Hello all my artsy friends – I hope everyone has recovered from January’s fabulous and inspiring Month of Challenges! To keep the inspiration flowing, I am dropping in today with a quick tip for spicing up those wonderful white digital backgrounds. If you are like me, you love the pop a white background gives to the digital elements on your page. However, sometimes I want to add something to pump up the white background bit and make it more interesting. One of my favorite ways to do this is to brush on a subtle pattern to ground the elements.
Here is an example of this technique:
Notice the subtle orange polka dot pattern under the main clusters on the page? I created that by adding the pattern paper on with a watercolor brush. This look is really easy to accomplish with just a couple of simple steps.
Step 1. Bring the pattern paper onto your page on the layer just above the white background.
Step 2. Add a black layer mask to the pattern paper layer by clicking on the layer mask icon (a rectangle with a circle in the middle) while holding down the ALT key. This combination will add a filled black layer mask that will hide the pattern paper completely.
Step 3. Now select a watercolor brush. (If you do not have any, you can find a great set HERE by Just Jaimee.) Make sure your foreground color is set to White and select the pattern paper mask. Now paint in the pattern background by clicking the brush in the spots on the page where you want it to appear. Here is what the mask looks like after the pattern paper is revealed (the white area is the part that shows on the page):
And that is all there is to it! I love techniques that are super quick and easy, but add a big pop to your page. :)
Here is a comparison of the page before and after the brushed pattern paper:
The effect is subtle, but packs a big punch by making the clustered area look more grounded on the page. You can use this technique with bolder patterns too if you want a less subtle effect. I hope you have fun with it!
Until next time ~
Judie (HeyJude)
Thuria says
Thanks a lot for this great tip! There are very interesting tips in this section. Happy to discover it (better later than never! :))