Free FotoFusion Template No. 25

I'm back with another free FotoFusion template for all you Lumapix FotoFusion users. (After at least a year break!) I have no idea if these work in the new version. I still have the old one, and I'm not willing to upgrade. It only has a few improvements, and I am really familiar with the old one. :) Let me know if my templates work in V5, any of you, okay? Thanks!

This template is fully customizable. It has room for five vertical photos, room for journaling on the middle left, and you can add a patterned background or change to a solid color.

If you don't like the flowers, you could always trade in gears or doilies or something like that, and the leaves for buttons. :) The flowers and leaves are fully customizable, so you can change the colors or even drop in patterned paper, including the middles. When you load the template in FotoFusion, you may not be able to see the flower middles, but they are there if you hover your mouse over the middle. :)

The title and journaling spots are also editable. You can move each letter close together, make them larger, change the colors, change the fonts, change the outline, etc.

I created a quick layout with the template. It only took about 15 minutes to make. The only thing I changed was the fonts for the subtitles. :) Kits used is by Creashens. It's a really old kit, so not sure if it is still available/

Download here

Would love to see the layouts you make with my templates! :)

♥♥♥  Anna   ♥♥♥

Free Facebook Cover Collage Tutorial and Template

Hi everyone!

This post has a free FotoFusion V4 Template you can download. :)

I've been very busy creating and learning new art techniques, but have not taken the time to share those things on my blog. Lately, I feel a bit overwhelmed with posting anything. Perfectionist me, I want it to be a quality post, and I feel inadequate, so it hasn't happened! :(

So, this morning, I decided that was enough.

I just updated the cover photo on my Facebook using my digital software, FotoFusion. People are asking how I do it, so figured I could make a little tutorial here. :)

My latest photo collage:

It's my simplest layout ever! :)

1. Download the template. (Only tested in Version 4 of FotoFusion.)
2. Open FotoFusion and load the template.
3. Simply drop in the photos you want included.
4. Output it as a JPEG at about 700dpi and 100% quality, as you don't want it to be pixelated.
5. Go to your Facebook profile, hover over the bottom left photo area, until "Change Cover Photo" pops up. Click on it.
6. Upload your layout, and VOILA! Done! :) It should be the right size. If not, email me or post a comment, k?

Note: Keep in mind that your profile picture at the lower left side of the layout will overlap onto your cover photo, so don't drop in a picture that you don't want covered in that area. :)

Here's your download link for the template:

AWCAL Facebook Cover Photo Template

Enjoy!

Annawhocropsalot

8.5x11 FF Template No.22

For those of you who work with 8.5x11 layouts, here is Template No.22 in that size.

Click below for a safe instant download.

 

Happy Day to you!

FotoFusion Tutorial: Separating Alphabets

I have a friend who just started with FotoFusion. Her first question was, how do you use the letters that come on one page in FF? We texted back and forth, me giving her the step by step, so I figured there might be others out there who would like to know how to do it too. So I've created a tutorial for you. Here goes! I have a set by Traci Reed from Sweet Shoppe Designs called Little Miss that needed to be separated. It looks like this: 

Step 1: Open a New Project.

Step 2: Choose Custom size.

Step 3: You want a small canvas, about 500 pixels square. Go to your Canvas Settings tab, and input 500x500 pixels. By default, the measurements are in inches, but you want pixels. Click APPLY TO THIS PAGE.

Step 4: Right- click the area beside your workspace, and choose MAKE CANVAS TRANSPARENT. You want the letters on a transparent background.

Step 5: Go to the ORGANIZE tab, and find a set of letters you want to separate. I have a set by Traci Reed from Sweet Shoppe Designs called Little Miss. Drag the the letters into a bucket.

Step 6: Go back to the CREATE tab, and click on the BUCKETS tab, and drag the letters onto the transparent canvas.

Step 7: Remove the shadow from the letters. Hover your mouse over the FRAME dialog box, once the shadow is highlighted in red, click on it, and the shadow will be removed. Once you have separated all the letters, you will bring them back individually into the bucket, so you don't want shadows doubled. Hope that makes sense.

Step 8: Now, with the letters selected, right-click and select LOCK ASPECT RATIO and IMAGE FRAME. This will allow you to pan and zoom on the image, like you would with a picture. 

