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(Brian): Before we get started, put the basics of your layout
together by selecting the Moonlight kit, the Front & Center—
In the Middle/Sidebar™ pattern, and Kit Mix 1. Welcome to
Love Your Layout(sm). Today’s layout features the fun Moonlight
kit. There’s definitely a Halloween feel to this kit, but you can
find lots of fun ways to use the purples, blacks, and fancy
designs in other non-Halloween layouts, too. Today we’re making a
layout to feature the trick-or-treaters in your life. After
selecting the kit, pattern, and kit mix, I’ve added my photos
and turned off the Toggle Accents under the Embellishments
toolset. I’ve also deleted the Title and journaling areas. I’m
going to start customizing these papers to my liking by opening
up the Paper toolset. This striped paper is one of my favorites, so I’ll
pull that over in place of the Smokey Plum paper. I’ll bring back
that purple textured paper by pulling it into the bottom paper
well here on the left page. And what’s Halloween without a little
Goldrush? I’ll select the Whisper cardstock on the left side of
the page and open the Color Box and select the color Goldrush.
Last, I’ll select the Slate cardstock on the right page and change
it to Black. And that gives me a look that I like. I want these
right page photos to be horizontal instead of vertical, so I’m
going to rotate the page by clicking this arrow in the upper
right corner. I’ll rotate it three times so the photos are in
the top part of the page. Now the photo wells will turn horizontal
and the photos will automatically adjust. I’ll just have to
reposition the photos to focus on what I want to see.
You probably noticed when we turned the page that this striped
paper stayed oriented the direction it originally was and now the
stripes are going the wrong direction. I can turn the paper to
match my other stripes by selecting the paper and clicking this
rotate icon on the pop up window. Let’s do that with the strip of Smokey
Plum B&T on the right page as well, so the textures will match up
on your printed version. Try using this rotate feature to add
variety to your B&T selections on all your layouts.
The last thing I want to do to get my page looking the way I like
is add a bit of distressing. I’ll open the Distressing toolset.
Black will work best for this layout, so I’ll change the color to
black down here. I’ll choose Sponge distressing and add it to my
Goldrush cardstock, my Smokey Plum B&T, and the striped B&T.
I want the distressing to be a bit more prominent on that striped
B&T, so I’ll increase the intensity up to 75%.
In this segment, we’ll look at some ways you can
give your photos distinction in Studio J.
You can do a lot of things in Studio J to add interest to your
photos. One thing I’ve done already is added a 1/16" black
photo mat to each photo, using the mat photo drop down. This is a
simple effect that goes a long way to adding distinction to your
photos. Now, because the colors of these costumes don’t really
go together — and especially not with the colors of the layout —
I want these right page photos to be black & white, just like this
group photo on the left page. The good news is that I can do that
right here in Studio J! In the filter drop-down menu, there are
two options: Black & White and Sepia. I’ll select Black & White
for each photo and just like that, I can change all four photos
to black & white that fit together quite nicely with the color
scheme. You’ll also find that the Studio J photo editor gives
you lots of easy-to-use tools for adjusting brightness, contrast,
sharpness, and even removing blemishes, red-eye, glare, and other
unwanted features of your photo! You don’t need to touch up your
photos before uploading them, because the tools you need are
right here in Studio J. Another thing you can do is add
journaling to your photos in subtle ways that don’t detract from
the photo. For example, I have this empty area in my large photo
on the left page that I can fill with a little brief journaling
to help commemorate the event. I’ll open the text toolset and
pull a new journaling area to that space and change the
background to “None.” I’ll enter my journaling and then change
the font to Déjà Vu and the size to 22. Then I’ll click this
button to have the text centered in the box. I’ll adjust the
sizing of the box until it fills the space the way I want it to.
Next, I’ll copy and paste that text box and drag it to one of my
right page photos. I’ll use it to enter the names of the kids
featured in the layout, copying and pasting the boxes to keep
my font and background selections. Last of all, to add a little
more separation between the photos, I’ll open the Embellishments
toolset and select “Stitching” from the drop-down menu. After
changing the color to black down here, I’ll select the Running
Stitch and drag it to be between these two rows of photos.
