The Sprague Lab

Welcome to Photoshop Friday!

Today’s inspiration will be fun, I think. :) I had a great time making it, anyway.

After you complete today’s tutorial, you’ll be able to give any photo a cool grungy border that bleeds into the background, like this one:

Or with a small change, you can give it a strong black (or any color) border, like this one:
(I did some fun layer styling to the photo to make it look handtinted-keep reading).

This is actually somewhat of a carryover from last week’s Photoshop Friday, because this technique simulates a layer mask just like last week’s did. I say simulates, because Photoshop Elements doesn’t have true layer masks. Luckily this technique works in ALL versions of Photoshop.

Okay, ready?

You’ll need to download this file by right-clicking it and choosing Save As:


The grunge mask is sized for a 4x6 photo, but it’s easy to re-size before applying it.

Here are your steps:

1. Open your mask and the photo you’d like to grunge-i-fy in Photoshop.
2. Duplicate the photo onto a separate layer (right-click on the photo background layer and choose Duplicate Layer). It’s always better to work in a copy of the photo.
3. Turn off the original photo layer.
4. Drag the mask onto the photo.
5. Resize the mask to fit the photo (Edit>Transform>Resize).
6. In the Layers palette, drag the mask layer BELOW the photo layer.
7. Select the photo layer in the layers palette.
8. Hit Ctrl-G (Ctrl-Alt-G in PSCS2) to create the mask.
You should see the edges of your photo masked out by the layer below them.

If you like your photo to bleed into the edges of the background, simply link the layers together and drag them onto your layout.
If you’d like to add a black (or any other color) border:

1. Create a new layer and position it at the bottom of the stack in the Layers Palette.
2. Use the paintbucket tool to fill the blank layer with the color of your choice.

Here’s an inspiration layout to get you going:

For this layout I used Tia Bennett’s rockin 70 kit which is so fun and retro, and has this utterly delicious montage that I’ve used for my background all ready to drop in and go. Also appearing is one of Katie Pertiet’s sun print brushes. These are just great for accents, since they’re botanical silhouettes. And of course I am totally in love with Rhonna Farrer’s new Old Stamps brush set. It has all the months, as well as numbers for each month, all old and grungy and random and awesome.

I can’t wait to see what you make with your grungy photo mask. Here are some ideas:

-Change the mask by deleting other sections (such as a word) from the black, or by painting on the mask in black with a digital brush.

-Create a large black background and place three grung-i-fied photos side by side. Add a bit of white text in the black area, and you have an awesome frameable storyboard.

-Create your own grungy mask by cutting away bits from a black rectangle. You can use text, grunge brushes, anything you like.

Where do I get grunge brushes, you might ask?

Well, here are some places:
Misprinted Type
MissM
Scrap Artist Distressing Kit (which comes with a tutorial)
Pea Blossom Kit by Rhonna Farrer (which comes with a digital inking and sanding tutorial)

Please let me know if there’s something you’d like to see. Have a great week, and don’t forget to link up in the comments when you make something! :)

p.s. Want to know how I made the photos look kind of cool and old and dreamy and handtinted? Stay-tuned! There’s going to be a mid-week Photoshop tip. ;)