Step 9: Maneuver the box of letters with the blue handles, until it fits nicely on the canvas, with a bit of space all around.

Step 10: Zoom in and pan the little yellow star in the middle of the box and the yellow boxes on the corners until you have only one letter (start with A), on the canvas. Make sure NOTHING else is on the canvas.

You might have to move the whole image sideways so it's centered on the workspace.

Step 11:
-Go to the OUPUT tab, and create a new file for this letter.

-I like to include the store, designer, kit, and then the letter name. So, for this one, I called it SSD TReed Little Miss-A (SSD stands for the website I purchased the alphabet from. TReed stands for Traci Reed, the designer of the product.)

-Browse your files and pick a spot to store the new letters. I made a new folder beforehand, under Digital Scrapbooking>Alphabets. The folder name includes the store, designer and kit name.

-You want to render it as a PNG, not JPG, so be sure to change that, and then make sure it will be rendered (flattened) at 300dpi, which is the standard quality for digital scrapbooking products.

-Click RENDER.

This is what it looks like once you've rendered it.

Repeat steps 6-11 with the letter B, and on and on.

Each time you are ready to render, all you'll need to change in the File Name box is the letter name, unless you have worked with other files in FotoFusion in between this project. :)

Happy Scrapbooking!

Template 21

I made a layout of the latest template. With this template, it's important for you to copy the snowflake mattes that come with the file to your mattes folder on your hard drive, the place where the FotoFusion files are stored. If you don't know how to do that, please let me know, and I can help you.

Products Used:

Papers: KPertiet: From My Bookshelf - Solids

Alphabet: CD Muckosky: Suzie Q

Stitches: Traci Reed: Bad Sewing Machine-Write It Down, Brittish Designs: Tie It Down

Flowers,leaf, paint splat, number rub-ons: Vinnie Pearce Placid

Font: Century

Snowflakes: my own mattes made using a snowflake font.

Here's a preview of the template. Note: this is a Scrap. template which is made for use in Lumapix FotoFusion. 

For the background, you could put in a solid paper or a pattern. I used a patterned, and added two others from the same line. 

Occasionally I like to keep the border around the paper.

Three of the snowflakes are somewhat see-through, so if you would prefer them at regular opacity, just change that in the image dialog box. You could also drop in papers, since they are mattes, not embellishments.

I added some additional elements to the background: the numbers in the bottom right corner and some snowflakes, but reduced to a low opacity, so that they're not as bright. I just wanted to add a little bit of detail, not something that would stand out too much. Now these snowflakes are the same ones as I put near the large photo, but with shadow removed and "moved" to the back (Right-click>Send To Back).

Instead of using the title font, I brought in alphas by CD Muckosky. I love these letters!

For the stitches, I made sure they didn't go off the paper, only to the edge of the top paper. In order to "cut" short the stitch, right-click>Scrap Image Frame. Then adjust the blue handles until you have the stitch at the size you want. Sometimes this method doesn't work for some reason. LOL  If I don't do that, but want to shorten the stitch, it would make the whole stitch smaller.

Do you scrapbook a summary of each month? I always plan on it, but I somehow get lost in all my other projects. :)

Here's the download link to the template:

Happy Scrapbooking!

No Domestic Goddess

If my house was as organized as my digital scrapbooking files are, I'd be a domestic goddess. So, I'm not going to share my home organizational system (Yikes! You don't wanna know!), but I will share my digi system. Here it is: (For what it's worth.)

I created a Digital Scrapbooking file under My Documents. Then I created subfolders named: 

Alphas and Numbers

Brushes

Calendars

Color Swatches

Embellishments

Fonts

Frames

Inspiring Layouts

Journaling Labels

Kits

Layouts

Masks

Overlays

Papers

Quick Pages

Sketches

Stitches

Templates

Word Art

Zipped Files

and more...

- In each subfolder, I have more subfolders, named with the Store, Designer and Kit  Ex. OScraps KDSmet Her Personality. So this is the tier: My Documents>Digital Scrapbooking>Kits>OScraps KDSmet Her Personality.

- If I have one brad (for example) with nothing else with it, I store it under Embellishments>Misc, I also have a Misc file under Papers, Overlays, Stitches, etc.

