Use Custom Shapes - 5 Creative ways in Photoshop & PSE

Shapes are one of those things that I never really bothered with when I started digital scrapbooking. There were so many prettier things, and honestly, the hard work was already done for me when I used those other pretties. But recently, I’ve found I like to use Custom Shapes. The secret was using them to make my life easier, rather than finding ways to try and incorporate them. Today, I am going to share with you five ways that I make custom shapes work for me!

First, though, if you’re new to Custom Shapes, you may want to know where are these shapes located? In Photoshop Elements 12, they are located under the Draw menu. (Earlier versions have their own separate heart icon.)

When you click on the Custom Shapes tool, it will give you a drop-down menu (located at the bottom, if you use PSE12). From here, you can select which type of shape you need. If you select the irregular “blob” shape, it gives you further options via another drop-down menu.

Scroll through the menus to find the item you need.

Now that we know where they are, how can we use these shapes as tools to make our craft easier? Here are my “Top 5 Simple Ways”:

1. Make a Patterned Paper
For this example, I selected a flower from the Custom Shapes menu. Placing it on my page, I resized it and duplicated it a number of times.

Then using the Align tool, I selected all my shapes and perfectly aligned them.

Duplicating this row and sliding it along, merging and copying, I started to fill the page.

Using the Distribute tool, I filled the page and created my very own custom paper!

It is so easy to create a simple paper using Custom Shapes!

2. Use Custom Shapes as a Scatter

Again, select the shape you need. To create a scatter, you need to not only duplicate your shape many times, but to resize it and rotate it. Sometimes, you can merge a few pieces and duplicate them, depending on how it flows.

In my example, I added a glitter style to my scatter to further enhance the scatter effect.

3. Use a Shape to Create a Photo Mat

This time, I used Crop Shapes, selecting a couple of shapes and merging them to create a photo mat with a shape I liked. Then I simply added a chalkboard style to the paper and a chalk style to the new mat. Simple!

4. Use Custom Shapes as Cut-Outs

For a bit of fun, I matched the star shape with Jennifer Ziegler’s Beyond the Stars Collection paper and laid out the shapes in a pleasing manner, resizing them as I went. Using Brandy Murry’s Gold and Cut Out Styles, I now have a fun paper that would work well with a variety of photos.

5. Use Custom Shapes as a Border

Under the Custom Shape menu, I selected a cut-out rectangle shape. Holding down the Shift key, I drew out a square shape. Deleting the blue fill layer left me with this border.

If I wanted a slimmer border I would use the Rectangular Marquee tool to “trim” it. This would be a great finish to a simple, single-photo page.

So there you have it! Five super simple ways to make Custom Shapes work for you, to help you speed up your scrapping, and to add to your toolkit. I encourage you to use Custom Shapes, check out what is in the drop-down menus, and post your creations to our Scrap Girls Gallery. We love to be inspired!

If you enjoyed using the Custom Shapes in Photoshop Elements and want to take it further, Diane Lardieri has a great article on the Scrap Girls Blog: Custom Shapes in PSE.