Don’t worry, no real scissors necessary! But if you like that slightly imperfect, hand-cut look to your paper blocks, strips, banners, flags, etc., then read on. Today I’ll show you step-by-step how to use the Polygonal Lasso tool in Photoshop to quickly cut out any shape you want, in just a few clicks.
The beauty of this kind of “cutting” truly is in the imperfection of it, so don’t worry too much about getting perfectly straight lines or even sides! To give you a few ideas of how you might use this technique, here’s a bunch of paper shapes I “cut out” of my digital papers in just a minute or two (all papers are from Lauren Grier’s Rainbow Joy paper pack):
To cut out your own shape (pretty much anything with straight lines), choose your paper and then select the polygonal lasso tool.
Now click once on your paper where you want to start “cutting.” You should see a line connecting that first “click” with your mouse pointer – like so:
Now continue clicking, each place you want to start a new “side” or angle. Every time you click the mouse, think of it like dropping a pin, or placeholder, that starts your line over again. Here’s my shape after several more clicks:
Here’s where it gets a tiny bit tricky. Your last click will be a double-click, to close the shape. If you look at the image above, it only needs one more line to finish. I will double-click right where the pointer is, and Photoshop will automatically finish the shape and create a selection out of it. Here’s what it looks like after that last double-click:
Now I can move my selection, my “cut out” piece of paper, onto my layout! To move the shape, click V on the keyboard, or select the Move tool, and manipulate it like any other selection.
I hope that made sense! I love using the polygonal lasso tool as a quick way to add a few strips or blocks of paper to my layout, or to create a little journaling card/spot that coordinates with the kit I’m using. So many uses for this simple technique!
Another even easier option is to just go with premade! One of our fabulous designers here, Lauren Grier, has created several sets of hand-cut-style, wonky clipping masks/templates in a myriad of shapes. Just clip your paper to the shape and you’re good to go! Here’s a few of my favorite sets:
I’d love to see a layout where you include “hand cut” shapes, if you want to link it here! Have fun with it – unlike with real scissors, there’s no risk of snipping a finger!
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