When working with journaling on patterned papers, one of the things I like to do is adding a slight brush layer, as I recommended in the first part of this tutorial. So, today, I’m going to show you how to do just that:

Adding a Brush Layer to Enhance Journaling

Take a look at this page:

On a slightly striped paper, I wanted to add some journaling. But after I added it, I realized the striped pattern was just to strong -the journaling lost its focus. So, if you look more carefully, you can see how behind the journaling, the stripes are nearly wiped out, and I did it by adding a brush layer.

And here’s how it works …

(I’m assuming that you already added your journaling to your page, and that you placed it somewhere on top of a patterned background.)

 

STEP 1 | Add a Layer Above Your Patterned Paper
To avoid messing with your patterned paper, simply select that paper layer in your Layers Panel, and add a new layer right above it (windows key + shift + N).

 

STEP 2 | Add a Brush
Press the key B to select the Brush Tool, and from your Brushes Menu select a large soft brush. (I prefer to use the spatter brushes that came by default with my Photoshop program for a more subtle effect). Now, making sure your new layer is still selected, begin to click several times on the area where you want to blend out a little of the patterned background. (Don’t stroke, just add the brush with single clicks, and you don’t have to rigorous by making sure everything underneath is completely covered. Allow the pattern to still show through a little.) Especially toward the edges of your journaling you may want to make sure that your brush layer will sort of softly fade into the patterned background paper, otherwise the change will be too abrupt.

Tip #1:
Play a little with the opacity settings of your brush tool for a slightly more subtle approach. The goal is not to completely wipe out the patterned background, but to subdue the tones so that your journaling becomes legible.

Tip #2:
Make sure with your Eyedropper Tool (I), you choose the color that is most prominent in your background pattern.

 

Here’s another one of my layouts using this technique for enhancing my journaling on patterned paper.

This is basically it. You can still play with the opacity levels of your brush lever (in the Layers Panel), but other than that, your journaling should be nice and visible, while you still can show off that beautiful patterned paper you chose!

You can find part 1 of this tutorial HERE.