Through the Years

This is sure to be your favorite! We’ll show you in this tutorial how to use layers and brushes together to add depth and visual interest to your layout. Your background photo will come alive as you incorporate it among these layers as well!

  

 

Preparation

Before we begin, you will need to download all the goodies. I’ve included all of my original files and photos for you to experiment with. If you are comfortable working at an advanced level, then feel free to jump right in with your own photographs!

Tutorial Materials: You will need to be a member to download the files

“Through the Years” zip file -

Open Scrapbook™ Grunge Brush (set of 19)

Open Scrapbook™ Tropical Brush

Fonts: Texas Hero – Available for free download at Search Free Fonts

Futura Book – Available for free download at Free Fonts TTF

After you have downloaded all the materials, you will need to load your brushes into Photoshop. Need help loading brushes? No problem, just click here for our tutorial on how to load brushes.

Let’s Get Started!

Step One – Creating the Backdrop

Open the two background papers (cream_stripe_OS.jpg, tan_stripe_OS.jpg) and drag them into a new 12×12 document. Name the layers “Cream” and “Tan”. The Tan layer should be above the Cream layer. With the Move Tool selected, make sure the “Show Transform Controls” box is checked in the top tool bar.

With the Tan layer selected, grab the top-center toggle and drag down to 1¼ inches. Do this with the bottom-center toggle as well, pulling it up to 10¾ inches. Double-click inside the area to apply. This creates the base for the photos.

Step Two – Photo Mask

Open the Tropical Mask (tropical_mask_OS.png) and drag it on top of the Tan layer. Name this layer “Tropical Mask”. Move the mask into place over the Tan layer, leaving a bit more space at the bottom.

Open the Vintage Beach photo (vintage_beach_OS.jpg) and drag it on top of the layer mask. Name this layer “Vintage Beach”. While holding down the Alt key, click between the Vintage Beach layer and the Tropical Mask layer in the Layers Palette. This will apply the layer mask to the photo.

Want to use your own photo for this step but it doesn’t have that vintage look? Become a member and download our Vintage Action to send your contemporary photos through time.

Quick Lil’ Note: Layer masks are a great alternative to the eraser tool because they are completely reversible. If you’ve made a mistake and you want a certain part of the photo to appear, all you have to do is paint on the mask layer with a black paintbrush and the areas of your photo will re-appear! If you have painted an area too much, then just use the eraser tool to hide it.

Next, let’s soften up the Vintage Beach photo a little, it’s still a bit harsh for this layout. Duplicate the Cream layer and rename it “Cream Overlay”, then move it above the Vintage Beach layer. Using the Transform Controls, scale the Cream layer to where it just covers the photo. Then set the Blending Mode to “Soft Light”.

Now let’s add some depth to the photo by burning the edges just a bit. Press O to select the Burn Tool, choose the Airbrush Soft Round 300 brush and set the diameter to about 1000px. With the brush, hover just over the edge of the photo, lightly burning the edges.

Step Three – Adding a Brush

Now, let’s layer in a brush effect so it looks like it is coming up right underneath our photo mask. With the “Cream Overlay” layer selected, press W and use the Magic Wand Tool to select the areas at the top and bottom of the Cream Overlay. Create a new layer just above the Tan layer and name it “Tropical Brush”. Press B to select the Brush Tool and choose the Tropical Brush you loaded at the beginning of this tutorial.

Next, choose a warm brown foreground color. I used R:184, G:152, B:126.

Apply the brush in the upper left-hand corner. Resize the brush to be just a bit smaller (try 1557px), apply this brush to the lower left-hand corner. Then you will want to flip this layer. To do that, go to Edit >Transform > Flip Horizontal.

Press Ctrl+D to deselect. Set the Blending Mode to “Multiply” and decrease the Opacity to 50%.

Next, let’s add a fine white line to some of the layers to finish things off. Create a new layer above the Cream Overlay layer and name it “White Line 1”. Press M to select the Rectangular Marquee Tool. Set the Style Mode in the top tool bar to “Fixed Size” with a Width of “12 in” and a Height of “.035 in”.

Click the curser just to the top of the tan paper on the layout to make a selection. Go to Edit > Fill > White.

You might need to zoom in quite a bit and use your arrow keys to nudge the line into place. Duplicate this layer three times and name each layer “White Line 2”, “White Line 3” and “White Line 4”. Align these white lines with each of the top and bottom edges of the photo mask and the tan paper. Select a grunge brush from the set of Open Scrapbook™ Grunge Brushes and erase just a little bit of the White Line 1 and White Line 4 layers. This will create the effect of the brushes going behind the photo mask.

Now we’re ready to add our focal photograph and journaling!

Step Four – Creating Focus with a Photo

Open the Grunge Photo Mask, Tropical Photo Frame and the photo of the Couple on the beach (grunge_phot_mask_OS.jpg, tropical_photo_frame_OS.jpg, couple_OS.jpg). Feel free to use your own photo and journaling at this point! Drag all of these onto the layout and name each layer “Tropical Frame”, “Couple” and “Grunge Mask”. Make sure they are in that order, with the Tropical Frame on top, the Couple underneath and the Grunge Mask beneath both.

Select the Couple layer and resize the photo to where it just covers the Grunge Mask. While holding down the Alt key, click between the Grunge Mask layer and the Tropical Frame layer in the Layers Palette, applying the mask. Align all three layers together so they are exactly on top of each other.

Now we want to apply a color overlay to the Tropical Frame to soften it up a bit. While the Tropical Frame layer is selected click on the “fx” button at the bottom of the layers palette and select “Color Overlay”.

Keep the blending mode set to “Normal” and click on the color square, this will allow you to choose any color you would like. I used R:250, G:238, B:224.

Step Five – Creating Meaning through Journaling

We’re almost finished! It’s time to add the title and journaling! Press T to select the Text Tool. Choose a handwritten font from the font list in the top tool bar. I used Texas Hero at 60pt and text color set to R:138, G:164, B:175.

(To change text color, click on the colored box in the top tool bar and it will bring up a color selector window). Click and drag a text box above the photo of the couple on the layout and type the title “Through the Years”. To create the rest of the journaling I used Futura Book font at 12pt and text color set to R:72, G:63, B:53. I broke my journaling up into two text boxes so I could create the effect of wrapping the text around the photo.

Once you’ve finished typing your journaling you can highlight certain words or phrases by changing the font and text color. I highlighted the location “Huntington Beach” using the Texas Hero font at 25pt and set the text color to the same blue I used in the title. This breaks up the journaling a bit to create visual interest.

Now all you have to do is add the names and date and you’re finished! I placed the names over the photo of the couple, using the settings: Texas Hero font, 45pt size and the same blue color as the title. I rotated the date 90° clockwise and placed it in the lower right-hand area just outside the photo, using the settings: Futura Book font, 15pt size and the same brown color as the journaling.

And there you have it, the finished product! Now have fun…play with your own photos and colors! And be sure to upload your finished layouts to the gallery. I’d love to see what you come up with!