Using Quick Clicks in PhotoImpact
By Claudia Watkins

For this tutorial I used Lauren’s Freebie 2 Circles Quick Click that you can get in the Freebie Gallery and my kit Romance in Pink.

1. Open the paper you want for your background.

2. Go to File and click on Browse. A new window will show, navigate to where your Quick Clicks are and choose one.
Open all the png layers of the quick click. If you use CTRL and left click on all of them they will open in your PI desktop or if you prefer you can open each one as you will use them.

In Photoshop the png files are called OBJECTS and when you open them they will be selected with the “ants” going round and they will keep selected until you click out of them.

3. Open the first layer of the quick click. Duplicate the Image and close the original one.

4. Click on the object if it is not already selected..
Go to EDIT and click on FILL.

A small window  will open. Open the tab named Image.

Copy the settings below. Click on the small square next to the dropdown box to choose the paper you want for that piece. An Open dialog will come up, navigate to where your paper is, open the paper and its name will show in the dropdown box. If you want to preview before accepting it, click on Preview. If you are happy with what you got, click OK, if not click on CONTINUE and you can choose another paper.

5. Now you have the piece covered with the chosen paper. Right Click and choose copy.
Go to the paper you chose for background and paste right clicking and choosing Paste. Or you can use CTRL+C (copy)and CTRL+V(paste). The piece will be pasted in the right place as in your template.

Carry on doing the same to all the pieces of the Quick Click that uses paper.

6. Sometimes the photos templates in a Quick Click have a frame around it as is the case with the one I am using. In that case what you have to do is:

Duplicate the image file of the layer. Right click and choose MERGE ALL. You will get a white page with the frame merged to it.

7. Click on the Magic Wand tool ( click on the small arrow and you will get this little list)…see picture below.

Select the black area by clicking with the Magic Wand on it. Go to the VIEW menu and click on ACTUAL VIEW. You will see that the selection is 1 pixel short, to correct that Go to the SELECTION menu and select EXPAND SHRINK and in the box that comes up use the same settings as the image below. Click OK.

8- Zoom out  by clicking on FIT WINDOW in the VIEW menu. Copy the selection by doing a CTRL+C or right clicking and choosing COPY. Close this image you don’t need it any more.

9- Open the photo you want, in my case I left it big because I just wanted the little girls’ faces, CTRL+V to paste. Move the object around to cover what part of the photo you want to use. Make it transparent by right clicking and clicking on PROPERTIES ( last line in the list), change the transparency to 50% and keep all the other settings as shown.

Now you can move and see where you are going. When you are happy with the placement, click on the EDIT menu, TRACE EDGES, SELECTION MARQUEE. In the menu that comes up, don’t change anything, just click OK. On the top there is a drop down box with the words HORIZONTAL DEFORM written in it. Click on the arrow and change to SELECTION.

10- Now you just need to copy CTRL+C. Go back to the image with the frame png. Paste by going to the EDIT menu, PASTE and INTO SELECTION. You will notice that your cursor is now a cross move the photo till you get it the right position and click.

11. Repeat step 5 to paste it in your layout.

Decorate as you want and you are done. This is mine: