Creating Embellishments, paper etc...

[ksd_24_f]

How are you guys creating these things? Is there a program to do this? I'd love to give back to the forum, but I don't have the slightest idea how.
I've taken images off google and erased the white background, but that's about as 'creative' as I've been able to get thus far. The rest of the stuff I use is from all of you guys and I just change the color or add something to it, or erase part of it.. none of it is my original stuff.
Just wondering if you all have a program of some kind to make these wonderful 'extras'

Thanks!
Kelly

[nannybernie]

I use Photoshop Elements 7 for most of my stuff, I have also started using Real Draw program as well, do some in one, tweak it in the other, a lot of the stuff I do is available as royalty free or I take heaps of pics of my garden, other peoples gardens, I have a craftroom full of fabric, and trimmings, my husband is a bower bird in the garage, so lot of hinges, nuts, bolts, etc. Plus I design and make jewellery, so I have beads, gem stones, chain, loops, bits and bobs. I use a lot of mesh and net and that was from photos I took in the craft room or the last lot was the mesh I bought to cover my luscious strawberries. The hat pins I sometimes use in my layouts are all of my own design and making, so happy snap all the time. Look for textures and leafage, a curtain blowing can make a great background, just make it semi transparent.... Photoshop Elements and Real Draw are both quite inexpensive programs to purchase, I have found PSE7 to be very easy to use, just needed quite time to play around for a while, I am still discovering different things I can do. The commercial style Photoshop is on my wish list, but at present way out of my $ range. You can paint stuff, even kids poster paints and then photograph it, use it as backgrounds and scraps...

[memphisfran]

I have PSE8 and I am just starting to learn how to do all of this but the PSE (Photoshop Elements) is fairly easy and you can use brushes and styles and things greated for the full Photoshop CS(2,3,4) which is for like pros! I'm not there ... hardly!

I'd like to have CS too NannyBernie! I used to be able to get it at a discount while in school and now I teach at UOP but when I went to look for it again, it wasn't there....go figure!

You like RealDraw? Where did you get it?

If you get PSE ... 7 was only like $55 at Amazon it might be cheaper now that 8 has come out. They are all about the same I know people who are still using 4 and 5.

I heard Adobe is going to make changes to PSE sometime to make it more scrapbook friendly that would be great!

KSD what program do you remove white backgrounds with? SBM?

Oh, and you can download a free trial to PSE for like 30 days and there are tons of free tutorials online about how to use it. So, if you need some let me know.

I just rambled and rambled...sorry it's late!

[ksd_24_f]

Wow that's awesome guys. Thanks for the tips. I do have microsoft pro 10 - but it's in french (one of the many joys of living in Quebec) and I can't really understand it all. I'll have to read through the manual again and see if I can figure it out.
Yeah, i've been using SBM to erase the white background from images I pull from google.
I think I'll check out those programs you guys mentioned. Thanks again!