Weekly Warm-Up: Photo Blending and A Free Download

Hello Everyone! I’m excited to be guest blogging here at CK and bring to you some digital tips and tricks! If we haven’t met before, my name is Katie Pertiet and I am a scrapbooker, scrapbook product designer and owner of DesignerDigitals.com.

Whether you’re a digital scrapbooker or you’re only enhancing your photos on the computer before add them to a traditional paper page, blending layers in Adobe Photoshop or Photoshop Elements will bring a whole new dimension to your photos.

When using blend modes with photos and papers, your photos can take on characteristics of your paper to add a new level of depth. To give this a try, download a sample blendable photo card. If you love your sample, then you can find more blendable photocards at DesignerDigitals.com.

Let’s get started.

1. In Photoshop or Photoshop Elements create a new page 3600px x 3600px.
2. Import your photo [file > place > locate file]
3. Place the blendable card in a layer below your photo [file > place > locate file]
4. The next step is to “clip” your photo to the card [layer > create clipping mask]

You’ll notice now that the photo has taken on the shape of the blendable photo card and you can re-position and scale as needed to get your photo cropped just right!  Now it’s time to blend! In my sample I used “overlay” but this is a time to experiment with modes and opacities too! You can find these options at the top of your layers pallet.

And now it’s time to experiment and see where it will take your digital photography and scrapbooking. Simple as that!

–Katie Pertiet