Note: Tutorial written with screen shots from Photoshop CS2 on an iMac.

In this tutorial, I am going to show you how to make slots in an object and then make it appear that you've threaded a digital paper strip or ribbon through them. I am working in PhotoShop CS2 on a Macintosh computer, but you should be able to adapt the basic instructions to your program and the machine you are working on if it's not the same as mine.

 

I have been working on a layout of my son, Raith, and his fiancée, Heidi. They were engaged on Christmas Eve, and this photo was taken Christmas Day at my mom's house where we all met Heidi for the first time.

I've layered and arranged some papers, elements and the photo, and have inked the edges of my paper strips, the photo and the file folder with the "Walnut Ink" Inked Edge Style from the Inked Edges 4102 ScrapSimple Tools set. I like how this looks, but to add some extra interest, I want to make the paper strip that is currently under the folder look as if it is threaded through slots in the folder.

 

So I'll first need to make my slots. I'm using the Rounded Rectangle Tool.

 

The settings are, Radius 50 px, color Black.

 

Now I'll zoom into the area of the folder where I want to create my first slot and I'll drag the Rounded Rectangle Shape tool to make the slot. I want it to be just a little taller than the width of the paper strip is vertically.

 

Now I'll rasterize my slot shape and duplicate it. The shortcut on the Mac to make a copy of a layer is Cmd+J and on a PC it's Ctrl+J. This new slot should be selected when you look at your Layers Palette, so all I need to do now is hold down the Shift key (this will keep the second slot aligned horizontally with the first one) and drag the slot copy over to the right as far as I want.

 

I'm going to select both of my slots in the Layers Palette by clicking on one layer and then holding down the Command key while clicking on the other. Then I'll merge the two layers into one by right-clicking with my mouse/pen. Finally, I'll name it the merged layer "Slots." Hitting Cmd+J (Ctrl+J on the PC) again will make a second set of slots for the other side of the folder. Once again, I'll hold down the Shift key while I drag the slots over to the right. I'm going to space them further in from the edge of the folder this time.

 

Now I'll select both slot layers and merge them like I did before. So now I have the shapes for my slots and I've got them lined up the way I want them. I'll use the Magic Wand Tool; I can select it by simply pressing the W key, and click on one of the slots to select them all. (If this only selects one of the slots, then you have "contiguous" checked on the Option Bar and need to uncheck it.)

 

You should see "marching ants" around all four of your slots. Now in the Layers Palette, I'm going to click on my folder layer and then hit the Delete key to cut the slots out of the folder. Because I have an Inked Edge Layer Style applied to the folder, as soon as I make the slots in the folder, the inking style is applied to the edges of the slots and is visible, even though my slot shapes are still covering up the transparent holes.

 

Now I'll find the slot shapes in my Layers Palette, click on that layer and hit Delete to remove the slot shapes. Now I can see the slots that are cut out of the folder.

 

To make my paper strip look like it's threaded through the slots, I first need to merge my paper strip layer with a blank layer. If I don't do this, when I make my new paper strip layer from the selections, the Inking Style will be applied to the ends of my strip selection and will not look right. So I'll click on the Create New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette.

 

I'll click on my paper strip layer in the Layers Palette to select it. Using the Marquee Selection Tool, I'll select the parts of the strip that I want to be on the layer above the folder.

 

After selecting one section, I'll hold down the Shift key so I can add the next section to my first selection. I'll continue to hold it while I select the last section.

 

Pressing Cmd+J (Ctrl+J on the PC) will now make a copy of the selected parts of this paper strip. I will drag this layer above my folder layer and the blank layer that I created earlier in the Layers Palette. While my paper strip copy is selected, I'll hold down the Cmd (Ctrl) key and click on the blank layer below it. This will select both of them. Then I'll merge them by right-clicking my pen/mouse and choosing "Merge Layers" from the pop-up menu.

 

Now my paper strip looks like it is threaded through the slots, but I can give it a little more dimension by using the Burn Tool to add some shading to the strip at the edges where it goes through the slots.

 

I'm going to use a soft round brush with these settings to burn in my shading.

 

You want to shade the sections of strip at the edges of the slots. Once I shaded the paper strip, I needed to add a drop shadow to both the bottom strip and the top strip to lift it away from the folder. This will create a shadow where I don't want it, at the ends of my top strip where it overlaps the bottom strip and the edges of the holes in my folder. But this is easily fixed. After adding my drop shadows to both layers, I create a new blank layer and merge the top strip with it.

 

Now I can use my Rectangle Marquee Selection Tool to select just the shadow that I don't want and hit the Delete key to get rid of it.

 

And this is what my threading looks like when I'm done.

Layout by Cheryl Barber

	Note: Commercial license versions of ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: Glitter Brights Super Biggie 4101 and ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: Inked Edges Neutrals 4102 are also available.

Tutorial written by Cheryl Barber