Altering Embellishments using Blend Modes

Let’s not shy away from the obvious: Emily’s first Scrap Girls Club, Antiquities, is gorgeous! The aged papers, the vintage ephemera, the useful buttons, the wonderful, clustered flowers…and the transfers. Those transfers! Their transparency allows them to be used as overlays, as stamps, as photo mats, and even in Art Journaling.

I took some time to play with the transfers and Blending modes to see what different effects I could come up with. Sometimes this is where the inspiration for a page comes from! Those serendipitous discoveries that get you thinking….

Here are three of my favorite transfers with the same three Blending modes applied:

• Darker Color (to blend the transfer into the background) removes the lighter color values.
• Pin Light provides varied looks as it removes 50% of the colored pixels based on a 50% gray threshold, giving a brighter look which is ideal for fresh, light pages and Art Journaling.
• Luminosity resulted in a wonderful, heritage feel when placed against the brown paper background I had selected.

If you would like to read more about these Blending modes and how they work, just click here.

 You can clearly see that the entire feel of the transfer can be changed simply by altering the Blending mode.

I wanted to share how I used Transfer 5 as a photo mat, creating visual interest and anchoring my photo. It looked good in its original form but by using Blending mode: Pin Light, I obtained a light, airy feel, a bit like a watercolor painting – perfect for this photo of a younger me with my sister and cousin.

To further show the possibilities obtained when playing with Blending modes, I used Transfer 3 on my Art Journaling page with Blending mode: Darker Color. I liked Pin Light, but it was too bright for my requirements. Darker Color removed the lighter tones and yet retained the rich golden tones I needed.

I think you will find that transfers are brilliant additions to your digital scrapbooking. They allow the base paper to show through, they are already blended, and they have that artsy feel I always look for in Art Journaling.

Hopefully, I have given you some inspiration to try the transfers, both in a more traditional way as photo mats and backgrounds and in a more artsy way such as Art Journaling. Blending modes change the feel of the transfers and open up a whole new realm of possibilities. Trying different options inspired the direction I took for designing my layouts in this tutorial.

Be brave, be bold – play around with those Blending modes and create something fabulous using Antiquities today! Don’t forget to share it with us in the Scrap Girls Gallery, so we can be inspired by you!

Tutorial written by Jody WestTutorial written using Adobe Photoshop Elements 12 with Windows 7