Merit.oryo.us

Let’s get down to the nitty “griddy”. That’s right. Last time we created our bulletin board and this time where going to fill it. We’ll add some paper and some post-it tabs and do so quickly using grids and guides.

Again, we’ll be working with our bulletin board. If you haven’t done the first part of the tutorial, you can grab the bulletin.xcf.

First, let’s turn on the grid (View->Show Grid). At present, the grid might be too sparse. We’d like to have the points on the grid 15px apart. This can easily be done. Simple configure the grid (Image->Configure Grid) and set the spacing to 15px.

Now, with our grid setup the first item we want to add is a sheet of paper. Create a new layer and call it paper. Go ahead and make a 300×375 rectangular selection for the sheet of paper.

Did you get it? It’s easy to do than you might think. Sure the grid can help you “eye ball” it, but it’s real power comes from snapping to it. Activate snapping now (View->Snap to Grid) and try the selection again. It should be much easier now. Once you have the selection, fill it with #f1f1f1.

The next step will be to add some lines. You remember good ol’ ruled paper, right? That’s what we’re after here. Create a layer for the lines and call it “rules”. Select #b2c7fd and the pencil tool with a 1px brush. Starting from the 4th grid part from the top, draw lines back and forth. To do this, hit one side with a dot and then hold down the SHIFT key and move over to the over side. When you have the line you want, hit the mouse again to draw the line. Continue down the sheet. At some point you may want to turn of the grid to see how you’re doing.

Next, paint a pink line (#bc5858) down the left edge and cut out a few holes.

For our next trick, we’ll add some post-it tags. We could do this with grids but we’ll use guides. But first, go ahead and turn off the the grid (View->Show Grid) and turn off snap to grid (View->Snap to Grid). Now, turn on guides (View->Show Guides).

Hmm. Nothing happened. Where are the guides? Well, we have to add them. To add a horizontal guide, click up in the rule on the top and pull down. You should see the guide. Drop 6 horizontal guides and a couple vertical guides as shown. It will help to zoom in to 200%.

Turn on snap to guides (View->Snap to Guides) and make rectangular selection inside the guide. Create a new layer and call it “post it tabs”. Fill each rectangle in with a post it type color. Then set the opacity of the layer to around 60%.

Finally, create another layer, “post it tabs overlay” and use the pencil tool to draw a darker border around the tabs.

From there, with a few more touches you can get …

The curious can check out the bulletin2.xcf file.

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