I seriously did not know how to do this until last year (after scrapbooking for 4 years). It has saved my life.  It is a good way to stretch your stash of scrapbooking supplies and get papers/elements/alphas to be the exact color that you want. And it's super easy.

step one:

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Open up your paper/alpha/element that you want to recolor. Make sure that it is the only layer open.  I'm using the blue gingham paper from my farm kit.

step two:

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Use your the eyedropper tool to select the color you want.  You can click on a color in a photo that will be on the page if you want it to match. The color you choose should be the foreground color (it will be automatically unless you do something weird between this step and the next one). I wanted a green gingham, but it wasn't included in the kit.  So I picked green from another green paper included in the kit so it would fit the same color scheme.

step three:

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Open up your Hue/Saturation box (found in Elements by clicking on the half white/half black circle in the Layers palette or go to the Layers tab and click on New Adjustment Layer). Check the box that says "Colorize".

step four:

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Adjust the hue, saturation, and lightness sliders (they are in the same box as pictured above) until you get the look that you want.  The hue will change the color (but you already picked your perfect color with the eyedropper tool), so I just play with the saturation (usually has to be increased) and the lightness sliders. Then click "OK". That's it!

(updated) step five:

When you change the color, you create another layer called the Hue/Saturation layer.  This will make it difficult when you move the paper to other pages, or copy and paste from the paper.  To avoid problems with this, merge both layers together. Remember when you close the paper to save it as something different so you don't write over the original file!
You can do the same thing with papers with many colors on them, but the finished look isn't always the best because you can only recolor things to one color. The example below is with the animal words paper from my farm kit.
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The original

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After colorizing

If my directions do not make sense, please ask questions!
 
The only way I will keep myself blogging regularly (for the two people who read this) is to have a theme for certain days.  I'm thinking Monday Muse for inspiration on layouts, Trendy Tuesday for information on scrapbooking/design trends, Tutorial Thursday for tutorials, and Friday Freebie for free things (mine or others').  I won't do each every week, but it will help me organize what I want to share with y'all. 

This week's Monday Muse is more design-y than cutesy, but I like both styles.  Sometimes I get sick of the cutsey scrapbooking and want to try something new.  I was inspired by these two images that I found last week. 
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Business cards as seen on oh, hello friend.
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Nordstrom catalog
I miss doing collages.  In the past, when I cut out people from images on photoshop, I usually spent a painstakingly L-O-N-G time cutting them out exactly.  That's why I loved the chunky, imperfect cutout of the girls on the cover of the Nordstrom catalog (click on the image to make it bigger so you can see this).  It is really easy to do with the polygonal lasso tool. The really nice part about doing a collage digitally is that if I cut out something wrong, I could undo and try again.  Here is what I came up with combining the two styles.  Something is still off about it, but I can't pinpoint what (I'm thinking the middle photo).  It's like abstract art; everyone looks at abstract art and thinks their 5-year-old could do it, but when you actually sit down to do something abstract, it is incredibly hard.  Everything has to have meaning and purpose.  Even a font, paint spatter, and a placement of a photo.  Don't let this scare you from trying it out!  It was very fun to create.  Email me your layout if you decide to try to copy this inspiration. Find the credits for the individual pieces and fonts below the picture.
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Credits: Purse photos came from Nordstrom catalog from March '12; Fonts: Edwardian Script, Geneva, Chunk Five; All else was mine
 
I got the Nordstrom catalog in the mail this week.  Talk about inspiration!  I love that color is in season! (I am a color gal.  Case in point: I only own one black shirt and no white shirts at all.) Plus you don't have to spend a million to get the spring look--Target has caught onto the trend and has tons of really cute colorful clothes, shoes, jewelry, dishes, etc.  When I saw the above title in the Nordstrom catalog I loved it. I thought I would copy it by making a scrapbooking alpha and post it for y'all to download.  It will eventually become part of a spring kit that I'm working on right now!  There are full alpha sets for each of the 8 colors.  I hate it when designers do multicolored alphas, but don't include all colors for each letter so I usually get two letters in the title that are the same color and next to each other.  No problems with that here.  Also remember to subscribe to email updates so you don't miss a freebie!  Check back in on Monday for layout inspiration!
_Download the alpha sets here.
_Download the font used to create the alphas here. Thank you Fontfabric for free CU fonts!
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I also just discovered that Scrap Orchard puts new free templates up each week on their blog.  This is this week's free template. Perfect for when you are stuck in a scrapbooking rut.

 
I'm slowly figuring out this blogging world. You can now subscribe to email updates for posts blogged on elle designs.  Never miss a post!  Just enter your email address in the box on the sidebar.
 
Everybody's writing about their favorite fonts these days, so I thought I'd join the crowd.  Since I started the blog, I've found even more fonts that I love. So you have part 1 and part 2.
Part 1: find the links here
Part 2: Links are listed below
Links: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13
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The blog train blog is simply what it states, a blog for blog trains.  Designers participate in the blog train and contribute mini kits or alphas for free on their blogs.  Sometimes their colors are not cute (like January) but the March colors are perfect for Easter photos.  I don't like all of the designers that participate so I usually watch the slideshow and write down which kits I liked.  Then I will go to only those sites to download. Find the blog here.  Also, thanks for all of the compliments on my last kit!  I'm excited to start another.  I think it will be spring themed.
 
Finally something that the boys can use too!  I only have a girl so I usually create girly things, but most of my friends that scrapbook have boys.  This is for y'all.  All of the animals were hand-drawn by me. So, no making fun of my horse!  I am completely aware of my inability to draw a horse to save my life. Sorry to all of the horse lovers out there.  I hope you enjoy the kit. I may think of doing a coordinating alpha later. If you download, please leave a comment.  Feel free to direct your friends to the link as well! Find the links to the download on the my freebies tab.
Here's a two page spread that I did with the kit.  I hate it when I have to scrapbook a page with lots of photos and lots of text.  It is hard to make it not look too busy.

    about elle designs.

    I'm not really a designer, just a digital scrapbooker who wants to encourage others to scrapbook by sharing my  finds and creations.  For free.


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