Expanding the Conversion

This is probably best used when making a calendar but you may find other uses for it as well.

I'll be using the a calendar template by Simply Sarah as referenced by the Bug yesterday.


THe first thing you will need to do is complete each section (top and bottom), then Layers>Merge>Merge Visible.


Choose one of the layouts (I chose the top part of the calendar). Image>Image Size.


The new width should be the same as the original; the new height will be the same as the original plus the height of the bottom (or top if you decided to do this with the bottom). Placement will be the top center arrow if you are working on the top part of the calendar; the bottom center arrow if you are working on the bottom.


Your image should now look like this:


To help with the placement of the bottom section, I have placed guidelnes; centered vertically and horizontally.


To find the dimensions of your layout go to Image>Image Information.


Click on the Image Information tab and check the width and height in the Image box.


With second layout selected: Edit>Copy.


Now select the first layout again and Edit>Paste as a New Layer.


It should now look similar to this:


Using your move tool and the guidelines move the second layer into place. Then Layers>Merge>Merge Visible.


And now for a tour around our room at the Bellagio a couple of months ago. (can you tell which is my favorite room?)

Template by Jennifer Wilson; Color Revolution 'Boldly Brown' (c)Connie Prince;
Fonts: Chopin Script; OptimusPrinceps

Sizing it up

What size should you print your pages at? That all depends on what you plan on doing with it.

Some really cute ideas for gifts (especially for pre-teens and teens) are the chipboard albums, some of which can be found here and Cosmos Cricket's blackboard albums, here. Kathryn Estry has blank templates the size of Cosmos Cricket albums for sale at Gotta Pixel, here. This includes 5 templates, but they can be purchased separately as well. Searching I found people using tags, cds and various other media for completing "brag books'.

Pages can any size you desire and can print (or have printed). Popular sizes include 4x6, 5x7, 6x6, 8x8, 8.5x11 and 12x12. It will also depend on whether you want a bound volume or a binder that you can add to.

Binder albums are perfect for hybrid pages where you print out the page then add the elements to them. Bound volumes are perfect coffee table books (and are easier to store on bookshelves).

There more than a few companies that you can find to print and bind your scrapbook pages. Shutterfly and Inkubook come to mind, as I just got emails from both.

If you decide to have your pages bound, I highly suggest that you take a moment to read what Simply Yin has to say about preparing your page, here, here and here. She also has a link to a more comprehensive article by Wendyzine at The Daily Digi.

Again, this is suppose to be fun and provide your family and friends with documentation of your or their life or an important event.

Below are a cover page and pages 1-3 using Kathryn's template for the Cricket "Abby" album of a family trip to Hong Kong.

Template by Valerie O.; "Flights of Fancy" (c)Cherie Shields;
Cosmos Cricket Abby template (c)Kathryn Estry; Font: Pea Valerie

A cunning conversion up

We have made a 12x12 template into an 8.5x11 template with nary a problem. But what if you find a smaller template and would like to use it on a 12x12 area?

I'm using a Christmas card template from Firefly Creative. Since this is a horizontal card I am going to increase the width to 12".



Then I am going to increase the canvas size, by going to Image>Canvas Size.



This is going to bring up a dialog box with shows the original dimensions at the top. Below are two boxes for changing the width and height of canvas.
You will put in your new values in these boxes. We don't want to lock the aspect ratio as we have already set the width the size we want. At the bottom is the placement. We'll get to that in a minute.



The little boxes with arrows in placement tells the program where you want what is on the canvas to go. They really are pretty self-explanatory as the up arrow places everything at the top, the down at the bottom, the center places everything in the center and so on and so forth. Sometimes you are not going to want them flush with the sides so on the right you can put in the coordinates.



I decided that I wanted everything at the bottom, so chose the down arrow.



Then selecting the background layer I flood filled it with black (or whatever color was used by the designer). And now from an 8x4 card, I have a 12x12 template for scrapbooking.



There are plenty of other ways of doing both conversions and you may find one that you like better. Experiment, check out the help on psp and do some searches. But most of all, have fun.

Template by Andrea Gold; "Squid Ink" (c)Creations by Rachel & Late Night Scraps; Font: Forte

A cunning conversion down

You have found a great template, but it is larger the size that you are scrapping in. I'm using one by Andrea Gold.



The easiest way to convert it is to resize. You just have to make sure you uncheck the Lock Aspect Ratio (and make sure you check next time you use it).



While this produces a usable template, it is rather distorted.



The better way is to crop it to the correct size you need. I open a new file at the size I want it to be and flood fill with a bright color.



The next thing is to reduce the size of the template's size so that it matches the largest size of your new file, in this case 11" vertical



Now drag the flood fill from your new file over to the resized template. Reduce opacity and place over the predominate part of the template.



While you still have the flood layer selected go to Selections>Select All; Selections>Float; Selections>Defloat (or contr a; contr f; contr shift f on keyboard).



Then go to Image>Crop to Selection (shift r on keyboard). Delete the flood filled layer.



You now have a template in the size you want without the distortion caused by resizing with the lock off.

Template by Andrea Gold; "Squid Ink" (c)Creations by Rachel & Late Night Scraps; Font: Century Gothic