Hello all my artsy friends! I’m just dropping in today with a quick tip for making your photos pop on your digital pages by adding a colored border that coordinates with the page’s color palette.
Here is an example of the technique in action:
Notice how the edges of the three frames are colored to match the other elements on the page? I used journaling cards in lieu of photos on my page to illustrate the “Caged by My Thoughts” theme, but the design trick is the same. The colored borders draw the viewer’s attention to that area, more so than no border at all or a traditional Polaroid white border.
My page was created with a fabulous new template set by Fiddle-Dee-Dee Designs that has the borders on a separate layer so it was super easy for me to recolor the white borders. I just added a solid color adjustment/fill layer and clipped it to the photo border. I chose a different color for each photo spot that coordinated with colors on each of the three cards.
If you are working on your own design you can easily create this border effect by adding a slightly larger layer under your photo and filling it with your color of choice from the page. If you want it to look like a border, as opposed to a photo mat, just don’t add a drop shadow to the photo layer.
In Photoshop, you can find the Solid Color Fill in the Fill and Adjustment panel (half-filled circle icon at the bottom of the layers panel).
Once you select Solid Color, the color picker panel will appear and your cursor will turn into an eyedropper tool. Use it to choose the color that you want for the border. Make sure that the solid color layer is clipped to the border layer so that it only affects the color of the border. Otherwise it will convert everything under that layer into the solid color.
It is also super easy to try out different colors for the border. Simply click on the color adjustment layer to pull up the color picker box and test out different colors.
The other way that you can create a photo border from scratch is to add a stroke to the photo. You might remember that I did a post last year regarding this effect, but if you missed it you can find it HERE.
I hope you have fun with these techniques and try them out on your next digital page!
Until next time ~
Judie (HeyJude)
Tammy Thomas says
Hi I love this layout, can you tell me is the girl/face a digital element in the store? and where to find it, thank you