- For kits with just paper, I store it under Papers.

- I make a copy of all my alphas that come in kits. One copy is stored in Alphas and Numbers and the other is stored with the kit.

- I use stitches on almost every page I create, so I've copied my favorite stitches that come in kits to the Stitches folder.

- Anything I've created myself, I store under my design name: Annawhocropsalot.

- I store all my zipped files temporarily under Zipped Files. When I have enough to fill a CD, a move them to the CD to get it off my computer for backup. I also store them online at www.mediafire.com. They offer a free service, but they erased all my files without warning me, so now I have a plan which has a monthly fee of $9 or so.

- Try to move the files where they need to go right after you download something. It's so easy to forget and then have an overwhelming mess.

For those of you that struggle with finding your digi stuff, I hope this helps you out.

Here's a screenshot of my main digital files: (Of course, what you can't see, are all my subfolders.)

I laid it out in more detail here.

Creating layouts With FF Templates

I created this layout using the first of ten free templates available here as freebies, called 12x12 FF Template No.01.
To decorate like we like to do, I used stuff from three different kits, plus I used my own Chocolate Canvas Cardstock, available for free download here at my blog. It is listed in the right sidebar. :)
The one below is from OScraps called Patisserie which is by Paislee Press. I used the frame and a scallop border. The scallop I recolored.

I also used stitches from this kit called Tack it Down by Britt-ish Designs. I find I like to use stitches on every page I do.  LOL

For the paper stars, I used one of the gorgeous papers from this kit by Joyce Paul Designs at MScraps.

Tweeking my template: Instead of using the two small frames as is, I replaced them with the decorative frames and tilted them a bit. One feature I use a lot in FF, is duplicating elements instead of dragging a second one in, like I did with the frames. I dragged one in, resized it to my liking, and since I wanted two the same size, I just pressed Control + D on my keyboard. You can also find the command under the Selection tab. Make sure you have the element selected that you want duplicated, or else it won't work.

I wanted my title a little larger than the template had it, and I didn't want the title sticking out above the pattern paper behind the title, so I enlarged the paper frame a bit too.

My Chocolate Canvas paper looks blocked when I just drag the paper and drop it into the empty frame, so I zoomed in closer on the paper to create that Bazzill paper affect. (If you have been paper scrappers before you were a digi scrapper, you know what I'm talking about. LOL) I'm not sure why the zooming in works, but it does. :)

Now looking at the text, I wish I'd brightened it a bit more, so that it would be more readable. Oh well.

Creating Your First Layout in FotoFusion

Good morning, fellow scrapbookers!

For those who have just purchased FotoFusion, I slaved until the wee hours of the morning to finish a tutorial for you. Well, only until 12:30. It's not THAT late. :) You'll find the tutorial here.

Digi crazy

This is for all those loyal FotoFusion users. Do you find sometimes that you wish you could use digital layout templates that are.psd files? Well, now you kinda can! There's this program that converts all the elements of a .psd file into jpg, png, bmp, gif, and tif files. (Not text bytes, though.) I'm so excited! I converted all my templates already. This still does not give us that ease of just dropping in your photos into templates. But, FF is so easy to use, we don't really need templates to work fast, right? Here's the link to the program. It's called Super Layers.

Well, that was fun!

Sharing my love of digital scrapbooking with 70+ ladies was incredible! Too bad I didn't have much time. I wanted to pass on the handout that I created for the presentation to anyone that would like some basic information on how to start this hobby. Click here for an instant download of a PDF file to your computer.

I love my Lumapix FotoFusion program and I like to promote it to anyone that is interested, especially beginners.  Here is an honest and helpful review of the program. Be sure to read to the end, in order not to miss anything. Please feel free to ask me any questions you might have.

Digital Scrapbooking 101

Well, the day is nearing and I'm excited and nervous. On Wednesday morning at my church's weekly "Coffee Break" I am doing a little presentation about digital scrapbooking. How will I ever fit this amazing hobby into a 15 minute slot? Following that presentation, if there's enough interest, I might post Lumapix FotoFusion tips on this blog. We'll see. Meanwhile, I'm off to my scrapbook studio to work on my page for the design team at Scrapbooks Made Simple. I'll post a pic later of it when I'm done. See ya!