Hi- I am Hope- mom to Cale (3) and Addy (7 months). I have really been enjoying photography since the birth of my children, and now I am wanting to learn more about editing and scrapbooking. I downloaded Photoshop Elements 4 (trial) and also have crapbook Factory Deluxe 3. I am wanting to make our Christmas cards this year, but would prefer to do the 4"x8" size as the 5"X7" are so much more money and I have tons to send out. If anyone could please let me know if this program is even the right one to be using for this task I would really appreciate it. I am wondering if the only way to get this size is to use the templates provided at Walmart., etc.? I have spent much of the day "playing and reasearching" with not much to show for it ! Thanks so much for your help!

You can do any size in PSE including 4x8. I use 2.0 and here's how I would do it. You may have to adjust this to fit 4.0.

1) Create a new file File->New. Put the following settings in the dialogue box.
Preset Sizes: Custom
Width: 4 inches
Height: 8 inches (note reverse height and width if you want landscape style verses portrait style)
Resolution: 300 dpi
Mode: RGB color
Background: white

2) Open the photo you want to use. Resize the photo to 4x6. Image ->Resize->Image Size. Change the width and height under "document size" to 4 and 6 inches.

3) Select the move tool and drag your photo onto the 4x8 document you created. Position the photo as desired. This should leave you with two inches for your greeting.

Let me know if you get stuck and I'll do my best to help. -Misty

Thanks so much! Is it possible to add more than one pic to the card? Kind of like a collage of a few pics? I really appreciate you taking the time to help me.

Oh sure! Just open each photo you want to use and drag it onto your 4 by 8 document. Each photo will appear in a new layer. To adjust the size, orientation and position of each photo once they are on the main document, select the layer of the photo you want to work with. Select the move tool (key V). A dashed line box should appear around the photo. Placing you cursor on the small box on any of the corners and dragging will resize your photo. Holding down the shift key while you are changing the size will assure the photo remains in proportion. Click anywhere on the photo to drag it to a new position on the page. To rotate the picture move your cursor outside the photo until you get a curved double arrow cursor. Click and drag will rotate the photo.

Good luck! -Misty

Thank you so much! I am going to print out your instructions and hopefully I will be able to do this ! Right now, I have not even mastered getting the pic to show up in the "card area". I just keep switching back and forth from pic to white card...LOL... Why do I get all of this creative energy so close to Christmas ?!? We just got a new computer last night (the other would not load many of the new photo programs) and now I am trying to learn enough to get this done and get them out in the mail ! I really really appreciate you taking the time to help me! Have a great night!

You're very welcome. PSE is a great program, but it takes a little while to get the hang of it. Good luck!

this is because you are in the maximized view. click on Windows, Images, then chose either tile or cascade so that multiple windows show up at the same time. NOW click on the thumnail of the item in the layers palate (at the right, not below) and drag this into your new document and it should add it to the new document as a new layer. This is the key to PSE, getting the layers into your new document. You can edit the items (pics etc) by resizing them or adjusting the color, contrast etc before you bring them into the new document.

Oh and make sure the new document is 300 dpi not 72 (the default) or you will not end up with printable stuff! When you drag your pics etc into the new document it will automatically bring them in as 300 dpi.

Hope that helps, if you get stuck, let us know!

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Personally I don't use the drag and drop method. It confuses me. What I do is to go to my picture, control + a to select all, then control + c to copy, then switch over to my layout and control + v to paste the picture as a new layer on my layout. This works better for how I work.

Then I select the move tool and use control + t to resize the layer with my picture. (Not forgetting to click the lock button so when I resize with the mouse it locks the aspect ratio)

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