TECHNIQUE: Creating Layered Templates

From YourSITE.com

*NEW
TECHNIQUE: Creating Layered Templates
By Tracey Renemo 2007
Dec 13, 2007, 08:07

Start with a 12x12 300ppi image, either with a white background layer or a transparent layer.

First we just need to start adding template shapes, scrolls, boxes, tags or whatever you want. Create every shape on a new layer. Position your shapes just like you would if you were creating a scrapbook page.

I find that using either fonts or preset shapes as vectors work very well to create different shapes for your template.

The set of flowers in the lower right corner and the frame shape are .wfm vector shapes that I have and the deco border on the left side is a deco font deformed/rotated with the pick tool and filled to create this image.

After creating the deco border I filled the empty spaces with different shades of gray. By using the selection tool, then create a new layer and bucket filling them. This is so you can easily change those different areas later with papers of your choice.
I just kept doing this until my shapes were all filled.

To learn how to make your own preset shapes visit the tutorial Making Your own Preset Shapes here at Scrapbook-bytes. The flower shape that I used is the one marked in blue.

Here are my layers and my template, you can add drop shadows on the template to any element or shape but create the shadows on a NEW LAYER (notice my two shadow layers above) this is so they do not get selected or colorized with that particular shape later when you are using your template.

Save as a .pspimage for sharing your template with other PSP users or as a .psd if you plan on sharing with other programs.
Well that’s about it, create as many layers as you need and separate as many parts of a shape (like the flower) as you want. I didn’t separate all the petals as I use my selection tool to select continuous colored areas of a layer.