(warning - this post contains a lot of images - and you can click on them for larger view)

I have a new freebie at the Little Dreamer Designs Blog:

I heard a lot of people beginning digital scrapbooking would like to use it and don't know how to. I decided to create a page to show you, step by step, how to use the storyboards.

This tutorial was created for Photoshop CS3, it was not tested in other versions but please let me know if you test it and if it works (or not) in other versions. A basic understanding of the layering system is needed to make use of this tutorial.

STEP 1

First, create a 12x12 document in Photoshop and also choose and open a storyboard to use.

(note the settings, it is important that you always create pages with 300 Resolution for print quality)

When you choose your storyboard, think about the photos you are going to use and how they will fit in the storyboard. You can rotate or flip the storyboard to fit your needs. For this, select "Edit" from the top menu, then Transform and choose one of the transform options (or you can use the shortcut CTRL+T and select one of the options)

STEP 2

Now open all your photos and place them under the storyboard layer. I usually drag and drop the photos into my page. Resize and place your photos in the desired position (CTRL+T to resize).

STEP 3

You will notice that the photos overlap each other, so let's delete the parts we don't need. (sometimes the photos will fit nicely and this will not be necessary)

Select the storyboard layer and the magic wand tool (W). Now click on the opening your photo should occupy on the storyboard.

You will see the "marching ants" (seriously, that is the technical term) which shows your selection. Let's invert it by selecting "Select" from the top menu and then "Inverse" (CTRL+SHIFT+I). Now just hit delete and the undesired part of your photo is gone.

Repeat Step 3 for all photos until there are no overlaps:

STEP 4

Now that your photos are ready you can start embellishing your page. Bring some digital pages into Photoshop and drag and drop them to your document.

I chose Michelle Coleman's Sugar Plum kit. Place one paper in the background (last layer) and one just on top of storyboard layer.

We are going to "clip" the paper on top of the storyboard layer so that it covers the storyboard. Clipping is very basic and useful when using templates. Select the layer above the storyboard, from the top menu select "Layer" and then "Create Clipping Mask" (CTRL+ALT+G in CS3 or CTRL+G in CS2) You can also just right click on the layer and select "Create Clipping Mask" from the pop up menu.

Note that I have swapped my first photo of the set using the same method. I "clipped" the flower on top of my dog's photo so I don't have to cut my flower photo, it is already in place.

I'll come back with PART 2 of this tutorial in a little bit.