A Simple Photo Border with Label

Whew. The last few tutorials have been challenging, haven’t they? Today I think we need a nice, easy, basic technique that even the least experienced scrapper can succeed in doing. (Or, you could say I lacked inspiration this week, and you wouldn’t be wrong.)

The first step, as always, is to open a new. blank canvas on the workspace. As you can see, I’m predictably going 12 x 12, with lots of room to work. If you’d rather use a smaller canvas, it’s still going to work perfectly fine. I’ve chosen the Rounded Rectangle Custom Shape tool, with a 150 pixel Radius for the rounded corners. I’ve also set a Fixed Size of 6 inches wide, 4 inches high – standard landscape print dimensions. I’ve ticked the From Center and Snap boxes as well. Some tools have a lot of options that make for fewer steps, so why not make use of them?

With a single click in the middle of my canvas, I’ve created a 4 x 6 rounded rectangle shape. Custom Shapes are always Smart Objects when they’re first created. That means the only alteration they’ll permit is to resize.

If you want to do anything else to a Custom Shape, the Smart Object needs to be rendered dumb, or Simplified. If you’ve got a newer version of Elements, you’ll have a Simplify button right there in the Tool Options.

If you’re working with an older version you’ll have to do it the old-school way. Right-click on the layer in the Layers panel and choose Simplify Layer from the drop-down menu.

To create a border/frame that follows the contours of your rounded rectangle CTRL/CMD>click on the shape’s layer thumbnail in the Layers panel. That will Select the edge of the rectangle. Then click Select>Modify>Contract… to shift the marching ants inside the rectangle.

You might want to experiment a bit with this step. I tried a few possibilities for how far over I wanted the edge to move. I want a gap between the Selection and the edge of the rectangle deep enough to add some text in a large enough font that it’s easily read. I settled on 65 pixels.

The marching ants can be hard to see on these screenshots. Trust me when I say they round the corners cleanly.

Now to create the border. It needs to go on its own layer, so add a blank layer to the top of the stack in the Layers panel by clicking on the sheet-of-paper icon at the upper left corner of the panel. Then click Edit>Stroke (Outline) Selection…

Again, this step might take some trial-and-error. I opted to go with a 25 pixel Stroke applied on Center of the Selection.

Here’s a close-up of my 25 pixel Stroke inside my 65 pixel gap. To eliminate the marching ants that outline the Selection, click Select>Deselect, or CTRL/CMD>D.

Now to add the label. I chose a clean, sans-serif (no ‘extra’ extending features) font, but you can choose any font you like. I wanted simple but eye-catching so I went with Caneletter Sans for my label.

It was a bit insipid, so I highlighted the text and clicked the B for faux bold and made it a bit more meaty.

Then I moved the text to a spot on the border/frame. Where your label goes will depend on the photo you’re using. You’ll want it to go somewhere that won’t obscure any focal point, and where it won’t get lost in the photo itself.

I’m going to cut an opening in the border to sandwich the label, so I used the Rectangle Marquee tool to drag out a box around the text as shown. The active layer is the one with the border on it.

Edit>Cut or CTRL/CMD>X will take that chunk out of the border.

Because the label is on a separate layer, if it doesn’t look centered in the opening, it’s easy enough to nudge it so it does look right.

Once I was happy with the border and label, I activated both layers by click>SHIFT>clicking on them, then right-clicked and chose Merge Layers. Shortcut: CTRL/CMD>E.

Now to fine-tune. I dragged my photo onto the workspace, positioning it between the rounded rectangle shape and the border/label layers.

But first, I’m going to Clip the photo to the shape, by right-clicking and choosing Create Clipping Mask. Shortcut: for versions 15 and up, CTRL>ALT>G. For earlier versions, CTRL/CMD>G.

Elements indents the layer once it has been Clipped to the layer below it, as shown.

The black border/label gets lost a bit against the photo. So I’m going to change the color to something more visible. The cleanest way to do that is to add a Solid Color Fill Layer. Click Layer>New Fill Layer>Solid Color…

Make sure the box is ticked to Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask to save yourself some steps.

