Template question

[smulley]

I have used template a couple of times. I know how to drop pictures and papers in. It seems that whenever I use one of these, the lines near the templates are not nice and smooth; not a nice and smooth transition from the template to the pictures. My layout of the Magic Carpet Ride is an example
http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=113473&cat=500&ppuser=49534
and this soccer layout:
http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=103320&cat=500&ppuser=49534
Don't look at that last layout except for the template and how it doesn't look right 'cause I redid that page just never reposted it.
Anyway, does anyone else find they have this problem or am I just not doing something right? These two layouts are the only time I have used them and I am not really liking how they look. Thanks to all!

[Lauren]

Looks to me like you are selecting a whole layer including the drop shadow and not selecting the white portion with the magic wand - If you have been using the magic wand then probably the tolerance level is set to high - if you reduce the tolerance of your magic wand so it only selects the white this should fix the problem

[smulley]

I was placing the picture under the template layer and then with the magic wand, I was picking the transparent area where the picture should go, then inverting selection, then, on the picture layer I pressed delete. This makes the rest of the picture that I don't want go away. But I think you are onto something about the drop shadow layer or part because that is just the area where it is iffy. If there is a paper under that area, the paper shows through. If it is transparent under taht area, that is obvious. Whatever is underneath that area is showing through.

I went back and tried to do it like you said by clicking the white part of the template (using the Mosaic Large Curves template). I made the tolerance 0 and selected the white line by where the picture should go. But then I don't invert selection, correct? This takes the entire picture away. If I don't invert, it doesn't do anything. What am I missing??? I guess I am not understanding what to do after selecting the white area (with 0 tolerance) with the magic wand to get the unwanted part of my picture to go away and leave a nice edge.

Thanks, I can't wait to get this!

[Lauren]

What you do is place the picture on the layer above the template layer -then on the layers palette make sure you have the template layer active and use the magic wand with that 0 tolerance - to get your selection - then move to the picture layer - invert your selection and hit delete - this will remove the excess photo and the drop shadow from the layer below will stll be showing but the white template layer will not be showing

[tape]

Are you resizing the templates before using them (if you're scrapping 12x12, you shouldn't)? This might be related to your problem with the drop shadows, where we're suspecting you may have accidentally been scrapping at too low a resolution. You do get some jaggies with the magic wand method, but they're hardly noticeable, and they shouldn't be at all noticeable at the size you're showing us your LOs in the gallery.

[Vallie]

This sometimes happens with me too. What I do is go to Selections, modify and expand the selection by 1 or 2 pixels and it fixes the sort of 'outline' edge I got sometimes. Probably nothing to do with your problems but sometimes I don't get all the outside edge included in my selection, perhaps because of a shadow, maybe I haven't set the tolerance at the right level. Oh well, always learning that is for sure! :)