December Daily 2010 | Working With The 6x8 Printable Overlays (+ Video Tutorial)
One of the key elements of my 2010 December Daily are these 6x8 overlays available through Designer Digitals. Below I've included a few different ways to work with these overlays including information on how to open and print the PDF file, how to open and recolor PNG files in Word, and an 8 minute video tutorial on working with the PNG file in Photoshop Elements (includes recoloring and photo-cropping information if you want to add the overlay onto a photo before printing).
When you purchase and download this package from Designer Digitals you will find that it includes the following:
1. A folder of the daily PNG files sized to 6x8 (December 1 through December 31).
2. A print-ready PDF file.
3. A preview file.
4. My terms of use (personal use only).
PDF FILE
Let's start with what's most likely the simplest way to get these files printed: the PDF file.
Double click on the print-ready PDF file to open - for most people it will open in Adobe Reader. If for some reason you don't have Adobe Reader on your computer already you can download it free here.
The PDF pages include "crop-marks" that will help you trim these pages to the exact 6 inch x 8 inch size. Go to file/print and your print dialog box should pop-up.
IMPORTANT NOTE: When printing the PDF file, make sure that you have selected "shrink to printable area" rather than "fit to printable area" under Page Scaling. This will position the overlay and crop marks in the middle of the page at the correct size. If you select "fit to printable area" it will stretch the overlay and it will end up printing larger.
I printed all my overlays on Bazzill Cream Puff cardstock using my HP Photosmart B8550 printer.
PNG FILES
If you'd like more control over how the overlays look, or want to place one on a photo, or want to make any other adjustments, you'll want to use the PNG file.
RECOLORING A PNG FILE IN WORD
You do not need to have Photoshop Elements to recolor or print a PNG file. Here's how to do it with Microsoft Word:
1. Open a new Word file.
2. Go to Insert/Picture/From File and navigate to the PNG file you downloaded to your computer and select the day you want to work with.
Here's what the PNG file looks like when it opens in Word.
3. To recolor the lines of the overlay, go to View and select the Formatting Palette (I'm working in Word for Mac 2008). Click the Recolor icon near the top and select More Options at the bottom of the menu to choose a color. Click the color and the overlay should automatically change to that color.
4. Print on cardstock.
RECOLORING AND ADDING OVERLAY TO A PHOTO IN ELEMENTS
I've put together a quick video tutorial for those of you who might be interested in learning how to recolor or add an overlay to a photo in Photoshop Elements. You can download a free trial version of Elements here. If you'd like written step by step directions for recoloring PNG files in Elements, go here.
Ali Edwards' 2010 December Daily 6x8 Overlay Tutorial from Ali Edwards on Vimeo.
One thing to keep in mind with the overlays is that in addition to being printed directly on cardstock, they also work great layered on top of a photo. More information on that is included with the video above. Depending on what photo you choose to use they might offer a great spot for journaling as well.
Please let me know in the comments if you have any additional questions on working with these overlays.
More information on the December Daily project can be found here.
I am reading this post on a demo iPad at a London Drugs in Vancouver. I want one of these. Everytime I am here I always check your website. Love the overlays and this simplicity of your design this year. (of course I love it every year)
My husband is saying "let's go"!
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Ali,
Will you be printing your pictures off at home or doing digital layouts or a combination of both with these overlays? Thanks.
Most likely a combination of both. I printed them all off already on cardstock to give myself a head start and to see how full the book was initially. I'll be printing photos here at home to fit in that 5.5 x 6.25 space and will also likely print some photos 6x8 to go on the back.
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Thank you! Can't believe I never knew about color foreground before---I always tried using the paint bucket to change word png's and would get so frustrated (like when I realized the dot on an "i" wasn't changed).
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I love these. Thanks so much for the design. I am glad you posted the video tutorial on how to use the overlays. I have PSE7 but really do not use it to its full potential, only to sort my pics. Can these pages be made larger through PSE? I am using the Pink Paisley Parisian Anthology binder and do now know how well the 6 x 8 will work in the binder. Thanks!!
Hi Teri - you can enlarge them. In elements you should be able to just grab one corner with the Move Tool (black arrow) to enlarge while keeping the correct proportion. In regular Photoshop you need to hold down the shift key while dragging the corner to enlarge.
Thanks Ali! I just downloaded them. I will print out this week and if they do not work in my binder I will have to modify my plan. So excited that you are posting about DD this week (it is my favorite scrapbook). I plan to work on it at an all day Crop for the Cure event on Saturday that benefits our county's Relay for Life.
Cool Teri - have fun at your crop and let me know if you have more questions.