I’ll copy and paste that piece of stitching and then rotate it
in order to have a vertical line of stitching as well. That will
take a little more cropping to get it just right. And while I
am at it, I’ll copy and paste that vertical line of stitching
and pull it over to my left page to the left of the left photo,
leaving a little space between my stitch and the mat.
I’ll go back over to these right page stitches. With a little
more work, I could probably get the intersection of these
two lines to look a bit better, but it would be a lot easier
and faster to just cover them up with a My Stickease® image!
In the My Stickease toolset, I’ll select Small Accents from
the drop-down menu. I like this purple spider web image, so
I’ll pull that over and put it over the intersection of my
stitching lines. I’ll increase the size to 190% so it has a bit
more presence here. That will do nicely. I’m going to add
one more thing to my photo here on the left page. In the
Embellishments toolset, I’ll choose Ribbons from the drop-down
menu. With the color on Black, I’ll pull a ribbon tab over
to the lower right corner of my page. I’m going to zoom in for
this next part. I’ll rotate my ribbon tab vertically and then
position it right at the edge of the page so about half of the
tab overlaps the photo. I’ll copy and paste that ribbon and
move the copy over to the left of the first tab. I’m going to do
this over and over again until I have what looks like a ribbon
fringe all along the bottom of the photo. A trick to doing this
repetitive technique is that when you’ve done three or four,
you can select all of them, and then copy and paste them as
a group instead of individually. That will really speed up the
process for you. Once I’ve got them all lined up, I’ll select
all the tabs and then click the Send to Back button so
they will go behind the photo mat. To finish that look off, I’ll
rotate the one on the end just a little to add some personality.
Let’s finish this layout off with some more My Stickease
images and a few other finishing touches. I’ve gone
ahead and added a few brads from the Embellishments toolset,
choosing “Metals” in the drop-down menu. I added one black Bigger
Brad to occupy the middle of my spider web here, and two black
medium brads to the upper right and to the lower left of my
layout. I also added these two title images from the My Stickease
toolset, under Titles in the drop-down menu. This one on the
left page is increased to 187%. The one on the right page is
increased, but only to 120%. I want to embellish these titles
a bit more so I’ll start by going back to the My Stickease
toolset and choosing Small Accents from the drop-down menu.
I’ll select this gold star and add two of them to the left edge
of this “Haunted” My Stickease image. I’ll increase the size of
this top star to 140% and then I’ll rotate it a bit to the left.
Then I’ll choose a bat from the My Stickease small accents
drop down menu and add that to the page as well. I’ll bump up
the size to 140% and position it above the “A” in the title. I’ll
then fiddle with the positioning and layering a bit to get
everything looking just great. There we go! To further trick
out this title, I’ll go back to the My Stickease and choose the
Medium Accents drop-down menu. I’ll pick the purple pennant
and pull it over here below the “u” in Haunted. This is going to
be the center of a cluster here, so I’ll increase the size to
about 140%. Then I’ll send it backward so it layers behind the title.
Next, I’ll select Tags from the drop-down menu in My Stickease,
and I’ll pull over one of these long ivory images. I’ll increase
its size to about 120% and then rotate it vertically, angling
slightly to the left. I’ll crop down the top of the image and
position it to the left of my purple banner. Then I’ll copy
and paste it, positioning the second image on the other side of
the purple banner, rotating it to angle the other way. And then
I’ll choose both and Send backward until they both are
behind the purple banner. After I’ve finished that, I’ll select
a Sweet Leaf banner from the Tags menu and pull two of
those onto my layout; I’ll put one to the left and one to the
left and one to the right. I’ll do the same type of rotation
and then send them behind just like I did with the last pair.
Isn’t that a nice looking cluster there? To get the same type
of look on the right page, under “Halloween,” I’ll select
another green banner and position it below there. I’ll go
back to the small accents and add one of these little white
stars, as well as one of these great spiders, and another yellow
star. I’ll increase the star to 200% and the spider to 120%.
For a finishing touch here, I’ll repeat my layered ribbon tab
following the same steps I took to create my cluster on the left
page. I’ll select the last two pair of these layered ribbon
tabs, copy and paste them and pull them into place over here.
I’ll put a pair of tabs on both sides of the green pennant,
rotating them and putting them in place before sending them
behind the other elements. There you have it. I hope you love
the tricks we’ve shown you today. Now treat yourself to a
fabulous creative experience by logging in to Studio J and
making your own version.