Photoshop Friday

Monday, July 10, 2006

PS Friday {Issue #9}

Originally posted at My Blog on June 25, 2006

This is part one of a two-part series to make the 4-square background for a layout like this:

For this creation, we're going to start with a 4-square configuration with patterned paper. To do this, we'll need some really specific measurements, so we'll be taking advantage of the Grid and Snap to Grid features in Photoshop. And then we'll throw a circle element into the mix. So here we go! :)

1. Open a new document, 12x12, 300 dpi, white background.
2. Drag 4 cool patterned papers onto your canvas. (Here's a great chance to mix and match kits for a fun look.)
3. For this, we'll need some accurate measurements, so turn on rulers (View > Rulers). If yours aren't showing measurements in inches, you can change this in the Preferences (Edit > Preferences).

Setting up the Grid

If you are using a full version of Photoshop, you can drag guide lines out from the rulers to help you. I love these for lining things up. Simply start dragging with your cursor over the ruler and drop the blue guide wherever you like. BUT, since Elements doesn't have guides, we'll be using the grid instead.

First we need to make sure that the grid is showing in inches.
1. Go to Edit > Preferences, and choose Grid from the flyout menu (in CS and CS2 it's called "Guides, Grid & Slices".
2. Set the measurement to 1 inch, and set the number of dividers to 4.
3. Hit OK.
4. In the View menu, make sure that Grid and Snap to Grid are both selected (in CS and CS2 the command is View > Show > Grid and View > Snap). Snap to Grid ensures that all our selections and elements line up nicely in quarter-inch increments. Very handy.

Alright! Now we are ready to do some selection.

Selecting using the Rectangle Marquee tool

1. Using the Rectangle marquee tool, select the top left quadrant on the first patterned paper. (a 6-inch square)
HINT: When you are dragging a selection with the marquee tools, hold down Shift to keep the proportions a perfect square or a perfect circle.
2. Now we need to delete all the paper EXCEPT the square we've selected. So we'll go to Select>Inverse.
You should see your selection change to a reverse L-shape.
3. Hit Delete.

Now you can repeat these steps by selecting the next patterned paper, using the marquee tool to select a 6-inch square, inverting the selection and deleting.

When you are finished with all 4 layers, you should have a 12x12 canvas that looks like this (I used papers from Rhonna Farrer's Split Pea kit over at Two Peas in a Bucket:

And in the tutorial that will arrive at 2peas on July 1, we'll go into much more detail on how to achieve cool results with the circle marquee, like this:

Now you'll turn that 4-square into a single sheet of paper to keep working with it.

Merging Layers

With the Move tool selected, hold down the shift key and click on each of your four layers one by one. You should see them all select in your layers palette, either by highlighting or by the appearance of a little chain-link icon next to the thumbnail.
Go to Layer > Merge Linked (In PSCS and above, Layer > Merge Layers). In your layers palette you should see a single layer with the four squares, and the background layer.

Cutting spaces between the papers

Using the rectangle marquee, draw a 1/4 inch selection horizontally across your 4-square paper (this is where the grid comes in handy). Position the selection exactly over the line where the patterns meet:

Hit delete.
If you are using PSCS or above, you can use the Select>Transform Selection to rotate your selection 90 degrees. If you are using PSE, simply redraw the selection vertically.
Position the selection exactly over the line where the papers meet.
Hit delete.

Cutting with the Elliptical Marquee
In this next section, we will be cutting a large circle out of the middle of the 4-square paper, to use as a design element. We'll work on other options with the selection tool, including constraining a selection to exact dimensions, drawing a circle from the center point, and saving and loading a selection.

Select your Elliptical Marquee tool.
In the Options bar at the top of the screen, choose Fixed Size from the Mode drop-down box.
Type in 6in and 6in in the boxes. This will automatically draw you a perfect 6-inch circle.

Position your crosshair cursor in the exact center of your document (again, the grid comes in handy).
While holding the Alt key, click once. You should see a 6-inch circle with its centerpoint at the place you clicked.

Choose Select > Save Selection. Type an identifiable name in the box, such as CircleMarquee.
Hit OK.

