Make Your Own Element Bags for Scrapbooking

Make Your Own Element Bags for Scrapbooking
done in Adobe Photoshop CS3

Note: All settings in this tutorial are applicable to the size and resolution used. If you want to try this tutorial in a different size and resolution, adjust also some settings.

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1. Go to File>New. Open a new file of about 2400x2400pixels with 300dpi.

2. You can change your background color if you want. Select the Rounded Rectangle tool . Set the radius to 100 and set your foreground to your chosen color for the body. In this tutorial, I used #fcf9e6. Then drag according to your desired size. I think i dragged for a size of about 1200x1600. Sorry for not so sure because i did not use the fixed size in dragging.

3. Rasterize the layer. In your Layer palette, right click on the layer name and choose Rasterize Layer.

4. Now, hold CTRL key in your keyboard and click on the layer thumbnail of the Shape layer. This will the entire size of the shape layer. Then select the Rectangular Marquee tool and click the Subtract from selection option. Drag a selection to be subtracted. The remaining upper will be the selection.

5. Then click the Create New Layer button at the bottom of the Layer palette and name it as "top." Set your foreground to any brown color like #998675. Press ALT+Backspace to fill it. Press CTRL+D to deselect. If you see some thin lines on any side of the top layer, that's the trace of the Shape layer. But do not be alarmed because it will disappear later.






6. Then select the Rectangular Marquee tool and drag a small rectangular selection at the upper center of the top layer. Then switch to Elliptical Marquee tool and drag for additional selection at the upper center of the rectangular selection. Make sure that you have clicked the Add to selection option before dragging with the Elliptical Marquee tool . After you have done, press Delete. Then select the Shape layer and press Delete also. Then press CTRL+D to deselect.

7. Go back again to top layer, select it. This time we will add some texture to the top layer. Go to Filter>Texture>Texturizer and do the following settings: Click OK when you are done.

8. Add also some shadow on the top layer. Click the Add a Layer Style button at the bottom of the layer palette and choose Drop Shadow. Just use the default settings. Click OK. Then create layer for this shadow effect. Right click on the Drop Shadow effect and choose Create Layer. This will create a separate layer for the layer effect.

9. I have to zoom a liitle bit my image with Zoom tool . Select the Drop Shadow layer and click the Eraser tool from the tool palette and start erasing the shadow part indicated in the picture below:

10. Select now the Shape layer and add also drop shadow. Use the default settings. We don't have to create layer for this effect.

11. And to finish, merge the three layers. Select the top layer, the drop shadow layer and the Shape layer at the same time by CTRL+click on each layer name. Then right click and choose Merge Layers. This will merge these three layers into one layer.






And this is now the final element bag. You can now hide the Background layer and save it in .png form. Anyway, the the thin lines overlapping i was referring earlier is now disaapeared when we merge the layers.






Now, if you want to make a different color out of it, just use the HUE/Saturation in the Add New Fill or Adjustment Layer button at the bottom of the layer palette. Use the slider options to adjust the seetings.