One of the trendy things you'll see in digital scrapbooking right now is paper tearing. Here at Scrap Girls, we have made it really easy for you with the ScrapSimple Digital Layout Templates - Layered: Tear It Up series. This tutorial is going to show you how to easily use these templates and how you can customize them. For this tutorial, I'm using Templates 1 and 2 from the ScrapSimple Digital Layout Templates - Layered: Tear It Up 2 set. But you can easily mix the tears from any of the Tear It Up series.

First, you need to open the tears you want to work with and a blank document.

Next, you need to decide what you want your layout to look like. I picked these two templates because one had a very uneven tear and the other was pretty straight across. When you add these two together, it can give you a really great look for a strip of paper going across your page that is torn on both sides.

Place your templates in the design you want your paper to be. For this example, you will notice I changed the color of one of my templates. I did this so I can tell the two layers apart better. This is something you may want to do if you notice the templates you are working with are the same color. Also, you will notice on the larger template, I have taken my Crop Tool and trimmed it down so it is smaller. Don't worry about trimming too much off, you can always add more to the template later.

Once you have trimmed your template and placed both tear templates on a new document, you should have something that looks like this.

Before we merge these layers, you will need to decide if this will give you the size of template you are looking for. If this is too wide, it can be very easily adjusted by moving the layers. The main thing to remember is that you don't want to see any of the bottom layer sticking out from under the top one. When the adjustments are done this is what you will have.

Now if you want a wider strip, place the two layers where you want your strip of paper to begin and end. You will have some blank space in between them. Using your Rectangle Tool, place a new layer over the top of the two tears. This gives you the option of adding on and customizing your template. Next, merge the layers and then place your background paper and your paper over the tear template.

The final step to creating your torn paper is to take the white "tear" layer and place that under the template.

Once that has been placed under the template, you are able to adjust how close or far away you want the tear to appear. Another thing you can do if you want to make any adjustments to the tear is to take the Eraser Tool and the Round Rough Bristle Brush (it can be found in the default brushes near the end) and erase part of the white. This gives you the capability to personalize the template a little more.

Finally, merge the template layer (which now is covered with a patterned paper) and the two white tear layers. After you've merged these layers, add your drop shadow. You are now ready to complete your layout.

Layout by Angie Briggs

	Note: Commercial license versions of ScrapSimple Digital Layout Templates - Layered: Tear It Up 2 are also available.

Tutorial written by Angie Briggs

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