Add a Paper Background to an Alpha

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I have been trying to figure this out for the longest!!

OOH I can't wait to try this. this is Neat-O! Never thought about filling in an alpha that is outlined. Just always clipped papers to them or used a style. Thanks.

Have to try this. Thanks so much.

Thanks for both of these very useful tutorials.

Never thought of creating a separate layer to clip papers to. Thanks.

Thank you for the simple instruction and visuals

Thank you for the tutorial! smiley

Thanks again for another great tut Marisa!

This technique works great on outlined elements...like cookie cutters shaped like
Christmas ornaments. They look great adding a colorful Christmas paper or glitter
inside of them! smiley

Nice tutorial smiley

Awesome! Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for the tutorial

Thanks, this is very useful!

Most helpful!

Great tutorial! I was even more excited to find that the acrylic letter retained their transparency even once they were filled smiley

Thanks for this tutorial smiley

I know this is possible but always forget! thanks for the reminder

This looks great, thanks for the tutorial.

My technique is a bit different.

I use two layers: one with the text (and clip my paper to this layer) and the other with a stroked work path from the text shape for the outline. That's done by simply selecting the text with a magic wand (uncheck contiguous for one-click selection here!) and right-clicking to select create work path. Then set up your brush size and color with a fairly hard edge, adjust spacing if you want to do dots or dashes, make a new layer, go to the paths panel, right-click your work path and select Stroke Path... Select Brush as the tool to use in the popup dialog.

Both this method and Marisa's will work equally well; this just seems faster to me, and using a path to stroke the edges means it's a vector base so jaggies only happen if you convert the layer to raster and then resize it. This works well for things like stickers and tag outlines too. (Plus if you stroke both layers in different widths, you can come up with some interesting stacked stroke effects that look like they took hours of work!)

Alternative method #2: Do a layer effects on your text layer with Pattern Overlay and a pattern you've got installed in Photoshop, then add a Stroke to it. Somewhat more limited than the others, but can work well for patterned letters with a simple stroked edge. Playing with the Bevel and Emboss settings and the Texture Overlay settings can give you some decent variety, though not quite what two layers can do.

Thank you!)))

thank u

thank you!

Thanks smiley

Thank you Marisa for the tut and Holly for your variation of how you do it, so that both you and Marisa come out with the same effect. Now I will just have to play in Paint Shop Pro to see where and how I can do this, LOL. I know I should switch over to Photo Shop, but I have used Paint Shop Pro since the day it was a freebie photo editing software in the late 1980's and when Jasc came out with a full graphic design/photo editing software program in 1990, I prob was once of the first buyers and I have stayed with it all these years, even after Corel bought the rights.

Easy to understand! Thanks

Now THIS, I have to try. It will be my lesson for tomorrow. I am an alpha addict and have been wondering how to do this very thing.

Very helpful. Thank you!

I was wondering how designers were doing that. TFS

Thank you! I will try this.

Your short and sweet tutorials make so much more sense to me than some of those that are long and drawn out. (I sometimes get lost on those!)

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