I have downloaded a Christmas kit from here and was going to use it to do some Christmas card front covers.

How do I do it if the d/l is 12 x 12? Do I have to crop the backgrounds to card size before I can start? Not sure how or if I can use them to do smaller layouts.

Thankyou in advance from a Newbie.

just go into IMAGE, RESIZE, IMAGE SIZE and make it either 5x7 or 4x6 or whatever you want the size to be

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Proud US Air Force Wife...My heart is back from Afganistan!!

if your paper is 12x12 and you want to make it into a 5x7 or 4x6 or any rectangular size, what I do is go use the scale tool to shrink the paper down to 7x7 or 6x6 or whatever the longest measurment will be and then cut off the exess. So if I want a 5x7 card, I would make my paper 7x7 and then use my rectangular selection tool to crop off 2 inches from one side, which then make the paper 5x7. You could just select a 5x7 pice of the paper also. I like to shrink it down first because then you see more of the pattern on the card. Hope that made some sense!

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When you paste the paper onto your smaller canvas, it will automatically be cropped. No need to do it ahead of time. Changing the square paper to a rectangle will distort any images on the paper.

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right kim, but if you shrink it down like I suggested, I will save more of the pattern (very important when using a large patterned paper), and will not distort because you are shrinking it down to a square, then cutting off the excess to make a rectangle. kwim?

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guess i have been doing it wrong...now i know!! thanks!!

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Proud US Air Force Wife...My heart is back from Afganistan!!

Don't assume you've been "doing it wrong" -there's more than one way to do about anything! It may make a difference which program you use because in DIP 7, which I use, images don't automatically fit within my canvas. That's why this group is so awesome -to find alternate ideas from all over!