Digital Stencil Crackle Paint Technique, Part 1

Recently, Julie published a great blog entry on using crackle paint with stencils. Then, CS Member Norma posted a question in the forum asking if this could be accomplished digitally. Since I love a challenge, I thought I’d try this using Club Scrap’s Blueprints Digital Kit. Like many things digital, there isn’t any one right way, but I’ll show you how I achieved a similar look.

Although this isn’t difficult to do, it does require quite a few steps, so I’m only going to cover two parts today - creating the stencil, and creating a crackle texture. My next post (appearing later this month) will cover how to create a layout similar to Julie’s.

CREATE A STENCIL

1. Open 0914BlueprintsCSD_Overlay7.png.

2. Select the Magic Wand tool in the Tool palette and set the tolerance to 35. Make sure ‘contiguous’ is not checked.

3. Click in an empty area of the overlay. If you’re having trouble distinguishing the blank areas, add a new white layer under the overlay layer.

4. Select -> Inverse to select the letters.

Notice the 'marching ants' - that's what you want to see!

5. Fill with Black.

Voila! You've created a stencil!

6. Delete the white layer you created in step 3.

7. Save this as 0914BlueprintsCSD_Stencil.png so you can use it whenever you’d like.

CREATE A CRACKLE TEXTURE

1. Create a new document about 8 inches by 6 inches, with a white background.

2. Open a texture stamp; I used 0311RakuCSD_StampGraphic04.png.

You can use any image with an interesting texture, but Raku is rather crackly!

3. Using the Marquee Tool, select the portion of the image that you want.

4. Drag that portion of the image to your new document.

5. Duplicate and tile the image, repeating as needed to fill the canvas.

As is, the repeat is quite obvious, but you won't notice it once it's applied.

6. Delete the white layer.

7. Merge the layers together and save the file.

That's all for now. Remember, these digital stencils and textures can be used for a variety of techniques, so if you've got a chance to play with them, you might come up with some neat results!

Visit again later this month, and we'll use the components we made to create a cool crackle stencil layout.

Get crackin', and I'll see you soon!

 -Ron

Blueprints Home Folio Part 2--Tutorial

I was pleasantly surprised by the excellent feedback I received on my Blueprints Home Folio post last week. I used it over the weekend when we were shopping for supplies for the remodel. The handy 6x8" size fit perfectly into my purse, making it easy to tote around.

A few people asked how it was made, so I thought I'd share. It's a pretty quick and easy project, and it could be used for a number of different purposes. It all starts with  12x12" cardstock.

Folio Cover:

1. Score vertically at 6".
2. Rotate 90 degrees and score at 4".



Scoring and cutting diagram.

3. Use scissors to trim approximately 1/8" on the left and right sides of the vertical fold, stopping at the 4" horizontal score line. Remove strip. (This will eliminate extra "bulk" when the folio closes.)

   

   Trim excess from center pocket area.

4. Fold along the 4" score line. Use a punch or Corner Chomper to round the edges of the inside pockets if desired.

   

   Round corners (optional).

5. Add a 8" length of washi tape vertically along the left and right edges of the folio. This seals the edges of the inside pockets. 

Add washi tape to outer edges.

Inside Elements:

1. Trim cardstock to 5.75 x 7.75" to create inside pages. (My folio has one, but you could add up to three.) Fold each inside page in half horizontally. 
   
2. Did you know you can print your own from http://www.printfreegraphpaper.com/? I like the 1/5" Cartesian. Print the desired number of pages onto text weight paper and trim to 5.5 x 7.5". Fold in half horizontally.
3. Nest all pages together into the folio, leaving equal borders around the edges of each layer. 
4. Add an A6 envelope to the center of the nested pages; aligning the flap fold with the center fold of the inside pages. Pierce stitching holes through all layers, 2" from the top and 2" from the bottom edge of the folio cover.
   
5. Use waxed linen thread and needle to pamphlet stitch the folio together. (Place threaded needle into the top hole, from the inside to the outside. Then place the needle into the bottom hole from the outside to the inside. Tie ends together. Trim excess thread.)

   

   Pamphlet stitch.

   

   Tie thread ends together and trim.

6. Decorate cover and inside pockets and pages as desired.

I think these little folios have lots of potential . . . how will you use yours?

Creatively yours,

Karen

Digital Stamp Shadows

Recently, Julie wrote a blog entitled “Stencil Shadow,” showing a great technique using stencils and two different colors of ink. If you missed it, you can read it HERE. Since the inks have a bit of transparency to them, a third color is created where the inks overlap.

If you look closely, you can see the third color where the two inks overlap.

This technique is easily replicated digitally. Since we don't have digital stencils, we'll just use stamp images. Here’s how . . .