I have a similaur question - how would I modify in a PDF format? I'm working in 8.5 X 11 size and was wondering if I could still ue these?? Also, I wanted to start my days on Black friday - can I modify the dates?
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Excited to create my December Daily album this year. I was a mere spectator last year so I'm getting a jumpstart and preparing my album now!
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I'd love to know what font you used for the numbers. I'm planning to "play along" this year, using it with our advent calendar activities. I'd love to have my notes that go in our advent box match the overlays.
It's called Depot and it's part of a package of number fonts called Numbers from Hoefler & Frere-Jones. Here's a link: http://typography.com/fonts/font_overview.php?productLineID=100018
Ahhh, Depot again. I lusted after this font when you used it for some things in Yesterday & Today. Still lusting, but, alas, it's just too expensive to justify. Wish it was possible to just buy Depot and not all the other fonts.
Love the concept!!! am planning to make them as gifts for my SIL (who lives in AUS and is coming for a visit in Des) and MIL. would LOVE the font too but for me its the price x7!!! (live in South Africa). would like to make the overlays 8,5 x 11 to fit the Parisian Anthology album. any pointers?
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Ali,
When printing at home what kind of photo paper do you use? Also thank you for the tutorial.
I've been using Ilford Smooth Gallerie Pearl: http://www.amazon.com/Ilford-Galerie-Smooth-Inkjet-1979239/dp/B00006I5C3/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1287000077&sr=8-10
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[...] PRE-PLANNING + BASICS Foundation Pages 1-25 Cover Option One | Step By Step Cover Option Two | Step By Step (+ Free Title Download) Working With The 6×8 Printable Overlays (+ Video Tutorial) [...]
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I am so excited to actually participate this year, with my transparencies more than halfway done! I'm thinking of printing the 6x8 printables on white cardstock, as it seems to pop best with my transparencies. Just wondering if anyone thinks this will give me issues later (getting dirty, etc.) I know mostly it's personal preference; just wanted to get some thoughts as I make my final decision between white and kraft.
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Ali, I love the overlays, and your album is already stunning. You mentioned in the video that it's possible to change the day of the week so these could be used for other years. Can you show us how? Thanks so much. I'm always so inspired by your work.
Sure - here's the basics. Using the rectangular marquee tool (the one that looks like "marching ants" - select the area you want to delete (such as around the day of the week word) and hit delete. This will remove the word. To add a new word grab the T tool and type your word in that boxed area.
If you are wanting to have a different day (with that same typeface I used) you can open an overlay that is the day you want (say a Monday) and using the rectangular marquee tool again select the area and go to Edit/Copy and then Edit/Paste to paste it onto the overlay you want.
Also, here's a video tutorial I did in the past about adjusting journaling blocks/overlays that might be helpful: http://aliedwards.com/2010/01/scrapbooking-with-your-computer-adjusting-digital-journaling-blocks-to-fit-your-story.html
Awesome! Thanks so much, Ali. Oh, and I previously started a December Daily album and was excited to get it back out and DO IT for this year. I thought, "I'll just take the 2009 off and change it to 2010, so I can use what I already have!" Imagine my surprise that it actually said 2008! This year I'm doing it. For sure! Thanks again for all your inspiration.
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Thank you so much for all of this information. I took your yesterday and today class and loved it. You have inspired me to do DD this year. P.S. I love the tutorials.
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Thank you for the tutorials, Ali!
I have been playing around with the overlays in Elements and have managed to switch the positioning of the number block to the other side - so it sits on the left edge rather than the right.
This is because I am envisaging having a double page spread of the overlay pages and wanted the pages to mirror each other rather than having the numbers on the right on both pages (hope that makes sense). :)
I am new to using Elements but after watching your adjusting journaling blocks video, I managed to figure it out!
Awesome Lana! So glad you found the tutorial helpful.
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Just thought I'd pass this on to anybody who is interested. If you have a wide-format printer and Photoshop or Elements, you can create a new document that is 12x12 and then drag two of the PNG files onto it and then print. This way you can use`12x12 paper (cheaper than using two 8-1/2x11s). I printed all of mine yesterday that way and they turned out great.
Thanks Terri...we use an Epson R1900 and your tip is great news, TFS!
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If I wanted to use this in Word - could I add text inside, like for my journaling or can you not add to a .png file in Word? I'm too dumb to know.
Yes, you can do that Tracie. After you insert the overlay (following the instructions above), with the overlay selected, go back to the formatting palette and find "wrapping." Under wrapping/style select "through" - this is going to allow you to place a text box on top of the overlay.
To add a text box go to the top menu and select Insert/Text Box. I usually also change the text box wrapping to "through." Move the text box to the place you want it inside the overlay and begin typing.
Hope that helps!
