Jen
Creative Chick
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Post by Jen on Oct 4, 2009 10:57:44 GMT -6
Here's the signature we will be making. You can save it with either a transparent or colored background. If you go with a colored background I recommend bleeding some of the butterflies off the edges.
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Jen
Creative Chick
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Posts: 8,309
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Post by Jen on Oct 4, 2009 10:58:45 GMT -6
This is how I made each of the butterfly brushes I used in this signature. First I got my pictures from Butterfly Utopia. This is the picture I used for the Monarch brush.
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Jen
Creative Chick
Admin
Posts: 8,309
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Post by Jen on Oct 4, 2009 10:59:11 GMT -6
I took the lasso tool and made a selection around the butterfly. I then choose Select>Modify>Smooth>1 and then Layer>New>Layer via Copy. Then I deselected. If you use pictures from Butterfly Utopia another way to remove your butterfly from the picture is with the magic wand. First double click on the Background in the layers palette to make it a layer. Now take the magic wand and click on the white background in the picture. Delete then deselect.
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Jen
Creative Chick
Admin
Posts: 8,309
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Post by Jen on Oct 4, 2009 11:00:35 GMT -6
I made a new file and then dragged the butterfly's layer into this new file. You'll see the butterfly is huge. So I reduced the butterfly to the size I wanted my brush to be, Reduce/Enlarge. Once at the size I wanted I chose Filter>Sharpen>Sharpen. To see how I then saved this as a brush check out the tutorial, How To Make A Brush.
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Jen
Creative Chick
Admin
Posts: 8,309
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Post by Jen on Oct 4, 2009 11:00:58 GMT -6
Throw away any butterfly layers you might have that you used to make your brushes. Fill your layer with white and name it back color. Make a new layer and name it left frame. With the rectangular marquee tool make a selection. To subtract from the selection, the inner crawlies in the picture, hold the option key for Macs and the alt key for Windows then click and drag inside the first selection. Once you start to drag you can release the appropriate key and now hold the space bar to move the selection in place as you're making it. With black as your foreground color choose option + delete for Macs and alt + delete for Windows to fill the selection. Deselect.
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Jen
Creative Chick
Admin
Posts: 8,309
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Post by Jen on Oct 4, 2009 11:01:21 GMT -6
If you look in the title bar, purple outline, you'll see the view is at 200% in this picture. To enlarge the view I clicked down in the file with the zoom tool. To get it back to 100% just double click on the zoom tool's button in the toolbox. This only enlarges the view not what's on a layer. Make a new layer and name it frame shine. Put this layer above your left frame layer in the layers palette. With the rectangular marquee tool make a selection over your frame.
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Jen
Creative Chick
Admin
Posts: 8,309
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Post by Jen on Oct 4, 2009 11:01:42 GMT -6
With white as the foreground color choose Edit>Stroke... with these settings. Deselect.
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Jen
Creative Chick
Admin
Posts: 8,309
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Post by Jen on Oct 4, 2009 11:02:04 GMT -6
To the frame shine layer apply Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur with this setting.
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Jen
Creative Chick
Admin
Posts: 8,309
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Post by Jen on Oct 4, 2009 11:02:30 GMT -6
Make a copy of the left frame layer. To do that drag the layer to the new layer icon at the bottom of the layers palette. Now while holding the shift key use the move tool to drag the copy to the right. Once in place link and merge layers left frame and left frame copy and name the layer black frames. Make a copy of the frame shine layer. While holding the shift key drag the copy so it's over your right frame in your signature. Now link and merge layers frame shine and frame shine copy so you have one layer named frame shine. This is how your layers should look.
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Jen
Creative Chick
Admin
Posts: 8,309
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Post by Jen on Oct 4, 2009 11:03:20 GMT -6
Make black your foreground color. Select your brush tool and make sure the Mode in the options bar is set to Normal. Go to your brushes palette and select one of your butterfly brushes. For each brush I reduced its size, red arrow, before using it. To vary your butterflies' angle and roundness you can play around with both settings in the brushes palette. To adjust the Angle grab the arrow and move it around. As you do you'll see the brush change in the preview window. To adjust the Roundness grab the black dots and move them.
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