Techniques-Digital - Page 5

Paper and Backgrounds:


• Antique Pots Paper
• Black & White Swirl Paper
• "Blinds" Paper
• Christmas Diamond Paper
• "Classy" Paper
• Clock Paper
• Diamond Paper
• Digital Woven Paper
• Floral Brush Paper
• Font Collage Background
• Happy Paper
• Lace Paper
• Linen Paper
• Love Definitions Background
• Nautical Paper
• Pastel Grunge Paper
• Plaid Paper
• Special Effects Bkgr
• Striped Paper
• Teal Paper
• Time Paper
• Wavy Fern Paper

Other Digital Techniques:


• Brushes-Making, Using, Installing
• Brushes-Backgrounds, Organizing
• Chipboard Letters-Digital
• Christmas Card - Star in the East
• Collage, Digital - Background
• Collage, Digital - Focal
• Computer Generated Text
• Digital Stamping
• Faux Postage - Digital
• Frames
• Filled Text from Selection
• Filled Text from Pattern
• Filled Text from Image
• Gradients-Digital Brayering
• Page Pebbles
• Quick Pages
• Recoloring Clip Art
• Spot Coloring
• Stained Glass
• Stickers
• Word Art

Faux Postage - Digital

First, let's make the postage template (I originally got the idea of using the Gone Postal font to make the template from Mahogany, who writes wonderful PSP tutorials.) However, I was not able to follow all of her steps, so I came up with these variations:

1. Open a 500x400 transparent image. (This will give you an image much larger than needed, but I prefer to work large and then resize my image when I'm done)
   
   
2. Place a capital letter J, size 72 from Jeff Levine's Gone Postal font (http://www.geocities.com/jeffsfonts/dings2.html) onto your image, color white (my samples use a brown color so they will show up better)
   
   
3. Use the Magic Wand to click in open space between outer border and inside border (Image 1)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Choose Selections, Modify, Expand by 3 (this will insure you don't have any gaps when you fill this area in) (Image 2)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. Fill this area with white (or the same color you are using), and Deselect (Ctl+D). (Image 3)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. Using the rectangle selection tool, draw a rectangle around a portion of the inside border as shown and hit the delete key. Deselect (Ctl+D).
   (Image 4)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
7. You now have your basic postage template. This can be used horizontally, or rotated 90 degrees to use vertically. I saved this as a Paint Shop Pro file (.psp) to preserve the layers and keep the transparent background.
   (Image 5)

Now comes the fun part - designing your postage stamp. While there are several ways to do this, following is the easiest one I have come up with:

1. Open your postage template, make a copy, and close your original
   
   
2. Open the image you want to use as your background and resize to approximately 400 x 270 pixels. (This is a little larger than the size of the opening of the postage stamp). See my notes on resizing below.
   
   
3. Copy the image and paste as a new layer into your postage template
   
   
4. Drag the image layer BELOW the postage stamp layer
   
   
5. Use your Move Tool to center, or otherwise arrange the image
   
   
6. Make sure your image layer is active, and use the Eraser Tool to remove any of the image that extends beyond the stamp border
   
   
7. Add a layer and insert any text or postage amount that you want to use.

Note: In all my samples, I added a layer and filled with black, then dragged it under the other layers, so the stamp edge would show. If you save this as a .jpg, with a white background, you will lose the stamp edge. If you are going to print out your stamp, you can add a drop shadow to the postage layer first, and then print on white cardstock. Or, crop the image, including a small portion of the black background and print like that.

Notes on resizing:

• In most cases, you can't just resize your image to 400x270 pixels or the image will be distorted.
• I generally resize the image to 400 horizontal, and check the box that says "proportional." You will then have to crop the vertical, or erase the portion that extends beyond the stamp border
• If I only want to use a portion of my image, I will select that portion, rather than resizing the entire image.
• If the image is too short, or too narrow, you may have to clone some of the background to fill in

In the Camelot stamp shown here, my image was too short to fit in the space, but if I made it any larger, it wouldn't be proportional with the stamp.











I chose the Clone Brush, right clicked in an area of the background, and left clicked on the black area I wanted to fill in. I left most of the top portion of this sample black so you could see what the clone brush does. This works best with an uneven background design. Stripes and checks can be cloned, but it is much more difficult.

This allowed me to fill in the space, and left a blank area for my text.

Published in SSReflections On-Line Ezine