Happy Friday everyone! I hope you have all had a wonderful week.
Have you seen the Free With Purchase kit for April? Spend $10 in the store and get this great kit for free.
Now, let’s see what great new items the designers have for us this week.
Who is ready for the $1.00 Bake Sale!? Here are the $1.00 deals we have for you this month:
Have you started your challenges yet? Just complete 10 challenges and get this full kit as a reward.
Making Your Own Messy Edges
PDF Version: https://bit.ly/3uGCI7Z
I had a request from Lorri: “Would you consider a tutorial on making custom paper edges? I’ve thought about how I can do this after viewing the rather simple edges using masks against background papers. But as I look at some more recent edges and the increased complexities, it seems that masking alone is not the technique to use (at least alone).” She provided some examples from the fabulous Connie Prince so I’d know what she was talking about. My response? Of COURSE we can do that!! So here we go…
[Before we start, there are lots of screenshots for this, but they’re not all steps in the process. I want these tutorials to be achievable by everyone; visual and verbal instructions along with repetition help the majority of learners, and that’s why there’s always a review. I don’t assume anyone reading my tutorials is an expert at using Elements, so if you ARE an expert, I know you’ll be gracious. 😉 The other thing I want to mention is that any text you see bold and in colour will contain a hyperlink to the source of whatever I’m showing.]
Okay. Let’s roll! This technique uses Brushes. or digital stamps. I have a huge collection of brushes from various sources, but I know lots of people don’t so I’ll show you a dozen free sets I’ve curated for you. They’re all from Brusheezy.com and I’ve linked them all for you so if you see something you like, go grab it! First is this set of funky corner brushes.
Corners make the process simpler so here’s another group of swirly ones.
These corners are a bit more classic.
How do you feel about art deco?
Enough corners! Here are some brush strokes.
These grungy brushes might not be specifically suited for edges, but boy, they can add some amazing texture to a layout!
Same for these heavy grungy paints.
When I saw this set I was hooked! One-stop cursive and crackles? YEAH!
I wasn’t sure about these crosshatch scatter brushes, but once I used them, I’m in love.
Splatters are also high on my list of well-loved tools.
And these paint stroke brushes look very promising for messy edging.
If the whole thought of DIY edges is too overwhelming, try these pre-fab edges. You can add some solid colour layer masks or Clip some patterned papers to them to customize them to the kit you’re working with.
Start off with a blank canvas in your favourite layout size. I like 12×12, so that’s what I’ll show. Open some of the elements you’re planning to use for your layout to give you colour-matching capacity.
Review time: To pull a colour from a photo or element, grab your Eye Dropper Tool and zoom in on your colour source. Decide what colour you want for the brush layer and click on the image. See the crosshairs?
Review time #2: Loading Brushes is easy, but if you’ve never done it, it might be a bit intimidating. You’ll need to know where your brushes are kept on your system though. Click on the Brush Tool, then in the Brush Picker, click on the icon that looks like a stack of lines at the upper right corner of the menu. Then click on Load Brushes…
I’m going to go off on a tangent here for a second and tell you what I do with my .abr files. After I’ve extracted the zip file, I rename the .abr file to make it easier to recognize later. A lot of times, Brusheezy files don’t need this step. I’ll use something like Grungy Paint, and if there’s a specific number of brushes in a set, I’ll put that number in the name. Then I Copy the .abr file to the folder Elements uses to hold all the loaded brushes. On a Windows system that’s This PC>OS (C:)>Program Files>Adobe>Photoshop Elements (version)>Presets>Brushes. (It’s not as complicated as it sounds.) Then the brushes are ready to Load. BUT…!!! You don’t have to do any of that. If you’ve got a brush (set) in a designer folder, you can Load right from there. Find the brush set you want to Load and click it.
I like to start my messy edges with a corner brush. That takes a lot of guesswork out of positioning. But each of us will have our own ideas about what we like and how we like it, so I’m only offering guidance here. If you’re not a corner-lover, feel free to skip ahead. This whole process is one of experimenting. Try something. If you don’t like it, Undo [CTRL/CMD>Z] it and try something else.
A word about brushes: Many of them are created with a maximum size of 2500 pixels. If you’re a 12×12 girl like me, they’ll need to be resized after use, so keep that in mind. In the case of corner brushes and 12×12 [3600 pixels x 3600 pixels] canvases, going full-size isn’t going to work. Reminder: putting your brushes on their own layers gives you power!
