OK and it works.)

3.  From the Photo section, click on Effect and select Sepia.

4.  Now click Add Photo again and browse to your photo.  Open this and resize to fill the page.

5.  Finally, change the Opacity of your photo to  about 50%. You will be able to see the QUICK PAGE behind the photo and the opening in the QUICK PAGE will allow your photo to show through.  Here is the result.

My Memories Version

I hope you enjoyed this and it helped you think of more ways you can use these fabulous designer kits. Please let me know there are steps you don't understand.  

Friday Freebie #3

Don't forget - you don't have to use the super easy My
Memories software to use this kit.  They are just
.png files so you can use your regular photo editing
software.  However, if you do want to purchase
My Memories software, my affiliate code is:
STMMMS78326. Using this code will save you $20.00.

Here is this week's free kit! Isn't it beautiful?  It includes 2 Digital Papers, 6 Page Elements, and 2 Quick Pages. 

I am continuing to plug away at my Disney Cruise photos, so here are the pages I made with this kit.  I will admit that I had a difficult time this week as the none of my 500+ pictures seemed to GO with this kit.  Or maybe I am just tired.  It would have been super easy to use some pictures from this summer, but that won't help get my Disney Album done.  

If you download this kit, please leave me a comment telling me what you plan to use it for.

Friday Freebie #2

Are you excited about "Freebie Fridays" yet?  I am.  Here is a preview of the kit for this week.  

I love how well it coordinates with the one from last week.

Here are my pages I made with this kit.  They are done using the quick pages from the kit along with stitching and rickrack that come with My Memories software.  The "Welcome to Paradise" tag is from the  Escape Tags  available for .99 (or free if you use my affiliate code: STMMMS78326 when you purchase the software.) As always, no purchase necessary to use the kit of the week.

So, have you taken up the challenge to do a quick page or two with me?  If so, leave me a comment or drop me a note and I will send you a link to a third free designer kit that coordinates with the first two!  Hurry.  This is only available through Sunday!

Freebie Friday

Welcome to a new feature of my blog: Freebie Friday.  Every Friday, I will give you a link to some beautifully designed digital scrapbook elements courtesy of My Memories software.   This week's kit includes:

• 2 Digital Papers
• 5 Page Elements
• 2 Quick Pages

Three years ago, my whole family went on a Disney Cruise for New Year's and I still need to work on that.  So, my goal is to use these designer kits to quickly make a few pages to share with you each week.  Here is your first installment.

The Castaway Cay and Braids pages were done using the Quick Pages.  And they really are quick.  Here's how to use them in the My Memories software.

1. Add a blank page and open the picture(s) you want to use.
2. Add the quick page (QP) as an EMBELLISHMENT.  Browse to where you downloaded your kit and open the QP.
3. Then just position your picture(s) to fit the opening(s)
4.  Add a title and some journaling and you're done.  

On the sailboat page I also used embellishments from the FREE Sea Memories designer pack.  

The great news is that you don't HAVE to use My Memories to use this kit as all of the files are .png so you can use them in Photoshop or other photo editing software.

However, if you do want to purchase My Memories software, my affiliate code is: STMMMS78326. Using my code will save you $20.00.

So, does anyone want to join me in my goal of doing a few quick pages a week?  It should be painless and I'm estimating I'll have this album done by Memorial day.