Cut and Rotate a Selection

With your 4-square paper active, hit Ctrl-X and Ctrl-V to cut the circle selection and paste it into a new layer. (You may have to nudge your circle back into place with the Move tool selected using the arrow keys).

FOR PSE:

With the circle layer active, choose Image> Transform> Free transform.
In the options bar at the top of your screen, the third box from the left has a little angle next to it. This is the rotation. Type 90.

FOR PSCS and above:
With the circle layer active, choose Edit > Transform > Rotate 90 degrees.

You should now see an image like this:

Load Selection
One more step and we've prepped our image for a layout :) The circle would look better if it had some space cut around it. Let's do that next. We are going to use the same circle selection, but expand it just a bit.

First, we need to load up the selection we saved earlier.

Go to Select > Load Selection and choose CircleMarquee from the dropdown list. You'll see your saved selection activate.
Go to Select > Modify > Expand. Type 50 into the box to expand the selection by 50 pixels in every direction.
In the layers palette, make sure the 4-square paper layer (NOT the circle layer) is active. Hit Delete.

Now we are all set for making a layout with this great foundation. Here's what I came up with:

Product credits:
All of the papers except the diamond are from Summer Simmon's Citrus Grove Kit.
The diamond paper is from Jackie Eckles' Greeley Kit.
The alphabet strips are from Katie Pertiet.
The font I used for the journaling is TXT Stonewashed. (The date one is Impact)
And of course few layouts would be complete without Katie Pertiet's Sanded Overlay. (All that grunge for a buck fifty! Amazing!)

Friday, June 09, 2006

PS Friday {Issue #8}

This was originally posted over in my regular blog on Friday, June 2. For the latest Photoshop Friday, visit my regular blog. :D

Hello, and welcome to Photoshop Friday!

Today's PS Friday is useful, functional, foolproof, and easy.

How many things in life can you say THAT about, huh?

Adventures in Black and White (and sepia, too)

We are going to have an adventure in Black and White, as well as in Sepia. And basically this means you'll learn a great method for GREAT black and white conversion, and for changing that black and white to a sepia, and ALL without touching our original photo. The secret? Adjustment layers.

I should put a disclaimer here that there are a LOT of ways to get a great high-contrast black and white. Some people use curves. Some use levels, some use layer blending modes, some use the channel mixer, and they are all fantastic. Here is one more tool for your toolbelt. I think it creates a very smooth conversion without hotspots, and gives a good deal of control, too.

Let's get started.

First, I'll choose a photo that I think would look great in black and white.

Here's one of my sister at her wedding a few weeks ago. I just love the mill wheel, and her stepping delicately over the stones to get in photo position. She's beautiful. And this picture really needs to be black and white. And maybe we'll get crazy and do a sepia too. :)

This photo is pretty dark, so let's fix that in our black-and-white conversion as well.

Open your photo.
Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Gradient Map
Click in the gradient itself to edit. (That's the big white or gradient bar inside the popup, like this).

Drag the bottom right slider (the white one) over to the left. You can see the white in your image brightening, bringing out detail and adding contrast. Slide this slider until you get a result you're happy with. It'll differ for every image, but it might look something like this:

(If your image started out too bright or you'd like to add some more dark hues, slide the black slider (bottom left) toward the right until you get enough shadow.
Click OK in the gradient editor.
Click OK in the gradient map dialog.

Here is what my image looked like after applying the gradient map adjustment layer.

The coolest part about this conversion, is that if you aren't happy, rather than throwing your image away and starting over, you can simply double-click on the gradient map thumbnail in the layers palette to edit the gradient. This is called non-destructive editing, and yay! It saves time and headaches.

(p.s. if you want to see some really funky colors, try applying a few of the other gradients in the editor, or making some of your own. Just for kicks, of course. :))

Okay, on to the next piece. I think Julie's photo could use the softness of a sepia tone. So we're going to add that next.

Adding a Sepia Tone

If you are working in Photoshop 7, CS, or CS2, you can change your image mode to Grayscale and then to Duotone and pick from a wide array of pre-made duotones and tritones. It's a great way to kill an hour or two, and they have some awesome combinations.

