Scripted Overlay

Scripted Overlay
by Lidia Sari
Okay, I admit it. I cannot write in cursive. It’s horrible! No matter how much I try, my cursive will turn into chicken scratch. I remember when I was young I could spend hours trying to perfect my cursive, but I gave up and spent my time with drawing or doing crafts instead.
My mother-in-law has the most gorgeous cursive I’ve ever seen. I love her cursive, and I love watching her hand move to write. I told her that I want her hands so I could write just like her.
When I see her writing I am always reminded of digital scrapbooking, since it is great to use such decorative cursive on a layout. I know if I had cursive writing just like my mother-in-law’s, I would put it all over my scrapbook layouts.
Today, I am going to show you how easy it is to create an overlay using decorative brushes. I am using handwriting brushes, but any decorative brush will work. Let’s get started.
Step One: Prepare the Workspace
- Create a new 12 x 12 inch document (File > New > Blank File) at 300 ppi with a white background. (Photoshop: Choose File > New.)
- In the Menu Bar, choose View > Rulers.
- Choose View > Grid. (Photoshop: Choose View > Show > Grid.)
- Click on the Foreground Color Chip to open the Color Picker.
- In the dialog box, choose a color and click OK. I used Hex Code #ebe3d8.
- Press Alt Backspace (Mac: Opt Delete) to fill the Background layer with the foreground color.
Step Two: Arrange the First Brush
- Press the letter D to reset the Color Chips to the default of black and white.
- Get the Brush tool.
- In the Tool Options, open the Brush Preset Picker and choose a decorative brush. I’m using Brush 4 from Vintage Hand Vol 1 by Susie Roberts. Set the Size to 1538 px, the Mode to Normal, and the Opacity to 100%. (Photoshop: Also, set the Flow to 100%.)
- In the Layers panel, click on the Create a New Layer icon.
- On the document, click once to brush. Do not drag. To change the size of the brush, press the Right or Left Bracket key.
- Get the Move tool.
- In the Tool Options, uncheck Auto Select Layer. (Photoshop: Uncheck Auto-Select.)
- On the document, click near the brush shape and drag it to the upper left corner of the document. I placed my brush shape on the 1.5 inch horizontal line and the 4 inch vertical line. If necessary, use the Arrow keys to nudge the brush into position.
Step Three: Arrange the Second Brush
- With the Brush tool still active, in the Tool Options, open the Brush Preset Picker and choose a different brush. I’m using Brush 6 from Vintage Hand Vol 1 by Susie Roberts.
- In the Layers panel, click on the Create a New Layer icon.
- On the document, click once to brush.
- Get the Move tool.
- On the document, click and drag to position the brush shape below the first. I placed my brush shape on the 2 inch horizontal line and 2 inch vertical line. If necessary, use the Arrow keys to nudge the brush into position.
 Step Four: Duplicate the Second Brush
- Press Ctrl J (Mac: Cmd J) to duplicate the second brush.
- Get the Move tool.
- On the document, click near the new brush shape and drag it to a new position. I placed mine at the 4.5 inch horizontal line and the 1.5 inch vertical line.
- Using the same instructions, duplicate the brush again and move it to a new position.
Step Five: Arrange the Third Brush
- Get the Brush tool.
- In the Tool Options, open the Brush Preset Picker and choose a different brush. I’m using Brush 8 from Vintage Hand Vol 1 by Susie Roberts.
- In the Layers panel, click on the Create a New Layer icon.
- On the document, click once to brush.
- Get the Move tool.
- On the document, click near the brush shape and drag it to a new position. I placed mine at the 8.5 inch horizontal line and the 4.5 inch vertical line.
Step Six: Merge the Brush Layers
- In the Menu Bar, choose View > Grid to turn off the grid lines. (Photoshop: Choose View > Show > Grid.)
- In the Layers panel, activate the top layer, then Shift click on the bottom brush layer to activate all the brush layers.
- Press Ctrl E (Mac: Cmd E) to merge all the brush layers together.
Step Seven: Erase Part of the Brush Shapes
- Get the Eraser tool.
- In the Tool Options, open the Brush Preset Picker and choose a Hard Round brush. If you don’t see a Hard Round brush, open the drop-down menu and choose Default Brushes. (Photoshop: Open the fly-out menu, choose Reset Brushes, and click OK.) Set the Size to 250 px, the Opacity to 100%, and the Type to Brush. (Photoshop: Set the Mode to Normal and the Flow to 100%.)
- On the document, click and drag to erase any unwanted brush marks.
Step Eight: Crop and Save
- Press Ctrl A (Mac: Cmd A) to select all.
- In the Menu Bar, choose Image > Crop.
- Press Ctrl D (Mac: Cmd D) to deselect.
- In the Layers panel, click on the Background layer and drag it to the Trash icon.
- Save the overlay (File > Save As) as a PNG document.
Step Nine: Use the Overlay
- Open a paper or layered scrapbook page (File > Open).
- In the Layers panel, activate the paper layer to which you’d like to add the overlay.
- Activate the overlay document.
- Get the Move tool.
