Heritage Scrapbooking Basics in Photoshop Elements

Photoshop Elements is my favorite platform to create scrapbooks because I have to customize layouts to accommodate the pictures and text that I want to share to tell a great story about my ancestors or my family’s daily life.

When you are beginning opening PSE 2018, you’ll get this screen.

There’s always a sale going on, but really there’s no reason to upgrade every year.

Click on the Photo Editor option.

Use this screen to make selections to create a new file.

The first step is how to create a new file:

1. File, New, Blank File

2. Options: Options:

3. US Paper -- Create for my favorite size vertical 8.5x11, but you can choose this and rotate the layout to horizontal if you like. I’ll show you that in a moment.

4. Scrapbooking -- This is for square layouts

5. 12x12

6. 8x8

7. 6x6 (Please don’t do this size. They’re really too small)

8. Add Title:

9. Make sure resolution is 300 dpi (don’t need higher)

10. Leave all the other default settings the same

11. Press Okay

Now that you have prepared your workspace, it’s time to add some photos to this layout. The two ways that I recommend you add photos to Photoshop Elements is by dragging and dropping pictures from a file organization program (i.e., Windows Explorer) to PSE.

The other way is to load your photos into Photoshop Elements Organizer and then select your photos from that interface and open them in Photoshop Elements Editor.

The last task we’ll discuss in this tutorial is adding a photo to your workspace. That’s what you created when you created a new file.

Since your photos are in your Photo Tray, you simply:

1. Click on the work surface so that you can see the blank surface in the editing window.

2. Click and hold the photo you want in the photo tray and drag it to the workspace.

3. Release and the photo will be placed in the center of the work surface. (It always goes to the center)

4. When you want to move the photo to a new spot, click and hold the image you want and move it around. When you release the left mouse button, the image will be placed in that spot. (As we go through PSE, you need to make sure the Move tool is selected)

With these three basics, you’re ready to start scrapbooking. I share these tips and a few more in the video below as it’s easier to show than tell when scrapbooking.

Let’s walk through a few basics of the program so you can get started right away.

Watch this video on YouTube.