Gals’n'Gays,
Many of you used the opportunity to get the Grunge Love Scrapbook Set for free by buying my latest Photoshop brush Floral Shapes (the offer is still on the table :). Therefore, many of you got a hold on scrapbook kit for the first time and I receive many questions on how to use that kit.
That is why I decided to prepare a tutorial for all of you who are scrapbooking beginners, I’m gonna make a scrapbook dedicated to my sister Nina who I love very much.
So, here is the step-by-step tutorial on usage of the scrapbooking kit Grunge Love!
1. Start Photoshop and open one of the background files provided in „Scrapbook Page Kit: Grunge Love”. In this tutorial I used “bgr4.jpg”.
2. Choose the photos you want to use in this scrapbook page. Since I am dedicated this scrapbook to my sister, I used her photo (these funny photos are taken with fish eye lens.)
3. Drag and drop this photo to a layer above the background and open one of the frames (“png” files – transparent). Drag and drop the frame (in this case “frame01.png” from Scrapbook Page Kit: Grunge Love) to the layer above the photo. Align it and scale so that it fits.
4. If you want to work with corners separately, select the one you want to move with “Rectangular Marquee Tool” and move it around, or cut out the photo to fit the frame. (Tip: using simple Rectangular Marquee Tool or Polygonal Lasso Tool surround the frame corner and, while holding Ctrl key, press arrow keys up and down. Now the corner is selected. :))
5. Add another photo and add another frame. Now, you can rotate the photo and the corners (all layers) together (except for the background, you don’t want to rotate background). So, select the layers with photos and corners by holding the “Ctrl” key (Press Ctrl, hold it down and click on layers one by one until all layers are selected). Now press Ctrl+T for Free Transform and rotate the selected layers for, say, 15 degrees. Hit Enter once you’re done.
6. Now you can use one or two (or more) heart symbols. I went for heart with wings. Rotate them for 15 degree too.
7. Open the “loveLetters.png” file (also from Scrapbook Page Kit: Grunge Love) and add letters at the layer above.
8. Add one symbol in the background (just above the background layer), for example you can choose “heartTransparent.png” (from the same Scrapbook Page Kit). Use layer blend modes and select “Multiply”…
9. That’s it!
As you can see it’s quite simple. Everything you need is included in the kit (except for the photo of my sister :))
So, if you still haven’t, you can still get this kit for free when you purchase Photoshop Brushes – Floral Shapes ($9.99). Or you can get Grunge Love Scrapbook Kit individually for $4.99.
Have fun creating!
_______________________________
NOTICE:
This package is quite heavy – 44Mb. This is because all images are in highest resolution 12″x12″ at 300dpi for those of you who want to print it in a professional way. I’m saying this because the download might take long especially for those of you who don’t have high-speed broadband Internet connection.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Wedding Photoshop brushes in Invitations! Are you getting married? No? Well, anyway. If you are interested in creating your own wedding invitations or would like to grab an idea on how it's done - here is the full psd layered wedding invitation file with instructions. Have fun!
Read More Post a comment (8)Gang,
Sooner or later, most of us are bound to get married. If not us, then some of our friends, or family. And what nicer task can we have but to design a wedding invitation.
Wedding is a very special day for everyone and, as a designers, we are all expected to deliver a very special wedding invitation. Isn’t it? I mean everybody will look at it and if it’s really good, they will also want to meet the designer, no? And then … who knows? :-) Many people also frame their wedding invitations.
So, I came up with this tutorial that will show you how to make a wedding invitation with a little help from our Ultimate Wedding Photoshop Brushes Set ->.
Continue reading the tutorial ->
Popularity: 6% [?]
Guys, I know many of you use Paint Shop Pro.
To be honest, back in the ’90 or ’91 at the times when I was just starting to discover the magic of graphics on PC, my first bitmap editing program was Corel… Photo Paint I think was the name.
Only later on I moved over to Photoshop, but I missed some of it’s features for a long time after.