The next couple of steps are for those who want to have corner brushes in all four corners. Rather than try to wing it and hope for the best, using the brush and adjusting Angle and whatever, just Duplicate the brush layer you’ve already made. Right-click on the layer then choose Duplicate Layer>OK. Or use the keyboard shortcut CTRL/CMD>J.
To create a mirror image of the corner, grab the middle handle on the side of the Bounding Box closest to the edge of the paper and drag it horizontally across itself. That’ll flip it. Use the Tool Options to get the size exactly right by typing -100% in the W: box as shown. Or simply go to the Tool Options and type in the -100% in the W: box and not bother with the dragging.
After you’ve nudged the second corner into its spot, click>SHIFT>click on the two layers. Right-click and choose Merge Layers or CTRL/CMD>E.
Now Duplicate the corners layer again by repeating the steps above.
Only this time grab the middle handle of the top of the Bounding Box and pull vertically. Key in the -100% in the H: box and nudge the second pair of corners into place.
Merge the two layers together for a single layer with all four corners in there. CTRL/CMD>E
This is the brush set I used to create the corners for my messy edges.
I know I’m a broken record. I won’t deny it! If you DON’T put your brushes on their own layer, you can’t make any adjustments to size or orientation without affecting whatever else is on that layer too.
I chose a new colour a bit darker gold that for my corners, and another brush to add to my canvas… on its own layer. This time I’m not going to Duplicate because I want it to look more casual. The corners are my anchors. If you hover your brush over the canvas, you’ll see a preview of what you’ll end up with once you commit. If it doesn’t look the way you want it, you can click on the Brush Settings bar and make adjustments, like the Angle as shown.
I’m more or less happy with this, although I think some of the stars extend out too far into the layout. I’ll just Erase some. All four of these star brushes are on one layer, with the corners layer not currently Visible.
For reference purposes.
Now I want to use a paint smear brush. At default settings it’s pretty wide, and that might be too much for my border. So I clicked the Brush Settings bar and this time I adjusted the Roundness of the brush. (Yes, I realize the brush isn’t “round”; I’m making it skinnier.)
Here are four examples of the same brush but with different amounts of “roundness”.
Remember when I mentioned the maximum size of the brush? Well, this paint smear has a max size of 2500 pixels. I’ve used four different brushes from the same set, with their widths adjusted, all on a single layer. Now I can resize the whole layer to fill the canvas edge to edge.
Here’s how the three brush layers look all together. I’m not sure it’s finished, but it’s coming along.
Hmm. Better. But still not there.
I LOVE-LOVE-LOVE this set of brushes! And I think this is just what the doctor ordered.
The messy edge is done! I could use it exactly as-is and it would be great. For those who like a little more oomph, let’s see how adding some Layer Styles looks. I added a green fine Glitter Style to the crosshatch layer. The colour is a little different, but I like it.
To give the dusty rose paint smears a bit of weight and texture I added a Bevel Style. The Simple Sharp Outside Pillow Emboss Bevel makes it look like dried latex paint. But too clumpy.
The Bevel default Size is 21 pixels. By double-clicking on the fx on the layer, I can adjust that. I want just a suggestion of texture here, so I pulled the slider over to 2 pixels and left the Direction Up.
The star scatter got the Chrome Style treatment. It adds some Bevel, some sheen and some colour. The gold is really close to the colour I chose from the flower, so I’m happy.
Here’s a tight shot of the layers with their Styles.
My finished messy edge looks like this. Easy-peasy and so much fun!
Will you try this one? Don’t forget to share your finished work in the Tutorial Tuesday Gallery!!
PDF Version: https://bit.ly/3uGCI7Z
Happy Friday everyone! I hope you have all had a wonderful week.
Have you seen the Free With Purchase kit for April? Spend $10 in the store and get this great kit for free.
Now, let’s see what great new items the designers have for us this week.
Have you started your challenges yet? Just complete 10 challenges and get this full kit as a reward.
