One of the most fabulous facets of digital scrapbooking is the ability to really customize the elements to suit your project. While an embellishment or paper may be perfect as it is for one layout, you might want to add a little pattern or texture to it for another. One of the tools I’ve found to be particularly useful when doing this is the selection of ScrapSimple Tools – Patterns. With a few clicks of the mouse, you can change the look and feel of any element in your stash for a fresh and completely custom effect.
There are several ways to utilize this set of tools, but the one I’ll highlight here is the “Pattern Fill.” You’ll see how a simple embellishment can become dazzling with very little effort.
Lately, I have been really enjoying using organic-looking elements on my pages. Whether they’re flowers or leaves or any number of other nature-inspired things out there on the market, they add a lovely touch that can’t really be (realistically) achieved with paper scrapbooking. Using Amanda Sok’s “Reawakening Collection Biggie,” I was able to bring a fresh and rich feel (with a little bling) to my layout, which supported the “feel” of the photograph.
Let’s start now with how I used ScrapSimple Tools – Patterns to achieve this goal. The main element I used on this page was the leaf embellishment from Amanda’s kit.
I duplicated the embellishment to a new layer, CTRL-clicked on the layer icon of the new layer (you’ll get the “marching ants”) and then selected “Pattern” from my Edit-Fill dropdown menu. Once “Pattern” is selected, you can further choose which pattern set you wish to use. (Ensure that your patterns are located in the “Patterns” folder under your Photoshop Presets subfolder.) I used Valerie Randall’s “Paper2101” set for this layout. I loved the choppy, yet organic, feel of these patterns. I selected the pattern I wanted, and then clicked “OK” to complete the fill.
Once this was done, I used my Magic Wand tool to select the black areas of my fill layer (make sure “Contiguous” is unchecked, or you’ll be clicking forever). I then copy/pasted this selection to a new layer and applied Amanda’s ScrapSimple Tools – Styles: Micro Glitter in a lovely Olive green which coordinated beautifully with my layout.
Then, moving back to my fill layer, I changed the Blending Mode to “Overlay” to allow the green color of the original embellishment to show through.
You can see how, though the original leaf element was nice, this modified one glows with a color and texture that adds to the final layout. I duplicated the element, flipping and rearranging it until I got a border around the perimeter of my page.
I applied this same technique to the background paper (I skipped the glitter step, however).
Now that you’ve gotten a taste of what ScrapSimple Tools – Patterns can do for you, experiment with various sets, Blending Modes, and even using Patterns for texture fills to make your layouts truly custom creations!
*TIP: This photograph didn’t have a bit of green in it, so I used elements from another kit that combined the green with other colors within the photograph.
Layout by: Stefanie Harris
Layout name: Reawaken the Soul
Supplies Used:
ScrapSimple Tools - Patterns: Paper 2101
Reawakening Collection Biggie
Fantaisie Collection Mini
ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: Micro Glitter 6401 Super Biggie
ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: Painted Plastic 6401 Super Biggie
ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: Iridescent Glass 6401
TFL!