So, for those of you who would like to use beautiful and the coolest Photoshop brushes ever in Paint Shop Pro, here is the tutorial on how to convert Photoshop Brushes to Paint Shop Pro Brushes ->
I hope you’ll enjoy it!
Darijan
Popularity: 3% [?]
Photoshop Tutorial on How to Color the brush in the fastest possible way.
Read More Post a comment (16)The most important shortcuts when working with Photoshop brushes are the one to select Brush tool on the main Toolbar - "B", to get the Brushes Toolbar on the screen - "F5", to decrease the brush size "[", to increase the brush size "]", to select next brush on brushes palette "." and to select previous brush on brushes palette ",".
Read More Post a comment (3)
Hi Gang! It’s been a while and I feel totally bad about not writing for so long (5 days!). And many things have happened in the meantime.
We had technical issues with our WordPress blog, then we upgraded it to the latest 2.5 version, then we had some more technical issues – BUT it is all resolved now!!!! (Thank you Nickola from Siteground! You’ve been a great help and support in a tough times!)
So, we’re up and running again and it is my great pleasure to introduce our first guest writer:
Lauren from Creative Curio
Lauren has been in the graphic design industry since 2003 and currently runs Creative Curio, a graphic design focused blog. Scrapbooking has been her hobby since around the same time, and she loves this no-pressure creative outlet. Therefore, she didn’t think twice when we asked her if she would like to write about scrapbooking.
So, if you’d like to find out how was the scrapbook image above done check out Scrapboking tutorial: Children in Spring –> by Lauren from Creative Curio.
Popularity: 1% [?]
OK. So for those of you who want to do everything by yourself, here is the tutorial, or should I say – a recipe!
So what we need is:
1. A brand new image sized 400 x 425 pixels (of course, you can make it any size you want)
2. Rockwell font (This one has to be bought, but I recommend dafont.com as a great resource for free fonts so if you don’t have it and don’t want to buy, you can take the one you like from there.)
3. Butterflies Swirls. Those can be bought too, set of 20 for $9,99 or downloaded for free, set of 5.
Now, many of you have asked how to get free version of butterflies. Here is how:
1. Subscribe to my super-dooper newsletter (where I only write about cool stuff!) Subscribe by clicking here –>!
2. You will receive the link to the freebies (43 free sets of Photoshop brushes, Butterfiles are among them)
3. Click on the link (or image with the Butterflies brushes) and – voila, just download them.
(OK, I’d prefer if you buy it. If you can’t afford, drop me a mail.)
So, we’re ready to start.
It all starts with a gradient from blue to black as shown here:
Then well add a elegant glowing line with few sparkles. Line was done with a pen tool. Then, when in a new layer, select Brush tool and select simple good old fashioned Photoshop default brush like this:
Now select Pen tool, position it above the path, right-click the mouse select stroke subpath, make sure Brush is selected as well as Simulate pressure, you can now hide the path with Ctrl+H and – Voila! Nice! In’nit?
Add a few dots using really small brush add some outer glow, here are the settings:
And this is the result:
Now, let’s add text and butterflies and after a bit of playing with the same effects that we used for sparkles and the stroke we get:
And finally, I wanted to add some more color to the graphics:
As you can see this was done by adding two more layers, each of them partially filled with Gradient tool and blending set to color. These layers are positioned above the background and the stroke and below the butterflies and text.
And voila! Here it is! Our new creation:
Popularity: 1% [?]
Hi Gang,
I was playing around with one of my sunset photos and wanted to find out how could I use my Swirls Photoshop brushes there.
So, here is the result. I hope you like it.
The recipe:
- Photo of a sunset
- Loads of Filter -> Stylize -> Gloving Edges
- Loads of Filter -> Blur -> Radial Blur
- A bit of Layer Blending Options
and the Swirls Brushes set! Get it here ->!
Have fun creating,
S :)
Popularity: 2% [?]
Hello everyone and Happy Easter!