This, on the other hand, is the quick-and-easy way to add a sepia tone in any version of Photoshop.

Open the photo you'd like to add the sepia to. (You don't have to convert it to black and white first, but I recommend following the gradient map adjustment layer above to get really nice contrast in the tones.)

Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation
Click the Colorize checkbox in the popup.
Set the top value to 25, the middle value to 15, and leave the bottom value where it is. You can adjust the middle value to anywhere between 4-17 and get a very nice sepia tone.

And that's it!
Here is my end result, side-by-side with the original.

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

PS Friday {Issue #7}

Originally posted: May 26, 2006

MAN. I can't believe we're already here at 7 Photoshop Fridays. Feels like a day to celebrate, doesn't it? Yes. Let's celebrate your awesomeness at photoshop! Yeah YOU! :)

I hope you are enjoying the ideas here, and it's helping you make cool stuff. I love to look at what you make, so link me up, okay? :) Leave a comment, pass the word along, whatev. Thanks.

Today's PS Friday is, I think, really cool. So here we go.

Masking Out Text in Photoshop
or
Making it look like text is running behind objects in your photo.

The non-destructive way. ;)

(phew! How's that for a title?)

Basically it means this:

Looks like my text is tucked back in behind that leaf. Pretty cool effect. I used this effect on one of my Hall of Fame entry layouts, and it turned out great. All the people I showed it to were like, "Whoa! How'd you do that?" And that, my friend, is our goal in Photoshop. ;)

Okay. Today's instructions split off between Elements/All older versions of PS up to 7 on the one hand, and 7/CS/CS2 on the other. So go down the path for the version you have and we'll be great. :)

Here goes:

Open the photo you'd like to add the text to. Please note that hair and fur make this a little more difficult, so I recommend starting on something that has fairly solid edges. Up to you, though, if you're a glutton for punishment. :)
Add your text. Because part of the text is going to be invisible, people looking are going to have to decipher what your text says based on the visible parts. Because of this, I recommend a big fat font. I used Impact.

Select your layer mask thumbnail (the white rectangle) in the layers palette.
Choose a small round Brush tool, with the color black.
Zoom on in to your photo so you get some nice detail. This is the painstaking part. (tip: you might also want to reduce the opacity of your text layer, so you can see what's going on beneath it)
Paint over the text that you would like to mask out. You'll watch the text disappear. This is because in a layer mask, the color black works just like an eraser.

Remember that when you have the brush tool selected, the [ and ] keys will increase and decrease the size of your brush tip. That way you can have a small brush for accuracy and a larger brush for big swaths.

Really cool secret hints:
-Think you can use other cool brushes than a round one? You bet you can. And tons of cool effects can be produced by using brushes and layer masks. It's mind-blowing, really.
-Remember how black "erases" from a layer mask? White does exactly the opposite. It adds bits of the masked-out object back into view. So if you mess up and cut out too much text, just switch to a white brush and paint it back in. So cool.

To finish off this photo, I changed my text layer (which was black) to Soft Light blending mode, and added in a frame and a couple of brushes on another layer and set them to Soft Light as well.

So you might be asking what the benefit of this method is to simply rasterizing (simplifying) your text layer and erasing bits? Easy. With a layer mask, the entire text layer is still there, but hidden. So if you mess up, or decide to edit that layer, you don't have to throw anything away, just modify your mask and you're good to go.

I'll post a couple more examples later today, but just wanted to get this up there for you. Enjoy! :)

PS Friday {Issue #5}

Yeah! Welcome to PS Friday! I hope you like this week's edition.

Today you'll add a cool dream-i-fied/handtinted look to a photo, like this:

Cool, huh? But wait, here was my original, totally unedited except scaling and saving for web:

And I need to mention that I adapted these instructions from a tutorial over at PSDTuts.com, and I owe them some thanks for this. :)

Ready? Here we go:

Creating a Dreamy/Handtinted effect on a Photo

Open your photo.
Duplicate your photo onto a new layer and hide the original.
Click on the layer with the duplicated photo, and change the blending mode to Soft Light (this is located in a dropdown at the very top of the layers palette).
Duplicate the photo again.
Click on the lower of the two photo copies. Desaturate this layer (Image > Adjustments > Desaturate OR in Elements - Enhance > Color > Remove Color).
Copy the desaturated layer two more times.

