The Sprague Lab

 Welcome again! I hope you found your way to my new blog home. And I hope you like today’s PS Friday. It has a ton of possibility.

 Today we’re going to make a very cool burned-in accent for a page, like this:

Burned-in Image accent

This page first appeared in the March/April 2006 issue of BHG Scrapbooks Etc. I know when I’m looking at a digital layout, I’m always wondering, how DID they do that?

I think that you could figure out how to do something like this without too much trouble. But today I’d like to show you a couple of keyboard shortcuts that will get you there faster. :) 

 Setting the Stage

The first thing we’ll need is a lighter color paper, a darker color paper, and a brush to use as the accent image. I’ve used:

• Cabana White by Katie Pertiet
• Green Botanical single by Katie Pertiet
• Botanical brush set by Katie Pertiet

Katie is one of the finest designers out there, and some of my favorite designs of hers include the botanicals. Simply amazing work.

Alright.

1. Let’s open a new document, 12 x 12 inches, 300 dpi, RGB color, white background.
2. Open and drag the lighter paper to the background.
3. Open and drag the darker paper over the background.

Now, there are several ways to get the square tile blocks like I have them here. Here’s a way that is quick and easy and works in BOTH Photoshop and Elements.

 Drawing the Block of Rectangles

1.  Get out your Rounded Rectangle tool. It’s located in the shapes menu, right here on the toolbars:
2. In the Options bar at the top of your screen, set the corner radius to 70, and (in Elements) click the first button next to that box that says “Create New Shape Layer” (in CS/2, click the Fill Pixels option) . It doesn’t matter what color these shapes are, so set the foreground to something non-white so you can see them.
3. If you are using CS/2, create a new layer. If you’re using Elements, a new layer will be created for you when you use this tool.



4. Now hold shift as you draw a small square shape - about 1 inch square

Now we COULD draw a new shape 15 times. But it’s hard to be accurate that way, and all we really want is an exact copy of this square.

5. So instead, switch to the Move tool.
6. Now hover over your rectangle shape, and press the Alt key. You should see your cursor change from a single black  arrow to a black arrow with a white arrow behind it. This is a Duplicate command. So if you hold down Alt while dragging on ANY layer in Photoshop, you’ll get an exact duplicate.

Here’s one more key to throw into the Twister-like configuration your fingers are in. While you are holding Alt, press the Shift key and drag the new layer. This constrains the movement to a 45 or 90-degree angle in whatever direction you’re moving, so it’s REALLY EASY to get perfectly duplicated AND perfectly aligned shapes. Wee! :D


Ready to go?

7. Let’s hold down Alt and Shift and drag this shape to the right. Leave a little bit of space between them, and drop it down.
8. Now you can practice Alt and Shift and drag a block of 15 squares, 3 across and 5 down. (Of course, if your brush is something different than mine, your block configuration can change accordingly).

Merging and Masking

Now you should have a block of 15 rounded rectangles. And Photoshop has created each rectangle on its own layer. So the next thing we need to do is merge them all down to one.

(NOTE: If you would rather draw out all 15 by hand and skip this particular step, you can switch to the Add to Shape Area button in the Options bar for the rounded rectangle, rather than the Create New Shape Layer option. Photoshop will add whatever you draw with any of the shape tools onto that exact same layer. Cool feature for making compound shapes - even ones with space in between them like ours - but no drag-and-drop convenience. You decide.)

Merging layers in Photoshop Elements:

1. Select the Move tool.
2. Hold down the Shift  key while you select each one of your 15 blocks. (When you scroll up and down in the layers palette, make sure there’s a little link icon next to each of your 15 layers. )
3. Go to Layer > Merge Linked.

You should now see a single layer in the layers palette with all 15 blocks on it.

Merging Layers in PSCS/CS2:

1. Select the top layer in the layer stack in the layers palette.
2. Now scroll down until you see the bottom of the stack of 15 layers. Hold down Shift while you click this last layer. (You should see all 15 of your shape layers highlight).
3. Now right-click on the highlighted layers and choose Merge Layers from the popup menu.

Creating a Layer Mask - a Shortcut 

Now let’s create a layer mask out of this shape. I’ll show you a cool shortcut for doing this in either PSCS/2 or Elements.

1. In your layers palette, drag the block of squares layer BELOW your dark paper layer.
2. Now position your mouse in between the two layers. (You should be right on the line that separates the two layers).
3. Now hold down the Alt key. You should see your cursor change to a set of two overlapping circles. When you see that cursor, you can click down to create the layer mask.

Boom.

Now your paper should only appear in the shapes of your rectangular blocks. Awesome!

So if you’ve made it this far, you’re doing great:

Adding The Burned-in Brush

Now comes the time to add our brush image.

1. Let’s create a new layer.
2. Now pick a really cool brush image. I chose this botanical one from Katie Pertiet. 
3. Change your foreground color to black (hit d).
   
4. Use the [ and ] keys to resize your image to fit well inside your blocks.
5. Stamp the brush.
6. Now in the layers palette, change the blending mode for your brush layer to Overlay. Overlay mode makes the image invisible in any area that is darker than your stamp. So you get the effect of having painstakingly cut out this overlay image, when your shortcut did it in a fraction of the time. :)

Here’s what you should end up with:

Here again, is the layout I made using this technique. I added some distressing using grunge and swirl brushes with the eraser (you’ll need to merge your mask and your paper layer together to continue to work with it), and recolored the block to fit better with the photo : 

I hope you have a wonderful weekend! And happy Photoshop Friday!