{"id":61642,"date":"2026-09-22T13:01:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T20:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/?p=61642"},"modified":"2026-09-22T13:01:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T20:01:19","slug":"tutorial-tuesday-photoshop-elements-265","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/2026\/09\/tutorial-tuesday-photoshop-elements-265\/","title":{"rendered":"Tutorial Tuesday (Photoshop Elements)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Greatest Hits: Paper Tears Updated<\/strong><\/p>\n

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You might wonder why I’m doing another rerun here. If you worked through the shadowbox effect tutorial from earlier this month, you might recall that Jill<\/strong>‘s request had two examples of shadowbox techniques. I showed you how I duped the first one, and mentioned that when I showed the second one, I’d be focusing on paper tearing. Since I wrote the original posts I’m going recap today, I’ve learned a few things… and those tears can look even more realistic. Yes, you read that correctly: I’m doing a double-header today! The first technique tut is 9 years old already…<\/p>\n

THIS LOOKS REALLY LONG!! DONT PANIC. IT’S NOT THAT BAD!!!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Obviously, the easiest way to add a paper tear to a layout would be to use an already-roughed-up paper from any of the GingerScraps Designers<\/strong><\/span>, or to use a Photoshop Elements Action<\/strong> that automates the process. But if you don’t like those options you definitely can create your own tears.<\/p>\n

If you were to tear a piece of high-quality cardstock, which generally has colour applied to one or both sides with a white core, you\u2019d get a bit of an irregular edge, with varying amounts of white backing paper showing along it. So to demonstrate this, I\u2019ve used an embossed cardstock from\u00a0Ooh La La Scraps<\/strong><\/a>\u2018 simply gorgeous bundle\u00a0You and Me<\/strong><\/a>. Fortunately for me, there is also a solid white, textured paper in the kit too, so I\u2019m going to use it for the core. (For the first few steps, I turned the visibility of the white paper layer off.) And to make it easier to see what I was doing, I put a piece of gray patterned paper behind it all.<\/p>\n

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I wanted to have tears along both vertical edges of the paper and I wanted some of the background to be visible. I also wanted to\u00a0W<\/strong>ork\u00a0S<\/strong>mart\u00a0N<\/strong>ot\u00a0H<\/strong>ard. So I selected the layer with my pink cardstock on it and using the\u00a0Rectangular Marquee<\/strong>\u00a0tool, I selected a portion of paper then\u00a0Edit>Cut<\/strong>\u00a0[WSNH<\/strong>:\u00a0CTRL\/CMD>X<\/strong>]I trimmed away some paper from each side. You\u2019ll see why this is a\u00a0WSNH<\/strong>\u00a0tip as we go along.<\/p>\n

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I then selected the\u00a0Eraser<\/strong> Tool<\/strong> and a relatively small brush size. [Update<\/strong><\/span>: Instead of using just a round Basic Brush<\/strong> for this step, check out the Artistic Brush<\/strong> set that’s included in your software. There’s a Rough Bristle<\/strong> option in there and when you set the Size<\/strong> to about 100 pixels<\/strong>, it adds some amazing texture to your tears.] Working along the right side of my canvas, I erased away some of the pink cardstock in an irregular, jagged manner. Don\u2019t try to be too careful because you want it to look\u2026 well, TORN<\/strong>. If it might make it easier for you to visualize, take a real piece of paper, any kind, and tear it. For real. Then look at the edge. It\u2019s not gonna be perfect!<\/p>\n

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Because I wanted both sides to be torn, I repeated the process on the left side of the canvas too.\u00a0You may have noticed that I broke my own rule of only erasing on a\u00a0Layer Mask<\/strong>. If you\u2019re wondering why, it\u2019s because it really doesn\u2019t matter if I erase too much of these papers. It doesn\u2019t have to be perfect. It\u2019s better if it ISN\u2019T perfect.<\/p>\n

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Once I was happy with the edges of my tears, I turned the visibility of my white paper layer back on and trimmed away some of it along both edges in the same way I did with the pink. It made me so happy to see that the texture of the white paper was the same as the pink \u2013 that core layer should have some texture to it too. [Update<\/strong><\/span>: if you’re using a flat paper or a Fill Layer<\/strong> for your white core, you can get some texture by using a Filter>Noise>Add Noise<\/strong> set to 5%<\/strong>, Gaussian Distribution<\/strong> and the Monochromatic<\/strong> box ticked. If it’s too in-your-face, you can tone it down by adding a Blur>Gaussian Blur>1 pixel<\/strong>.]<\/p>\n

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The next step was to erase the edges of the white paper just like I did with the pink cardstock. Zoom in close to your work so you can see exactly what you\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n

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This time I erased close in to the pink paper in some places and veered away a bit in others.<\/p>\n

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When you zoom back out, there may be some bits of white paper still there. These have to be erased too.<\/p>\n

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After I had my white edges the way I wanted them, I selected the pink cardstock layer again and went back with the Eraser Tool<\/strong> and created some little slivers of torn paper as shown below. This would happen with real cardstock, so I always include a few little shreds.<\/p>\n

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Here\u2019s a full screen view of the two torn edges.<\/p>\n

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The last step to ensuring realism is to add a very infinitesimal<\/em> shadow to the cardstock layer. I like to have shadows visible on both edges, so to accomplish that I Duplicated<\/strong> [WSNH<\/strong>:\u00a0CTRL\/CMD>J<\/strong>] the pink cardstock layer before I applied a drop shadow. I used a simple shadow, with the following settings: Size 0<\/strong>,\u00a0Distance 2<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Opacity 75<\/strong>. (These aren\u2019t hard-and-fast, use whatever settings look the most realistic to you. Just remember them for later.)<\/p>\n