1. Create a new square document with a white background.

2. Open a stamp image and drag it onto the new document. I’m using an image from the Versailles Digital Kit.

3. Resize the image so it fills the document; rotate it slightly.

4. Reduce the image opacity to 60%. This mimics the CS Ash ink nicely.

5. Duplicate the layer.

6. Command+Click (Mac OS) or CTRL+Click (Windows) on the new layer thumbnail in the Layers Palette. You’ll see marching ants around the image.

7. Use the Fill command to change the color; I used turquoise.

8. Press Command+D (Mac OS) or CTRL+D (Windows) to deselect the image.

9. Use your arrow keys to nudge the image a few pixels up and to the left. Because the opacity is reduced on the two image layers, a third color is created where they overlap - just like the paper version!

10. Merge the layers together and save your file.

To use the image to make cards . . .

1. Create a new document - I made mine 4.25x5.5".

2. Add a background. I chose a shade of turquoise to match the art.

3. Using the Marquee tool, grab a section of the newly created file and drag it onto your card.

4. Resize as needed.

5. Add a sentiment.

Wasn't that easy?

Sentiment from Oopsie Daisy

Sentiment from Hydrangeas

Make these in several colors and you can whip up a bunch of digi-cards in no time. You can also print out your original art, trim it into panels like Julie did, and make some easy hybrid cards!

Until next time, thanks for stopping by!

-Ron

Acrylic Block Stamping, Digital Style

A couple of weeks ago, Karen blogged about using an acrylic block to create a stamp background. You can read that post HERE. The digital wheels started turning the minute I saw her idea.

Here’s my digital version of that technique , , ,

I’m using Photoshop CC for this tutorial, but you should be able to do this with any graphics program that supports layers.

1. Create a new document with a white background.

2. Create a new Layer.

3. Using the Marquee tool, create a 4x5.25" rectangle.

4. Switch to the Brush tool and pick a 'spatter' style brush. I used 'Spatter 24 pixels'.

5. Increase the size to 700 pixels.

6. Choose a light blue color and ‘click’ along the edge of the rectangle.

7. Continue to ‘click’ along the outer edge to create a frame.

8. Create a new layer, choose a darker blue, and reduce the size of the brush to 500 pixels.

9. ‘Click’ along the outer edge to form a second frame.

10. Reduce the opacity of each of the layers until you achieve a look you like.

11. Add a couple of mattes and images to complete a card panel. I used a background and a few stamps from the Cinema Digital Kit.

I hope you’ll give this quick and easy technique a try the next time you need to frame some stamped images for your digital cards and layouts.

Until next time, thanks for stopping by.

-Ron

Creating a Digital Layout in Three Easy Steps

Each CS Digital Kit comes with six Quick Drop Digital Layouts (QDDLs). These template make it easy to create layouts by just adding photos. But sometimes you just want to make something that's more "your own."

The digital clusters that are part of each kit can help you accomplish that. Clusters are pre-assembled groupings of various parts and pieces of the digital kit, even including the appropriate shadows. This helps add detail to your layout without having to do a lot of work. In fact, you can make your own digital layout in just three steps.

Using this month’s Oopsie Daisy Digital Kit, let me show you how!

1. Open one of the digital backgrounds.

2. Add a cluster.

. . . or two!

3. Add a photo, cropping if necessary.

Done! Wasn't that simple?

The next time you want to make a quick and easy digital layout, check out the clusters in the kit. They can make light work of building a layout of your own . . . as easy as 1, 2, 3!

Until next time, thanks for stopping by.

-Ron

Make Your Own Digital Embellishments

As I was playing with this month's Oopsie Daisy Digital Kit, I looked at one of the backgrounds and thought it would make a nice looking embellishment, so I had to give it a try!

1. Open a new document with a transparent background.

2. Create a 3x3" square in a new layer using the Marquee tool. Color the square white. Tip: to make the square exactly 3", use the settings panel for the Marquee tool to specify a 3" square.

3. Open Background03 and drag it onto the new document.

4. Resize it to fit in the square, leaving about 1/8" border of white showing all the way around.
Tip: to constrain the shape so it remains a square while resizing, hold the Shift key.

5. Add a small bevel to the white layer using this setting:

The bevel effect is subtle, but really helps give the item depth.

Bonus: Add a black layer between the background and white layer for added 'pop.'

I really liked the look of this, so I duplicated the embellishment in a few different sizes and used it for one of this month's QDDLs:

Repeating the embellishment in different sizes and using the same image in the background helps tie it all together!

Next, I tried the same technique with parts of a few of the other backgrounds and overlays. Here's what I came up with . . .

Bonus: Create several of these in different sizes and print them out to use as cutaparts on your cards and layouts. You don't need to add the bevel effect in step five if you're going to print these out. Simply use your grid ruler to keep a 1/8" white border around the items when trimming.

The next time you're looking for an embellishment or two, look no further than your digital kit backgrounds and overlays. There's no limit to what you can do!

Until next time, thanks for stopping by!

-Ron