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If you haven't had a chance to work with the ScrapSimple Paper Templates and are a little hesitant or worried about what you can do with them and how they work, I would suggest downloading the Refresh Collection that we have in the boutique. Not only is it a great summer kit that you can use over and over, it also has some products from the ScrapSimple line in it and is a great way to experiment.
What is a ScrapSimple Paper Template you might ask? Basically, think of it as a piece of black and white patterned paper. All you need to do is add your own colors and textures and you have some papers that can be used by themselves in a layout, or added to your favorite collection.
To start off, I'm going to give you a few, easy ways to fill these templates with color. Now keep in mind, just like with anything you do in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements there are several ways you can get the same results. What I'm showing you are the methods that have easily worked for myself.
The first is to create a new Fill Layer. If you're wanting to fill the template with one shade of color, this will work easily for you. In this example, I'm using the ScrapSimple Paper Template: Damask. I always open the template and a new document first. Then, drag the templates onto the new document. By doing this, you do not take the risk of making adjustments to your original template. Select Layer> New Fill Layer> Solid Color. You will then get a pop-up screen, click "OK," then select the color for the layer.
Once you have selected the color you would like your pattern to be, click "OK." You will then see a solid color over your template. You will need to clip this colored layer to your patterned layer, which can be done by pressing Ctrl+G. This will fill the pattern with your chosen color, and then you may merge the two layers.
The next example will show you how to colorize the templates using the Magic Wand and Color Fill. This comes in handy if you're wanting to color in your paper template with several different colors. For this example, I'll be using the ScrapSimple Paper Template: Diamonds.
Open your template and new document as instructed in the previous example. Once you have done this, take your Magic Wand and select a diamond on the template. When you have selected that diamond, the marching ants appear around it. While that one diamond has been successfully selected, what about the remaining diamonds in the same shade of gray? By following this step: Select> Similar you will see all the diamonds in that same shade now have the marching ants around them.
To fill those diamonds with color, go to Edit> Fill Selection. A color fill box will pop up. From there you can choose to fill those diamonds with your Foreground or Background Color (those are the colors in the bottom left corner that are default at black/white) or you may choose "Color..." which will let you select a custom color.
Once you select "Color" as an option, the Color Picker Box will come up and you can select your shade from there. After you have picked your color, click "OK" and you will see the diamonds are now filled with the chosen color.
To deselect the diamonds (get rid of the marching ants), hold down the Ctrl key and hit D. Follow the same steps with the remaining diamonds, and once finished, your template should look something like this.
The final way I'm going to show you takes a little more time and patience. It can be used mainly if you want to use different colors of the same shade in the template. For this example, I'll be using the ScrapSimple Paper Template: Refresh that comes with the Refresh freebie in the boutique.
First, open your template and move it over to a new document. Since you are going to be using your Paint Bucket to fill these shades of gray on the template with color, I find it works easier if you zoom in on the section of template you're working with. You will notice on my example template, I have decided that I want all my plain sandals, and the base of the decorated ones, one solid color. To achieve this, I used the Color Fill instructions listed above. The next thing I do is to change my Foreground/Background colors to the colors I'm going to use on the template. So before you are ready to start filling in the color, your screen should look similar to this.
Finally, choose your Paint Bucket and start filling in your designs with color. You can get as detailed you like; this is where your creativity comes into play. Once you have finished, you will have a template filled with color just as you did in the previous two examples.
The final step in creating a pattern paper with any of the above techniques is to apply a base color and some texture or dimension. First, you need to add a new layer and fill that layer with the color of your choice. Next, you need to add texture to your paper. This can be done in many ways. A few include:
Built-in filters. Across the top of your Tool Bar, you will see the word "Filters." From that drop-down menu are many different categories and sub categories. Each one, along with different setting, can achieve different looks. Here's an example of a paper I created using the "Sponge" filter, which can be found at Filter> Artistic> Sponge with the settings at Brush Size: 0, Definition: 10 and Smoothness: 9. This was used only on the solid background color; I then lowered the opacity of the pattern layer.
Built-in patterns. Photoshop comes with patterns already built in that are a great addition to these templates. To add a new pattern layer, you will go Layer> New Fill Layer> Pattern.
You will receive a pop-up box, click "OK" and another pop-up will appear. This pop-up will have the different categories and types of textures available. Also you will see the word scale and a slider. You can adjust what the texture will look like on your paper.
This is an example of the paper created using the "Burlap" texture (found in the "Artist Surfaces" Category) Scale of 100%, Opacity of the texture layer lowered to 33% and the opacity of the pattern layer changed to 67%.
Scrap Girls Transparencies. Finally, the last way I'm going to show you is by using some of the great transparencies we have in the boutique. With these, it's at simple as laying the transparency over your paper and you've got a ready-to-go patterned paper! All of these papers use the same ScrapSimple Paper Template: Damask bases, they just use different transparencies on top to vary their looks. See how creative you can get!
Paper made using the Crumpled Transparency (retired)
Paper made using the Antique Rose Transparency (retired)
Layout by Angie Briggs
Tutorial by Angie Briggs
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