By Jenny Binder
Week of August 18, 2008
Sometimes I like to take a break from my normal scrapbooking style and do something different, especially when I come across someone else’s page that I really like. My layout here is a scraplift of Becky Pogachnik’s page entitled “happiness” found in the August/September issue of Digital Scrapbooking. I love the simple graphic design feel, especially the rows of dots. If you’ve never created a row of dots, you won’t believe how simple it is!
Step 1) Create a new document
Start by creating a new document. Choose File>New>Blank File, and type in the dimensions and resolution you prefer. I chose an 8 inch by 8 inch document with a resolution of 300.
Step 2) Create a new layer
We want to place our row of dots on their own layer so we can manipulate and move them around later. Click on the “Create a new layer” icon at the top of the Layer’s palette. |
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Step 3) Choose and set the Brush tool
- Choose the Brush Tool from the Tool Bar to the left.
- Make sure your foreground color chip at the bottom of the Tool Bar is set to black. If it is not, press D to return the color chips to their default colors of Black and White.
- From the brush drop-down menu in the Options Bar above, choose a hard round brush. Choose a larger brush for larger dots, a smaller brush for smaller dots. I have chosen a 13px brush.
- Also in the Options Bar, make sure the Mode is set to Normal, and the Opacity to 100%.
Step 4) Adjust brush options
- You will need to open the brush options by clicking on the brush icon clear to the right in the Options bar above.
- Increase the Spacing to around 200%. (This controls how far apart your dots will be and you can come back and adjust this later. Increasing the percent makes the dots further apart. Decreasing the percent makes the dots closer together.)
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Step 5) Draw your row of dots
Click and hold on one side of your page. (Do NOT move the mouse while you are holding.) Press Shift, then move your mouse across your page while you hold down Shift.
Try experimenting with different colors, different brush sizes, and different spacings. Just make sure when you create new rows to put them on their own layer by clicking the “Create a New Layer” icon first.
Below is my finished layout. I created 4 separate rows of dots, 2 black and 2 red. Since they were on their own layers I could move them around independent of each other and even resize or change their colors.
Now, let’s see what YOU can do!
Credits
Tutorial by Jenny Binder, www.HeirloomScrapbooks.com
“Brother” created with the Stamp Alpha by Micheline Martin at ScrapArtist.
Fonts: CK Ladder and Orator Std.
