The Sprague Lab

Hello!

Welcome to another installment of Photoshop Friday.

Here’s today’s inspiration.See the accent in the bottom right corner? That’s what we’re going to make today.

Here’s what you’ll need to complete the tutorial:

1- a brush image (I’ll give you that)
2- a digital patterned paper (you can check out some of the free digital kits at Two Peas in a Bucket if you don’t have any papers)
3- Photoshop. :P

Okay.. here we go.

Creating Patterned Paper Accents with Brushes
Skill level: Intermediate

So last week you made your own brush. How cool was that? I love PS brushes. Seriously, give me a brush and I’ll follow you anywhere. But then you have to feed me and give me a place to stay.. so better be really sure you want to give me that brush.

This week, you’ll be making a brush from this image:

I think it’s pretty and kind of Art Nouveau. So we’ll take it, and make a patterned paper accent with it to either print, or put on a digital page. This brush, like last week’s, came from the Dover book 1500 Decorative Ornaments.

Right-click the image above to download, open it in Photoshop, and create a custom brush.

Now we’re all set to create a patterned paper accent.

1. Open a patterned paper in Photoshop. (I chose this great word one from Jen Wilson, in her Being kit.)
2. Open a new Photoshop document, 12x12, 300 dpi, and drag your patterned paper into the new document. (I really highly recommend that you never do anything to an original patterned paper. Trust me on this one).
3. Create a new layer above the patterned paper layer (Ctrl-Shift-N).
4. Hit B to choose the brush tool, and select the brush you just made from the image above from your brush palette.
5. Resize the brush to a really nice big size by hitting the ] key a few times. (Incidentally, the [ key makes it smaller.)
6. Stamp your brush anywhere on the paper, in any color.

Cool. Now you should see your patterned paper with a stamp on it. Something like this:


But we’re on to the coolness now. The first thing we’ll want to do is create an outline for our patterned paper accent, so the edges don’t bleed into the background when we cut it out of the patterned paper.

Create the Brush Outline

1. Open your layers palette (Window>Layer), and right-click on the thumbnail image of the stamp you just stamped.
2. From the flyout menu, choose Select Layer Transparency.

You’ll get the marching ants selection around your brush.

3. Create a new layer (Ctrl-Shift-N).
4. Go to Edit>Stroke.
5. In the dialog box that appears, choose 10 pixels, and a nice dark color to complement your paper. Also choose Outside for the location.
6. Hit OK.

Now you have an outline around your brush image.

Create the accent

Now for the final set of steps to acually make the accent.

1. Back up in your layers palette, drag the brush image (not the outline) just below the patterned paper layer.
2. Select the patterned paper layer.
3. Hit Ctrl-G (in CS2, the new command is Ctrl-Alt-G) to create a clipping mask.

Your patterned paper should disappear except for what’s inside the outline.
You can even move the paper around inside the mask, until you flatten your accent to make it draggable onto another document.

It should look something like this:


Now you’re free to print your accent on photo paper or cardstock and cut it out, or use it on a digital page.


The challenge:

-Okay, now go make a layout. Paper or digi, it doesn’t matter to me. And use the techniques outlined above to make a cool patterned paper accent. Don’t forget to link up in the comments when you’re done! :)

Oh, and please feel free to send me an email if you have questions or coments. My email address is in my Blogger profile.