Using An Overlay as an OVERLAY in PSP

We’ve done a lot of overlay work here on this blog, but I’m not sure with we’ve done an actual tutorial on using an overlay as an actual overlay in PSP.  So, let’s jazz up those papers.

First, I made this overlay for you to practice with:

Download the Overlay – remember don’t give out the direct link to your friends, send them to the blog to get it for themselves!

First, unzip your overlay.  Then open it PSP.

Let’s jazz up a paper!  Also, open a paper that you have already.  One that you’d like to embellish a little.  Make it pop a little.

Now, copy your overlay (CTRL + C or right click on the top of it and click on copy)

Now, go to your paper that you want to use the overlay on:

(All images are clickable to see the image full size)  Right click on the top of your paper and paste, paste as new layer.

This is what it will look like.  (I am just using a 12 X 12 canvas filled with burgundy, if you are using a paper, it will look different because you’ll be highlighting the textures and colors on the paper, it’s a very cool effect when we get going.)

Over on your layers palette there is  a drop down box that should have normal as the default.  Click on it.  Now, I’m going to click on Burn.  One of my favorite blend settings.

See how it “burns” it into the paper?  This is my favorite when I am working with papers that have a lot of contrast between light and dark in them.

A very popular setting would be the overlay setting.  It merges the pattern on to the paper.  Here is the blend setting on soft light – another one that I use a lot.  It’s like overlay, but makes it a little softer.

Screen is another setting that I use a lot.  That tends to make the whole thing look lighter.  And if you’re working with an overlay that doesn’t have a lot of transparency to it, it can make your paper look white.

Let’s play a little more -

I am back on burn and I am going to play with my opacity.  right above your blend setting, set at 100% by default.

Slide it down til you find a look you like.

Another thing I do – not normally with grids, but since that’s what we’re using here, that’s what I’ll use, is use flip and mirror.

I duplicate the layer.

Right click on the overlay in your layers palette and click on duplicate.

Now use mirror, under image – mirror:

Then Flip it – Image, Flip:

Then play with your opacity again on both layers. 

When you get the look you like, right click on one of the layers in the layer palette and merge visable.  There is your paper.  Now you can add your photos and elements and make a rocking page!

See, all those overlays floating around out there?  Not just for commercial use, I use them so much on my own personal scrap pages.  They add another little kick of pizzazz!

If you’d like to check out some overlays, I’ve got tons of them in my store.

Have an awesome Friday!

A Thought On Tutorials

I was planning on offering a freebie today offered this freebie but now it is in the store, I was doing a tutorial, modifying it to make it my own, and got carried away.  So, my lil bee, turned into a mini-kit. 

 And doing a tutorial got me thinking about what I could talk to you about today.  Tutorials are such a wonderful tool to use!  Whether you be a new scrapper, a new designer, or a seasoned scrapper/designer.  We can always learn something new.  I hunt down tutorials all the time to see what I learn to bring you something new.  But, I always try to make it my own.  And, I suggest you do the same.  If we all did the same tutorial, but tweaked it a little bit, nothing would look like anybody elses.  On this tutorial, I used fur instead of smudge, and gave it legs, and textured the wings, and beveled the legs and antennae.  Just something to give it my own flair.  So, when you are searching for tutorials, look for something to change, colors, texture, size, pattern, whatever you can do.  

The beads in this freebie were made using my Bead Happy Script – another tool you can use to customize an element to make it your own, and it’s available for commercial use!  The Ric Rac was made using my Ricity Racity PSP Script.  Same thing, totally customizable and available for commercial use!

Changing Colors In PSP

Do you ever have a layout you are working on and you think you have the perfect element only to realize that it’s not the color that you want?  So, you put it away and start looking for something else, but nothing is exactly like the one you had in mind?  Well, stop putting it away and just change the color!  Yep, changing colors?  It’s not just for designers!  )

First, I made these flowers for you using my Blissful Blooms 1 & 2 commercial use. You can practice changing colors on them if you would like!

Download – Remember don’t give your friends the direct download link, send them here to get the goodies themselves!

Let’s get started!  First, unzip your flowers and open up one of them in PSP.

There are 2 very simple ways to change your color:

(Images are clickable to see full size)  When you go to Adjust in your toolbar, you see Hue and Saturation.  Hover over that and you see Colorize and below that hue/saturation/lightness.  Click on Colorize.

Your hue setting changes the color while the saturation is how much color will actually be allowed to show through.  If you saturation is very high, you’ll have a very bright color.  If it’s lower, you’ll have a more muted shade.  Play around with those sliders!  )

Another way to change it is to go back up to adjust – hue and saturation – hue/saturation/lightness.  Again, you can play with all of the sliders here.  The top one for hue (make sure colorize is ticked) changes your color.  Where saturation again is how much of that color is coming through.  Lightness makes it – ta da – lighter and darker.  Be careful with going to light, you can lose some details.  Play around with these settings for a bit!  )

Now, we’re going to get a little more fancy.  Sometimes you can’t get exactly the shade you want to use, so what do you do?  Well, I’ll show you!

First, we’re going to turn the image to gray.  Now, there are two ways to do it, and I use both depending on what look I want to get.  We’ll go with the one I use most often first.

Go up to adjust, color, channel mixer

With monochrome checked, I usually leave all of the sliders the same except for constant.  I play with it to get the right shade of gray that I am looking for.  (It makes a difference because when you lay your overlay, the darker the shade of gray, the darker the color will appear.)  Now, you want to be careful with going too dark or too light because you will just get a big splotch of black or white with no detail. (I also use this for word art when it comes in black, that way I can lay an overlay over it and change the color of the word art to match my page.)

Now, you want to select your flower.  There are two ways to do this, you can either use your magic want and select outside your flower, then go to selections and invert or you can use the float method.  I use keyboard shortcuts.  To select this, I use CTRL + A, CTRL + F, CTRL + SHIFT + F.  (Or go up to your tool bar, select – all – float – defloat)

Now, add a new raster layer.  You can either use the button that is shown above, or right click on your layers pallet and add new raster layer.

Set your color to what you want your flower to end up as.  Pick your paint bucket (Flood fill).  And fill the emtpy layer (where you have selected)

Now, play with your blend settings.  It’s the drop down box right above your layers, usually says normal in it until you play around.

I forgot to do a screen shot of what it looks like on overlay.  Oh well, click on overlay which is one I use a lot!  See how the color kind of melts into your image?  Very cool effect!  I use Overlay, Burn, Screen, Hard and soft light, and color the most probably.

That’s it.  Merge your image visible once you have the overlay/blend setting the way you like.  You can even adjust the opacity in the box above the blend settings.  Now, you can copy and paste it onto your layout!  (Like most of my tutorials, when you get more experienced, you can do this right on your layout.)

Now, I told you there was another way to change the element to gray.

Go to Image and then grayscale

voila, instant gray.

But, now you need to change the color depth so that you can use color.

Go up to Image, Increase Color Depth, RGB – 16bits/channel

Now you can follow all of the other steps above.  The reason I use the other method usually is so I can change the shade of gray that I am using.

Alright, that’s it from me!  Hope you enjoyed this tutorial!  Have a great weekend!