I started with this template by Wishing Well Creations.
I enlarged the photo spot a bit, and then added the collage I made using a 4x6 template from Designs by Lili (I did all of this in Photoshop).
Then, I added in the papers, which are all from the "Fresh" kit, a collaboration from One Little Bird and Sahlin Studio. I love the colors in this kit, and that wooden paper is one of my favorites!
It needed a little something more, so I found a quote card I liked in the Summer section of the Project Life Seasons Mini Kit. I recolored it slightly to match the blues in my photos. It was a tad too wide at full-size (3x4), so I drew a narrower rectangle with the shape tool, and then clipped the card to it.
Here's a very brief description of how I recolor stuff in Photoshop:
1. Choose the color I want to use (eyedropper tool).
2. Select what I want to recolor.
3. Ctrl+U to bring up the Hue/Saturation panel.
4. Check the Colorize box.
5. Adjust the saturation and lightness sliders until the color looks right.
6. Click OK.
This is just one way to do it. There are lots. Here's a search with several helpful results: How to Recolor Digital Elements
I downloaded a felt freebie element the other day of "I love you" in American Sign Language, and thought it would work great for this. We started using sign language with the boys when they were babies, and still use quite a few on a daily basis ("I love you" and "toilet" most frequently). :)
I recolored the hand a little bit because the white felt wasn't showing up very well against the photos. I also reduced the size of the whole element to 25%.
The next part is where it gets a tad tricky. I have to change the shape and resolution of my square page to fit my computer screen (which is not square). I'm sure there are several ways to go about this, but here's how I did it:
1. Merge all the layers together in the layout except the background paper.
2. Minimize Photoshop and take a screen shot of my desktop (hit the Prt Sc / Print Screen key on my laptop).
3. Create a new document in Photoshop. The default new image size will match the clipboard, which is where the screenshot of the desktop is, thus my new document will match the size and resolution of my computer screen. You could also just look up the resolution of your screen, and then create a new document with those dimensions, but this way seems easier to me.
4. Resize the new document to 300 dpi.
5. Drag the merged layers (all the photos and papers minus the background) from the original layout into the new document.
6. Add the background paper in to the new document underneath the papers/photos layer and resize it using the corner toggles until it is the same width as the document (move it up and down until I like the portion that is showing).
I tried several different background papers, and finally settled on the notebook paper by Studio Flergs (a freebie from iNSD). I like that it has a touch of red in the margin. I think it helps balance the red heart and paper on the opposite side.
Anyway, on to the next steps:
7. Flatten the image.
8. Resize to 72 dpi.
9. Sharpen it using Unsharp Mask (Amount: 150%, Radius: 0.2 Pixels, and Threshold: 0 levels).
10. Save it using the Save for Web tool.
11. Open the folder where I just saved the image, right click on it, and choose "set as desktop background."
That's it! If that seems too complicated, there are some desktop freebies available around the Internet where all you have to do is pop in your photos. I've seen some really cute ones. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your opinion), most of them include a monthly calendar. I like having the calendar while it's current, but then I end up looking at an October calendar when it's actually July, and well... I don't like that so much. Ha! :)
Here are some I found (images are linked):
Hope you have a great weekend! :)
What a great idea! Thanks so much for sharing!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome, Amy! I hope it was helpful. :)
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