Importing a Tear
PDF Version : https://bit.ly/38jCIlt
I’ve been eagerly waiting for an opportunity to share this little trick with you but certain aspects had to fall into place. And now they have. This technique is so easy and rewarding that I think you’ll use it right away…
Have you ever wanted to add a paper tear to your layout but felt overwhelmed by all the steps to get there? Then this one is for you. There’s a way to import a paper tear from a template into a layout-in-progress that only takes a few easy steps and very little time. However, you must have a template with a paper tear on its own layer, or a commercial-use paper tear template. They have their own limitations, and may not give you the look you’re after. So try this.
I started out with this template from Tinci Designs’ Second Chances V.2 collection. I resized all of the layers (except the background paper) to allow for adding a tear.
I was waiting to find a template like this one from CarolW Designs’ Spring Dawn. That tear is moveable!! But how can I move it onto Krizstina’s template?
There are a couple of steps that need doing first. But to start, I found the tear layer in Carol’s template, right-clicked on the layer and chose Duplicate Layer from the dropdown menu.
Now Elements needs to know where to put it. The new menu shows all the files currently open in the Photo Box, and offers the option of creating a New Document. That’s what I’m going to do.
This step is completely optional. I chose to give my new document file a name, Paper Tear Mask, for clarity.
And this is what happens.
But look at that Bounding Box! I was thrilled to see there’s more to the tear that can be used just by Resizing it.
Now to make it useful and not work too hard while I’m at it. I added a new blank layer underneath the tear layer. Just hold down the CTRL/CMD key and click the sheet-of-paper icon at the upper left of the Layers Panel.
Next, I used the Paint Bucket Tool to fill the whole of the blank layer I just created. Pick any colour you like (but not white) for this step.
To turn the coloured part into a Layer Mask so papers can be Clipped to it, I used a hard, round brush within the Eraser Tool to remove the coloured part above the tear. This can be done quickly because as long as I don’t cross over the tear into the lower part of the coloured area, I can just scrub it away.
And that’s it for creating the tear mask! To move it over onto Krizstina’s template, I’m going to Activate both layers by click-shift-clicking on each of them, then right-click to open the dropdown menu to Duplicate Layers…
This time, I’m going to send them onto the Tinci template.
‘MKay. there are the tear and the mask, placed on top of the background paper and underneath the rest of the layers.
I don’t like the tear up there, just to be a non-conformist. So I’ll move it.
And all that’s left is to add the papers. I’ve used North Meets South Studios’ March Daily Download kit, When Life Gives Lemons. (It’s not available in the store yet, but if you weren’t able to collect all of the files last month, don’t worry. It’ll be in the store soon.) I want the woodgrain paper to be my background and the yellow gingham to be a tablecloth, sort of – maybe one of those vinyl ones with the fuzzy background and now it’s torn 😉 . By Clipping the woodgrain paper to the coloured part I added to the tear, that’s what I get. Cool, right?
Now, if you’d like to do this technique again sometime, you can Save your work As a .psd or .tiff file and reuse it again and again. By having all that coloured area, you can pretty much put the tear anywhere!
This is my finished layout, photos courtesy of Pixabay.
Last week I forgot to mention that Ginger-the-Magnificent has created a special Gallery where layouts you’ve created with these tutorials can be shared. You asked, she answered!! I’ll be swinging by every so often to check it out and leave some love.
PDF Version : https://bit.ly/38jCIlt
It’s Miss Fish!
Oops! I meant to share my conversation with Juli, aka Miss Fish, with you over the weekend but I fell down a genealogical rabbit hole and spent the weekend reading barely legible military service records looking for proof of a hitherto-unknown marriage in 1915. ( I was successful!) Of course, that opened up a bunch more avenues for research. It’s like a snowball rolling downhill. But I digress again. Let’s get to know Juli. (Since we have the same initials, for clarity I’ll be “O” today.”)
O: Thanks for chatting with me, Juli. Let’s get the mundane stuff out of the way first. Can you describe your work space?
J: I have several workstations. I have a laptop that I move around. I have a desk area in the bookcase of our family room where I spend most of my time designing while my husband watches TV. That way we can talk. I also have a hook-up in my home office and when I have to travel for my full-time job I work from the hotel at night with an extra portable monitor to make it easier.
O: Holy cow! How many hats do you wear?? Don’t answer that. It’ll make me feel really lazy. What motivates you when you’re designing?
