This tutorial is going to show you how to make a quick and beautiful pattern digital scrapbooking paper using some of your favorite brushes.

For this tutorial I am going to use the Bunches of Roses and Grunge Brush sets. First you will need to open your brushes, and if you have not already done so, load them. All the brushes sold in the store come with easy to follow directions on loading. Keep in mind if you are using Photoshop Elements, you may need to load your brushes from the PNG files included in the set.

(Note: The concepts for this tutorial will work for Paint Shop Pro, as well. You will just have to load the brushes the "PSP" way. Here's a great tutorial about that here. Running Digital Image Pro? Here's a tutorial for you that covers how to use brushes in DIP.)

 

To load brushes from the PNG file, you will go Edit> Define Brush.

Next, a box will come up for you to either name your brush or click "OK" to use the default name.

 

To create the paper, I'm going to use Brush #6 from the Grunge Brush set. First, you need to open a new 12x12 blank file, dpi of 300, RGB color and transparent background.

 

Fill this background with a solid color using the Paint Bucket. Next, you are going to select the Grunge Brush you just created. Do this by clicking on your Brush Tool and then selecting the drop-down box across the top of your Tool Bar. Your Grunge Brush should be the last brush in the list.

 

Select a color for your brush that is just a shade different than your background color.

 

Create a new layer, then using your brush, randomly stamp all over the background. Your goal is to cover almost the whole background.

 

Now create another layer and choose either another shade of the same color, or a contrasting color and stamp all over the new layer. To get a more random stamp look, you can change the direction of the brush. Click on the "More Options" button across the top Tool Bar. There you can change the angle of the brush.

 

When you finish your layers it should look something like this.

Next, using your brush, you are going to change it to an Eraser and start erasing parts of each layer. Keep in mind you can change the Opacity of the brush to get more of a random look. Also, try using a different brush from what you stamped your color on with.

 

Here is my paper after I finished erasing.

 

Next try changing the Blend Modes of each of your stamped layers. Here are a few examples: In this one, my middle layer has been changed to "Soft Light."

 

And this is the one I'll be using. My top layer has been changed to "Color Burn" and the middle layer is set at "Normal."

 

Next we are going to stamp on our pattern. First choose the brush you want to use as your pattern and create the brush in Photoshop. After you have done this, choose the color you would like (for this I’m using another shade of red), create a new layer and stamp some of your pattern on the paper.

 

For the flower pattern, I will create several different layers, stamping a few flowers on each. Keep in mind to also vary the direction of your brush (under "More Options" in your Tool Bar) and size of your brush.

 

When you are finished, your digital scrapbooking paper should look something like this.

Don't worry about the patterns overlapping, because the next step you are going to take is to go in and change the Blend Mode on your pattern layers. Play using different Blend Modes and Opacities until you get the look you like.

 

For mine, I'm going to use the Blend Mode "Color Burn" and "Normal," and I'm also going to play with the opacity of each layer. Here is my final paper.

 

At this point, you have a patterned paper that is ready to save and use. You will need to merge the layers. This can be done by going to Layers> Merge Visible. Then save your file as a JPG.

Remember, the key to this is to experiment. Stamp your brushwork on several layers and experiment with the Blend Modes and Opacities until you get a look you like.

Tutorial uses:

	Note: Commercial license versions of Grunge Brushes and Bunches of Roses Brushes are also available.

Tutorial by Angie Briggs