Your layer stack should now look like this:

From top to bottom, the layers are:

Color photo, soft light blend

Desaturated copy, soft light blend

Okay, a couple more steps to really dream-i-fy the photo.

Change the second layer to Screen blend
Now, choose layer 2 and do a Gaussian blur (start out with 10 px and see where that takes you – go more or less depending on whether you’re working with a 300 dpi photo)
Choose layer 3 and do a Gaussian blur of slightly more than you did in layer 2. (Just play with the slider until you get an effect you like)
If you want to create a layout from here, simply link all your layers together and drag them onto your layout.
OR
If you want to add the grunge mask, flatten all the visible layers (Layer > Merge Visible).

Now you can open up my grunge mask from Photoshop Friday #3 and apply it to the photo. I also filled in a bottom layer with black before saving.

Here's another example:

Okay, little birdies! Fly free! Make dreaminess! Link me up when you create something! I can't wait to see. :)

Oh, and let's seeee.... freebie freebie freebie..

Here's a great one, from the Dover 1500 Decorative Ornaments book/CD again.

Remember, when you have your brush tool selected you can choose the [ and ] keys to make your brush larger or smaller before you stamp it down.

Have fun!

PS Friday {Issue #6}

Originally posted: May 19, 2006

Welcome to Photoshop Friday!

We're going to talk about photos today. And I'll share a little eye-popping secret. :)

I received portions of this information from a tutorial over at NOBS photo. Thanks to them. :)

But before we go on, let's sit down and have a chat okay? Photoshop.. is like a fine instrument. It's meant to be handled lightly. What I mean is, there are a lot of techniques in PS that are really easy to overdo, to make really obvious, and to basically ruin the effect by 'trying too hard'...

Drop-shadows are one of them. And this eye-pop technique is one of them, too.

So in sharing this information, I will also share this philosophy: use a light touch. If you have to do the action a couple times to make it even noticeable, so much the better. :)

*stepping down from soapbox*

On to the great info!

Making Eyes Pop.

*clearing throat* The eyes are the windows to the soul. :)

But wait! It's true. As humans, we're drawn to the lightest parts of a painting. And photographers can use the same technique in portraits. The lightest part of a portrait photograph? The catchlights in someone's eyes. So awesome.

But what if you have so-so catchlights and you want to really help them pop? Here are a few steps to try.

Open the photo you'd like to try the technique on. It has to be someone/thing where you can see eyes, and works better when the catchlights are clearly visible.

I'm going to use this photo of my neice, which I took a couple weeks ago at a park in Utah. I've already run Amber Ludlow's conversion on it to brighten up the whole thing. (BTW, this completely ROCKS and I recommend it to anyone who wants an easy way to really make an entire image pop - just send her an email for more info).

The pic looks pretty good, but I want to really make her eyes shine in this. So we are going to "dodge the catchlights", a pretty typical professional photographer technique. Dodge, in essence, lightens up specific parts of an image.

Pick the Dodge tool. It's over in the toolbar, hiding in the same menu as Burn and Sponge.
Set it to a small round brush. Depending on your image resolution, this might be 3-9 pixels.
Set it to Highlights and 100%. (If you want to start out with a subtler effect and build on it, you can set this to 50%)
Zoom in on the image (you can use the navigator palette or hit Z and click on the eyes a couple times).
(hit o to return to the Dodge tool if you used Zoom). Tap a few times on the very lightest parts of the catchlights. You should see them brighten. *Don't overdo this. Keep it subtle*

You can zoom back out to 100% to see what the overall effect is going to be, and do it in a cycle like that. You'll soon become comfortable with what effects you like.