J: I am inspired by designs that I would use myself to document our travels. I’m also inspired by ideas I get from my Creative Team and my customers.
O: Admirable! I love to scrap my travel photos… I’m sure the Sugar Cookies are very sick of Ireland by now. What one word would people who know you well use to describe you?
J: Kind. I am a people pleaser and I always try to make everyone feel well taken care of and loved.
O: Hmm. I bet your Enneagram is 9. And what a segué into asking you what you’d do if you won the lottery.
J: Is it bad that I already have this planned out? I would quit my full-time job and travel full time between houses all across the globe. I would spend my days exploring and taking photos and my night making travel albums. That would be heaven!!
O: Is it bad? NO! Especially when you’d do something so life-changing with the money. In a perfect world, I’d do something similar. Okay, time for the really stupid question of the convo… Are you more likely to sing, or to dance in the shower? (I have a HUGE shower in my bathroom, big enough to have a party in, so this question comes from that.)
J: Sing and badly. I’d probably slip and kill myself if I tried to dance in the shower.
O: I understand! But nobody can hear me dancing. The neighbours would complain if I sang. Now, if time travel was a thing, would you go back into the past, or ahead into the future?
J: I would want to go back to the early 1900’s just to experience life as it was so I had a better understanding of the history that created America and the cities I’ve visited.
O: I’d be happy if I could make more than one stop. I’d tell my younger self a few things that would change the future. But I’d love to go back to maybe 1930 and visit my Swedish great-grandmother, about whom I know only basic facts. She would be around the age I am now, and would have so many stories to tell. But let’s move on. What colours are your most, and least, favourites?
J: My most favorite color is blue. I always want to buy blue shirts when I’m shopping for casual wear. My least favorite color is orange. I only like certain shades more in the coral range.
O: I’m with you on the orange! I don’t love it at all. Yellow is a close second. You can bet if there are flowers of either colour in my garden, somebody else planted them. Are you a sports fan?
J: I love to watch American football and I often listen to games while I’m designing.
O: I’m glad you clarified without me asking if you meant FOOTBALL or FUTBALL. I don’t enjoy soccer at all. What did you want to be when you grew up?
J: When I was small I wanted to be a teacher. Probably so I could tell everyone what to do. I liked being the boss (still do!)
O: I can relate. One of the things I really loved about nursing was the opportunity to explain what was happening with my patients to their parents. It’s the only way they can make good choices for their kids. The boss part was what drew me to critical care, where nurses have a lot of autonomy. And there I go again, back to you. Aside from necessities, what’s one thing you couldn’t live without?
J: My cell phone! I use it non-stop to communicate with my kids, work, my husband plus it’s the best way to check in with my fans and my Creative Team while I’m at work.
O: Uh. Necessity!! I know you’re busy with all the jobs you have so I won’t keep you any longer. Thanks for the visit!
Ladies, Juli has put her entire store on sale at 30% off, from April 3rd to the 30th! If there’s a template set (or 6) in her store that you’ve been eyeing up, now’s the time. In addition to this sale, she’s also providing the Daily Download this month and hosting the Designer Spotlight Challenge. You don’t want to miss a minute!
See you all again soon! (Tomorrow. I have a nifty trick for y’all!!)
Hold onto your spring hats my fellow scrappers, it’s a big day at GingerScraps. When the first of the month falls on a Friday, it’s always a big deal. But when it’s on April 1st, it’s even better.
REMEMBER THIS SALE WILL END ON APRIL 2 AT 11:59PM EASTERN TIME!
Make sure your checkout is complete prior to the close of the sale, as soon as the clock strikes midnight the sale prices will disappear.
Now, let’s look at the April Buffet. Don’t forget to check out the Buffet Bundles. One easy click to add bundles of Buffet goodies to your cart.
These colors are so pretty as you can see from the themes in the kits below. The designers did a great job with these.
Remember any $10 spent in the store gets you this great collab. I love to read so I’m going to have to make sure I get this one.
What a perfect kit for those Easter pictures. It’s a {farmhouse easter} for the Monthly Mix.
Now to the April Sneak Peek. This month’s Daily Download is from Miss Fish Templates (but it’s more than templates).
Take a look at the new challenge reward kit. If you complete any 10 challenges this month, you get this gorgeous collab as a reward!
