Fly Away Butterfly

Fly Away Butterfly
by Jen White

Make a butterfly jump off the page and fly away.

Many scrapbook kits come with pretty little butterflies. In this tutorial I’ll show you the quick and painless way to set a butterfly free by making it jump off the page and fly away.

For the purpose of this tutorial, I’ll be using a butterfly from Count Your Blessings by Digilicious Design. You can use a butterfly of your own or you can download this butterfly to practice with. (1.2MB)

qt-fly-butterfly-img10

Step One: Open the Butterfly

  • Create a new 4×4 inch document (File > New Blank File) at 300 ppi with a white background. (PS: Choose File > New.)
  • Click on the download link above to download the butterfly I’m using for this tutorial.
  • Open the butterfly01-CountYourBlessings-DigiliciousDesigns.png file (File > Open) located in the download folder.
  • Get the Move tool.
  • Click and drag the butterfly onto the new document.

qt-fly-butterfly-img3

Step Two: Cut the Butterfly

  • Get the Rectangular Marquee tool.
  • In the Tool Options, click on the New Selection icon. Set the Feather to 0 and the Aspect to Normal. (PS: Set the Style to Normal.)
  • On the document, click and drag a selection outline around the right half of the butterfly. See the screenshot below. To reposition while dragging, press and hold the Space bar. Make sure to include the entire right side of the butterfly.

qt-fly-butterfly-img4

  • Press Shift Ctrl J (Mac: Shift Cmd J) to move the selected pixels onto a new layer.

In the Layers panel, you should now have the left wing set on one layer and the right wing set on another layer.

Step Three: Transform the Left Wings

  • In the Layers panel, click on the left wing layer to activate it.
  • Press Ctrl T (Mac: Cmd T) to get the Transform options.
  • In the Tool Options, set the Angle to 90˚. (PS: Set the Rotate to 90˚.)
  • On the document, click and drag the top-middle bounding box handle down slightly. See the screenshot below.
  • Click the checkmark to commit.

qt-fly-butterfly-img5

Step Four: Transform the Right Wings

  • In the Layers panel, click on the right wing layer to activate it.
  • Press Ctrl T (Mac: Cmd T) to get the Transform options.
  • On the document, Right click (Mac: Ctrl click) inside the bounding box and choose Flip Layer Horizontal. (PS: Choose Flip Horizontal.)
  • In the Tool Options, set the Angle to 90˚.
  • On the document, click and drag inside the bounding box and reposition the wings overtop of the other set. Line up the bottom portion. See the screenshot below.

qt-fly-butterfly-img6

  • On the document, hold down the Ctrl key (Mac: Cmd key) and click and drag the top-middle bounding box handle down and to the left. See the screenshot below.
  • Click the checkmark to commit.

qt-fly-butterfly-img7

Step Five: Add Drop Shadows

 

ELEMENTS ONLY:

  • In the Menu Bar, choose Layer > Layer Style > Style Settings.
  • In the dialog box, click on Drop Shadow to twirl it open. Set the Lighting Angle to 120˚, the Size to 30, the Distance to 15, and the Opacity to 75%. Click OK.

PHOTOSHOP ONLY:

  • In the Menu Bar, choose Layer > Layer Style > Drop Shadow.
  • In the dialog box, set the Blend Mode to Muliply, the Opacity to 75%, the Angle to 120˚, the Distance to 15, the Spread to 0, and the Size to 30. Click OK.

ALL:

  • In the Layers panel, hold down the Alt key (Mac: Opt key) and click and drag the style from the top wing set to the bottom wing set.

qt-fly-butterfly-img8

Step Six: Link the Wings

  • In the Layers panel, click on the top wing set to activate it.
  • Hold down the Ctrl key (Mac: Cmd key) and click on the bottom wing set. Now both wing sets should be active in the Layers panel.
  • Click on the Link Layers icon.

Now where ever you drag the flying butterfly to, the wings will stay together as set. They will also stay together if you change the rotation of the flight!

Step Seven: Save the File

  • Save the flying butterfly document as a layered PSD file (File > Save As) with a descriptive name. Make sure to include the kit and designer in the name. I’m saving my file as butterfly01-fly-CountYourBlessings-DigiliciousDesign.psd.
  • Close the working documents without saving.

qt-fly-butterfly-card1

Credits
Hello Autumn Card: Jen White
Kit: Count Your Blessings by Digilicious Design
Word Art: Posting Bonus from November 2016 Premier 

After posting your results online,
return here and include the link in the comments.

Click Here to Download PDF

_____________________________________________

jenwhite-48x48Author: Jen White | Contact Us
All comments are moderated.
Please allow time for your comment to appear.


Comments (14)

  1. Terri

    Very clever Jen. Thanks for the great tutorial!

    November 19, 2016 at 9:06 pm Reply
  2. OMGeee!!! I can’t wait to try this!

    November 19, 2016 at 9:23 pm Reply
    • Jen White

      Yay! Thanks for the link, Riet. Cannot wait to see what you made. 😀

      November 20, 2016 at 5:17 pm Reply
  3. Cynthia Dennis

    Thank you for the excellent easy tutorial – even I can do this.

    November 20, 2016 at 9:39 am Reply
  4. Jenifer Juris

    This is so cute! I ADORE that card you made and such a good idea for the butterfly!! 🙂

    November 20, 2016 at 11:54 am Reply
  5. Kathy

    What a fun tutorial!! Thanks for all your creativity!!

    November 20, 2016 at 1:12 pm Reply
  6. Dorrie

    Don’t know how you think up these things, but I love it. Very clever. I do have a question though. Why save as a .psd rather than a .png?

    November 20, 2016 at 1:26 pm Reply
    • Jen White

      Hi Dorrie. Great question.
      I’m saving my flying butterfly as a PSD file so the drop shadows (remember, there are two) can be altered later.
      I can raise the opacity of the shadow for dark papers, but lower it for light papers.
      I can also raise the distance of the shadow to make it look farther off the paper.
      I like to keep options like those open.
      Make sense?

      November 20, 2016 at 5:07 pm Reply
      • Dorrie

        Yes Jen, that makes a lot of sense. I knew you must have had a reason. Thanks for explaining.

        November 21, 2016 at 11:11 am Reply
  7. Deborah Wagner

    Awesome, but simple tutorial. I LOVE your card!

    November 22, 2016 at 7:13 am Reply
  8. Carol

    So sweet – and so practical. Thank you! 🙂

    November 22, 2016 at 11:15 am Reply
  9. Betsy

    I always enjoy your tutorials. Thank you!

    November 22, 2016 at 12:07 pm Reply
  10. Hanna

    Thank you! This is very helpful.

    November 23, 2016 at 1:12 pm Reply
Leave your thought here


This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.