Valentines Day Alphas

While playing with the glass effect tut I created an orb that I thought would work great for Valentines Day so I turned it into these Alpha sets

Enjoy :)

Downloads

Scrapbooking Sets

 The rings for alphas Here       Red Set     Violet Set     White Set

Tagger Sets

The rings for alphas Here      Red Set    Violet Set      White Set

Creating the glass effect

In this tutorial I will show you how to create a glass orb and other glass shapes that can be placed over your favorite alpha or to create a new alpha as well as placing them over other images that will give you that glass stone effect and another way to use your favorite scrapping supplies.

First we will need to create a new image to do this

Go to file and select new the new image box will open and you will need to place the following information.

For a full size Scrapbooking Element you will use {Width 200…Height 200… Units Pixels … Resolution 100} in the image Characteristics section have the Raster Background selected as well as the Transparent selection checked.

For a Tagger Size Element you will use {Width 600…Height 600… Units Pixels … Resolution 300} in the image Characteristics section have the Raster Background selected as well as the Transparent selection checked.

Now that you have your blank working area we can create the glass orb.

1. Go to Effects and select Artistic Effects now select balls and bubbles

2.    Under the 1^st tab Shapes you should have single ball or bubble selected.

3.    Under the second tab Surface  the materials should be white… Opacity 15… Shininess 50… and Gloss 76.

4.    Under Illumination Ambience Maximum 19 … Minimum 0…  Lights-light 1…  Color should be white.. Highlight size 25… No Type should be checked . When all the tabs have been finished click on ok. You see we have not used the maps tab at all there will be more about this tab at the end of this tutorial .

You will have something that looks like this(I filled in an under raster layer so that you could see it better)

Now that we have created this cute little bubble we want to flatten it out to get that nice flat glass stone look to do this we need to warp the image we just created.

1. Go to Effects… Distortion Effects and then click on Warp.

2. We will only change the settings here to Size 50…. And Strength 90 then click ok

You will have something that looks like this

Giving your glass demention

1.    Choose the Magic Wand Tool and set the Match Mode to All Opaque. You can now click on any part of the stone and it will all become Masked.

2.    Now that you have the whole stone masked you want to Invert the masked selection . To do this Go to Selections tab and choose invert.

3. Go to Apply Effects… 3D Effects…and click on Drop Shadow.

4. Settings for the drop Shadow box are offset: Vertical 8… Horizontal 8… Attributes: Opacity 75… Blur 40…and the color black then click ok when finished.

5. Go to The Selections tab again and select none and the masked area will disappear.

You have completed this tutorial and should have a finished glass stone that looks something like this.

 

To save your stone Go to File… Export…and click on PNG Optimizer

Now to have fun and play with what we just learned


The easiest thing to change and play with is to colorize your stone simply go to

1. Adjust… Hue and Saturation…then Colorize

To Have fun creating new stone shapes, Simply go to Effects.. Distortion Effects there are many different options there so let your self go crazy!!! And do not limit yourself to only using one distortion on it use multiple effects to create a new and exciting shape.

Here are a few examples:

To change the shape you can also use the Mesh warp tool

Not only can you change the shape and the color. You can change step 2 so you can add texture to your glass.

1. Go to Effects and select Artistic Effects now select balls and bubbles

2. Click on the maps Tab.

3. If you check the bump map box and choose an image it will add that texture to your glass play with the settings till you create the effect you want.

I hope you had fun with this tutorial and would love to see your results !!!!

How to Choose a Color Scheme

We are going to start this year out by first learning the basics about colors themself. The color scheme you choose will set the whole mood that your kit will create in the people who choose to use it, Certain colors may arouse certain memories and feelings in people and u will want to be able to tap into this. By understanding how colors work together you will end up with a successful color scheme and a beautiful kit as well.

We will be starting with a basic color wheel, along with some of the terms you should know. A must have for any artist who is working with colors is a color wheel which shows the relationship of colors to each other.

Here is a basic color wheel now lets break it down so you can understand it better

There are three primary colors (red, blue, yellow)

There are three secondary colors these colors are the result of mixing 2 of the primary colors together (purple, orange, green)

The tertiary colors are created when a primary color is mixed with one of the secondary color such as red-orange, yellow-green and blue-violet.

When you mix a color with gray, you create "tones" of the color.

When you mix a color with black, you create "shades" of the color.

When you mix a color with white, you create "tints" of the color.

The color value is determined by the lightness or darkness of a single chosen color.



Now for color combinations


There are several combinations of these colors that are pleasing to the eye when used.

Complementary colors would be your main color and the color that is directly opposite it on the wheel. This tends to give a very bold, dramatic effect.

Split Complementary colors are the two colors on either side of the complement color plus your main color. This can add a bit of sophistication.

Triad colors would be every fourth color on the wheel, thus forming a triangle. A primary triad is bright and youthful, secondary colors are more subtle, and triads made up of the tertiary colors are sophisticated and fashion-oriented.

Analogous colors are three to five colors which are next to each other on the wheel. This would be your main color, along with either one or two colors on either side of it. You can really make it pop by putting in a touch of the complementary color as well.



Monochromatic would be different values (light & dark) of your key color. Using different tones, tints and shades of your key color is pleasing to the eye and creates unity. Again, a little bit of the complementary color can really enhance a monochromatic color scheme.

To start your color scheme, choose your "Main" color. This main color will be present in about 70% of your creation, 20% of a secondary color will be present in your creation, and last your accent color which will be present in about 10% of your creation.

If you are creating for use with a special photo pull your main color right from your photograph and apply the above color rules. Have fun and play with your color choices till you hit that magic combination that really makes you say wow 

Here is a list of some of my favorite online color scheme generators.

http://colorschemedesigner.com/

http://www.colorsontheweb.com/colorwizard.asp

http://www.colorschemer.com/online.html