anyone using GIMP?

[jrfan88]

I love this program. I downloaded it for digi scrapping because I did not have the money to actually buy a program. It is a great program. I am wondering if anyone else uses it or has even heard of it? If you use it and are better than I am (I am still learning the easy stuff), please do not hesitate to send me a pm or email offering suggestions on things I can do to spice up my pages!!! Thanks a lot guys!!!

[fazzbech]

We do have some Gimp users amongst us, so hopefully they will give you a shout! We made sure the tutorial we included in our startup pack for newbie digi-scrappers was written in Gimp too, because it really is a great program! I'm a Photoshop girl myself though. :smile:

[amandac]

I'm sorry but everytime I hear that word GIMP I have Pulp Fiction flash backs!

[Ann-Marie]

I don't use GIMP, I use PSCS3 but I had a try at Corel Paint Shop Pro yesterday LOL I cannot believe how different it is to PS!! I could not figure out how to get anything into a new document!!!
Look forward to seeing your LO's in the gallery though :)

[lisarose]

I have been using gimp for 3 years or so now, and I love it :) Especially the newest version which I was very excited about.
It's still fairly easy to follow along with PS or PSP tutes, as most things are similar. But if you ever get stuck or need a hand with something, drop me a PM and I'll do my best to help out :smile:

[JessicaC]

Lisa, I just started digi scrapping with GIMP about 6 months ago so I'm new at this! How do you use just one letter of an alpha when it is saved as a "page" of letters? I'm sure that's not the correct terminology, but maybe you can figure out what I'm asking. :mrgreen:

[jrfan88]

Thank you very much ladies. Lisa, I do have a few questions for you!!! I need to write them down so I can ask them. I am glad to hear that you can follow some of the other tutorials for other programs for GIMP. I am really liking it and hope that I can learn a lot about it. I think they are working on version 2.6 now and I will have that as soon as I can get it!!! BTW--I made my first kit last night. It is no professional, but it is something you can play around with. I have it on my blog as a freebie if you want to go by there. http://scrappinasithappens.blogspot.com. I look forward to getting some good ideas and doing better for my next kit!!

[scrapper_gal]

I am a PSP user. I started with PSP quite a few years ago when I did some web design work and have never felt the need to change to anything else. I feel like PSP is an old friend and I'm pretty comfortable with it.

[lisarose]

Hey jessica :)
Just open the alphabet as a new layer.
Select the letter you want.
There are several ways you can do the next bit, but this is what I do:
Go to Select -> float
Then on the layers tool bar, click the "new layer" icon (bottom right button)

I do that if there is more than one letter that I want from the sheet.. I just keep repeating the process until all the ones I want have been "floated".

If I want just one letter, I select the letter, then go to layer -> crop to selection and it basically gets rid of everything except that one letter :)

Hope that helps!

[JessicaC]

Thank you Lisa! I can't wait to try it! One other question...I've seen kits that have something that looks like a buckle that you can put on ribbons, then write on it or whatever. How do you put part of the buckle behind the ribbon so that it looks like it's laced through the ribbon and not just stuck on top?

[JessicaC]

Lisa, I got a chance to try it today and I CAN float the layer. Now all those kits I have that have alphas and elements done like that I can use! THANK YOU!!!!

[christinescraps]

I have been using GIMP in my fifth grade computer classes and teaching them some of the basics. They love it. I know that there is a ton of tutorials out on the web for GIMP. Just google them or go on their site and you will find them.

[JessicaC]

I've looked at some of the tuts on GIMP but they either don't do what I want or it's WAY too elaborate for what I want. I did find some that helped me a lot.

[fazzbech]

One other question...I've seen kits that have something that looks like a buckle that you can put on ribbons, then write on it or whatever. How do you put part of the buckle behind the ribbon so that it looks like it's laced through the ribbon and not just stuck on top?

Jessica, I don't use Gimp, but the way I would do it is to have two copies of the belt, one under the buckle, and one on top of the buckle. Then, for the one that is on top of the buckle, just erase the parts of the ribbon where you want the buckle to show through. You don't even have to be that careful because you have the layer underneath which will show through if you erase a wee bit too much.

Otherwise, just place the ribbon over the buckle and erase the parts of the ribbon to make the buckle show through, but make sure you zoom right up when you do it! HTH!

[JessicaC]

Oh duh! I didn't think about that! I've done that with other things. I was trying to make it too difficult.

Got another question. All of the kits I have are designed for 12x12 LOs. I want to do an 8x8 LO. Can I strink down my papers and elements to fit 8x8 or even just center them onto the 8x8 area? I haven't started yet and don't want to get done with it and realize it can't be printed because I've done it wrong.

Thanks for helping out a rookie!!!

[lisarose]

LOL No worries Jessica!

I started off scrapping 8x8 too and I resized my papers to 8x8 so I didnt loose any detail that might have been on the edges.
I also had to shrink down elements too...by 67% or whatever looked good to me :)

Some people actually scrap at 12x12, then once the layout is completed they flatten the image and resize the whole layout to 8x8 for printing... its whatever you prefer.

I did the first way because back then (3 years ago) I had less ram and the computer would take fooooooreeeeever to do things at the larger size! hahaha

[JessicaC]

Good! Thank you again for the help!

[Sonorazona]

I hated it. I'll stick to PSP.

[JessicaC]

Hi Lisa,

How do you make a picture have rounded edges? There's a command for that, but I'm somehow missing a step or something because it's not working.

[Sonorazona]

Hereis a website that is for digital scrapbooking with gimp. They have several tutuorials that are videos you can download: http://www.scrapbooksgonedigital.com/ (http://www.scrapbooksgonedigital.com/)
I did a quick search on "gimp tutorial", here are two sites (there are more).
www.gimp.org (http://www.gimp.org)
www.gimp-tutorials.com (http://www.gimp-tutorials.com)

Hope you can find what you need here.

[saab]

You might find something useful here, 3 pages of video tutorials on You Tube for Gimp users http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=3D59FAF7B91888FD (http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=3D59FAF7B91888FD)

[lisarose]

If you have the newest version (not sure of the numbers.. I've lost track!!) its like this:

Click on the rectangle selection tool... at the bottom of the tool bar, there should be some options, one will say "rounded edges" (or similar) so click that box.

Slide the scale (not sure if its left or right... im at work at the moment!) to make the rounded corners as big or small as you want.
Then, go to layer -> crop to selection
before clicking anywhere else, go to select -> invert selection
Once the selection is inverted, go edit -> cut
and it should have nice, rounded edges.

If you dont have the newest version, just select a normal rectangle / square, then there is an option that says "rounded edges/corners".. im fairly sure its in the select menu.. could be in edit though. I can't double check as I dont have Gimp at work...
Anyway again it will bring up the same sliding scale I described above, and then you crop, invert and cut just like the previous one.

Hope that helps!!!

[JessicaC]

Lisa, you have been such an awesome teacher! And of course I have another question... When you get word art in black, how do you change it to another color to match your LO?

[selfconfessedscrapaddict]

Hmmm I might try out Gimp - I know I am late to this post but it seems okay for a free program.

[Carolyn Kite]

I've never used Gimp Skye so can't help you I'm sorry. I'm not even sure what tutorials are out there for it.

The only thing I would warn you about - Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop and Photoshop Elements can all read PSD files which are used for templates. I'm pretty sure Gimp can't though.

As the 3 I listed are the most common programmes used, everything seems to be geared towards them. They all offer free trials, if you'd like to try any of them out, I can get you some links.

Hugs
Carolyn
xox