FREEBIES CU/PU: Holly Wolf Scraps

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FREEBIES CU/PU: Holly Wolf Scraps

Well, the first freebie I'm posting is the styles I created to make the alphas for the Mar 2015 blog train, Animal Kingdom. These are the styles I used to create the alphas in this preview:

Again, these are the styles to make similar alphas in your own colours, not the alphas themselves!

Get them here.

How to use:
1. Install the styles into your Photoshop styles folder and load them into the programme.
2. Create your text layer(s). The outlined one works best with chunkier fonts, while the last style included is more appropriate for thinner fonts.
3. For the non-outlined one: Apply the last layer style, then change colours on the Inner Shadow and Inner Glow sections to be a darker shade of your main text colour.
4. The outlined one is a bit more involved. Start by duplicating your text layer. You'll apply a layer style to each of the two layers.
a. The lower layer gets the first layer style to create the glossy filled look.
b. The upper layer gets your choice of the gold or silver layer styles. You could easily change this up by changing the Stroke section to have the outline use a different gradient or colour.
5. Play with the sliders in the sections that have check-marks to adjust the strength of each effect to your liking.

Whooo hoo! A new thread!! smiley
Very cool! I'm going to have a play Holly! Thanks so much!

Awww, someone hearted this! You're the first to heart anything of mine, and I'm touched.

Thank you.

I've just posted a 12x24 template on my blog in response to a patron request. Up to 13 photos can be fit in here, or replace some with journal cards or paper bits.

Here's a preview:

Only available in the 12x24 for now, in PSD and layered TIFF.
Download from my blog post.

@Holly: this is awesome, love your template, thank you so much for sharing!

Awesome template - thank you!

You're more than welcome! I'm considering making one for the May blog train, but that's dependent on a few things like not ignoring my sweetie for too long, lol... I've been buried in ArtRage and Photoshop almost all day every day this week, and he's been getting a little grumpy about me not breaking my focus to look at whatever fun image he's just linked me. smiley

New Freebie post on my blog--Martial Arts Kit

Constructive criticism welcome, as it's my first actual kit.
http://renehollyklein.com/hp_wordpress/2015/04/martial-arts-kit-pu/

The first thing that caught my eye was the row of star thingies. I love them! Thank you for sharing so generously!

Holly, your martial arts kit is great! Thanks!

LOVE the martial arts kit! So hard to find things for little boys, my grandson wants to go to ninja school, this kit is perfect. Thanks so much for sharing.

Holly, I'm excited for the alpha styles. I clicked on "Get them here" and suddenly my photoshop elements 12 popped up. Does that mean it automatically loaded them into my program? I am going to have to go play because I am not sure I understand these directions. Will let you know if I need more help. Thanks.

Yeah, Debbie, I'm pretty sure it's just the style file that's uploaded-- a .ASL file. You'll want to save as rather than open with Photoshop Elements, though, or else you'll have to come back and re-download it if you've switched styles files. I save all styles I download to a different hard drive than my Photoshop installation, just so I have them backed up.

Arlene, you're very welcome. My only kid is a boy, so I understand the challenge. Sure, you can find the occasional dino or trucks kit, and make some others work for boys, but it seems like maybe one in a hundred kits that comes out is really GOOD as a boys' kit. It's frustrating. And, as a girl who's had some experience with the martial arts herself, it was an easy request for me to work on--lots of things drawn from memory or from looking at my own weapons, no need for "reference images" here! Nobody else ever seems to draw belt knots correctly, either--and it's always a pet peeve for me when "martial arts" kits don't respect tradition.

Ok Holly. You were right and I had to redownload the alpha styles. I thought I had clicked on save originally but it had flipped to photoshop to open. I got them now so I will try to figure out how to put them into photoshop. Thanks.

I'm not sure where they are in PSE, but Photoshop installations store them in C:\Adobe\Photoshop\App\PhotoshopCS5\Presets\Styles, or in <user>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS5\Presets\Styles. You may be able to just copy the .ASL file to one of those folders, if PSE works the same way...if it does, it will be available to load like any other style file.

Ok. Thanks Holly. I Photoshop Elements 12 I think so will try what you have suggested. THanks.

New PU 2-page template on my blog to help use the upcoming England blog train.

I Love your new template Holly!!! Thanks so much! smiley

Debbie.....the quickest & easiest way to add the styles file is to simply open photoshop elements, then drag the .asl file into the blank open background space of photoshop. There's no need to go searching for the folder to add them into it! Now....as you drag and drop, it will appear as if nothing happened. You get no indication that it worked, so don't panic. You will find your newly added styles in the Effects palette.