You can stop here if you like, or you can take the additional sharpening step below:

Additional Sharpening for Eyes

While you're zoomed in on the eyes, choose the circular marquee tool (hit M).
Select the iris portion of the eye. Use the Shift key while you select to add portions to your selection, and also to select the second eye, like so (hint: the Shift key adds to any selection, and the Alt key subtracts from any selection):

When you're happy with your selection, hit Ctrl-J to copy the selection onto its own layer.
Run an Unsharp Mask on the eyes layer. I use Scott Kelby's default settings to start with: 85%, Radius 1, Threshold 4. *Don't overdo this. Keep it subtle.*
When you're happy with the sharpness of the eyes, merge the eye layer back onto the photo layer, run an unsharp mask on the whole image, and you're ready to go!

Here are the two images side-by-side:

Here's a quick layout I did with the photo:

Supplies:
Katie Pertiet's Cabana White
Kate Teague's Boogie Star stripes (love this kit!)
Katie Pertiet's Sun Print Stamp
Katie Pertiet's Snap Frame Brush
Rhonna Farrer's Peachy Keen Brush
Rhonna Farrer's Chick Peas Brush

Have fun! Link 'em up when you're done!!

PS Friday {Issue #4}

Originally posted: May 5, 2006

Welcome to Photoshop Friday!

I have noticed that a lot of digital scrappers have questions about the best way to resize their layouts for web display. So I would like to share with you my method for preparing your layout to post online.

To Prepare a Layout to Post Online

Make sure you have saved your final .psd. You'll have to go through all these steps again every time you save for the web. Oh, and make SURE you have this original saved in a safe place. :)
Change the image size from 300 to 72 dpi (Image>Image Size). Be sure to uncheck the resample image box. Your layout dimensions will change to something like 50 x 50 inches, but we'll take care of that in a second.
Flatten the image. (Layer>Flatten Image)
Hit Ctrl-A to select all.
Go to Edit > Transform > Scale. Choose 25% for height and width. Always use the scale rather than just changing the image size using Image Size. The algorithm Adobe uses for scaling is just a lot better. A lot clearer. A lot more accurate.
Run an unsharp mask to sharpen. I usually use 85%, radius 1, threshold 4 (this is the "All-purpose sharpening" recommended by Scott Kelby). You can run this twice if you need a little extra sharpening boost.
Save for Web. (File > Save for Web) There is a slider that allows you to determine the compression level, and thus affect your file size. I can usually get a 12x12 layout in the 150-250K range at about 60% quality. If you have a file size requirement that is smaller than this, go back and scale your layout down a bit and try it again.
Hit OK. Now back at your layout, go back in the History palette and click on the step just BEFORE the Image Size step to keep working. Or if you're all done with this layout, close it without saving (assuming you remembered to save right before the web-prep steps). DO NOT save your flattened layout, or you will be very sad later on. Trust me on that one.

And there it is. A lot of steps, but your layouts that look awesome at full resolution can now be shared online and look just as awesome. :)

If I can grab some more time tonight I'll post a little freebie. If not, then you'll know we are off to Utah! :)

PS Friday {Issue #3}

Originally posted: April 28, 2006

Welcome to Photoshop Friday!

Today's inspiration will be fun, I think. :) I had a great time making it, anyway.

After you complete today's tutorial, you'll be able to give any photo a cool grungy border that bleeds into the background, like this one:

Or with a small change, you can give it a strong black (or any color) border, like this one:

(I did some fun layer styling to the photo to make it look handtinted-keep reading).

This is actually somewhat of a carryover from last week's Photoshop Friday, because this technique simulates a layer mask just like last week's did. I say simulates, because Photoshop Elements doesn't have true layer masks. Luckily this technique works in ALL versions of Photoshop.

Okay, ready?

You'll need to download this file by right-clicking it and choosing Save As:

The grunge mask is sized for a 4x6 photo, but it's easy to re-size before applying it.