- On the document, while holding down the Shift key, click and drag the overlay onto the scrapbook page.
Here’s my finished layout using the overlay I made. In this layout, I decided to change the color of the overlay to match my layout better. I hope you will give this technique a try, and I can’t wait to see it in the Digi Scrap Tutorial Gallery.
Credits:
Tutorial: Scripted Overlay by Lidia Sari
Software: Photoshop Elements 12, Adobe Photoshop CC 2014
Scrapbook page: Moments by Lidia Sari
Papers: Beautiful You by Kristin Cronin-Barrow
Script brushes: Vintage Hand Vol 1Â by Susie Roberts
Circles stamp brush: Give Thanks by Anna Aspnes
Butterfly element: Mother Is a Verb by Krystal Hartley
Music note: Perfect Harmony Kit by Christine Mortimer
Overlay heart: Everlasting Love Kit by Studio Manu
Pencil scribbles by Lidia Sari
Fonts: Philly Sans and Monotype Corsiva
_____________________________________________
Author: Lidia Sari | [email protected]
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Lidia this is an awesome tutorial! Now I have to go get those brushes by Susie!! 🙂
Thanks, Jen! Love those brushes a lot! Have used them in many of my layouts! 🙂
I just read the tutorial Lidia, & it sounds great. I too have chicken scratch writing and would dearly love to have that nice flow. Great work on the tute and congrats on becoming one of our fabulous instructors.3
Thanks, Gayle! Glad you like the tutorial! 🙂
The create PDF link doesn’t work. I tried in IE, Chrome and Firefox.
Congrat on your first tutorial. Lovely overlay.
Thank you for this informative and detailed tutorial. Can’t wait to try it.
You are most welcome, Roberta! I can’t wait to see it in the Tutorial Gallery! 🙂
Great tutorial. I love to see script on a LO. I think it adds texture & dimension without overwhelming the page. I’ll be trying this soon.
Thanks, Pixie! Can’t wait to see your finished layout in the Tutorial Gallery.
A big welcome from me Lidia we’re glad to have you on the team. Wonderful tutorial too, I love the look of your scripted overlay on your layout. Will be giving this a try. Thanks
Could we have a download link for this tutorial please. The pdf icon showing is not a link
I can not open the PDF file. I am using Windows 8.1
Great tutorial – As Maddy mentioned above, the PDF link doesn’t work for me either.
I find also that the pdf link doesn’t work.
Great tutorial, thanks.
Barb
Awesome tutorial, Lidia!
PDF link doesn’t work for me either…
Thanks for this great tutorial – the link to the PDF doesn’t work for me. Hope to download it soon!927
I always love tutorials showing me how to better use the supplies that I have. This is wonderful. I also love the scripted additions to scrapbook pages. Thanks you for sharing your wonderful talent and I am glad that you will now be sharing it often!!
Your tutorial is terrific. I wish I could keep it to refer to in the future, but the pdf link doesn’t seem to work! I hope it can be fixed.
The PDF link works now. It takes you to a tutorial on how to make your own PDF. Since the tutorials will not be removed from the blog, we’re not making a PDF for you, but it’s very easy to make one yourself following Jen White’s instructions. (Windows or Mac)
Thanks, Linda!
Hello lovely ladies. I am so sorry that the icon to Create A PDF of This Blog Post does not work. Please check out Jen’s awesome post about creating a pdf file you can save in your computer. Here’s the link to the post http://www.digitalscrapper.com/blog/save-pdf/
This was a really helpful tutorial! I am going to go try it for myself! Thank you!
Su
Thanks, Su! If you do make it, please share it with us at DS Tutorial Gallery!
How wonderful that you’ve joined the wonderful creative team. Congratulations! I’ll be sure to try your tutorial . . . it looks fantastic.
Thank you, Mary! Please do try it! I will be waiting for your layout at the DS Tutorial Gallery!
This is a great tutorial, Lidia. And, a big congrats to you on becoming one of the Digital Scrapper instructors. Looking forward to seeing more.
Thank you so much, Donna! 🙂
Congratulations Lidia, You must be excited. Looking forward to more of your great ideas.
Thank you so much, Annette!
Loved the tutorial! Thanks. Also congratulations on your new position. You always post such great pages and I know you will do great as an instructor. I am looking forward to more of your expertise and creativity.
I agree with others. Nice tutorial.
Congratulations! I’ve always admired your layouts in the gallery and now I have the pleasure of learning from you also, and this tutorial is such a wonderful start. Thank you.
I know this is very late but I use Google Chrome for my browser. If I use the DOS command CTRL + P & the print dialog box is displayed with “save” and I can save the document to my hard drive (comments and all) and prints out normally. In previous comments one lady was using IE. I tested the same process but a print dialog box was displayed however it did have the option “print to file”. I didn’t do that but it should work
Love your scrap page – thank you very much for your tutorial
Loved this tutorial and will certainly have fun using the technique. Thanks so much 🙂
Cool
Are any of these brushes available for purchase?
Thanks
Sorry, C. No, we do not sell script overlays. You should be able to find a multitude of them in online scrapbooking stores. Hope this helps.