For the most flexibility I Merge the two layers together.

Elements will use the foreground color in the Color Picker, but you can always choose to pull a color from your photo. Activate the Eye Dropper tool and click it on any color you like. You can see the changes happening in real time, and that guarantees you’ll find the look you like best.

What color would you go with?

I can’t believe I managed to create 20 new layouts this month. I’m greedy… I want both the Challenge Reward kit AND the Shine Your Light mega-collab. (That might mean our next tutorial is about moving kits and layouts onto an external hard drive and changing some workflow but it’ll be worth it…) March is almost gone, it’s 61°F outside and the orchards are greening up. Makes me feel like I can do anything!

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Taking Those Shapes to the Next Level

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been doom-scrolling Twitter, with MSNBC on in the background, continually since the Russians invaded Ukraine. As if things weren’t already awful enough… Two of my mom’s sisters and one of her cousins married three Ukrainian-Canadian young men back in the 50s. My dad’s mom was Polish. This invasion feels personal to me and it’s hard to shift gears. But I’ve succeeded – I have a tutorial for you that builds on last week’s Custom Shapes clipping masks. This time I’m going to show you some ways of turning those shapes into 3-D frames – it’s simple and so much fun! Rather than reinvent the wheel and go into obsessive detail with every step, I’m going to assume you’ve got some Elements chops and sort of start in the middle.

Each of these Shape frames will start out the same way, with choosing the Custom Shape and dragging it out on the canvas. As usual, I’m working on a 12×12 canvas so I have lots of room. I started with a hexagon.

I’ll always remind you that Custom Shapes begin life as Smart Objects and don’t have a lot of flexibility. So before you can manipulate them, you’ll need to Simplify them… dumb them down, so to speak. If your version of Elements has the Simplify button in the Tool Options panel, just click it. If you DON’T have that button, you’ll need to right-click on the layer then choose Simplify Layer from the dropdown menu.

To create the frame’s opening, first we need a Copy layer. Either right-click on the layer and choose Duplicate Layer>OK or use the keyboard shortcut CTRL/CMD>J to quickly make that Copy. (I LOVE Copy layers and recommend you come to love them too. When you play with a Copy, you’ll still have the original if you make a booboo.) (Second editorial comment: CTRL refers to Windows-based systems, CMD to Macs.)

Obviously, a Copy is identical to the original and that’s not going to work to make a hole. So the Copy layer will need to be Resized. The easiest way to do that in this context is to click on one of the handles on the Bounding Box, which opens up the Move tool‘s Tool Options menu. Then, with the Constrain Proportions box ticked and the centre of the layer as the reference point, type a numeric value into one of the boxes as shown. I went with 85%, which will give a nicely solid frame.

In this screenshot you can see the outline of the smaller hexagon. Now it can be used to remove the middle of the frame.

Ensure your large hexagon layer is active and then click Edit>Cut, or use the keyboard shortcut CTRL/CMD>X. We’ll come back to the hexagon in a minute. What if you chose a more complicated shape, like this seal? You can use all the controls in the Tool Options, like using Defined Size, and if you tick the From Center box, Elements will put the shape right in the centre of the canvas. Here, I’ve shown the Simplify button (the one you may not have). Experiment with your software; the more you play with it, the better you’ll understand what it can do and what it can’t. (And these tutorials will make more sense…) You’ll find a system and a rhythm that works for you.

So. What if you didn’t tick the From Center box and now your two shapes aren’t positioned precisely like you want them to be? Elements has a fix for that! Activate both layers by clicking>Shift>clicking on them in the Layers Panel. You’ll see the Move tool Tool Options menu over on the left. Where it says Align, click on the Center button – Elements will move both layers so their centres are aligned. Then right away click the Middle button, and Elements moves both layers so the middles are aligned. Easy peasy!

CTRL/CMD>X and now I’ve got a nice starburst frame.

