A Quick Digital Scrapbooking Tip for Photo Design in Photoshop Elements
One exciting thing to do within Photoshop Elements is add a little "photo design" to make your digital scrapbooking pages more interesting. One way to do this is to essentially "cut" your photo into a interesting shape and add a gradient color to same photo on a different layer to add an extra-special effect to photos!
Follow these steps to add a little fancy design to special digital scrapbooking photos:
First, open a photo within Photoshop Elements and duplicate this layer twice (see #1). Since you will be using the same photo several times on different layers, and don’t make changes to your original photo (you never want to edit your original photos anyway!) 
In the example above, you can see we took the original photo layer and duplicated it twice (see the addition 2 layers #2). 
Make sure you are on the very top, duplicated layer (#3) and that the other two layers below have their visibility turned off (by clicking on their eye icons).
Next, select the Cookie Cutter Tool and pick a shape, like the Heart shape we decided to use!
Then go to the Layers Palette and make sure you have selected the top photo layer.
Use your mouse to draw the shape across the area of the photo that you would like to emphasis.
In Photoshop Elements, when using the Cookie Cutter Tool, it automatically cuts the photo into the shape that you have selected!
Now you can click on the green checkmark to select the cut.
Once you have the photo in the shape you like, then turn the visibility back on within the layer directly below. Select that layer (see # 1 in the photo below).
For the layer below, go to the color chip and select a color. In this example, I selected a light blue color. See # 2 in the photo below:
Once the layer is selected, go to the menu at the top of Photoshop Elements and select Layer > New Fill Layer > Gradient. (See #3 above).
This will make the middle photo layer have a bluish gradient color and it will not look as strong.
…But we are not done yet!
Select the top layer again, the heart shaped photo layer, and select a drop shadow. Click the Apply button.
You can see in the example below that applying a drop shadow to the heart-shaped photo makes the pic really “pop” and look 3-D!
At this point you can save your photo as a JPEG file and add the new photo design to some of your Digital Scrapbooking pages. Add a few embellishments, and you are good-to-go with your very interesting digital scrapbooking photo!
This fun photo-effect adds a special look and feel to your digital scrapbooking page, just with a few clicks of your mouse! A regular photo has been transformed into something especially unique; a great option for special digital scrapbooking projects in need of new design!
Try this quick little photo design tip to “spruce up” your own photos and digital scrapbooking pages!
Have a Happy Day!
-Cheri
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