How to use a Digital Scrapbook Quick Page

Supplies Needed:
Gotta Pixel Quick Page product
Photoshop Elements 6 or higher. You can use a lower version, however, this tutorial is written for Photoshop Elements 6 and higher.
Zip Program to unzip the product

Step One

A Quick Page is a pre-assembled layout that allows you to quickly and easily add photos and journaling for printing. Quick Pages have pre-cut openings for inserting photos.

After you have unzipped your Quick Page product, open Photoshop Elements. On the top toolbar go to File > Open and open a Quick Page. For this tutorial, I am using Gotta Pixel's Jill D'Zines "Wild Things Quick Pages"

Step Two

The Quick Page for this example has places for two images. You can tell where these are by the gray/white blocks that show up when something is transparent.

On the top toolbar go to File > Open and choose the first photo that you would like to add to this Quick Page.

Drag and drop the photo onto your Quick Page.

Step Three

You will now need to move the image behind the Quick Page. You can do this several ways.

Go to the Top Toolbar > Windows and make sure that Layers is checked. Find the Layers palette in your Photoshop Elements window. You are going to see 2 small thumbnails that show the Quick Page and your photo. Your photo layer should already be highlighted.

With your mouse, click and hold on the photo layer and drag it underneath the Quick Page layer. On the canvas, move your photo around with the Move Tool so that it is showing up in the picture box.

Resize the photo as needed. Don't worry if some of it is showing through other picture boxes, we will take care of that later.

Step Four

On the top toolbar go to File > Open and find a second photo to add to this Quick Page.

Drag and drop the photo onto your Quick Page canvas.

With your mouse, go to the Layers Palette and drag and drop your new photo under the Quick Page. You can either put it under or above your first photo.

Step Five

If you need to trim some of your photo off so that it's not showing in another picture box, find the eraser tool and click on it. Make sure that the photo layer you want to erase is highlighted in the Layer Palette. With your mouse, left click on the area you want to erase and erase it.

You can adjust the size of the eraser on the eraser toolbar. If you need to, zoom in closer with the zoom tool so that you can see close up.

Step Six

On this example Quick Page, there are several places where you can add journaling. Select your text tool and type in any journaling you would like to add. Make sure that your text layer is at the top in your Layers Palette otherwise you won't be able to see it on the Quick Page.

Step Seven

When you're done with the journaling, save your layout as a .psd file so that you maintain the layering. If you need to resize for posting online, do so now and save as a .jpg.

Thanks for reading