Did you make it through all of that! Have a great April 1st!!
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!
PDF Version: https://bit.ly/3qOm97N
It’s almost the end of the month and the GingerScraps Scrap-A-Thon is almost over, but it’s not too late to join! There are so many amazing prizes and rewards, you won’t want to miss it!
Forum link to Scrap-A-Thon : https://forums.gingerscraps.net/forumdisplay.php?2205-Scrap-A-Thon-2022
Please make sure you give yourself plenty of time to upload all your wonderful challenge layouts. See the forum post about gallery upload limits.
Don’t forget. Spend $10 in the store and get this great kit for free!
There are some really great new kits in the store this week.
Are you getting your challenges uploaded. Check out the link above for Gallery upload limits. You get this great kit as a reward for ten completed challenges.
Creating Art with a Photo
I’ve been procrastinating over this tutorial for awhile… because A) I wasn’t sure I could articulate how I do this and B) other, quicker techniques kept presenting themselves. 😉 But I bit the bullet. Today’s the day! I want to show you how to turn a photo into a watercolor work of art, and it started when Karen asked how the scrapper got the paint effect on this layout, shown below. (Sorry, I’m not sure where the original is posted or who the scrapper is to give them credit… if it’s yours, you did a fantastic job!) Anyway, I want to make one thing clear before we start: this is a labour-intensive technique, and much will depend on your choice of photo how much work will be involved. But your skills will get a good workout!
I chose this photo from Pixabay as my canvas. It already has a bit of an arty look to it, but when I’m done with it, it’ll be very different. It was already a square so that helped, although you can do this technique on any photo.
First, I’m going to use a Guided Edit. This one was introduced with Elements 2019. If you’re working with an earlier version, you can follow this tutorial, or this tutorial for the sketchy part. I’ve also used the Guided Edit we’ll be working with for a previous tutorial back in July 2019, so if it looks familiar that’s why. The outcome today will be very different from that other though.
Choose Pencil Sketch from the options in this menu, the one in the upper left corner there. Then drag your cursor over the parts of your photo you want to be sketchy. The cursor can be sized to fit the area you’re including, and you’ll have the ability to “unsketch” parts if you go too far.
I decided I wanted the WHOLE photo to be sketchy, so I made my cursor brush huge and rolled it over everything. But let’s say you only want part of your photo sketched. In my experience, it’s easier to ADD an area to my selection then SUBTRACT with a smaller brush where the details are. You’ll see what I mean a bit later. In this step, it’s also possible to decrease the Opacity of the effect so more of the original shows through. But not today!
Once I had my sketch the way I wanted it, I went to the lower right corner of the workspace and clicked Next. (Be careful you don’t click Cancel, because that’ll undo everything you’ve done and take you back to the starting gate.) Then I chose Continue Editing In Expert.
Now it’s possible to see what Elements was doing in the background while we were busy and oblivious. Now I have 3 layers: the original, a sketch layer with a black Layer Mask and a sketch layer with a white Layer Mask. It’s possible to do the following steps using these two masked layers, but it’s a bit more challenging than my approach, so we’re not going to do that. The layer that I want to work with is the one with the white Layer Mask, but I need to Simplify it. Right-click on that layer – over on the left of the layer near but not ON the link icon – then choose Simplify Layer.
Then I Deleted the layer with the black Layer Mask.
You can turn visibility for the colour layer off if you like, or leave it be.
Next, I made a Copy Layer of the sketch. You can right-click on the layer then choose Duplicate Layer>OK. Or use the keyboard shortcut CTRL/CMD>J.
I put the Copy Layer in my back pocket for later and made the first sketch layer my active layer and added a Layer Mask to it… I know what you’re thinking – but I’m really not making work for myself. I tried it with the previously masked layers and it didn’t do what I needed it to do.
For those not familiar with Layer Masks, they allow removal of part of a layer in a “non-destructive” way, meaning that if I erase part of the image that I didn’t really want gone, I can just paint it back in. See the colour picker? The Eraser Tool is active with a white foreground and a black background. When white is the foreground colour, whatever the Eraser rolls over with be revealed – in this case it’s the transparent background. When black is the foreground colour, it conceals – the transparent background in this case. Toggling back and forth between removing and replacing parts of the image plays a big role in getting this technique nailed. I started by Erasing her face and neck as well as the green in the upper left corner. As I mentioned, I find it easier and quicker to Erase (white) past fine details like wispy hairs, and then paint them back (black).