Here are your steps:

1. Open your mask and the photo you'd like to grunge-i-fy in Photoshop.
2. Duplicate the photo onto a separate layer (right-click on the photo background layer and choose Duplicate Layer). It's always better to work in a copy of the photo.
3. Turn off the original photo layer.
4. Drag the mask onto the photo.
5. Resize the mask to fit the photo (Edit>Transform>Resize).
6. In the Layers palette, drag the mask layer BELOW the photo layer.
7. Select the photo layer in the layers palette.
8. Hit Ctrl-G (Ctrl-Alt-G in PSCS2) to create the mask.
You should see the edges of your photo masked out by the layer below them.

If you like your photo to bleed into the edges of the background, simply link the layers together and drag them onto your layout.
If you'd like to add a black (or any other color) border:

1. Create a new layer and position it at the bottom of the stack in the Layers Palette.
2. Use the paintbucket tool to fill the blank layer with the color of your choice.

Here's an inspiration layout to get you going:

For this layout I used Tia Bennett's rockin 70 kit which is so fun and retro, and has this utterly delicious montage that I've used for my background all ready to drop in and go. Also appearing is one of Katie Pertiet's sun print brushes. These are just great for accents, since they're botanical silhouettes. And of course I am totally in love with Rhonna Farrer's new Old Stamps brush set. It has all the months, as well as numbers for each month, all old and grungy and random and awesome.

I can't wait to see what you make with your grungy photo mask. Here are some ideas:

-Change the mask by deleting other sections (such as a word) from the black, or by painting on the mask in black with a digital brush.

-Create a large black background and place three grung-i-fied photos side by side. Add a bit of white text in the black area, and you have an awesome frameable storyboard.

-Create your own grungy mask by cutting away bits from a black rectangle. You can use text, grunge brushes, anything you like.

Where do I get grunge brushes, you might ask?

Well, here are some places:
Misprinted Type
MissM
Scrap Artist Distressing Kit (which comes with a tutorial)
Pea Blossom Kit by Rhonna Farrer (which comes with a digital inking and sanding tutorial)

Please let me know if there's something you'd like to see. Have a great week, and don't forget to link up in the comments when you make something! :)

p.s. Want to know how I made the photos look kind of cool and old and dreamy and handtinted? Stay-tuned! There's going to be a mid-week Photoshop tip. ;)

PS Friday {Issue #2}

Originally posted: April 21, 2006

Hello!

Welcome to another installment of Photoshop Friday.

Here's today's inspiration.

See the accent in the bottom right corner? That's what we're going to make today.

Here's what you'll need to complete the tutorial:

1- a brush image (I'll give you that)
2- a digital patterned paper (you can check out some of the free digital kits at Two Peas in a Bucket if you don't have any papers)
3- Photoshop. :P

Okay.. here we go.

Creating Patterned Paper Accents with Brushes
Skill level: Intermediate

So last week you made your own brush. How cool was that? I love PS brushes. Seriously, give me a brush and I'll follow you anywhere. But then you have to feed me and give me a place to stay.. so better be really sure you want to give me that brush.

This week, you'll be making a brush from this image:

I think it's pretty and kind of Art Nouveau. So we'll take it, and make a patterned paper accent with it to either print, or put on a digital page. This brush, like last week's, came from the Dover book 1500 Decorative Ornaments.

Right-click the image above to download, open it in Photoshop, and create a custom brush.

Now we're all set to create a patterned paper accent.

1. Open a patterned paper in Photoshop. (I chose this great word one from Jen Wilson, in her Being kit.)
2. Open a new Photoshop document, 12x12, 300 dpi, and drag your patterned paper into the new document. (I really highly recommend that you never do anything to an original patterned paper. Trust me on this one).
3. Create a new layer above the patterned paper layer (Ctrl-Shift-N).
4. Hit B to choose the brush tool, and select the brush you just made from the image above from your brush palette.
5. Resize the brush to a really nice big size by hitting the ] key a few times. (Incidentally, the [ key makes it smaller.)
6. Stamp your brush anywhere on the paper, in any color.

Cool. Now you should see your patterned paper with a stamp on it. Something like this:

But we're on to the coolness now. The first thing we'll want to do is create an outline for our patterned paper accent, so the edges don't bleed into the background when we cut it out of the patterned paper.

