Well, in this video, I’ll show you how you can add some graffiti lettering to your digital scrapbooking layouts using Adobe Photoshop Elements 7. And the main lesson of this video is how to use the selections to get the results.

Now keep in mind, by no means am I a graffiti artist. In fact, this is the first layout I’ve ever tried it with. But like everything in life, practice makes perfect. I’m sure once I get a few under my belt and keep working at it, they will only get better. However, like I said, my goal in this video was to show you a way to use selections to paint your word art.

The video is a little long but I think it’s well worth it. If you like it, please leave your comments below and share it with your Facebook friends.

But I’m only showing you the technique. With simple shapes and some background images, you can quickly and easily come up with some of your own pretty cool stuff.

Recently, I took some photos of a bride and groom after their wedding at a nearby factory. This particular photo inspired me to create an urban digital scrapbooking layout. It was pretty cool using a brick wall digital paper with a wedding photo. It’s not something you’d normally see in a wedding album.

Well now you can get the brick paper as well as 7 others by simply signing up for our free e-newsletter.

Simply fill out the form to the right with your name and email address.

Then once your subscribed, you’ll be able to immediately download these digital papers. They’re great to use in your urban or grunge type layouts.

You’ll also be “in the loop”  for other giveaways, tips, tutorials, and special things just for being a subscriber.

So what are you waiting for? Go ahead and subscribe already.

Mike – The Scrapping Guy.

P.S. There’s two other bonus items included when you subscribe

He was able to see in his mind what he wanted to create. He mapped it out. And he accomplished it. It was fascinating to watch, whether your skills lie in painting, writing Pokerblog.com articles, or building computers – all art, in their own way, and this man is an incredibly talented kindred spirit.

This is the same process that goes through many digital scrapbookers minds as well.

What photograph(s) will I use? What digital papers and elements will match the photo(s)? How will I design my layout? What will the final page look like?

These are all the questions that I ask myself before I even sit down at my computer. Sure, there may be some changes while I’m working on the page, but overall, the final layout is the same as what I envisioned in the beginning.

For instance. When I created this FREEDOM page that’s in my gallery, I had a vision in my mind of what that page was going to look like simply because of the photograph I took of my kids. They looked happy and free. Two of the things that makes America great. Someone else might have looked at that photo and thought of something else. But it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you, as the artist, has a vision in mind and you convey that vision in your art.

So take 4 minutes to watch this video and see his painting come to life. Think about how you see the digital scrapbooking pages before you even open up your software. Are you simply laying out photos and elements at random or do you have a vision for something more?

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend this year. Ours was spent at the in-laws house which included lots of food and drink…..water and Pepsi, that is. It threatened rain the entire day which it ended up doing a hour before we were going to light our own fireworks. It poured pretty hard so unfortunately, those were a washout. We did manage to get a few of the kids to light some sparklers. The above scrapbooking page is of my nephew holding a red sparkler.

I used the same digital scrapbooking paper as the Freedom page I created a few years ago. I didn’t have time to create a new background since I wanted to get this up online quickly. But this goes to show you how digital scrapbooking can be so versital.

Reasons to design some creative scrapbooks of course.

My daughter has always wanted a professional caricature made of her and the festival was filled with caricature artists. So she finally had her chance. I was there to take plenty of photos, of course, which inspired this digital scrapbook page. As you can see, I love color and I love vibrance….and this page definitely has both. 

I’d love your feedback on this design.

I took other photos at the festival and will be making more digital scrapbook pages in the near future which I’ll post for all to see.

And speaking of cool. Those are the types of digital scrapbooking pages I like to create. Lots of colors. Interesting paper backgrounds. New and colorful embellishments. Layouts that you don’t see on traditional digital scrapbooking websites. Sorry, but being a guy I’m not really into the lacey ribbons, cutsie butterfiles (even though I will use butterflies – but only cool looking ones), and other girly flowers. Not that those are bad things….they’re just not my style.

I hope that everyone who visit my site can see my layouts as exciting and unique and something that they’d like to create as well. And this is why I’ll be offering digital scrapbooking kits that you won’t see anywhere else. So you too will be able to step out of the traditional digital scrapbooking box and go wild and crazy with your designs.

I’ll also be creating some tutorial videos as well to help you with your scrapbooking skills. I’ll give you some tips with using Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. I’ll also make you aware of any resources I find I think is worth passing along.

Lastly, don’t forget to sign up for our e-newsletter so you can stay on top of everything that’s happening here. Subscribers will also be given unadvertised special offers as well.

So for now, check out some of our tutorial videos, visit my personal digital scrapbooking gallery and keep coming back for more new, exciting, and fun things here at ScrappingGuy.com

Mike – The Scrapping Guy