once upon a time a {lovely} artist :: a tutorial

do you remember me presenting this lovely {lady} two weeks ago? well, i challenged this lady this week! when editing i don’t use textures most of the times, not for some particular reason. i know that textures add some mood to an image, but when editing i just feel in a different mood and using a texture is not the answer sometimes. asides from that, i know that i have so much to learn in using textures.

on the other hand i really like what textures add to some images. they turn into something magical… sometimes they remind us of antique treasures… vintage memories in a old attic. well, kristy has some amazing textures and i thought i could learn something from her. how to use a texture was one of those things. so i challenged her. i sent her an image that i was having a hard time to edit and turn it into something nice and she did the magic!

this was the original picture taken by me in lisbon. and these were kristy’s intructions on how to add a texture. these instruction work in every version of photoshop & elements. enjoy!

{how to create a vintage postcard with textures}

1. open your image in your photoshop, drop the {seventeen warm texture} onto your image (file -> place). with the move tool selected pull a corner of the texture to drag it across your image until it’s completely covered.

2. in the layers palette work with your blending modes – it’s the drop down box that always reads normal. with your texture selected in the palette set the blending mode to linear burn.

3. drop and drag the {adresse texture} on top.  add a clipping mask – alt & click between your two textures layers in the layers palette.  set the blending for the top texture to pin light.

4. last layer on the {enchanted texture} and set it’s blending mode to overlay.  next to the blending mode box is the opacity box, it always reads 100%.  with your top layer selected in the layers palette open the opacity box and lower it to around 40%… ta-da!  you’ve just learned how to layer texture, change blending modes, create clipping masks, and adjust the opacity!

and this was our lesson for today! did you enjoy this? now i have one misterious green door… actually this looks like a gate. anyhow, it looks amazing now! you can find kristy’s textures on her {etsy shop} and also on her {texture shop}. she has several challenges going on her {blog} as well, so if you wish to challenge yourself, be my guest! thank you kristy!

note from editor (that would be me!) – the first image is kristy’s and you can jump into her etsy shop, by clicking on it. the tutorial was made from my picture. kristy used her own textures, that you can find & buy on her shops.