You can also add your styles using the "Load" button and selecting your .ASL file by the browse feature through the Effects palette. BTW....you will need to be in the "Expert" mode.

You cannot apply a style to a layer that is locked. If you find that your style is not working, check to make sure the layer is not locked.

I love your Martial Art kit! Thanks so much, my kids did karate for a lot of years, and I have a ton of pics to scrap:)

Thanks, Angela. As I don't have Elements, I don't know the tricks. I'm tempted to see if that'll work in PS as well, though!

Jennifer...no problem! It was a lot of fun memories while I was making it. smiley

Thank you Angela. I did what I thought you said to do. I was in Expert mode and my layer was unlocked. I dragged the .asl file from where I downloaded it into photoshop space, then I went into effects and styles but I couldn't find the alpha. Am I supposed to see an alpha? I have used the online help but am not making sense of it. It says to go into the dialog box but I can't figure out where that is or how to get there. I appreciate everyones help. Maybe I'll have to check into a class or something because I feel totally lost in spite of the help everyone is so freely giving me. I'm going to try "Loading" again because I just had a thought that I might not have done. I had a hard time finding the "Load" and then it took me to an empty file so I am going to try something different. Again, thank you for your help.

They're styles--you can turn any text layer into those styles by putting text on a layer and then clicking the style. (You'll need two identical layers for the outlined one, and a single layer for the glossy one.) The styles palette will turn ANYTHING on that layer to the selected style, whether it's text or a small element, but these styles were designed for large titles.

So basically, once you've got the styles installed, choose a font, type some text on its own layer, and then click the style for that layer, and it'll turn the text you used into that style.

It sounds like you're really new to styles and brushes. They're pretty powerful for creating stuff once you understand how to use them, but they did take me a little while to learn to use effectively. You'll get there, but it will take a little time. Here's what Adobe's site has to say about styles--it's worth a read-through to understand them a little better. Using Layer Styles
They basically make it a one-click process to reproduce effects you've saved as a style or effects someone else created, without all the fiddling around with applying colors, textures, gradients, edge glows, embossing...which took me probably half an hour for the first style, and probably 5 minutes for the rest.

Thank you very much, altho I can not open the Alpha.
Any chance you could pack future alphas along with a png sheet.

Angela, the original post on my blog included the alphas as png sheets. I uploaded the styles later on in case someone wanted to be able to make their own in the same style, perhaps with a different font.

Thank you Holly, I grabbed it

Thanks, Holly - for sharing your styles ... I've been playing with styles lately, and can't wait to try this on an alpha!

Not a problem, Poki. You'll need to adjust the inner glow colors to match text color if you want to make it look truly realistic, but it's still a good framework for creating the two styles in any color you want.

Maybe I'll have to come up with a new one one of these days--it's been a while since I made one. This week's challenge for me has been making lace brushes look reasonably realistic.

Thank you Holly for the encouragement. Yes, I am new to brushes and styles. I've just been using a basic part of Photoshop I guess. I had no idea any of this other stuff was there! Making lace brushes sounds amazing! Good luck, but I'm sure they will turn out awsomely!!!

There are lots of sites to get brushes and stuff for free. I personally like brusheezy.com, brushlovers.com, and even DeviantArt.com. You have to read the terms of use if you want to use them for commercial-use stuff, but any of them are good if you're just looking for some neat stuff for your own personal use. (Recommendation: edit the filename on each of them that you download to have "CU" or "PU" at either the beginning or end of the name, choosing which to add based on the license terms, and put the license file (named to match the brush/cshape/pattern/style file rather than being something like TOU.txt!) into a TOU folder where you keep all of your TOU documents. If you ever decide to start designing, even just for the blog trains, it'll make it far easier to know what you can/can't use for it. Some people won't allow their CU items to be used for freebies; other people are okay with even PU items being used to make freebie derivatives. PixelScrapper downloads are all freebie-okay, even if you're downloading for personal use.)

The user named Roula33 at DeviantArt has a TON of neat brushes to check out, and they're pretty much all "These are free. Use them and enjoy them." instead of having a lot of restrictions. I got a ton of styles from there when I first started scrapping, too--and picking them apart was how I learned to make my own! smiley There are some great free floral/swirl, watercolor and halftone brushes there at DA too, though I've been painting my own watercolors more often now.

Holly, everything looks amazing! How long does it take you to do a kit or large template like that? I've been making elements like crazy but making layouts takes me MUCH longer.

I think I spent about 2.5 hours creating the England template, but it was just the mental break I needed, and it's one I intend to use when I have my own England photos to scrap.
That first double-page template I did was somewhere in the 6-hour range, but I was still new to template-making and was trying to push my abilities. It's a different skillset than creating elements, though. Making those curves took a lot more time then than it does now!

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