Good Morning everyone! Tamara here back with a new..well, not NEW..but new to you, technique!  Usually, I fret for a good week about what I should write for you for the Monday tutorials. I wonder if I should teach something about photography, or maybe another lesson about something on Photoshop. There is so much to learn, after all, that it only seems logical to teach you SOMETHING about the program we all use so much so that you can use it to it’s full potential! Then, I worry that it is old news to you or that , and I pray it’s not this one, you will find it boring. I really DO try to think of things that you all would like to know or even things that I don’t know yet, but I would like to know as well, so it only seemed fitting this week that I bring you this fun new tutorial on edging, and by edging I mean borders!

I LOVE scalloped edges..I probably use them in the majority of my layouts..they seem to add a bit of class to my layout and make it go from ho-hum to, well, I don’t really know what is opposite of ho-hum…but it dresses them up for sure!  Generally, my kits will have a scalloped border in them, but sometimes, and usually right when I need them, my kit will not include one..and quite frankly, I feel lost.  That is until I figured out how to make a scallop border on my own, so today, I thought I would show you how I create a scallop edge in Photoshop and PSE.

When I have noticed that my new kit does not have a scalloped edge in it, I usually decide to just go ahead and add one to the kit myself so that I can use it whenever I need it.  To begin, open a brand new, blank,  12×12, 300ppi document.

Once you have opened your document, you will need to select the brush tool from your tools panel on the left.

Next, select the Brush Panel icon from the top of your workstation.

Once you click on the Brush Panel icon, a dialogue box will pop up. This will allow you to  adjust the shape, size, and spacing to your brush.

Select the size brush you want and set it to 100% hardness. Then, slide the Spacing arrow left and right to select the amount of spacing you want. You should be able to preview the spacing adjustments in the window provided. Click OK when you have finalized your settings.

Since I am making this into a template for me to clip a paper too, I chose black as my color of choice. You may choose any color you want.

Now, for the fun part!  On your blank document, while holding the shift key down, click on the far left side of your paper.

Then, with your shift key still held, click on the far right side of the paper. This will create a perfectly straight, scallop line.

Since you do not need the bottom part of the scallop, I select my Rectangle Marquee tool from the tools panel and draw a rectangle over the part of the scallop I want to delete.

Once you have selected it, then press the delete key. You are finished with the scallop template .

Now, all you have to do is bring in the paper of your choice,  clip it to the scallop, add a shadow and merge the layers together. Make sure you do not FLATTEN the image or it will not have a transparent background, instead, merge the layers together and SAVE AS a PNG form.

There you have it! It’s pretty easy to do, but adds pizzaz to any layout right when you need it most! Here are a few examples of adding scallops to your layout. Here you can see that by changing the size and the spacing of the scallop that you can get two totally different looks!

layout using School is Cool by Mye de Leon

and on this one, you can delete a small circle on the inside of each scallop and REALLY dress it up!

layout using Of  Boys and Girls by Mye De Leon

The possibilities are endless! You could even use a square shape and make a zigzag border! Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the tutorial tonight and  I will see you back here next week!

Tamara