Photoshop and Brushes

Hello scrappers!

I thought I would talk about brushes today. Brushes and/or stamps are the fundamental elements that are used for digital scrapbooking! Photoshop lets you manipulate brushes in so many different ways, actually too many for me to list here today.  I love to make brushes to go with my kits and, when I was scrapping more, I would go out prowling in my favorite shops for new brushes on a regular, almost daily, basis! Brushes can be used in most, if not all, of the digital photo enhancement software programs today. If you do not have access to brushes or cannot use Photoshop brush files (.abr) you can always use .png files which are considered 'digital stamps.'

The advantages of being able to use the .abr files over the .png files are numerous but the most notable advantage is that you can resize a brush smaller or larger and it does not lose its crisp edges or distort in any way. The .png files can usually be reduced in size but when you enlarge them, most of the time, you end up with an inferior element.

I use brushes to make background papers too.  You can repeat a brush or stamp on a layer above a solid or print layer, add a style (or not) and end up with a beautiful background. Try reducing the opacity of the brushes layer and/or the blending option for the layer, the possibilities are almost endless!

When I make a brush for a challenge in the ScrapBird forum, I always include the .png file format for the brush so anyone can join in on the challenge. So it makes no difference which software program you use to create with, you can always join my challenges!

Here are a few of this month's Brush On! Challenge entries for you to see how the brush was used in three different ways.

In the first layout, smikeel, used the brush as a template and clipped the brush layer to a paper layer to get the multi-colored and textured look for her awesome page,  A Rose:

 

Kim, smikeel, also used one of my templates,  For The Love, and my kit Bright Love; all available at ScrapBird.

In the next layout, by twizzle, you can see she resized the brush and duplicated (also mirrored) it several times to make a border treatment for her photo grouping in her outstanding page, Brothers:

 

 Chris, twizzle, used my kit Afternoon Delight to make her page; it is also available at ScrapBird.

In the third layout, by betsyfru, she recolored the brush and added glitter to the edges and added it as a part of her cluster focal point, to her cheerful and bright page, Candy Love:



Betsy, betsyfru, also use my new kit Bright Love for her page.

When I make a brush for a challenge in the ScrapBird forum, I always include the .png file format for the brush so anyone can join in on the challenge. So it makes no difference which software program you use to create with, you can always join in the fun!

Please drop by the ScrapBird forum and get your free February Brush On! Challenge brush and make your brush masterpiece to share with us!

So I hope these tips and layouts shed some light on the use of brushes and encourage you to include more of them in your scrapbooking layouts! 

Thanks for dropping by and come back soon!