Good Morning scrappers! Tamara here back with another fun Photoshop (and Photoshop Elements) tutorial.

Have you ever been scrapping and, when you went into your new kit,  realized that you did not have a round frame? Or, that you have a round frame but  isn’t made out of an element you WISH it was made out of??   Well, when I was scrapping a layout the other day, I came across that same problem and I thought I would share with you how I solve that problem!

To begin, create a canvas that is 12×12 300 dpi. Make sure that you make the canvas transparent.

The best thing to use when you are wanting to make a round frame is a flat ribbon or some type of element that is long and straight. Open your element, Hold the Shift Key and drag it onto your blank canvas. This will center your element on the page and give you plenty of room to turn it into a circle!  Resize your element so that it extends to the full size of the page.

Next you need to press CTRL + T on your keyboard to access the Free Transform options bar.  Locate the Height box and type in 200% in the box. PSE users need to make sure the the Constrain Proportions box, next to the height box, is unchecked) Hit enter or click on the check at the right of the Options bar to set the new dimensions.

Once you click Enter,  your element will look distorted. Do Not Worry..it is supposed to look like that!!

Go to Filter> Distort> Polar Coordinates ( this applies to BOTH programs)

A dialogue box will appear

You will need to use the  (-) sign to make your image appear in the screen. Make sure that you have Rectangle to Polar selected and select OK.

If your element made a complete circle, then you can save the image as a png file and use it in your layout. However, many times  the element will not make a complete a full circle and when that happens, there is a quick and easy fix!

First, you will need to duplicate the image by selecting the new element in the layers panel and pressing CTRL + J.

Then, using your transform controls, rotate the top layer to cover the hole.

If you find that your ribbon or element is not matching up, you can add a mask to the layers to help blend the two layers together Add your layer mask by clicking on the Add Layer Mask Icon on the bottom pf the Layers Panel. (PSE users will need to add a mask using the PSE method)

Since the mask is white you will need to change your foreground color to black to erase the unwanted parts of your element.  Select a medium sized brush and set the opacity to 50% . This will help blend your element and not totally erase it.  When you are all done, select the bottom layer, right click on the layer and select Merge Visible.

Here are a few of the items that I converted using various elements

Stitches:                                                                                 Ribbon:

Stitches:                                                                                    Ribbon:

And that is it! You can now select “Save As” and save your new element as a PNG file so that it will keep its transparent background and use it on your layout!

Hope you have a great week! See you right here next Monday!

Tamara