Okay, back to the hexagon! When I was thinking about this technique, my mind’s eye saw a shiny green frame with glittery gold edges. Making that a reality will take a couple of additional steps. I’ll need to create the border first, because once I alter the frame itself it’ll be harder. The border needs to be completely separate from the frame so I can jazz them up in different ways. That means it goes on its own layer. (Of course!!) So I added a new blank layer to the Layers Panel by clicking on the sheet-of-paper icon in the strip across the top of the Panel.

Quick-and-easy border making uses the Stroke Edit. CTRL/CMD>click on the Layer Thumbnail to “Select” the edges of the hexagon, inside and out. Make sure you’re on the blank layer, then Edit>Stroke (Outline) Selection.

I want the glittery border to be visible but not overpowering so I went with 35 pixels for my width. The colour can be anything – the glitter will hide it anyway. I chose the Outside setting; it’s not going to round the hexagon’s corners enough to worry about.

This is something I sometimes forget when I’m doing something on the fly. If there are marching ants – something has been Selected – none of the things I try to do that don’t involve the Selected area will actually happen. They need to go away. Select>Deselect or CTRL/CMD>D will do that.

I’m going to use some Styles now. Have you bought some Styles – .ASL files – but don’t know how to get them into Elements so you can use them? Some of the GingerBread Ladies collaborations include Styles (usually glitter, but not always; Craft Fair is a good example) so you could have some and not even know! I’m going to show you quickly how to access them.

I’ve renamed all my Styles files and Copied them into the Elements Program Files for easy retrieval but you don’t have to worry about that, you can grab them from anywhere. If you don’t know where they are, run a Search using .asl as your search term, then let your computer do the work.

I chose a green acrylic gel Style from Just So Scrappy‘s Lucky Me… seemed appropriate for March, however cheesy. The Style added colour, a bevel and highlights all in one move! If the one you choose doesn’t look like you want it to, CTRL/CMD>Z it and try again.

I like this darker gold glitter Style from the same collection. (I’ve gotta say, Katie [Just So Scrappy and Ooh La La Scraps] makes perfect Styles of all descriptions. Check them out! I’ve linked to her shop for you.)

I didn’t do a step-by-step for the star in this image, since it’s done exactly the same way as the others. Stars offer a masculine option so I’m going to give this frame a leather look. Snake skin, to be exact. I made some Copy layers so I’d have back-up and this time I’m going to use a Filter. From the Filters menu I chose Artistic>Textures. I’ll be using Mosaic Tile.

Here are the default settings for Mosaic Tile. I think the “scales” are a bit to insignificant for a manly frame though.

You can see what’s happening with your Filters as you make your adjustments, so it’s not too hard to find the right combo.

I think it needs a touch of colour and a bit of sheen too, so I’ll use a Chrome Style on a Copy layer – flexibility!

When I was a kid, I had one pair of leather shoes. My mom said they weren’t brown, they were “ox-blood”. This reminds me of them. So I’ll use this dark red one.

The Chrome Style will be opaque, so the mosaic tile texture won’t be visible unless I decrease the Opacity of the Chrome layer. 50% looks good.

I wanted to make a few more tweaks so I double-clicked on the fx icon on the Chrome layer and played with this menu.

Were you wondering what I had planned for the sunburst? I made some Copy layers and added a Wood Style to one of them. I’d like a gold edge on it, but not on the inside. So I Resized the bottom original layer by going to 105%. See the gray border there now? It’s just enough.

So far, I’ve only shown you Styles that are purchased. But Elements has some basic Styles included that most of us never even look at. I like this Molten Gold one, I think? It’s in the Complex folder along with a bunch of very intriguing others.

So this is what it looks like before I bend it to my will. It’s pretty in-your-face!

I toned it down a bit.

What do you think? I love it!!

I popped a photo into the hexagon frame. But first I added a bit of a shadow to the green section then Merged the glitter border with the acrylic gel centre so it’s all one piece.  (Looks like I forgot to turn the underline off! Oh well. Not a disaster. I apologize for the formatting issues; when I was editing the screenshots I forgot to crop some of them until after I’d already inserted them into the post. Fixing that made the gaps. Sorry!)

I’ve got some great ideas for tutorials in my pocket and will need the distraction this month. Слава Україні!
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