'How do you...?" | Tutorial Round-Up

Beyond the blog, there is a wealth of information in different spots around the Pad!

We’ve been here for years trying out various techniques and sharing tips that are tried and true with the community, and some that are just plain handy or fun.

Let me point you in the right direction for the answers to a few frequently asked questions we see pop up in the forum in this (long but handy!) Tutorial and Tips Round-Up post.

“How do you…

Wordart, Fonts & Title Related:

Modify Wordart?” Got 2 wordarts you want to merge? Or want to colour a black wordart / stamp? Try these steps or here
Fill text with a photo?” Same way you would fill a shape with a photo as Robin shows here!
- (this same post will show you how to create vellum-style text or make a cut-out from your text as well).
Add some dimension to wordart or a font title?” See this post here (works for some elements too)
journal in or around a shape?” Judie shows us here and Farrah covered it here
fit a title into a shape?” Amanda has these helpful screenshots in a post about just that

Photo related:

frame a photo with a simple border?” From basic stroke frames to double and fancier blurred frames, check out this link
make a circle or different shaped frame?” Try this method
cut a photo to spread it across 2 photo spots?” Monica uses this handy technique here in her pocket scrapping
digitally add a bokeh effect to a photo?” Add some magic with this technique by Jan
add blur to create movement in a photo?” Jenn’s explanation of why a blur can be good and her steps and product recommendations are here
defog or dehaze a photo to make it pop?” Christa has this video for you for Lightroom, but duplicating the photo and using a Blend Mode on the top version or adding a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer also works in PS
make a photo look creased or folded?” This trick comes in handy for papers too (or if you are a PSE or CS user, you can use this Folded Layer Style pack by Mommyish from the store
- if you want a more crumpled look, these overlays are by Valorie Wibbens and for bigger pieces of paper or photos try those instead.
make a photo black and white but keep one focal point in colour?” You mean selective colour treatments, and Farrah covers that here
extract or cut out a part of a photo?” More fun than the dentist! Here’s a guide to extractions

Specialty digital effects:

Make a photo look like a hand-drawn sketch?” Christa shows us some useful filters in videos here
Make a photo look like a watercolour painting onto your page?” It’s a fun effect and the brushes you select are important
Create a patchwork or collaged effect?” Try this method from Ona
Create a mosaic photo? Which sort? There’s a few kinds covered previously, this one by Jan putting lots of tiny photos into a larger photo and this one by me can be used to create your own grid that you can clip a big photo to – or you can use a pre-made template grid like Kayla and change blend modes like here

Template related:

Modify the size of a template?” Do you scrap Letter or A4 size, or maybe Travelers Notebook size? Here are some ways to make a 12 x12 fit your preferred size
Mash together 2 different templates? We’ve done this a few times, Kiana shows her process here , here’s another post with Dalis’s process and just the other day I blogged a template mash-up with my steps shown here

Alignment, Recoloring & Realism with Elements:

get your ducks in a row?” Want to perfectly align different shapes or photos? Karen explains a handy tool in PS here
aligning tricky alphas?” We got you!
move a few pre-made scatter pieces that are in the way?” Christa’s quick tip is here
recolour an element?” There’s a lot of ways, Danica covers several here using PSE
create an element cluster & multiple cohesive looking ones that aren’t all just the same?” Rae has a formula and considerations here
make a stamp look real and across multiple layers?” Karen’s handy trick is here:
make a paperclip look like it’s really clipped over multiple layers?” Kim Jensen is the queen of cliptastics paper clips and her tips are gold
thread a charm or tag onto a string? Here’s the trick
fill a digital cut-file? Monica’s suggested steps are here

About Masks and Blending:

create and use a clipping mask?” See Jenn E’s video linked here
explain blending modes to me!” All those blend modes at the top of the Layers Palette explained!
load brushes to blend and paint on layer masks with?” Farrah covered everything you will ever need to know about brushes here
get started with Mixed Media?” I have a whole blog series on that here
blend a photo into a solid paper with basic brushes?” Christa has you covered here:
make your own custom mask using paint splats?” It’s a great skill to have to highlight the focal point in your photo and too hide some details too! I used this idea here and Jenn covered this here

About Layer Styles:

load and apply styles?” Paula has step by step instructions here and I also covered it here

About Shadowing:

an older shadow round-up!” Lots of links here !!
shadow transparent elements?” Judie shows the steps here
create more realistic shadows?” I’m on a never ending quest for this myself, I’ve discussed and trialled different techniques a few times here and here
…or there’s always Shadow Actions and Layer Styles you can apply with a click or a tweak like these and these and these in store