Tutorial: CREATING YOUR OWN UNIQUE BACKGROUND PAPERS

CREATING YOUR OWN UNIQUE BACKGROUND PAPERS
By Meryl Bartho © Meryl Bartho Dec, 2004
Adobe Photoshop
(My Screenshots Photoshop CS but will be similar in all versions).

Level: Easy
What you will learn: Working with different blending modes
Working with adjustment layers
How to play!

The beginning of any scrapbook page is always your background paper – why not have fun and try making some which are uniquely yours, and have a lot of fun in the process?

Step 1.

I keep a file of photos which I have specifically taken as texture photos - clothing, carpets, metals, woods, or “failure photos” those which a blurred, anything with interesting texture. These I keep in a “texture” folder in My Documents.
This background I started by opening one of these, cropping to a square & resizing to 12” x 12”. This became my background layer. I then duplicated it, you don’t have to but I just don’t like working on a background layer.

Step 2
Above this create a new adjustment layer – an adjustment layer affects all layers beneath it – the joy of adjustment layers is that they are non-destructive – if you don’t like what you have done, at any stage you can go back & modify or delete the adjustment layer, because you are NOT working on, or in any way changing the layer itself.

The adjustment layer button is 4th from the left in the layers palette; it’s a circle, half black, half white.

Click on this & it will give you a menu, for this example, I chose a very simple one - Brightness / Contrast – I just lightened it a bit, & reduced the contrast – you can choose any you’d like.

Step 3
Now create a new layer & label it gradient – you can choose any colours you like, for my example I used the “copper” gradient, one which is in the default set. You may choose any of the gradient styles – I chose the linier gradient - see screenshot to the left.

Bye the way - I hope you are saving your work at each step, you don’t want to loose your masterpiece!

This gradient I pulled from top to bottom, but why don’t you try left to right or corner to corner? Or a different gradient?

Step 4.
No go to the blending modes drop down in your Layers palette – the first is “normal” – choose this, leave it highlighted blue & you can cycle through the various modes seeing what effect they have on your work.

Step 5.
Now keep adding layer upon layer, try solid colours, brushed layers, with adjustment layers, and altering the blending modes till you come up with something that you like – don’t be afraid, just keep on adding. Below is a screenshot of the background I ended up with – a nice blue paper very different from what I started with. If you’d like more papers of different colours just add a new hue/saturation adjustment layer on top.
Just keep playing and have fun!

These backgrounds I used for my Winter Wonderland Kit available in the store at DSP.

You may see them used in a LO here