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Are you going to be talking about a fully digi album in a future post? Because I was wondering how to incorporate the concept since we won't have transparencies in digi? I was thinking you could do it as 2-page spreads, so the left-hand side is a decorated page and the right-hand page uses these templates. Or do you have a different idea?
Hi Sara - look for a post next week. I made some 12x12 overlays and layered templates that will be available this weekend at Designer Digitals. I'll give some examples/ideas next week.
Awesome Ali! I look forward to it!
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Ali, I have a question. I printed out and trimmed all of my digital pages as well as the printed transparencies. I am waiting for my order of Hambly Clearly Heavy Overlays. My book is already about an inch thick and I'm afraid it is going to be huge once I add in the Hambly Overlays and the photos. I think I'm a little confused about the purpose of the overlays. I can see in a couple of occasions you have attached something to them, like the page with the acrylic star and the page with the green numbers, but other than that, are you just attaching the thinner printed transparencies to the thick overlays to give them more weight?
Terri - I only used the Clearly Heavy overlays on just a couple pages. The one with the star, the one with the red frame, and the two that have the die-cut numbers adhered to them. All the other transparent pages are by themselves. Mine is currently about 1 inch thick with all the pages.
Oops! I misread the product list and now I understand that you only used a few. Sure hope Hambly will take back the eight overlays I ordered that I won't need. Or, maybe I'll like them so much that I'll want to use them on something else. Thanks for your quick response, Ali!
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hi Ali....I am wondering if you will be putting anything on the overlays? ....pictures , journaling??.... or will you just leave them alone?....Theresa
I'm also wondering if you usually put pictures from the 8th or the 9th, for example, on the back of the 8th transparency (for the days you might put a picture on the back). Thanks!
Definitely Theresa - up above in this post is an example of an overlay printed on cardstock with a photo and pattern paper adhered on top (the one with the bear on the bed). On some days I might use the big area for journaling with a small photo in the bottom area. There's a ton of possibilities.
Hi Kelly - I'm thinking that I will use the back for the next day (that's my thought right now anyway). So it will be the left side of a two-page spread for the day (which means I'll likely add one more page to the front with some sort of intro).
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Thanks for that awesome tutorial, Ali. I can't wait to get started!
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I am very intrigued by these overlays...seriously considering purchasing them. Curious about how to get them printed if I choose to go all digital. Do I have to flatten all the layers into one layer to get them to print in Photoshop? Is that a crazy question? I know I have heard other digi people say something about flattening layers...Anyhoooo. If you don't want to give me a long winded explanation can you point me to a good video that would help me with this process... Thanks SO MUCH!!!
Hi Olivia. If you will be uploading the files to a printing service (like Shutterfly, Persnickety Prints, Color Inc, etc) then you will want to either flatten the layers or just go to "save as" to save as a JPG for printing. If you are printing at home you don't have to flatten the layers and can just print from the PSD (Photoshop) file.
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I am so excited! I finally found a piece of the white circle paper for my DD cover! Yahoo! It was the LAST one in stock at my local art supply store. So happy! Now if I could only find the overlays. :)
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Thank you for answering my question. Yay!!! I'm so getting these.
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Thank you for all of the great ideas and tips for my December Daily album! I was also SO excited to see your article in my new Scrapbooks etc. magazine!! Loved it. I think I may actually get my entire DD album done this year. :) Thanks again.
Thanks Shelbie! I was excited that they wanted to feature the album!
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thank you for including a PDF printable file for those of us who might not be using PSE.
You are more than welcome Sheri.
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Thank you for sharing so much information! While I probably wont be able to do the December Daily, it has inspired me to add some creative touches to christmas card holders I have created as gifts. (http://www.thomas-brown68.com/Thomas_Brown/2010_Blog/Entries/2010/1/9_Christmas_Photo_Cards.html) I'd like a tag that is 2x3 that I could add to the inside. Do you have such an item (i like the look of your pages for the December Daily.)
THANKS!
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I have a question about resizing the photo... is there a reason why you resize down before you crop rather than just grabbing the crop tool, entering your 6x8 @300 dpi size and cropping the original? I think I've seen you do this on a tutorial before and wonder about the difference between the two methods.
Thanks!
There is a reason I do it this way - if you have the proportions of the photo locked you can't enter 6x8 because that's not the same proportion as the original photo. If you look at the width + height area under Image Size you'll see a little "locked" icon - that icon keeps the proportions correct (and that's why I just enter one number and then crop).
All that said, as I looked at this again in Photoshop you can grab the Crop tool and enter 6x8, 300 dpi in the toolbar to achieve the same effect. COOL - I don't think I've done it that way before. Thank you!!!!
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