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Welcome! This tutorial is to learn how to make textured cardstock "Paper" for Corel Paint Shop Pro and JASC Paint Shop Pro.  I'm starting out with an easier lesson, to get you familiar with the basics, your color palette and effects. 

First let me talk a little about digital scrapbook paper.  Just like traditional paper, you can have the traditional sizes:  12 X 12, 8.5 X 11, 8 X 8, 6 X 6 etc.  But the great thing about digital paper is you can make it any size you want!  And you can reuse it as many times as you would like!  There are sites and groups that discuss the ppi (pixels per inch) for paper, some say 200 ppi is more than enough and takes up less space.  My personal thought is that the majority of digital scrappers make their items at 300 ppi (which I have printed out beautifully) is the standard, therefore you won't have to resize your papers or items to have them fit each other if you're going to mix and match kits etc.  Which means if you have a paper at 300 ppi and elements at 200 ppi, you will need to make those elements larger to fit with your paper (vice versa).  So, I'll be doing my tutorials at 300 ppi, but please make yours however you wish - it's your art!

Step 1:  You need to decide the size you want your paper.  I always make mine 12 X 12 so I can use it for any layout even bragbooks at 4 X 6.  But again, choose what ever you like. 

Start off going to FILE - NEW

Then you will get a box that looks like this:

At the very top you will see PRESETS, this is where you can select the arrow and a list of pre made sizes will drop down.  Then you will see the heading IMAGE DIMENSIONS.  This is where you will decide the size of your paper.  As you can see mine is set at 12 for width and height, and to the right of that you will see under UNITS, I have selected INCHES.  If yours says pixels, just hit the arrow next to it and select inches.  Then below that you will see RESOLUTION, I have mine set at 300 PIXELS/INCH.

Next you will see IMAGE CHARACTERISTICS.  I have mine set as raster (too complicated to go into for this lesson :0) )  Then you have COLOR.  Here you have many options.  You can see my transparent box is checked.  I do this because I like to play around with my colors once my palette is open.  You can uncheck that box and you will see the last color/gradient/pattern you last opened with.  Which means you can click on that color square and choose your color/gradient/pattern right then.  For now lets check the transparent box and start with a blank canvas.  You will have this:

Step 2:  Let's choose our color now.  Go to your TOOLS Palette and choose the paint bucket:

Then lets go over to our MATERIALS palette:

See how when I put my curser over the colors I get a dropper?  That's telling you that you can move it all around until you see a color you like.  Then just click with your mouse and it will select that color for you.

Then go back to your blank canvas and you will see your curser change to the paint bucket.  Click on your blank canvas and it will fill with the color you've chosen.

Step 3:  You now have a solid paper.  Which is nice to have to go with patterned papers, so let's save this one.  Go to FILE - SAVE.  Then save it as a jpg and put it in a new folder with whatever name you'd like to make it and name it something like SolidBlue_YourInitials.
Step 4:  Now let's add a little texture to this paper.  On the very top of your screen go EFFECTS - TEXTURE EFFECTS - TEXTURE:

Here comes the fun part!  You will get a box that looks like this:

Wow look at all those options!  Don't worry though, it's fun I promise :0)  The best tool of digital scrapbooking is that bottom middle button - CANCEL!  If you don't like it, just hit cancel and it will change nothing on your original.  Lets take a look at what we can do with our paper now.

As you can see on the top you have a picture of what your original looks like and to the right, a preview of what it will look like with the effect.

On the far left you will see TEXTURE and a gray image beneath it.  Click on the gray image and you will see the patterns that came with your software version.  Play with them, click on each one and look at your preview to see which one you like.  I picked a course canvas for mine.

Then in the middle you'll see IMAGE and beneath that  you'll see SMOOTHNESS, DEPTH etc.  play with them!  See what happens to your preview.  Change the numbers, slide those arrows around.  The best way to see what your software can do for you is to play with it. 

Then to the far right you will see LIGHT.  As you can see on mine, it's white, when you start playing with different colors, it will change the color of your paper.  Then play with the angle, you can get different looks by moving that around too.  I left everything else the same and changed my angle to 177 and now I have a different look:

See the differences in my preview box?  I like this one!  Did you find one that you like?  Let's save it as a preset, so you can easily use it again.

See where my curser is on the cd looking box?  Click that when you make something you want to keep.  This is your save preset option:

Go ahead and give it a name that will make you remember what it is.  I'm going to call mine embroidery, because it reminds me of it.  Then click OK.  You will then be able to choose that preset and use it when ever you want.

Then click ok on the bottom of your texture box and you will see that your plain paper now has the texture added to it.

You can't see my texture can you?  Well that's because if you look at where my curser is, it's telling me I'm only looking at my paper at 8%.  If I go to the very top and choose VIEW then 100%, I'll be able to see what my textured paper really looks like:

Step 5:  Now let's save this paper.  Go to FILE - SAVE AS.  You don't want to SAVE, because that will save over your original.  So choose SAVE AS and save it as a jpg again and give it different name like TextureBlue_YourInitials.
Step 6:  Now go through this process at least one more time choosing a different color and texture.  This will give you at least 4 papers to start your kit.  For my next tutorial I'll show you how to take those papers and make patterned paper :0)
I hope you found this tutorial helpful.  Remember this is FUN! lol  Don't worry if you don't think you're very creative.  Pick colors that are pleasing to you.  Paintshop Pro will help you with their effects and functions.

Renee' Strucel

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