Cutting Shapes from Digital Scrapbook Papers in Photoshop

In this tutorial I am going to demonstrate a quick and easy way to cut shapes from Digital Scrapbook Papers/Backgrounds in Photoshop. This method will work in all versions of Photoshop.

First I have opened the paper I am choosing to work with in Photoshop. This paper is from my Floral Fancy Value Collection.

First we need to create a new layer above the paper layer.

 I am going to cut a heart shape from my paper, and will use the custom shape tool to create the heart to cut my paper with. The custom shape tool can be found above the hand tool on the left hand tool bar.

 Once you have clicked this tool you will see the custom shapes menu appear in the above menu bar.

 
First you need to ensure the Fill Pixels button is selected.

 

Once the Fill Pixels button is selected you can go ahead and click on the Custom Shape Picker to choose your shape. Photoshop has several preinstalled shapes, but you can also create or add more.

I will use a Photoshop custom shape for the purpose of this tutorial. The shape I am using is called Heart Card.

 
Click on the Heart Card Shape to select that custom shape. Click on your new layer to ensure it is selected. Using your mouse, click and drag over the canvas to create your shape. Hold down the SHIFT key while doing so to maintain aspect ratio. (keep the shape in the correct proportions) Holding down the SHIFT key is a good tip to maintain aspect ratio when resizing any object in Photoshop.

 

You can now see on the layers palette that there is a layer with your custom shape and the layer underneath with the paper.

 

Next we need to hold down the CTRL key and click on the shape layer to select the outline of the shape. When you do this you will see ‘marching ants’ appear around the outline of the shape.

 
Now we need to select the paper layer so that we can cut the shape from it.

 
Once the paper layer is selected, you can use the Edit>Copy command or press CTRL and C to copy.
Now we need to open a new canvas to paste the shape onto.

Ensure the background contents are selected as transparent and click on OK.

Now use the Edit>Paste command or press CTRL and V to paste. You will now have your shaped paper in a new canvas, to save or drag to your layout.

 Once you have dragged the shape onto your layout add a drop shadow to complete the look!

© Robyn Gough 2011, All Rights Reserved
Not to be reproduced without written permission.

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Experimenting with Overlays

A lot of scrappers seem hesitant to buy effect overlays because they can’t see themselves using them or are unsure of what to do with them. In this tutorial I thought I would give some quick and simple sample ideas of just how much you can do with overlays. For the purpose of this tutorial I am going to be using my Water Color Arsenal Overlays available in the DSP store. Here is the pdf version of the tutorial.

Firstly the important thing to remember with overlays is that in order to get maximum use out of them you need to be experimenting with blend modes. In Photoshop, you will find the various blend modes available to you in the Layers Palette.

For our first example I am going to use a photo. I know I often forget the interesting effects you can produce by using overlays on photos.

Here is the original photo of tulips and the second version, with Water Color Arsenal Overlay number 1 from the set, laid over the top and using the Linear Light Blend Mode.

 

As you can see, using the Linear Light blend mode, lightens the colours of the photo underneath in conjunction with the lighter colours in the overlays, and darkens the darker colours in the overlay and colours underneath giving an interesting water colour wash effect. In the following sample, I have laid two different water colour overlays on a paper from my Sea Biscuit Page Kit available in the DSP store.

On this sample I used the Colour Burn blend mode on both Overlay layers. Colour burn tends to give a wet saturated look on lighter colours making the paper in this case almost look like wet fabric. Overlay Blend Mode will produce a softer effect to Linear Light. On the Paper below from my P365 Essentials Vol 2 Page Kit I have used the water colour overlay over the top of the paper using an Overlay Blend Mode.

The effect can be adjusted by reducing the opacity of the layer.

You can also experiment with blend modes to age your photos. The photo below is a monochrome image of my daughter taken a few years ago. Adding a water colour overlay with a Hard Light Blend Mode and 61% Opacity gives the photo an aged look. This effect works best on dark monochrome photos. You could get similar effects with different blend modes on lighter photos.

Here is the original photo and the photo with the Hard Light Blend Mode

You can enhance your special effects even further buy recolouring the overlays and using more than one overlay. There are so many possibilities available to you.

 

©Robyn Gough 2009 All Rights Reserved

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