Welcome!

Welcome to Weeds & Wildflowers Design!

We have been in the digital scrapbooking industry for over four years and are happy to continue to design quality products to help you scrap and record your precious photos and memories.  Whether you are a beginner or a more experienced scrapper, you will have so much fun working with our whimsical, eclectic and original designs!

We know you are busy, so we strive to create products that will make scrapping fast and easy – with our focus on the photos and journaling.  It is capturing and recording your life story that is important, and we hope we can help you do just that.  So please feel free to browse our shoppe and try out our products!

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Helpful links:

Starter Kit, pixels, zip files, Adobe Photoshop Elements, Microsoft Digital Image Pro, W&W blog tutorials, 365 tutorial

Some info about Microsoft Digital Image Pro (by girlie alonzo)

For some of you who are starting to get into digital scrapping, you first challenge is to choose a program to get you started. There are number of programs you can choose from: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop Elements, Corel Paint Shop Pro, Ulead Photoimpact, and Microsoft Digital Image Pro (earlier versions were called Picture It). These are some of the programs I have heard of.

As for me I am using Microsoft Digital Image Pro. I am not a very ‘techy’ person but it worked really well for me. You can download the program here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=f3ba983b-8c10-44f6-9044-2bb1464937dc

I have been using this program for 5 years now and I am really happy with it! Here are some of its features that I really love:
1. It comes with the Microsoft Digital Image Library that helps me organize and archive my photos and kits making it easy for me to view and use.
2. It has features that help me enhance my photos – exposure and color correction, smart erase and red eye fix, filters that totally give an entirely different mood on my photos/layout
3. It even helps me create projects like photo collage, calendars, cards and many more.

If you want to give this program I try, I am more than happy to help you get familiarized with it!
– Girlie

Getting started with Photoshop Elements (PSE) using the Starter Kit (by jazzy)

So you’ve decided you want to try digital scrapbooking and you are using Photoshop Elements.  What now?

**First, download Gina’s Starter kit and follow along!**

There are three ways to go about digiscrapping in PSE

• Use a Quickpage
• Use a Template
• Start from scratch

Using a Quickpage

This is the simplest way to get started.

1. Open PSE and choose Edit from the starting options.

2. From the File menu select Open, then choose the Quickpage file. Repeat choosing the picture you want to use. Once you have opened your files they will be displayed in your Project Bin at the bottom of your screen.

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3. Using the Move Tool pick up your picture and drop it onto your quickpage, making sure that it is in a layer below your quickpage layer.

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4. If the quickpage has a journaling layer, select this and replace the text with your own by double clicking to select it and then typing over. You can change the font style and colour if you wish. You can also move the textbook around and resize it if you want.

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5.  Choose Save As from the file menu and name your file and choose the filetype. Choosing Save As rather than Save means the original Quickpage will still be available for future use with different pictures.

If you want to make future edits, save it as a psd file so it will be saved in layers. If you are finished you will want to save it as a jpg at 300 dpi, as this is the size/resolution you will be using to print.

Using a Template

Using a template gives you a guide for where to place your various papers, photos and elements. It is a bit like painting by numbers for digiscrappers.

1.  Open PSE and open the Template file you wish to use along with the pictures you want to put into the template.

2.  Save your file by choosing Save As from the File Menu rather than Save so that you keep the original template for future use.

3.  Select the layer with the template shape or photo shape you want by clicking on it in the Layers Palette at the right hand side of your screen. Your chosen layer will be highlighted. Now, using the Move Tool you can drop your various papers and elements into the ready made template. Select the paper or element you want to use from your Project Bin and drop it onto the template.

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4.  Hold down the Control Key (Ctrl) and press the G Key to group your paper or photo with a template layer beneath it. By doing this your paper or photo will take the same shape as the template layer beneath it.

5.  Continue doing this until you have replaced all the template layers. You can delete layers from the template and add more too. Remember, a template is just a guide to get you started.

6.  Add your own elements to embellish your layout.

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7.  When you have finished choose Save from the file menu to save your psd file. Then choose ‘Save As’ from the file menu and save your file as a jpg under a different name. (Again, you will want to make sure it is saved as a jpg at 300 dpi for printing quality). This will make a flattened copy of your file but leave you with the psd file so that you can come back to it later and change it if you want.

Starting from scratch

1.  Open PSE and choose Edit from the starting options.

2.  From the File menu select New, then Blank file.

3.  Now you have some choices to make. Let’s start by choosing Scrapbooking, 12×12, 300 pixels/inch, RGB Colourand Transparent background.

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4.  Your screen should now look like the one below. Save and name your file at this point.

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5.  Next you want to open some digital scrapbooking papers, elements, wordarts and templates, as well as your pictures. Do this by choosing Open from the File menu and selecting whichever files you want.

Once you have opened your files they will be displayed in your Project Bin at the bottom of your screen.

6.  Now, using the Move Tool, you can then start adding all the different elements and papers to build up a layout. Once you have added an element you can add effects such as shadows by using the EffectsPalette on the upper right hand side of your screen.

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7.  Your layout is built up in layers which you can see on the Layers Palette on the right hand side of your screen.

If you want to change the order of the layers you can select a layer and move it up or down the order. You should try to think of our layers just as you would if you were doing a paper layout.

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8.  Remember to Save your file regularly as you go along so that you do not lose anything.

9.  When you have finished make sure to Save your file and keep the layered (.psd) copy in case you want to make changes later.

10.  If you want to save your file as a jpg or other picture format you need to flatten it first. Do this by choosing Flatten from the Layer menu.

11.  Next go to your File menu and select Save As. Once you have named your layout you should .jpg as the file format and save it.

12.  Well Done you have made your first digital layout!

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