DIY Boo Brag Book by Marissa Carranza

© 2008 ~ Marissa Carranza, CACTUSmango Designs.

This tutorial, the intellectual copyrights and artwork are the property of Marissa Carranza, CACTUSmango Designs and have been uploaded in this format with her kind permission.

This tutorial may be printed out as an instructional copy for personal use only. This tutorial may not be distributed for educational, marketing or for-profit usage in print, digital, or any other format, nor may it be copied and/or uploaded to another website without the authors written consent.

A link back when giving credit is not essential, but would be appreciated.
Thank you.

This mini album is inspired by Angie Hinkman’s L~O~V~E Hybrid Printable Album from Scrapartist.com. The cute Halloween girlies are my nieces who love to play dress-up even when it is not Halloween. They are growing up so fast! The lil’ pumpkin is now a mermaid!

Supplies/Credits:
(You don’t have to use these exact items. They are just what I used for example)

Bizarre paper freebie; Brushes and frames; CACTUSmango Designs, KJoi Studios.com
Bizarre font (letter B) by David Rakowski, Fontspace.com
Photoshop CS2
HP psc 1210xi all-in-one printer
8 1/2 x 11 printing paper
Cannon Power Shot S400
WinZip, or any programme to unzip files
Carl Cutting Board
ThermOWeb Mounting Squares
Gel ‘n Roll Pens
Black 12 x 12 card stock
Key chain loop
Foam core
Hole punch

Instructions:

# Denotes digital/computer methods (Steps 1 - 12)
* Denotes traditional methods (Steps 13 etc)

1. # After acquiring a digital kit of your choice online, unzip or decompress the files so you can open each file. Use a programme like WinZip or simply, right click on the zip file and choose: Open With Compressed (Zipped) Folders. Each file is now separated and you can now open the file in your photo/scrapbook programme of your choice, like Photoshop Elements.

2. # Next, open Photoshop and create a new file, size 5×7, 300dpi.

3. # To make the letter “B”, I first placed the Bizarre Brush/Frame into my new 5×7 file. To do this, click “File” then “Place”. Then choose your brush and click “Place”. It opens in your new 5×7 file and will ask you to click “Place” again. Next right click on the Bizarre Brush Layer (highlighted in blue) and choose “Rasterise Layer”.

4. # Next click on the Type tool. (It looks like the letter “T”). Choose Bizarro from the drop down font menu that appears on the top menu bar and type a capital “B”. I then right clicked on the “Type Layer” (make sure that you have it highlighted in blue) and choose “Rasterise Type”. This makes it into an image and no longer a font.

5. # Now, you can “Merge” the “B” with the Bizarre brush. Drag the “B” layer above the “Bizarre brush” layer, right click and choose “Merge Down”.

6. # Now that the brush and the letter are combined into one element, you can add a white outline to give it that “sticker” look. To do this, right click on the highlighted layer and choose “Blending Options”. A “Layer Style” window pops up, and click on “Stroke”. Move your mouse over the “Size” slider to adjust the outline width to your liking. Then click on the red colour box (red seems to be the default outline colour). You can change the outline colour by using the pop-up “Colour Picker” window, or while this pop-up window is still open, you can move your cursor over anything in the open file and it becomes an eyedrop shape, which picks up any colour you click on. So, I chose a white outline because it contrasts against the dark paper. Click OK on the “Colour Picker” window and then click OK again in the “Layer Style” window. For good measure, right click on the “B” layer again and rasterise it.

7. # Repeat steps 3-6 to make the “O’s” in “Boo”, except use the eyeball brush and circle frame for the letter “O”.

8. # Because white does not show on printing paper, I did put a 1px light grey outline around each letter, so that I could have a cutting guide. But if you chose any other colour for your sticker outline, you wouldn’t really need to do this step.

9. # “Place” any pix you like. To “crop” the pix, use the “Elliptical Marquee Tool”. Click on “Select” on the top menu bar, click “Inverse”, then “delete”.

10. # So next I “Place”, one at a time, three papers into my 5×7 file. (See 1-3 on how to “Place” files within your working file).

11. # To “Print” each element, “Hide” the layers you don’t want to print yet. To “Hide” layers, click on the “Eye” that is in a box next to each layer. Make sure that the layer you want to print has an “Eye” next to it.

12. # To “Print”, click on “File”, “Print with Preview”. Make sure it is positioned where you want it and then hit “Print”. Repeat for all the layers in your new 5×7 file.

13. * Trim one paper to approximately 2.33 inches wide. Trim another to approximately 4.33 inches wide. Keep the last page uncut. Adhere digi-paper to black card stock and trim to size.

14. * Punch a hole at the top left hand corner. Carefully loop the Key Chain ring through each hole.

15. * Adhere letters to black card stock and trim.

16. * Cut small squares from the Foam Core or use 3D foam with adhesive backing to the back of the cutout letters and stick to pages to form the word “Boo”.

17. * Cut all remaining elements and adhere to paper. Then use a silver sparkle gel pen to highlight the cobwebs and add doodle swirls to the photos or use to journal for the final touch.

To get the blended effect on boo3_album_mmc.jpg
1. # From the “File” menu, select “Place”, select a photo, click “Place” and click “Place” one last time.
2. # Position this photo’s layer, above the Bizarre paper with Halloween phrases.
3. # Click on the “Eraser” tool, select a brush style that you like from the drop down menu (preferably one that is textured). Choose a medium size. In the “Opacity” drop down menu, lower it to approximately 40%.
4. # Hold down the left mouse button and erase around the edges of the photo. Decrease and Increase the Opacity as you go to give a nice blended effect.
5. # You can “Merge” this photo with a Bizarre paper layer. Or, before printing, hide all layers except the photo and the paper you want it to be on.

© 2008 CACTUSmango Designs by Marissa Carranza. All rights reserved. For personal use only.