Saturday Special/January 10th/Stroking
Stroking. Have you ever used this fun little technique? Stroking a photo gives it the look of a mat. Stroking an element or word art gives it the look of a sticker. I’ve stroked plenty of photos, but when I saw this layout, I wanted to try out stroking a title like Krista did (and she used GG Digital Designs adorable kit, “Ain’t She Sweet)!
Using PSE, this technique is super easy! If you use a different program and are able to do this technique, please share with us how to do it in your program!!
First, select an element. I used the cute little deer from Erica Zane’s kit, Woodland Fantasy.
Now, with the deer layer selected in your layers palette, go to <edit> and select <stroke (outline) selection>.
Here is where you can play around a bit with the stroke. Change its width (I like 20-25 px) and color (I made mine white). I kept the stroke in the center position, but try the other settings to find your preference. You can also play around with the blending modes to add your own flare!
Click <okay> and see what you came up with. If you don’t like it, then <undo> and play around with it some more.
Try it with some text. After you type out the text, simplify your text layer and then follow the above steps.
Now all you have to do is include some stroking in your layout. Can’t wait to see what you’ve done.
Here’s what some of the Scrap Matters CT came up with…
I used Erica Zane’s Woodland Fantasy
Monique used Flirt Mini Kit, Stitches from Kelly’s Apple Farm, WaterColour Doodles and Paint strokes (all by Happy Scrap Girl)
Melanie used Jeepers Creepers by Jeni Hopewell
And for a recap…You have until the end of the month to complete the challenge. You receive one point for participating in the challenge (don’t forget to link up your layout in this forum here). If you use a newly released Scrap Matters product in you layout and mention that in the forum, you will receive another point. And because you all make it so hard for me with your awesome layouts, I’ll chose one random winner at the end of the month to receive an additional point. All of the nitty-gritty, fine details on the Matter of Scrap challenges can be found here.
Have fun with this one!! Can’t wait to see your layouts!
Andrea (a.k.a chia)
Tags: photoshop, photoshop tutorial, stroke
January 10th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
Great tut! You can also do strokes in photoshop, but I don’t know about any of the other software programs. Thanks for sharing.
January 11th, 2009 at 6:49 am
I think I recreated a similar effect using PSP X2. I put some text or an element on a new layer. I used my magic wand to select the edges of the text or element. With the text I needed to select each letter by holding down the shift key and click on each letter. I then went to Selections > Modify > Expand and then choose how large I wanted my outline to be. Then I created a new layer under my text or element and used my paint bucket to fill it with white (or whatever color you prefer). At this point you can add dropped shadows or experiment with the Blend Mode in your Layers Palette to create different effects.