I'm trying to cut decorative edges in layers in PS Elements, but the "Wave Frame" effect in the Effects palette produces edges that are too tiny to see. I'm basically trying to mimic the effect we used to get in paper scrapping by using decorative scissors. Any ideas?

Savannah

Well, you could try using a grey scale mask. Check out these freebies. I didn't really see anything that looked quite like edges made by decorative scissors, but you might find some that you like anyway.

Another idea is to build the shape that you want to remove from the edge of the photo. I would use the waves 1 custom shape or the frame 18 custom shape and copy and paste until I had a tool shape that was long enough to span the length of one edge of my photo. Then I would select the tool shape and delete the selection from one edge of the picture. Rotate the tool and repeat select and delete process.

There's probably other ways to do this too but these are the first things that come to mind for me.

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Stacy
My Gallery

avatar photo by Marja Flick-Buijs downloaded at sxc.hu

Hi Savannah (Love your name ).

Another thing you could try if you have a scanner is to cut some card or paper with actual decorative scissors and scan it into PSE2. You should then be able to turn it into your own custom grey scale mask.

HTH.

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Pam

My Digital Art & Photo Gallery: www.pbase.com/pamsav

Savannah-

I had the same question a while back and got this tip from Jay Arraich on the Adobe Photoshop Elements forum. Seems like alot of steps at first but once you do it a few times, it get easier. Hope this helps.

-Barb

Open your (big) picture.
Choose Select > All
Then Edit > Copy
Next, File > New From Clipboard (only reason to use these three steps is to
get the exact proportions).
With copied document active, use Alt-backspace to fill with black. You want
an entirely black document.
Go to Image > Resize > Image Size. Where it says Document Size, change the
menu units to Percent. Make sure Constrain Proportions is selected and also
make sure Resample Image is selected. Pick a very small percent - depending
on the size of your original. If it's very big, make the resizing very
small - 25% or even 10%.
After using Resize, apply your frame effect. This only works for the frames
that make a white border - Strokes Frame, Spatter Frame, Ripple Frame.
With the frame applied, see if it's of a satisfactory width. If the frame
width is too large, Undo the Resize and then Resize again to a something
larger like 50% and apply the effect again.
Once you have the frame you want, go back into Image > Resize > Image size
and restore the document to its original size. This means that if you made
it 25%, you'll want to resize to 400%. If you used 10%, you'll want to use
1000%. If you picked something like 37% for your first resize, it might be
easier to use the original inch dimensions to restore the file size. Just
make use Constrain Proportions and Resample are checked.
Once resized, use the move tool to drag the frame back onto the original
picture. Press the Shift key before dropping to center the layer. Change the
layer blend mode of the frame layer to Screen."
-Jay Arraich

Thanks you for all the help. I finally got the edges the way I want them. And thanks for the link to that awesome greyscale masks site. They had so much stuff there! I can't wait to play with them all.

Savannah