Photoshop Elements 11: The Missing Manual

Chapter 15. Creating Projects

If you’re into making scrapbooks, greeting cards, or other photo concoctions, Elements is perfect for you. You can dress up pictures in all sorts of creative ways without any other software. Elements is crammed with add-on graphics, frames, and other special effects; it even lets you create multipage documents.

This chapter kicks off with an in-depth look at how to create photo collages. Once you’ve got those steps under your belt, all the other projects (summarized starting on Photo Books) use the same basic method. You’ll also learn how to create photo books and calendars using Shutterfly, Adobe’s online photo-printing partner. (If you aren’t in the U.S. or Canada, you may see CeWe as your option for ordering photo books and calendars.) To learn how to create online albums [photo-filled web pages] and slideshows with Elements, flip to Chapter 18.

Note

In Elements 11, most of the templates you use for these projects are actually stored online, so you’ll need an Internet connection the first time you choose a new template. After that, the template is stored on your hard drive so you don’t have to be online to use it, just like the artwork in the Graphics panel (Working with the Graphics and Favorites Panels).

Photo Collages

The Create button (at the upper right of your screen in both the Editor and the Organizer) helps you make fancy pages featuring your photos, which you can then share as either printouts or digital files. Although Elements gives you lots ...