For today I have updated and improved one of my most popular older posts. Enjoy!
Quick Page Brag Book Tutorial using png files
How to make a Brag Book using Quick page png files
Here's an project idea of how to make a 4x6 brag book with the Harvest Time brag book quick page album. (or any brag book quick page album) These are png files that have transparent parts where you can place your photos on a layer underneath for an instant "scrapbook-y" layout that looks great.
1. Have some photo editing software such as Adobe Photoshop Elements. (These instructions will work with pretty much any version.)
2. Take some fall photos with your digital camera or scan in some old paper photos.
3. Open one of the brag book pages in your Photoshop program.
4. Open your photos. (File, Open)
5. Crop your photo with the crop tool if you want. When it looks the way you want click control + a to select all and control + c to copy. Switch to the brag book page and do control + p to paste.
6. On the left hand side of the screen use the layers palette to drag the photo underneath the quick page layer.
7. Resize your photo to fit: control + t will start the resize command. To make sure you keep the aspect ratio correct click the little lock button on the tool bar or hold down the shift key as you resize. (No squooshed faces, please!)
8. Add text: use the text tool on the left side of the screen and pick whatever font and size you want on the toolbar at the top. Use the move tool (very first tool on the toolbar on left) to move your text just where you want it.
9. Add other elements or frou frou stuff if you want! Kim Hill's shop has lots of goodies.
Tip: For Brag Book freebies, check Ikea Goddess and DigiScrap Depot. You can buy some wonderful themed brag books, and but if you check the freebie sites you can also get alot of super cute free png quick pages to download.
10. Save your file. I like to save the full psd file in case i want to make changes. I also save as a jpg with compression level 10 for printing. This is the file you will upload to a photo processor.
11. Finish all your layouts and make a note of where on your computer you have saved your jpg files.
12. Upload these pictures to your photo processor of choice. I usually upload my 4x6s to Walgreens.com and then I can pick them up at the store by my house 1 hour later. This saves me from having to deal with printing them myself although that is cool, too!
Tip: Want to know how to bind a brag book? - try using a Bind-It-All machine for easy at home spiral binding. Click here for more info on a book I made with my Bind-It-All.
13. For an extra special touch - try these spiral bound "snapbooks" from shutterfly. At $9.99 for 20 pages, its a pretty good value. These make super little gifts for grandparents! Winkflash also has a similar product.
updated 4/2/08
