Mistyhilltops

Alright, friends of the digital scrapbooking business, if you remember well, then you’ll remember that I promised you the other day to show you how to create pockets like the ones on the Project Life layout I shared with you the other day. This one:

It’s actually a fairly simple process, and doesn’t require much skill at all. Soooo …

Here’s How it Works

Step 1 | Create a Rectangle
On your canvas, add a new layer to your Layers Panel (windows key + shift + N – on my computer), and activate the Rectangle Tool (shortcut U). Draw a rectangle of the size you desire, and rasterize it (right click on the rectangle layer in the Layers Panel and choose Rasterize Layer from the options you are given).

Step 2 | Create a Circle
Now, you want your pocket to look like a pocket (of course, or else it wouldn’t be a pocket), so for that you want a little semi-circle to be cut out from your shape. Similarly as in step one, create a new layer, and using the shortcut U choose the Ellipse Tool (which you’ll find, if you click on the Rectangle Tool just a little bit longer), draw a little circle. To make sure it’s really a circle, and not an ellipse, hold shift while you’re drawing; that way your circle turns out perfectly round. Make sure your circle is small compared to your rectangle. Rasterize this layer, too.

Step 3 | Align Circle and Rectangle
Place your circle at the top edge of your pocket, right in the middle. (You can ensure that it’s truly centered, by selecting both layers in the Layers Panel and then choose Align Horizontal Centers in the top bar of your Photoshop window.) Make sure that the top edge of the rectangle also aligns with the center of the circle (although precision here doesn’t really matter).

Step 4 | Crop the Rectangle
With the circle layer selected in your Layers Panel, use the Magic Wand Tool (W) to select the area inside your circle. (Now it is really important that you have rasterized this layer, or else you won’t be able to continue to modify neither rectangle nor circle.) Now, switch to your rectangle layer, and hit delete, to remove the selected area from your shape. Remove your selection (windows key + D), delete your circle layer, and you’ll see that now you have a nicely cropped pocket. All you need to do is clip a paper to it, and you’re done!

Adding a Stitch

Since I promised you last time that I’d also show you how to add stitching to your pocket, let me do that here real quick. All you need to do is select your pocket with your Marquee Tool (I usually use the magic wand to select the exact shape of the pocket), contract the selection (Select > Modify > Contract; the size depends on the size of your pocket, but probably a value of 10-15 will work for contracting), and prepare your Brush (see last week’s post on Creating Dashed Lines). Return to your Marquee Tool (M) and turn your selection into a path by right clicking inside the selection and choosing Make Workpath from the options. Create a new layer, and stroke the path with the Pen Tool (P). That’s it. Now your paper pocket even comes with some nice stitching.