{"id":18155,"date":"2017-02-21T13:39:28","date_gmt":"2017-02-21T21:39:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/?p=18155"},"modified":"2017-02-21T13:39:28","modified_gmt":"2017-02-21T21:39:28","slug":"tutorial-tuesday-photoshop-elements-24","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/2017\/02\/tutorial-tuesday-photoshop-elements-24\/","title":{"rendered":"Tutorial Tuesday (Photoshop Elements)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Build-a-Brush Workshop<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Brushes are one of the most effective and interesting tools the digiscrapper has for livening up a layout. There are so many things we can do with brushes, which stand in for rubber stamps used by the traditional paper scrapper. There are brushes built into Photoshop Elements and there are lots of sources for both free and for-purchase brushes around the Web. But did you know that you can turn almost anything into a digital brush, to customize and personalize your layouts like no commercially-obtained brush can? I’m going to show you how to do that in a couple of easy steps, then give you some tips about using your brushes for truly unique design. For the basics, I’m going to use a star from Luv Ewe Designs<\/strong>‘ kit Yo Bro<\/strong>, part\u00a0of a sensational collab with JoyLynn<\/strong> of Blue Heart Scraps<\/strong><\/a>. Jennifer<\/strong> of Luv Ewe Designs<\/strong> has retired from designing (temporarily, we hope!) so her kits can’t be used for challenge layouts, but they’re still worth a look. I chose this star for a couple of reasons. It has well-defined details and some shading, which will make for a more interesting brush.<\/p>\n

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I checked my Brush tool<\/strong> menu to see which set was currently open at the time, so I would know where to look for my brushes later. I suggest you select a brush set with only a couple of brushes in it, because they’ll be duplicated in your resulting brush set and you’ll then have to delete them.<\/p>\n

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Then I clicked on the Edit tab<\/strong> and scrolled down to Define Brush…<\/strong>\u00a0and here comes the magic!<\/p>\n

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This popped up. Choose a name for your brush that defines it and that you’ll remember later.<\/p>\n

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BOOM<\/strong><\/em>! You’re done!! It really is that<\/strong> easy. Now let’s take it for a test drive. I always put my brushes on their own layer. This is a good idea for a number of reasons. First, you don’t end up changing whatever is on the layer below it. You can change the opacity, making it soft and subtle, or you can copy it and use a blend mode to give it more punch. You can resize it, you can move it around, you can play with it in so many ways that you can’t if it’s applied to a paper layer.<\/p>\n

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So I went ahead and created a new layer to apply my brushes to. (All you English teachers, cringe away at my ending a sentence with a preposition…)<\/p>\n

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I plopped a star down on my paper using a much lighter gray, because my goal is to create a custom paper with a brushed pattern over part of it. Looks pretty good, doesn’t it?<\/p>\n

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Next I changed some of the brush settings, changing the size, the angle and the opacity and kept on stamping.<\/p>\n

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Where my second stamp overlaps the first, the opacity increases, but the transparency isn’t changed.<\/p>\n

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I kept all my stars on the same layer, and added lots more in different sizes, different opacity and at different angles. If I want to make changes to how they look, all the brushed stars on the layer will change at the same time.<\/p>\n

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I decreased the opacity of the brush layer to make them look a little less obvious, and to make them look like they’re part of the paper.<\/p>\n

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When I put my newly created paper – I linked the layers together then moved the two layers at the same time onto the background layer – into the template I wanted to use, I found the brushed layer wasn’t quite how I wanted it, based on how and where my photo was going to be placed into the layout. So it was a good thing I had the brush layer still separate from the paper and after I UN<\/span>linked the brush and paper layers, I could flip it horizonally, as well as tweak the size a bit. I wanted this brush layer to replace the paint\/spatter layer from the template and now it does.<\/p>\n

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I also wanted to show you that you could use items in your photos to create brushes too. In 2014 I was in Ireland; I took this photo of a brass memorial medallion at the Titanic Museum in Belfast. Having the camera perfectly parallel and perpendicular to the medallion was vital to the success of this technique, only in the sense that it made it easier to extract from the photo. (Remember: Work Smart, Not Hard!) If you’re using a photo image, extract the item as I showed you in the Extractions – Choose Your Method<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0tutorial.<\/p>\n

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I was able to use the Elliptical Marquee tool<\/strong> to remove most of my background, and then a Layer Mask<\/strong> and the Eraser tool<\/strong> to clean it up.<\/p>\n

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Then I clicked Edit>Define Brush…<\/strong> and gave it a name that would help me connect to it later.<\/p>\n

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This is what the brush looks like against a gray paper. I want to tidy it up a bit, brightening the raised areas so they contrast better and maybe sharpen the detail a touch. When I’m thrilled with how it looks, I can then Define Brush…<\/strong> it again and delete the first one. When you close the software, you’ll get a pop-up that asks you what you want to label the brush(es) you just made<\/p>\n

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You’re not limited to using .png objects as the basis for your brushes. You can combine fonts and dingbats to make word art stamps, you can combine other brushes into something really original, you can use the Custom Shape tool<\/strong> to make tags, arrows, paw prints… the sky’s the limit. You can even make a digital brush of your signature… in case you have need of one.<\/p>\n

Once you’re done and have saved your brush(es) you’ll need to load them into your software. So click on the little stack of parallel lines in your Brush tool<\/strong> menu and then select Load Brushes<\/strong>. Your new set’s name will appear and you can double click on it. It’ll go to the bottom of the list. Delete any brushes that aren’t your personal ones. They’re still there in their original set. And you’re ready to use them over and over and over.<\/p>\n

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I just whipped this St Patrick’s Day greeting together using a font (SNF Abernethy) and some dingbats (DB Gaelic Weave). It means “one hundred thousand welcomes”.<\/p>\n

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Remember, if you\u2019ve used a technique from these tutorials, post your finished layout in the GingerScraps<\/strong> Facebook Tutorial Tuesday Challenge Gallery<\/a><\/strong> for an opportunity\u00a0to have YOUR chance to challenge me.\u00a0If you\u2019re not a Facebooker, you can post a link to the layout you\u2019ve created with the tutorial you used in the comments section here on the Blog. I\u2019ll get a notification and will then enter you into the draw. The first week of March I\u2019ll have a random draw of all entries and the winner will be announced at the end of the first tutorial of the month.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Build-a-Brush Workshop Brushes are one of the most effective and interesting tools the digiscrapper has for livening up a layout. There are so many things we can do with brushes, which stand in for rubber stamps used by the traditional paper scrapper. There are brushes built into Photoshop Elements and there are lots of sources […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[92,62],"tags":[373],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-24 10:49:07","action":"change-status","newStatus":"private","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18155"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18155"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18177,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18155\/revisions\/18177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}