For today I have prepared another tutorial on how to create your own brush.
This time it is about creating fractal Photoshop brushes.
I am sure many of you will like this kind of graphics:
But, if you are a beginner you probably assume that it’s extremely difficult, first, create your own custom brush and then create such graphic with it.
Well, it’s not! And I intend to show you how to do it in this tutorial.
So, for starters, to follow this tutorial you will need to have CorelDRAW! or Adobe Illustrator or some other software that does vector graphics. First, we will create a shape in CorelDRAW!, then export it to .EPS file, import to Photoshop and make a brush out of it. And that’s it!
So, let’s start CorelDRAW! and make a nice curved line using Bezier Tool:
Then, duplicate this line by dragging it and right-clicking the mouse on a new location:
Then select both line and go to Effects->Blend, Apply (you can leave all settings as they are)
Modify and adjust the shape by selecting various curves from top or bottom line and moving it around until you are happy with the shape.
I must say, I was quite happy with this one :)
So, basically, our work here at CorelDRAW! is over. Now, when I think, maybe I should have used Illustrator, but let’s leave it for another occasion.
The last thing that is to be done here in CorelDRAW! is to export that shape in to .eps file. Go to File->Export-> On the pull down menu select “.eps”, give it some name, leave “Selected only” switched on and click Export:
Click ok and save it.
Now, let’s move onto Photoshop. Here I used Photoshop CS3 but you can use any version from Photoshop 7.0 onward.
In Photoshop go to File->New, Give it dimensions 2500px by 2500px (that is the largest brush size you can get) at 300px (it has to be big so that it can be used for large format printing as well, not just web).
Now, go to File -> Place, browse to our .eps file and place it into this new Photoshop file. Make sure to stretch it before hitting enter so that it is stretched from end to end like this:
Fine! We’re getting there, bare with me just a few more minutes :)
As you have probably noticed the .eps we placed onto our new Photoshop file is not really black as it should be. This can cause this brush to appear transparent when used in the future and therefore we need to make sure that our future brush is really black. Therefore, make sure you selected the layer with our shape and go to Layer -> New Adjustment Layer -> Curves and to the following:
Now, our future brush will be black!
So, after this we are ready to finish and create our first, custom made, Photoshop brush. Go to Edit -> Define Brush Preset and give it a name:
It will automatically appear as the last one on your present brushes list.
That’s it! Voila! Congratulations! You just made your own brush! Now, if you want to save it as an independent .abr file you will need to delete all brushes from your brushes list because otherwise your .abr (brush file) will contain all brushes from the list. So, after you deleted all other brushes except for the one you just created
Now, you just go to save brushes, give it a name and save it to:
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS3\Presets\Brushes
And, now that’s really the end.
Now with a little playing with brush settings and Filter -> Render -> Lens Flare in no time you can create image like the one on the top of this post.
Look, in case you don’t want to go through all this and think that the trouble of creating some 29 fractal brushes is worth $9,99 - I’ll be much obliged if you go and buy the whole 29 Fractal Brushes Set.
Brushes are ready to download in two editions:
Lite edition: Fractals – set of 3 Photoshop brushes
Sorry, 5 days subscription free download offer expired. However, you can still get those! Join GBG and enjoy this free Photoshop brushes set + more than 1500 other free downloads. Please read about our free download policy and join our GBG for more free downloads. Thanks!
Premium edition: Fractals – set of 29 Photoshop brushes (Photoshop CS3, CS4, CS5… and all newer versions compatible)
Popularity: 6% [?]
St. Patrick’s is getting closer and closer. Many of you would like to spice-up your blogs, webs or other designs with some cool graphics for the occasion. Well, now is the chance. There is no faster and more efficient way of making St. Patrick’s day graphics than using St. Patrick’s themed Photoshop brushes.
This simple graphics can be done in 1 minute and 52 Seconds.
Enjoy some Irish music in this short tutorial video which shows you how it’s done.
Say NO to procastrination!
