Alibony Lessons for Photoshop Elements, Lightroom, and Digital Photography

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Photoshop Elements: Patterned Textured Paper

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Adobe® Photoshop® Elements 6

August 14, 2008

In this lesson, learn how to make patterned textured paper. This effect uses two textured papers with a pattern applied using a clipping group. The Custom Shape tool is a great resource for creating your own patterns to use. You can also use black and white decorative images as patterns, too.

Patterned Textured Paper

This paper is a variation of the paper created in the Aged Textured Paper lesson. For more textured papers, see the following lessons:

Aged Textured Paper
Multicolored Textured Paper
Embossed Textured Paper

To learn how to make this Hearts of France pattern, see Make a Pattern from Custom Shapes.

To make patterned textured paper:

  1. Open two previously created simple textured papers in different colors. See the Aged Textured Paper lesson for instructions on creating a textured paper.

    Agua paper Pink paper
  2. Copy and paste one of the textured papers into the other textured paper file. The copied paper is displayed in the layer above the background layer.

  3. Create a new Levels adjustment layer above the background layer:

    1. In the Layers palette, select the background layer.
    2. Click the Create adjustment layer icon and select Levels.
    3. On the Levels dialogue box, do not make any changes and click OK. The adjustment layer contains a layer mask filled with white.

  4. Fill the layer mask in the Levels adjustment layer with a pre-defined pattern:

    1. In the Layers palette, click the layer mask in the Levels adjustment layer.
    2. Select the Paint Bucket tool and check the Pattern checkbox on the options bar.
    3. On the options bar, click the arrow to the right of the pattern thumbnail to select a pattern.
    4. Click in the image to fill the layer mask with the pattern.

  5. To create a clipping group, select the top paper layer and press Ctrl+G. You can now see the pattern on your paper. Where the layer mask is white, the color of the top layer is visible; where the layer mask is black, the color of the bottom layer is visible.

    Layers Pattern applied

  6. Add a drop shadow effect to the layer mask for more depth:

    1. Click to select the layer mask on the Levels adjustment layer.
    2. From the Windows menu, select Effects to open the Effects palette.

    3. In the Effects palette, click the Layer Styles icon, then select Drop Shadows from the drop-down list.

      Select layer style

    4. Select the Soft Edge shadow and click Apply. The effect is applied and a small fx symbol is added to the layer in the Layers palette.

      fx symbol

    5. To edit the drop shadow, double-click the fx symbol on the emboss layer. The Style Settings dialogue is displayed.

      Edit Effects dialoque
    6. Adjust the settings as desired and click OK.

The following image shows the Layers palette of the completed paper:

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Updated on August 4, 2011