Create the Brush Outline

1. Open your layers palette (Window>Layer), and right-click on the thumbnail image of the stamp you just stamped.
2. From the flyout menu, choose Select Layer Transparency.

You'll get the marching ants selection around your brush.

3. Create a new layer (Ctrl-Shift-N).
4. Go to Edit>Stroke.
5. In the dialog box that appears, choose 10 pixels, and a nice dark color to complement your paper. Also choose Outside for the location.
6. Hit OK.

Now you have an outline around your brush image.

Create the accent

Now for the final set of steps to acually make the accent.

1. Back up in your layers palette, drag the brush image (not the outline) just below the patterned paper layer.
2. Select the patterned paper layer.
3. Hit Ctrl-G (in CS2, the new command is Ctrl-Alt-G) to create a clipping mask.

Your patterned paper should disappear except for what's inside the outline.
You can even move the paper around inside the mask, until you flatten your accent to make it draggable onto another document.

It should look something like this:

Now you're free to print your accent on photo paper or cardstock and cut it out, or use it on a digital page.

The challenge:

-Okay, now go make a layout. Paper or digi, it doesn't matter to me. And use the techniques outlined above to make a cool patterned paper accent. Don't forget to link up in the comments when you're done! :)

Oh, and please feel free to send me an email if you have questions or coments. My email address is in my Blogger profile.

PS Friday {Issue #1}

Originally posted: April 14, 2006

I've decided to start a little something I'll call Photoshop Friday. I chose Friday because it's my favorite day of the week. So full of hope for the weekend, things winding down from a usually hectic week, that kind of thing. I'm just usually in a great mood on Fridays, and I hope you are too.

Well, what I would like to do is share a little bit with you. Not just a layout, and not just a tutorial, but sharing ideas and inspiration for Photoshop as it specifically relates to digital scrapbooking.

I put together a layout, and some little instructions, which you can use to do the Inaugural Photoshop Friday challenge: creating your own digital brush.

*This is geared specifically toward Photoshop. If you use another program for your digi scrapping, you can still download this image and use it!

First, you need an image. Try this one (you can right-click this image to download it):

This is a royalty-free image from a Dover Books publication called "1500 Decorative Ornaments". If you like what you do with this, and dig digi brushes, I recommend this book. :) Plus it comes with a CD, which makes creating brushes just about as painless as it can get.

Okay, so you have your image ready to go?

Now let's set about making your brush:

1. Open your file in Photoshop.
2. Select Edit, Define Brush Preset.
3. Type in a name for your new brush.
4. Hit OK.

If you open your brush palette, you will see your new brush down at the bottom of the list.

Now using your new brush:

1. Open a blank canvas. (I usually start out with 12 x 12 inches, 300 dpi)
3. Hit B to choose the brush tool.
2. Open your Brushes palette (Window > Brushes). (If you don't have a tool active that can use the brushes, they will be greyed out)
2. Hit Shift-Ctrl-N to create a new layer. (It's generally good practice to create a new layer any time you're going to stamp with a new stamp. This keeps things individually editable.)
3. Select the brush you just made (it'll be at the bottom of the list).
4. Pick a cool color for your brush.
5. Click anywhere in the document once. Brushes are like stamps.

Next Photoshop Friday we'll talk about using Photoshop brushes in other ways. Stay tuned.

Here is a layout I created using my custom-made brush:

I used the brush as a single stamp for an accent, as well as creating a new layer just over the background paper, stamping randomly, and playing with the layer blending modes until I got just the tone-on-tone I was looking for.

All of the papers and the journaling tag are from the Jungle Cruise Digi Kit by Kellie Mize. Love this kit!

Okay, now the fun part.
Go make a layout. :)
And if you do a layout with this brush, PLEASE link it up in the comments so I can go check it out!

That's it for now. Can't wait to see! :)

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: Name: Jessica Sprague; Location: Cary, North Carolina, United States

I'm a scrapbook artist, 2006 Memory Makers (magazine) Master, 2006 Creating Keepsakes Hall of Famer, and stay-home mama to two beautiful kids.

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