Click here to get this great brush and start creating the coolest St. Patrick’s Day graphics NOW!
Popularity: 1% [?]
The story about Photoshop brushes has some controversy in it.
On one hand, many people, even experienced Photoshop users, don’t really use this feature very often. Maybe because it was pretty limited before and not so widely known among early Photoshop adopters.
On the other hand, beginners know even less about it as it sounds like some advanced users tool.
And it’s not. I’d even say that Photoshop brushes are great tool for beginners.
Why?
Because, you can make a great looking graphics in literally 10 seconds with Photoshop brushes. Period.
Once the spacing and scattering parameters (and others) are adjusted (and anyone can do that) it is only a matter of making several strokes with the brush along your working area.
You don’t need to know how to draw, how to work with paths, how apply special effects, play with masks … as I said – Photoshop brushes are perfect beginners tool which can, in hands of an advanced user, create a graphical symphony in no time.
See more in the “Introduction to Photoshop brush settings” video ->
Have fun creating!
S :)
Popularity: 1% [?]
This tutorial will show you how to create, fast and simple, but effective, winter scene in Photoshop. Use it for your own postcard, greeting card or scrapbook page.
1. Create a new document 6”x4” and color the background using Linear Gradient Tool with light blue (cyan) to white like this:
2. To make hills landscape use the Elliptical Marquee Tool and make some ellipses on a new layer holding down the “Shift” button like this:
3. Fill the hills shape with the same linear gradient fill you used for the background. Copy the “hills” layer and flip the layer horizontally. Now, lower the upper “hills” layer a bit. Reduce the opacity of the hills in the background (lower „hills“ layer) to 50%
4. It should look like this:
5. Add some white thick brush strokes in the blue area and
6. use the Blur Tool (50) to create the clouds effect.
7. It should look like this:
8. Now we need some trees? Yes. Use Polygonal Lasso Tool and create triangle as shown on the following screen shot.
9. Then, press Shift key and while holding it down make another two triangles and the trunk as presented on the following screen shots.
10. Now it’s time to fill the trees with some color. For that purpose we will use the gradient that we used earlier in this tutorial. Convert the tree to a Smart Object – later you can duplicate it and change it’s size without loosing it’s quality.
11. When done with trees, merge all layers that contain trees and copy it.
12. Duplicate the trees layer. Drag one of them between two layers with hills. Flip that layer horizontally (that hill is already flipped so the tress will match).
13. Now we need some snowflakes. A perfect opportunity to use my “Snowy skies” Photoshop brush. Let’s make it white.
14. set the snowflakes layer opacity to 50%.
15. Simple winter scene in Photoshop is done!
******
Few Simple Samples
© Photographer: bsilvia | Agency: Dreamstime.com
© Photographer: bsilvia | Agency: Dreamstime.com
© Photographer: bsilvia | Agency: Dreamstime.com
Popularity: 6% [?]
Link: video tutorial on how to create big popart circle in Photoshop
I feel good and I don’t like sitting in front of my computer at this stage. No! I’m kind of a lazy since Friday. At Saturday I was in Graz :) and yesterday I was walking through my city and take some photos!
Now, weekend is over and work has to be done.
Back then in July I posted one tutorial named: How to create big popart circle in Photoshop. Since then I received many questions, comments and emails that tutorial doesn’t work in CS3… well, it’s working and I decided to do video tutorial, simple and fast, easy and short.
Watch the video tutorial on how to create big popart circle in Photoshop or visit a step by step tutorial here.
Usage samples:
© Photographer: | Agency: Dreamstime.com
© Photographer: | Agency: Dreamstime.com
© Photographer: | Agency: Dreamstime.com
© Photographer: | Agency: Dreamstime.com
(Winners will be announced soon)
Enjoy!
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And now – it’s video time: this is one small step for the mankind and one giant step for me. And for this blog. Ladies and gentleman, for the first time in history, I bring you: Digital scrapbooking video tutorial and Free Digital Scrapbooking layout!
