Shoppe Tips and Tricks ~ Scraplifting

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Hi all! Trish here and today we’re going to talk scraplifts!

Now, I don’t often do lifts unless they’re for our Thursday Thievery blog posts or for a challenge, but I recently learned some tricks on how to make them a tad easier.  I was asked to convert some of my friends’ flattened pages into templates and as I was doing these I figured out a way to apply the same principle to lifts. Today… I’m going to share that secret with you!

BUT… (Yes there is always a but – lol!)

…before we begin lets talk about a few scraplifting manners.  I like to practice good ‘manners’ and crediting in digi scrapping. I know not everyone is as picky as I am about these things, but to me, they are more common courtesy than anything else.

Before you start your lift, it’s nice to send a message to the person whose page you are lifting. (Unless it’s for say, a challenge or something like that.) Let them know that you really loved their page. This can be done by simply leaving a comment on their page and telling them what you love and that you want to lift it. I’m always so pleased and honored when people tell me they want to lift something I have created or when they share a layout they have made off of one of my pages. Chances are the person you lift will feel just as pleased and honored. (Also, just something to be aware of; some scrappers prefer their pages not to be lifted, so it’s always nice to ask first, whenever possible.)

After doing a lift, credit that scrapper and their layout in your credits. Adding a link to the original layout is a nice idea too. That way others who admire your page can admire the page you got your inspiration from. And, why not send a message to the other scrapper with a link to your layout; they will really appreciate it.

Since that is out of the way, let me give you my tips to lifting a layout!

First, open the layout in your program. I am lifting fellow Shabby Artist Kylie’s beautiful layout “Good Company”. (You can find the kit used for this layout by clicking HERE – it’s the latest FREE kit – the Plentiful collection by Shabby Princess.) Once you’ve opened the layout simplify the layer (so that it’s no longer locked as a background) and create a new blank layer underneath it.

Next, select your shapes tool. I always start with picture placement. Depending on the picture shape, select the corresponding shape tool. (i.e. circular picture – select your circular shape tool, square/rectangle picture – select rectangle tool). Making sure your blank layer is selected, create that shape under the picture in the layout. Don’t worry about making it perfect just yet.

You should be able to see the outline of your shape you just created even though it is under the layout. If you look in the picture above you can see an arrow pointing to my shape. What we will do now is pull in/out the edges so that your shape matches the shape of the picture.

After you have created your picture shapes, move on to the paper pieces following the same steps as with the pictures. I always change my shape color for each different item I am creating, and then change the saturation amount if they overlap. Here is what I have (minus backgrounds) after creating the shapes of the paper pieces.

Now, mine doesn’t match up with Kylie’s 100% because her paper pieces have been warped. You might want your page to be exact that way so what you would do is, making sure the layer with the original layout is visible, warp the pieces under the layout pulling your areas in and out until the outline of your shape matches the corresponding piece in the layout. I don’t want mine to be exact so I am not warping mine right now.

Now create the background layers. Some pages may have just one paper in its background so you can skip this step. However, if the layout you are lifting is like mine, create the shape(s) of the background papers.

This part is where my pickiness comes in… I don’t do exact 100% lifts of pages.

BUT… that doesn’t mean you can’t – it’s up to the individual scrapper at the time. The same way that you did the papers and photos you can apply those steps to the elements of the layout, just get a corresponding shape or one as close as possible to the original shape. With elements especially, you are going to want to label your shape layers with what that element was, so you don’t become later confused.

You might have noticed that I did not simplify/rasterize my shape layers, it is very important that you do not either at this point or before. Currently (unless you changed the size of the layout you were lifting) you are working at web size NOT print. So once you are done adding your layers, change the size of your work area to the dimensions you print at. If you do your pages in a rectangle format I recommend first changing it to an 8.5×8.5 dimension and then going to your CANVAS (not image) size and adjusting it to the proper size.

See, by not rasterizing the layers before, we will have clear shapes that won’t become fuzzy when we change the size.

That’s it! Just build your page now as if you were using a template. :o) You can keep that layer with the original layout so you can just look at it for pointers while building your page while you work, or you could just delete it. That’s totally up to you. I hope this helps you when working on your lifts.

Here’s my finished lift using this week’s Product Spotlight kit “Rummage Chic“:

Well, I hope y’all enjoyed that and find the post helpful! Don’t miss tomorrow’s post with a little beauty inspiration!

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