Just in case any of my readers are wondering what in the world an action is I thought I’d do a quick post today showing a “before” and “after” layout with actions in use.

Photoshop’s help menu describes actions like this: “An action is a series of tasks that you play back on a single file or a batch of files—menu commands, palette options, tool actions, and so on. For example, you can create an action that changes the size of an image, applies a filter to the image for a particular effect, and then saves the file in the desired format.”

So, what Atomic Cupcake has done is created a store dedicated to selling actions to scrapbookers. There are a lot of digital designers that use Atomic Cupcake actions to help create the products they sell to you.

Here is a layout I created for the 4th video template which is still a work in progress. It is a photo of my dad taken in Hawaii at a Luau in the early ’70’s. I used Atomic Cupcake’s “Frosted Glass” action on the frame and flourish. And, I used “Pencil Sketch” on the frame and the flower. Since this is meant to be a masculine slide I wanted to downplay the floral aspect so I also used Photoshop’s “overlay” blending mode on the flower. He is in Hawaii though with flowers on his head after all, so I figure this works.

This is what the layout looked like before I started applying Atomic Cupcake actions. What I love is that you can take existing elements that you already own and make them look totally different. The actions added dimension and interest, all with one click of the button….literally.

Products Used

• Flower and : Jofia Devoe
• Paper: Franziska Altman
• Flourish: Christina Renee
• Frame: Banner Woman
• Beach Chair: Bisontine
• Cloudy Breeze: Kasia Designs
• Sand: MFisher