I also discovered that toggling the colour layer on and off makes it easier to see edges of things better.
Aaaaaand toggling the sketch layer on and off helped me see where and what needed more help.
Her fringe didn’t seem too important when I first got going, but to be really successful, I figured I needed to make it as sharply detailed as possible. I work on a laptop with a trackpad, and lemme tell ya… it’s a SKILL!! I found I got better results when I started at the tip of a strand of hair and dragged the cursor back toward the fringe than when I tried to go from fringe to tip. Try it both ways and see which works best for you. This is where most of the time expenditure happens. If you’ve chosen a less detailed image to work with, it’ll go a lot quicker.
So, I’m happy with how I’ve isolated her hair. What do you think the next step will be?
Did you guess right? If you’ve read a lot of my meandering tutorials, you probably did!
And you probably knew this step was coming too. Make a Copy Layer of the hair. ALWAYS have a copy of something you’ve done a lot of work on, just in case you need it!! Now I have a Copy of the whole sketch and a Copy of just her hair.
It’s really hard to see the marching ants in this screenshot, but they are there. I activated the whole sketch layer then CTRL/CMD>clicked on one of the hair layers to Select the edges of the hair on the whole sketch.
I want everything BUT the hair so I clicked Select>Inverse. (In reality, I used the keyboard shortcut CTRL/CMD>SHIFT>I…)
Then I clicked Edit>Cut (CTRL/CMD>X).
At this point I have four layers, one colour, one just her face and the green in the corner and two hair layers.
Now I took some time to experiment with my watercolor brush collection. The ones that worked best are the ones that are a square swatch, like the ones you can grab here for free. I resized the brush so it filled the whole photo so I could see where the colour was most opaque and how it looked overall. Because I was just looking at options. I didn’t create a new blank layer for the brush, although in retrospect I should have.
Did you know you can make lots of adjustments to your brushes? Click on Brush Settings and you’ll see this. I wasn’t happy that the brush I chose didn’t cover all of her hair, so I rotated the brush 90° to the right and fixed it.
The next two screenshots are still part of my experimentation, but the process you’ll follow after you’re settled on your brush and have it on its own layer is the same as I’m showing.
After the hair is Selected and Inverted, I’ll Cut it away to see what effect I have.
Alrighty! I’m ready to commit. I have a brush and a colour I like, it’s positioned well and I can go ahead with the brush on its own layer. I put the new, blank layer in between the hair layers by clicking on the sheet of paper icon at the upper left of the Layers Panel.
I really wanted the ability to manipulate her face separate from her hair, as you can see here. That’s why I went to all the work of Layer Masking her hair. I’ll change the Blend Mode on the FACE layer to Luminosity.
I’m almost happy now. But I’ll look at it for a bit to make sure.
So I played with some Blend Modes and decided all I needed to do was decrease the Opacity of the painted hair layer to 80%. It looks pretty good, even if I say so myself. The untouched hair layer adds some necessary detail back to the hair, and the effect can be enhanced with Blend Modes if desired.
Here’s what it looks like on a layout. I used a mask-and-frame combo in PSD form so that I could move the frame around. I’m really pleased.
Again, I apologize for the formatting mess I’ve made here. I haven’t figured out how to make spacing adjustments in WordPress when I’ve had to move an image around. Or when I’ve made a booboo after I’ve added the images. It’s a problem!
Sherri, I haven’t forgotten about your paper-punch-tear but haven’t figured it out yet. It’s a work in progress…
PDF Version : https://bit.ly/3wy8xkz
Happy Friday. Even though our wishlist contest is over, the GingerScraps Scrap-A-Thon is in full swing and it’s not too late to join! There are so many amazing prizes and rewards, you won’t want to miss it!
Forum link to Scrap-A-Thon : https://forums.gingerscraps.net/forumdisplay.php?2205-Scrap-A-Thon-2022
Don’t forget. Spend $10 in the store and get this great kit for free!
We’re starting to see a lot of Spring in our designer previews.
How are your challenges going? Are you trying to do them all this month as part of the Scarp-a-Thon? The kit below is your reward for completing ten challenges.