Digi Tools of the Trade

Creative ways to use various digital tools.

This week we are highlighting a few of the "Tools of the Trade" used in digital scrapbooking. There are hundreds of different ways to use the tools in your photo editing or scrapbooking software. We wanted to share a few tricks using some of our favorite tools with you.

The Color Selector or Eye Dropper (combined with the Brush Tool):

This little tool is very useful and fun for using matching colors in your layout, or selecting a color from a picture…say you want your font color to be the same as your shirt in a photo….this tool is for you. When coupled with the brush tool the color selector can help you color elements or add a splash of coordinating color anywhere on your layout.

Petite LeMan by Smiley-Scrap8

Ronny used some brushes to add color to these awesome cars by Julie Mead and also some paper piecing. The outcome is amazing wouldn't you agree!!!

Warmth of Happiness by Janell

Janell used the eye dropper/color selector tool to extract the same color of the aqua card stock and then used the brush tool to highlight different words in her journaling that she want to stand out–the colors match perfectly and with this tool her layout comes together nicely.

Here is Ronny's layout using the eye dropper/ color selector tool, plus a few more handy tools.

Spikey Blue Hair by Smiley-Scrap8

Ronny shares," For this page I used the Color Selection tool in combo with the Brush tool and Paint Bucket/Fill tool. I usually use the Color Selections tool to choose a color from my photo to add to my layout but this time I needed to enhance something on my photo so I borrowed another blue from my photo to brighten the blue color on my son's hair. The photos didn't show the true blue color it was so I selected the blue from the collar on his shirt and used the Brush tool with the style set to color to add a transparent blue layer over his hair. Second I used the Color Selection tool to choose a blue from my photo to fill my hollow font for the title word "Blue".

Laura was very creative in using the brush tool in her layout! Love the look of those airbrushed hearts!

Love You Snow Much by Art_Teacher

Laura instructs, "I used my brushes to "paint" the edges of the photos and the background paper, and then I drew some brush-strokes and soft, chalked hearts to add to the design. I like the personal feel using the brushes can give your layout."

The Shape or Cookie Cutter Tool:
The shape tool allows you to crop a photo, or paper into any shape you choose from the shapes menu. This tool is a perfect avenue for you to think outside the box and add in your own special shapes to your layout.

Go Green by Smiley-Scrap8

Isn't this layout amazing! Ronny shares her tips for getting an awesome looking layout like the one above: I used the Shape/Cookie Cutter tool to make the large recycling symbol. As a bonus I used the Magic Eraser tool to help me fill the arrows with the pattern paper of my choice and I used the Burn tool to add shadows to the arrows to enhance the folds.

Love you and your messes too! by Janell

Janell used the cookie cutter tool to make it look like a giant envelope was part of her layout. She explains, "I used the semi circle shape and cut the black paper and then layered it on top to make my flap. There are so many uses for the shape tool, part of the magic comes from knowing what shapes you have…every software of version comes with different shapes."

The Cropping Tool:
The Crop tool removes the part of an image outside the crop marquee, or selection–you can change the size and angles with ease. Cropping is useful for removing distracting background elements and creating a focus for your photo or creating new shapes when you are working with patterned paper.

FLO by nun69

This darling scrapbook page is part of Angie's daughter's Senior photo album. Angie (nun69) loves using the crop tool. She explains, "I am all about using the crop tool! In this LO I used the rectangle crop tool to crop the photos, all the square papers and even the paper strips! I also used the circle shape tool to crop the circle patterned paper peeking from behind the wavey paper."

Run by Janell

For this layout Janell used the crop tool. She cropped every picture to get the size and shape she wanted. She even changed some of the angles of the photos by cropping. She didn't stop there, but used the crop tool to cut her 12×12 papers to the size she needed. The small man running on top of the word art "RUN" was made using the shape cutter and adds that personalization to the title.

Last, we have some hybrid goodies for our reveal. Angie made these cute hybrid cards using the rectangle crop tool to cut the patterrned paper and then she used the color section tool to change her font from black to orange.

Dinomite by nun69

Cute Dino Card by nun69

We hope this reveal has inspired you to try to use more tools from your digital scrapping tool box in a new and creative way!
Until next time, Janell, Ronny, Angie, and Laura.

Products used in this reveal: