Using Digistamps and Brushes ...Part Three.. Digistamps as a pattern background in PSP

In this part we will be using a Digistamp in PSP  and making a patterned background paper..


Open your PSP  this will work in all versions... Im using psp9 here  however some of the newer ones will have the tools in a different place..

  What you'll need:  Background paper:   Digistamp:  Colour Palette: Textures

Download the supplies I've used 

To read about digistamps and how to install PS and AI brushes got to the files pages above or click here 

Open your zip file and unzip your Digistamps to a folder of choice  and the canvas files to your PSP files: Textures   folder  

In PSP make a new Image 600 by 600 px 300dpi 

Open your digistamps in PSP and resize them to 300 pixels on the longest side

Now place your digistamps onto the new image and arrange them in a pattern you like

Here I've duplicated one of the stamps and flipped and mirrored it to make them sit square

On your Materials palette click on the foreground box to open the menu

Choose the Pattern option and in the drop down choose the image with your digistamps on

 Change the Angle to 135 and Scale to 50

Open a new image 3600 by 3600 px 300 dpi

and flood-fill that new image with your pattern

 

 Add a new layer and drag this layer to the bottom  change your foreground  back to colour and flood-fill this layer with a colour of your choice

 

  You can leave your paper as it is and merge your layers but lets play with some blends and texture

 Working on the top ( stamps ) layer change the blend options until you find an effect you like

 

Here I've used the overlay option

Merge your layers

Open the texture palette 

Choose the canvas course texture   its a little harsh so change the depth to 1 and leave everything else as is

There you have it one patterned paper

Here's mine

Try changing the colour of the stamp layer

Try different textures

Try different angles and moving the stamps about on the small image

Try different amounts of stamps

Try a gradient or Pattern for the background layer

Using Digistamps and Brushes ...Part Two..Airbrushing digistamps as a background in PSP

In this part we will be using a Digistamp in PSP  and Use the Airbrush tool to colour it in and  make a pretty background paper..

.so open your PSP  this will work in all versions... Im using psp9 here  however some of the newer ones will have the tools in a different place..

           What you'll need:  Background paper:   Digistamp:  Colour Palette

Download the supplies I've used 

To read about digistamps and how to install PS and AI brushes got to the files pages above or click here 

Open PSP and either find in your stash or make yourself a 3600 x 3600 300dpi  white background paper and add some colour by either using blot brushes or using the air brush...I've picked the we used in the last tutorial so they match.

Its a little dark so we will lighten it..  its a flattened image so we need to promote the background to a layer

Add a new Layer  Fill it with white and drag this layer below the background

Now lower the opacity on the backround layer till you have something quite soft and pretty i went down to 42%

Merge Flatten 

Add a new layer

Choose your digistamp and paste it into this layer

Rename this Layer BASE

New Layer  

**Note:   Be sure to remember that every time we use a different colour we will need a new layer

Select the airbrush tool;

And use  these settings  Shape: round   Size: 85   Hardness: 0 Steps: 5 Density: 40 Thickness: 51 Rotation: 0  Opacity : 5  Blend: Normal Rate: 1 

well be working on the top new layer

choosing the colour you have chosen  paint inside the inside of the petals...don't worry about going over the lines we will clean up later and if there's gaps all the better it shouldn't be too neat 

New Layer

 

Change your brush size to 22  your brush opacity to 15 and your foreground colour to the one you have chosen for the flower centres and buds and fill those in  again it wont hurt if its messy

New Layer

Change your brush size to 35  keep your brush opacity to 15 and your foreground colour to the one you have chosen for the leaves and fill those in  

 

looks a bit shabby just now but dont worry

New Layer

Keeping your brush size to 35  and your brush opacity to 15 change your foreground colour to a darker shade that you have chosen for the leaves and fill half the leaves with that,,do all the leaves on the same side to look like the sun is on them

  

Lower the layer opacity to about 68

New Layer

Change your brush size to 84  and keeping your brush opacity to 15 change your foreground colour to a darker shade that you have chosen for the petals and fill half like you did with the  leaves staying more to edge thought on the same side again to look like the sun is on them

Lower the layer opacity to about 68

these are the layers you should have now

Now hide the Base and merged background layers by clicking the eyes next to the layer

select one of the other layers right click and select Merge Visible

rename this layer Colour and drag it down below the Base layer

keep this layer selected  and unhide the other layers

Select your Eraser tool

And use  these settings  Shape: round   Size: 32   Hardness: 100 Steps: 25 Density: 100 Thickness: 48 Rotation: 0  Opacity : 26  

Now with the eraser you can tidy up the outside of the lines...you can make it as neat as you like but i think a few bits showing look quite good and shows its been done by hand

Once your happy you can go ahead and merge all the layers

but try experimenting with the blend modes on the top layer

  Luminance

 Overlay

Hard light

Heres my Finished paper

Keep experimenting and see what you can come up with

Using Digistamps and Brushes ...Part One..digistamps as a background in PSP

 Welcome to the first of my mini tuts on using Digistamps and brushes ...in this part we will be using a Digistamp in PSP  and making a simple but pretty background paper...so open your PSP  this will work in all versions... im using psp9 here  however some of the newer ones will have the tools in a different place..


What you'll need:  Background paper:   Digistamp:  Colour Pallette

 

Download the supplies I've used 

Right click..save as : or  right click copy image and paste into PSP

To read about digistamps and how to install PS and AI brushes got to the files pages above or click here 

Open PSP and either find in your stash or make yourself a 3600 x 3600 300dpi  white background paper and add some colour by either using blot brushes or using the air brush...ive picked one i made a while back with a watercolour effect blot type brush 

Its a little dark so we will lighten it..  its a flattened image so we need to promote the background to a layer

Add a new Layer  Fill it with white and drag this layer below the background

Now lower the opacity on the backround layer till you have something quite soft and pretty i went down to 42%

do not merge any layers yet...
Add a new layer

Open your chosen Digistamp and past in onto the new top layer and place it where you want it to sit

now you can choose to recolour or to blend your digistamp in ...


to recolour .....using the manual colour correction tool    (Adjust / Colour Balance / Manual colour correction)  and making sure you are working on the Stamp layer    pick the stamp colour as your source and for the target choose a  colour from your background and darken it a bit..

 

Its pretty as it is  so you can go ahead and merge your layers and save

 

Here Ive added some texture to the background and a drop-shadow with a large blur to the stamp 

To Blend


Merge the two bottom layers so you have now just the background with the stamp layer above and make sure this top layer is active

Now using the blend mode drop down box  scroll through all the blends until you find an effect you like

these effects will differ depending on the colour in the background layer and the colour of the stamp

so recolour the stamp and go through the blends again ...still not happy recolour the stamp again and try again there are many many possibility's here

So using the stamps original colour, and the blend mode on dodge I got this...

Recolouring the stamp a dark red colour, and the blend mode on soft light I got this....

I like the first one so I'm merging my layers and that's it done...

But dont stop there

Before I merged this time I duplicated the background, mirrored and flipped it and lowered the opacity a little.  I added a another  stamp above this layer which I blended using the soft light blend....

 

Keep experimenting and see what you can come up with