{"id":43836,"date":"2022-02-22T16:48:10","date_gmt":"2022-02-23T00:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/?p=43836"},"modified":"2022-03-02T10:32:31","modified_gmt":"2022-03-02T18:32:31","slug":"tutorial-twos-day-photoshop-elements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/2022\/02\/tutorial-twos-day-photoshop-elements\/","title":{"rendered":"Tutorial Twos-Day (Photoshop Elements)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two Mini-Tuts! Parallelograms and Hanging Chads<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Reader beware: This tutorial will be strong on bad puns and corny jokes… ICYMI in the header.<\/p>\n

After last week’s tutorial covering the February Inspiration Challenge<\/strong><\/a><\/span> and shapes, Karen<\/strong> left a comment asking where she could get the template mdusell<\/strong> used for her Bodega Sunsets<\/strong> layout because she really liked the parallelogram. I took a look at the credits for the layout where the template was listed, then went through (all 38 pages) the designer’s store to see if I could find it. [She used a Connie Prince<\/strong><\/a><\/span> template, if you’re curious.] Alas, the template set has been retired. So the next best thing I could think of is to show her, and all of you too, how to create a parallelogram photo spot complete with white border, like the one from Connie<\/strong>‘s template, that can be saved and used ad infinitum. Then to finish off this week’s post, I’m responding to granny5pics<\/strong> [Kathi<\/strong>] who sent me this message: “I thought I saw some place how to trim\/crop a layout so any overhanging picture areas get cropped off and the layout fits in the given size. I thought I had done so successfully myself recently, but I can’t get my current layout to cooperate!” Let’s get started.<\/p>\n

Karen<\/strong>‘s parallelogram starts life as a rectangle that is led astray. I’ve activated the Rectangle Custom Shape Tool<\/strong> as you can see below. I’ll start with a square. Then we’ll see how it looks and make any adjustments it may demand. You can see that there are two rectangular options in this toolkit; don’t pick the rounded one!<\/p>\n

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Here’s my one-step square. I just clicked at the centre of my workspace and it appeared. Remember, all Custom Shapes<\/strong> start out as Smart Objects<\/strong> and can’t be manipulated as is.<\/p>\n

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Newer versions of Photoshop Elements<\/strong> have a Simplify<\/strong> button right there in the Tool Options<\/strong>. If you don’t see one, you’ll need to Right-Click<\/strong> on the layer in the Layers Panel<\/strong> and choose Simplify<\/strong> from the pop-up menu.<\/p>\n

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Here’s a Work Smart Not Hard<\/strong> tip. Use your tools! I’m going to turn on the Grid<\/strong> to help me with my shape-shifting. If you don’t regularly use the Grid<\/strong>, I hope I can change your mind about it. But it’s only useful if it’s set up to be<\/strong><\/em><\/span> useful. Although I live in Canada and the metric system has been our method of measurement since 1979, I still think in inches so my Preferences<\/strong> for the Grid<\/strong> are set so I have a Gridline<\/strong> (heavier) every inch<\/strong> and 4<\/strong> Division<\/strong> (lighter) lines per inch… i\/e I have reference lines every 1\/4 inch<\/strong>. Now, to turn the Grid<\/strong> on, View>Grid<\/strong>, or CTRL\/CMD>’<\/strong> will get you there.<\/p>\n

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Once I had that Grid<\/strong> for reference, I moved the square over to the right an inch to give me lots of room to manoeuver.<\/p>\n

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Going from square (which is a parallelogram already, but…) to a more diamond-shaped parallelogram requires the use of the Image>Transform>Skew<\/strong> command.<\/p>\n

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Grab one of the upper corner handles and pull it out to the side. I went left. You do you! Then grab the other upper handle and move it the same amount.<\/p>\n

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My finished shape didn’t look enough like the one from the template, so I pushed the top edge down a couple inches and like it much better.<\/p>\n

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The grid isn’t necessary any more so it can go away.<\/p>\n

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On mdusell<\/strong>‘s layout the parallelogram shape had a white border. The easiest way to do that and have a save-able, reusable clipping mask is to use a Layer Style<\/strong>. There are some basic Strokes<\/strong> in the Layer Style palette<\/strong>, and although there isn’t a white option, that’s a simple fix. Why not just add a Stroke<\/strong> through the Edit<\/strong> menu, you wonder. Well, it’ll be part of the shape, not sitting on top of the shape; it won’t be visible when something is clipped to the shape, and that defeats the purpose.<\/p>\n

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So I’ve added a Stroke Style<\/strong>. It’s 20 pixels<\/strong> according to the menu, but shows as 26 pixels<\/strong> later. Regardless, it’s all completely adjustable! And that’s a good thing, because I don’t like the rounded corners much.<\/p>\n

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By double-clicking on the fx<\/strong><\/em> icon on the layer, I can fix all the things I don’t like about the stroke. I can make the stroke wider or narrower, I can change the colour and I can move the Position<\/strong> from Outside<\/strong> to Inside<\/strong> and get those sharp corners.<\/p>\n

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Here’s the easiest way to turn black to white. Just click<\/strong> on the colour swatch<\/strong> then type ffffff<\/strong><\/span> into the # box<\/strong>! If you think you’ll want to reuse this photo clipping mask again Save As<\/strong> a PNG<\/strong> and call it something you’ll remember.<\/p>\n

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Meet my new neighbour.<\/p>\n

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Now, for Kathi<\/strong>‘s question… I figured the easiest way to help her with her problem is to show her.<\/p>\n

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I have a lot of paper outside the boundaries of my signature canvas.<\/p>\n

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Enter the Crop tool<\/strong>. You can use this to remove the overhang at any point while you’re creating. Here, I’ve waited until the whole thing is done and Cropped<\/strong> all the overhanging stuff away at one time. I hope this is what Kathi<\/strong> needs for her issue…<\/p>\n

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I’ve been helping my daughter with a top-secret project that I hope we can share with the world soon. It’s eaten up quite a bit of time over the last week, so I’m behind………………… and next Tuesday it’ll be March. Gah.<\/p>\n

PDF Version : https:\/\/bit.ly\/3vvZXm3<\/a><\/p>\n

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Two Mini-Tuts! Parallelograms and Hanging Chads Reader beware: This tutorial will be strong on bad puns and corny jokes… ICYMI in the header. After last week’s tutorial covering the February Inspiration Challenge and shapes, Karen left a comment asking where she could get the template mdusell used for her Bodega Sunsets layout because she really […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[229,102,284,92,62],"tags":[373],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-28 04:55:06","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\/43836"}],"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=43836"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43989,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43836\/revisions\/43989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}