Clipping masks can be a very effective creative tool when designing for photography, digital scrapbooking or when doing graphing design projects. I hope you enjoy this quick tutorial on Using Clipping Masks in Photoshop.
For this tutorial I am going to use a background paper and photo to demonstrate how to use Clipping Masks. The Clipping Mask is from the Ornate Grunge Clipping Masks set I have in my store. I will include links to purchase items used at the bottom of this tutorial. First, we need to choose our background for which we want our image to appear on top of. I have chosen a background paper from the Distressed Damask Digital Paper Pack as the colour goes beautifully with the image I have chosen.
Open the background paper in Photoshop. Then open the clipping mask you choose to use and drag it onto the background image.
In the layers palette you will see that the clipping mask is a layer above the background layer. I have also resized and dragged the clipping mask where I wish to have it on the layout.
Next, we need to open the photo we wish to use and drag it onto the layout. We need to make sure it is on the layer above the clipping mask. If it isn’t above the clipping mask layer you can simply click on the photo layer and drag it to the layer above on the layers palette.
The positioning isn’t critical at this point but I usually place the image roughly above the clipping mask. I leave the fine tuning of the size of the photo until the layers are clipped together, which we will do next.
To clip the photo to the clipping mask layer, hold down the alt key and hover your cursor above the line between layer 1 & layer 2. Once the cursor changes to a square with a cornered arrow pointing down, click your left mouse button. This will clip the photo layer to the clipping mask layer underneath.
You can see by the icon next to the layer 2 thumbnail on the layers palette that the layer is clipped to the one below it.
On the layout below, you can now see that the photo has been given the shape and texture of the clipping mask.
Depending on your intention for the photo and the type of mask you use you can create quite a variety of effects. If there are sections of the photo missing, such as if a portion of someone’s face is missing, you can use the paintbrush tool on the mask layer to add back that part of the photo to make the face complete. In this case, that wasn’t necessary. To finish the project, I added a title making it perfect for a photobook cover, canvas or print.
In this instance, the paper, photo and clipping mask are quite a romantic style, but I have a large collection of clipping mask sets available for a variety of photo styles and subjects. For example, this is a digital scrapbook layout I did of my son using the Messy Painted Clipping Mask set.
This layout is also created using the Messy Painted Clipping Masks set.
For the purpose of this tutorial I used the Distressed Damask Digital Paper Pack available on Etsy.
The first sample digital scrapbook layout – Rock Wall, is created with the Dreaming Digital Scrapbook Kit availabl on Etsy and I also used the Messy Painted Clipping Masks available on Creative Market, Design Bundles, The Hungry Jpeg and on Etsy.
These gloriously grungy Ornate Grunge Photoshop Clipping Masks are a must have item for any photographer or graphic designer. Create beautiful photo vignette effects with these clipping masks or use them for t-shirt designs, digital scrapbooking or other graphic design projects. Check out the Ornate Grunge Photoshop Clipping masks in the Clikchic Designs store, on Creative Market, Design Bundles, The Hungry Jpeg or on Etsy.
If you love getting into the Christmas spirit like I do you will love this whimsical Ho Ho Ho Santa’s Sleigh Vector Clipart & Cutting files for all your Christmas creative projects. The Ho Ho Ho Vector Clipart & Cutting Files comes in .eps, .svg, .dxf & .png file formats for maximum usage options. Add some Christmas whimsy to your silly season and check out this adorable Ho Ho Ho Vector Clip Art & Cutting File is available in the following stores.
If you love a bit of cheekiness for the holiday season you will love this adorable vector word art perfect for use as cutting files, sublimation or other crafting or graphic design. Under the MIstletoe Vector Clipart & SVG Cutting Files is available in .eps, .svg, dxf & .png formats for maximum usage options. Check out the Under the Mistletoe Vector Clipart & SVG Cutting Files in the following stores.
Many of us enjoy a glass of bubbly or other alcoholic beverage during the holiday season. The ’tis the Season to be Jolly Vector Clipart and SVG cutting files are must have for crafters and designers. The ’tis the Season to be Jolly Vector Clipart & SVG Cutting Files are available at the Silhouette Design Store, Etsy, Design Bundles, Creative Market and The Hungry Jpeg.
Perfect for the silly season and your creative Christmas projects check out the Merry and Bright Vector Word art & Cutting files including .eps, .svg, .dxf & .png files for maximum usage options. The Merry and Bright Vector Word Art & Cutting Files is available on Clikchic Designs as well as Creative Market, Design Bundles, The Hungry Jpeg and on Etsy.
This gorgeous Let it Snow vector Word Art is great to add a bit of festive winter feel to cards, mugs, t-shirts, graphic design or pretty much anything you can dream up. The word art comes in vector format so is easily re-sizable to any size. Included are .eps, .svg, .dxf & .png formats for maximum usage options from vinyl cutting to sublimation, card making, graphic design or digital scrapbooking. Check out the Let it Snow vector word art & cutting files in my Clikchic Designs store, Creative Market store, Design Bundles store, The Hungry Jpeg store or on Etsy.
The Merry Christmas Vector Word Art & Cutting Files is perfect for all your Christmas needs. Use the Merry Christmas Word Art for Christmas cards, signs, mugs, T-shirts and even digital scrapbooking. The Merry Christmas Word Art comes in .eps, .png, .svg & .dxf formats for maximum usage options. As the word art is in vector format it is saleable to any size. The .png file is 12 inches wide at 300dpi. Check out the Merry Christmas Vector Word Art & Cutting Files in the Clikchic Designs store, Design Bundles store, The Hungry Jpeg store or on Etsy.
This gorgeous collection of Drippity Drop Vector Clipart, Custom Shapes, Photoshop Brushes and Cutting files is a must have set for a large variety of creative uses. These realistic looking paint drops come in both black for easy recolouring and pastel colours in EPS, PNG, SVG, DXF, CSH & ABR formats. Those with cutting machines might want to note that due to the fact these paint drops are created from real watercolor and scanned before being vectored they do contain a large amount of nodes due to their complicated outlines. For other uses this is not a relevant factor. Check out the Drippity Drop Vectors, Custom Shapes, Photoshop Brushes & Cutting files in my Clikchic Designs store, Creative Market store, Design Bundles store, The Hungry Jpeg store and also on Etsy.
Darwin’s Evolutionary Tree of Life is well known in biology and I have transferred the famous pre-copyright sketch made in 1837 into vector cutting file formats including .eps, .svg, .dxf and also a .png file. Biology majors, science geeks and evolution advocates will love this little piece of science history on a t-shirt, mug, notepad or notebook. There are so many options with the file formats included. Check out the Darwins Tree of Life Cutting File & Vector Clipart in the Clikchic Designs store, Creative Market store, Design Bundles store, The Hungry Jpeg store and on Etsy.
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