In this case, once you have selected the layer you want to move, hold the control key down and click and drag. It forces it to move the layer you selected.

http://www.photoshopusertv.com/?p=274

I download the episodes and watch them later. I find them fairly instructive and easy to understand.

The following steps will guide you through how to do it in Photoshop CS3.

Open a new 12 x 12 inch file in Photoshop. I’ve flood filled mine to white so I can see what I’m doing.

Then, to create the square shape, add a new layer and set the fill colour for the shape, select the rectangular shape tool, select the fill option (this will fill the shape to your desired colour). Click and drag a rectangle.

Make sure that your shape layer is selected and click on filter > distort > wave

A new dialog box will pop up with the settings to make the edge wavy.

Set the number of generators to 5; wavelength min 1 and max 999; amptitude min 1 and max 5; scale both at 100% and the type at Sine. Click ok. If you would like a bigger curve, increase the max amplitude. See if you can turn your square into a hedge hog by increasing the max amplitude

If you want to distort the layers more, you can also use the warp tool.

Create a new layer and repeat the steps above for as many shapes as you need. Then, when you have all your shapes, you can start to insert papers and photos above the shape layer that you want it to appear in and clip it (ctrl-alt-G) to the shapes.

If the pictures are too small, click on them and Internet Explorer will take  you to the bigger version.

I’ve made a template of the layout and you can download it from NO LONGER AVAILABLE.

Fortunately, I have reviewed in the past various document management programs and some of these programs were really good for image organisation so I had a head start. I have tried ACDsee, but I found it unsatisfactory. Bridge, which comes with PS will do the same thing and a better job but I haven’t bothered with it either. I also have Paperport Professional which is far superior to ACDSee or Bridge but is also a bit pricey.

Instead, I use windows explorer which is simple, fast and it is already there. I’ve found a utility that enlarges thumbnails (not needed if you have Vista) so I can see them better and I use a logical folder and sub-folder structure.

ACTIONS & TEMPLATES
ELEMENTS
- Alphas
- Brushes
- Frames
- Dates Calendars
- Journals
- Stitches Buttons Staples
FONTS
KITS
- Water themes
OVERLAYS & SWIRLS
PAPERS
SEASONAL
- Christmas
- Celebrations
CT Designers
- Debra Tope
- Zig Zag Scraps

Windows has a really good search function and I use it to search file names. Between that and the larger thumbnails, I can find pretty much anything with a visual or file name search. I can also open multiple windows, something which some programs won’t let you do. So, while I’m scrapping, I will have two or three instances of Windows Explorer open. One for the photos, one for the supplies I’m using and one for searching.

I download new purchases to a folder called “NEW” and it stays there until I can organise it. When I unzip a new purchase, the first thing I do is delete the extra files like the piracy notice, rename the preview file to folder.jpg and make sure that the folder has the designer’s name at the beginning of it so that everything is in alphabetical order by designer name. Then, I copy it to a backup drive and move it to the right folder. The zip file is moved to another backup drive which I take off site.

The windows utility to enlarge thumbnails is called TweakUI and is found at Microsoft. This utility is not necessary for Vista but is a great help for earlier versions of Windows (eg XP).
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/d…powertoys.mspx

I hope this helps those that can’t buy another program or need to organise their digi scrapping supplies but don’t want to or can’t painfully index each file.

A Stitch in Time