My father is in a local Mardi Gras association, so he and his fellow Krewe members are very busy with last minute preparations for the upcoming parades. We can do the same thing with our layouts, too! Brushes are a great way to add additional interest to a page, but let's take it a step further. Use a brush with a clipping mask to create one-of-a-kind elements for your layout. For technical information, Jessica Sprague has an awesome tutorial for Photoshop users that you can check out here:
http://spraguelab.squarespace.com/imported-archives/2006/4/21/photoshop-friday-issue-no-2.html. Let's see what you can mask this week!
In my example layout, I used three different brushes. The hearts and the doily underneath the photo were from a set of Victorian Valentine brushes I downloaded as freeware from the Internet and the swirled frame brush is by Rhonna Farrer [complete credits for the layout in the gallery]. I clipped the same orange-toned textured paper to each brush after I "stamped" it. I used layer duplication, bevels, and drop shadows to achieve the final effects you see on the layout.
Get ready for Mardi Gras . . . get those brushes out and mask them! I'm so excited to see what you create! Cheryl
