[Carla S]

G'day everyone! Me again with more silly questions! (I'm new to this, can you tell?)
I was just wondering about the scrap simple paper templates? I noticed that they are black and white and was wondering how you use these? Do you colour them yourself? And if yes, how do you do that? Is it easy? Are they like a background paper that you colour to match your other papers?
TIA.
Cheers, Carla

[JenniferZ]

It is very easy to recolor templates. And they are most often used as BG papers, though you can use clipping masks and paper tear actions to use them in many different ways. (I am not sure what program you are using, but I use PSCS3, so that is how I will explain it -- this will also work -- I think -- in PSE.)

The easiest way to color a template is to create a color layer above your paper layer and then change your blend mode to "color" or "overlay." (Or scroll through your blend modes to see the varying effects. They are all different and can be combined and adjusted for unlimited variations. You can also create a gradient layer above your template layer and do the same thing with the blend modes.)

If your paper template has a pattern, you can use your magic wand tool to select each piece of the pattern and then fill it with colors via your paint bucket tool. I would do this in another layer, so that you can use your blend modes to preserve the paper texture.

There are probably at least a dozen other ways to recolor these templates, but these are just a few and the ones I use the most.

HTH!

[JenniferZ]

Oh, and welcome to Scrap Girls!

[PBarnes]

Jennifer's given you some good suggestions. You might find some more useful information in the Scrap Girls University found here. HTH

[Carla S]

Thanks for the suggestions and the nice welcome girls!

[Peppi]

There are no silly questions Carla. We are here to help. Pat suggested the SG University. That is a great resource! Welcome to SG!

[kerryveale]

the paper templates can be either jpgs or pngs. The jpgs are an entire sheet; the pngs are a design with areas of transparency around it. For example, in this set, eight of the papers are pngs and one is a jpg. I like to play with the pngs the best, clipping pre-made papers to the design, or putting a style on the design. In fact, a tutorial that I wrote about how to design a ScrapSimple paper using styles, called "Paper with Style" is included in this ebook: Scrap Girls Tutorials & Way Cool Stuff eBook Set - 2009 3rd Quarter. These ebooks are really great collections of tutorials and way cool stuff that has been in our newsletter.