Sorry, 5 days subscription free download offer expired. Download is now available after joining GBG. Please read about our free download policy and join our GBG for more free downloads. Thanks!
Get your popcorn, sit back and relax. This video will blow your socks off! In 8 minutes guide you will be shown how to make a seasonal scrapbook pages for your Christmas & New Year & Winter & Holidays photos!
And this is not all! On the top of it you get to download all related files in png format so you can start using them immediately. Oh, yes, did I mention it’s all for free? (Of course you are also free to utilize my appreciation button:)
Let’s begin! With this video tutorial (please be patient while loading video, it is really huge) you can learn how to create your own digital scrapbooks in Photoshop.
Yes – subscribe to my newsletter and scrapbook pages are available for download! Here’s the small preview of four different pages in the latest Digital Scrapbook “Holiday” set:
Pages are in 7,5“x7,5“ size at 300px per inch which is more than enough for your printer.
Have a fun!
S*
Popularity: 1% [?]
I assume that you worked on your swirls creation technique with a little help of my previous tutorial (How to draw swirls illustrations in Adobe Illustrator, Part One).
Now, let’s make a little case study. To make a Swirl Illustrations that looks like the one in the header of graphics-illustrations blog, we need:
- Swirls symbols set, Adobe Illustrator
- Ink Splatter symobls set, Adobe Illustrator
- Classic artist brush set or Classic Artist brush symbols set
- Adobe Illustrator Floral Brushes set
Determine the size and shape of the blank space. We will now use simple quadrant shape.
Create a new layer bellow. Use the simple artist brush symbol below the layer that contains the quadrant to create an “outline”
Again, create a new layer. Now add some ink splatters around, on that layer.
Add some swirls on the layer above the layer that contains ink splatters (but bellow the layer with the shape and layer with it’s outline)
Add some more swirls, and also add some swirls on the new layer on the top.
In the end, add some stars… and that’s it.
© Photographer: Bsilvia | Agency: Dreamstime.com
If you’re wondering how to colorize the symbols or even change their shapes: select all symbols and use the “Break Link to Symbol” – now you can manipulate shapes and colors until the dawn breaks or until you’re happy with the results – whatever comes first
:)
Hugs!
Popularity: 11% [?]
I received several inquiries on how to draw a swirls illustration. Swirls illustration does not require extensive knowledge, only a little practice and a visit of a “Muse”.
One of the problems that beginners face when entering the world of adobe illustrator is proper positioning of the vector control points.
For starters, my advice is to make a circle (use Elipse tool+Shift combination). Select the circle using “Direct SelectionTool”, four basic points and vector controllers (red extension lines).
Draw using “Pencil tool” and practice making various swirls. This is just for practice, we are not making any swirls there, but it is important to play with handles here and try to create some shape for the practice purposes.
Play with “Pencil Tool Preferences”, see how they affect the drawing.
Now, take it to the next step and make a simple “swirl” shape. Something like this:
Then make it’s inner (or outer) outline following the existing line. Connect outer and inner line in order to get closed shape: select two starting points and to Object -> Path -> Join. Do the same with two ending points. Reduce or add points using “Pen Tool” in order to fine tune the swirl shape.
Color the swirl and store it as a Brush or a Symbol. Make a small database of various shapes that will later be used for drawing Swirls Illustrations, like mine “Adobe Illustrator Swirls Symbols” – Subscribe to my newslwtter and download them for free
*********
31.07.2008.
And here is latest addition – another approach to creating swirls in Adobe Illustrator – Video:
Important notice:
In order to follow this video effectively please make sure that your mouse pointer is always close to “Pause” button, as you will need to press Pause a lot in order to follow this exercise effectively, i.e. by taking the same actions on your computer.
Thank you Rachid for allowing me to use your music for this video!
Love,
S :)
P.S.: You can buy Swirls Illustrations for your graphic designs for $1!
Popularity: 4% [?]
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