Easy Blending In PSP

I know there are more complicated ways to blend, but my tutorials are for those who are either just starting out in PSP or those who may have never realized – oh, that’s how you do that!  I have those moments all the time!

I LOVE to use blending in my layouts!  It can take a boring background to something that is stunning! 

You know me, have to something for you to work with, so here are a couple of papers that you can practice blending on, or feel free to use something you already have!  This works on any paper.

Download the Papers – Don’t give your friends the download link, send them to my blog please.

Ok, let’s get started!

Open up the photo that you have picked to use to blend into the background.  Open the paper also.

(All pictures are clickable to see the image full size)

Copy the image (either right click on the top and click copy or CTRL + C)

Paste as new layer

Now here, I usually resize my image to fill the area I want to use it in.  This size would be subjective as to how much room you want the picture to take up.

To resize, click on image, resize.  I chose 215 percent for this photo.  Make sure resize all layers is NOT ticked.  You just want to resize the photo.

Use your lasso tool to select around your picture.  For blending, I usually use anywhere from 150-200 for the feather.  This doesn’t have to be a neat circle.  When I’m really getting going, I make it jaggedy so different parts are more transparent then others.

Invert your selection (You can also use CTRL + SHIFT + I, I’m all about keyboard shortcuts)

Now, hit your delete key.  (I only hit it once for this picture, but if your picture has a lot of background, hit it a couple of times.)

At this point, you can resize if you need to, I didn’t with this photo, but have with others.

Now, at this point, you get to play!  there are many different things you can do with the picture at this point.

Change the opacity

Change the blend mode – here I have it set to soft light – 100% opacity

Here I have it set to luminance – opacity at 50%

At this point when you have it blended, let’s say you want to take out so more.  go back to your lasso tool, select a little section, and hit delete.  (No need to invert, just select the area you want to feather a little more)  If I left the blend like this, I would take a picture of my nephew in a frame, rotate it maybe 15 degrees to the left, and place it over the bottom part of the blend where the blanket is.

When you have the paper how you like it, right click on one of the layers in your palette and merge visible.  There’s your paper, add more to it!

When you get more experienced with this, you can do the blending after your done with your layout but you think it needs an extra something.  That is what I did with this layout of my daughter:

Credits are Here

You can use this technique to take up the whole background, go across the top or bottom.  Anywhere you can put a photo, you can blend!

Hope you found this one useful!  Have a great day!