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When I had my shadow just so, I\u00a0Simplified<\/strong>\u00a0the layer. Doing that locks the shadow to the cardstock so it doesn\u2019t change later.<\/p>\n

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Then I did the same thing with the second pink cardstock layer, with one difference \u2013 the\u00a0angle<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0of the shadow.<\/p>\n

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After both layers had that little extra definition provided by the shadows, I merged the two pink cardstock layers with the white paper layer. [WSNH<\/strong>: Select all layers then\u00a0CTRL\/CMD>E<\/strong>]<\/p>\n

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And here\u2019s the finished layout.<\/p>\n

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Now, the second trick I’m going to add is to Copy<\/strong> a paper tear from a template! This one is so simple!<\/p>\n

There\u2019s 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<\/strong><\/span>, or a commercial-use paper tear template. They have their own limitations, and may not give you the look you\u2019re after. So try this.<\/p>\n

I started out with this template from (former GingerBread Lady<\/strong><\/span>) Tinci Designs\u2019<\/strong>\u00a0Second Chances V.2<\/strong>\u00a0collection. I resized all of the layers (except the background paper) to allow for adding a tear.<\/p>\n

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I was waiting to find a template like this one from\u00a0CarolW <\/strong>Designs\u2019<\/strong>\u00a0Spring Dawn<\/strong><\/a>. That tear is moveable!! But how can I move it onto\u00a0Krizstina\u2019s<\/strong>\u00a0template?<\/p>\n

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There are a couple of steps that need doing first. But to start, I found the tear layer in\u00a0Carol\u2019s<\/strong>\u00a0template,\u00a0right-clicked<\/strong>\u00a0on the layer and chose\u00a0Duplicate Layer<\/strong>\u00a0from the dropdown menu.<\/p>\n

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Now\u00a0Elements<\/strong>\u00a0needs to know where to put it. The new menu shows all the files currently open in the\u00a0Photo Box<\/strong>, and offers the option of creating a\u00a0New Document<\/strong>. That\u2019s what I\u2019m going to do.<\/p>\n

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This step is completely optional. I chose to give my new document file a name,\u00a0Paper Tear Mask<\/strong>, for clarity.<\/p>\n

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And this is what happens.<\/p>\n

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But look at that\u00a0Bounding Box<\/strong>! I was thrilled to see there\u2019s more to the tear that can be used just by\u00a0Res<\/strong>izing<\/strong>\u00a0it.<\/p>\n

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Now to make it useful and not work too hard while I\u2019m at it. I added a new blank layer\u00a0underneath\u00a0the tear layer. Just hold down the\u00a0CTRL\/CMD<\/strong>\u00a0key and click the\u00a0sheet-of-paper icon<\/strong>\u00a0at the upper left of the\u00a0Layers Panel<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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Next, I used the\u00a0Paint Bucket Tool<\/strong>\u00a0to fill the whole of the blank layer I just created. Pick any colour you like (but not white) for this step.<\/p>\n

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To turn the coloured part into a\u00a0Layer Mask<\/strong>\u00a0so papers can be\u00a0Clipped<\/strong>\u00a0to it, I used a hard, round brush within the\u00a0Eraser Tool<\/strong>\u00a0to remove the coloured part above the tear. This can be done quickly because as long as I don\u2019t cross over the tear into the lower part of the coloured area, I can just scrub it away.<\/p>\n

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And that\u2019s it for creating the tear mask! To move it over onto\u00a0Krizstina\u2019s<\/strong>\u00a0template, I\u2019m going to\u00a0Activate<\/strong>\u00a0both layers by\u00a0click-shift-clicking<\/strong>\u00a0on each of them, then\u00a0right-click<\/strong>\u00a0to open the dropdown menu to\u00a0Duplicate Layers\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

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This time, I\u2019m going to send them onto the\u00a0Tinci<\/strong>\u00a0template.<\/p>\n

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\u2018MKay. there are the tear and the mask, placed on top of the background paper and underneath the rest of the layers.<\/p>\n

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I don\u2019t like the tear up there, just to be a non-conformist. So I\u2019ll move it.<\/p>\n

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And all that\u2019s left is to add the papers. I\u2019ve used\u00a0North Meets South Studios\u2019<\/strong>\u00a0March 2022 Daily Download<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0kit,\u00a0When Life Gives Lemons<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/span>. I want the woodgrain paper to be my background and the yellow gingham to be a tablecloth, sort of \u2013 maybe one of those vinyl ones with the fuzzy background and now it\u2019s torn . By Clipping<\/strong>\u00a0the woodgrain paper to the coloured part I added to the tear, that\u2019s what I get. Cool, right?<\/p>\n

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Now, if you\u2019d like to do this technique again sometime, you can\u00a0Save<\/strong>\u00a0your work\u00a0As<\/strong>\u00a0a\u00a0.psd<\/strong>\u00a0or\u00a0.tiff<\/strong>\u00a0file and reuse it again and again. By having all that coloured area, you can pretty much put the tear anywhere!<\/p>\n

So, how will this novella make next week’s tut easier to follow? The review will ground you in the basics, so when I throw in some curls on those torn edges, you’ll already have great tears to play with! Have I piqued your interest?<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Greatest Hits: Paper Tears Updated You might wonder why I’m doing another rerun here. If you worked through the shadowbox effect tutorial from earlier this month, you might recall that Jill‘s request had two examples of shadowbox techniques. I showed you how I duped the first one, and mentioned that when I showed the second […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[229,102,284,92,58,62],"tags":[373],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-29 14:55:15","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\/61642"}],"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=61642"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61642\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61644,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61642\/revisions\/61644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}