Digital Scrapbooking Tips

As 2009 comes to a close, we are celebrating the start of a brand new year this week. I love having the chance to start fresh with a clean slate each January.

When you are working in Photoshop and Elements, you can start fresh with a new canvas or layer, too.

Pressing Ctrl N (Mac: Cmd N) on your keyboard creates a new canvas with a dialog box to allow you to make choices about the size, resolution and background.

Pressing Ctrl Shift Alt N (Mac: Cmd Shift Opt N) creates a new transparent layer the size of your document. The new layer will be created one position above the selected layer. Clicking the Create a New Layer icon in the Layers Panel performs the same function.

Press Ctrl Shift N (Mac: Cmd Shift N) to open the new layer dialog box so that you can name the layer, select the blending mode and opacity as well as creating a clipping mask with the new layer. Holding the Alt key (Mac: Opt key) as you click the Create a New Layer icon in the Layers Panel gives you the same dialog box.

To create a new layer one position below the selected layer, hold the Ctrl key (Mac: Cmd key) as you click the Create a New Layer icon.