Hello everyone! I’m just stopping in to share with you one of my favorite ways to add a cut out frame to a digital scrapbooking page. This is a great technique for adding a pop of color and some dimension to your design.
Here is an example of the technique in action:
Notice how it looks as if the middle and outer frame are lifted above the bottom stripe pattern? This look can be accomplished in just a couple steps in Photoshop (or PSE).
Creating a Cut Out Frame
Step 1. Create a new blank layer and activate the rectangular marquee tool. Start in the top corner of the page (about 1/4 inch from the top and left side of the page) and drag the marquee tool toward the bottom right corner of the page while holding down the Shift Key to keep the dimensions even, forming a square. Once you have the size square you want, let go of the mouse and fill the square with any color. (Ctrl or Alt + Backspace will fill with the foreground or background color).
I like to just eyeball the measurement, but you can also set a specific size for the marquee tool in the drop down menu at the top of the work space. Choose Fixed Size in the Style menu and then enter the size you want. For my page the size would be 11.5 x 11.5 inches.
Step 2. Once the square is filled with color, deactivate the selection with Ctrl/D. Now you need to select the center part that will be deleted to form the frame shape. You can eyeball the marquee shape, as I did with the first square, or you can use the selection tools to create a square that fits exactly within the larger shape. To do this, Ctrl/click on the thumbnail of the larger square in the layers palette. This should make the “marching ants” appear around the outer corners of that square. Now click on the Select menu at the top of the work space and choose Modify/Contract and set the amount to 100 pixels (or your size of choice).
You should see the selection contract into the square you created in Step 1.
With the larger square activated in the layers palette, click delete and the middle of the square should disappear, leaving you with a frame shape.
Step 3. To create the cut out effect, Ctrl/click on the frame thumbnail in the layers palette to select it. Then turn off the frame layer by clicking the eye icon next to it in the layers palette. Now activate the top paper layer and non-destructively “cut out” the frame by adding a layer mask. You can do this quickly by holding down the Alt key while clicking on the mask button at the bottom of the layers palette (the white rectangle with a black circle in the middle). This will remove the frame shape from the paper without actually deleting it.
Step 4. The final step is to add an Outer Glow style to separate the top paper from the pattern paper underneath. With the top paper activated, choose Outer Glow from the layer styles menu and adjust the settings to your liking. The settings I used on my page are listed below:
And that is it! Keep in mind that you can use this technique on any shape to create a frame effect for that shape. For some silly reason, heart shapes are coming to mind right now. :)
Until next time ~
Judie (HeyJude)
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