Using Patterns in A Digital Scrapbooking Layout

I have promised myself that today I am going to get paint (real, not digital) on my fingers. I am planning to make more postcards and ATCs - maybe it is time to print out some of the digital papers I've made and use them in a hybrid project.

But for now, I would like to share with you a totally digital scrapbook layout that I did last evening while playing with Photoshop. I think I will load the picture first and then describe some of the elements that make up the whole.

 

I made the pattern in the background papers by typing the Swash version of the Bickham Script Pro letter N, making a duplicate and then flipping the duplicate vertically. I then merged the two letter layers, made a duplicate and then flipped it horizontally, and then merged those two layers. That was the starting point for my creation of a custom pattern ala the tutorial of yesterday.

I chose the colors by clicking on the focal picture. I made the custom ribbon by using the rectangular marquee tool and putting each of them on a separate layer. I then used the Edit < Stroke command to put the green on the edge of each. The stroke command actually stroked the ends too, so I made a mask and painted with black to clean it up.

The background on the quote was made with the rectangular marquee and then using the Liquify tool in the Filter menu to "rip" the edges. The overlapped hearts on the bottom corner of the picture were made with the custom shape tool without holding down the shift key. I wanted to skew them a little. I then made my background and foreground the green and pink from the background papers (originally taken from the photo) and used the gradient tool to fill the hearts.

I cut the heart out of the intersection of the ribbons by using the custom shape tool and holding down the shift key to keep the proportions. I then moved it into place, made a selection (Command-click on the thumbnail) and then activated both of the ribbon layers in the layers palette, and hit delete. At first it doesn't look like anything happened, but once you throw away the shape layer, you will see that you have actually cut out the heart. Before I deleted the heart, I Command-clicked on the thumbnail in the Layers palette and then made a new layer to put a stroke on it in the green color (Edit > Stroke).

I made the frame for the picture by Command-clicking on the photo, making a new layer and filling it with the pink color already on the page. Command-T to bring up the bounding box with handles and holding both the shift and the Option/Alt keys I pulled on a corner handle until I had the frame size I desired. I wanted to use the bevel and emboss option so I Command-clicked on the thumbnail of the photo and making sure I was on the frame layer I hit delete. Now on that layer I only had the frame and the bevel and emboss option made a nice frame. I also chose the texture option in the bevel and emboss area to give the frame some depth.

I hope this is undertandable and that you will feel free to ask questions or make comments so that if necessary I can make it easier to follow.

For now, I've got to go get another mug of coffee and start my day.

Bye!