Overlay Chat - 15 fun things to do with an overlay

[sarahorton]

Thanks for the fun chat, everybody! Here are the notes I promised:

15 FUN THINGS TO DO WITH OVERLAYS

1. Change the Blending Mode and/or Opacity: Drag the overlay onto a piece of digital paper. Change the blending mode of the overlay to see what happens. Reduce the opacity to see what happens.
Here's a good example by Merrilee.
You can get this sort of effect with playing with the blending modes. This one is by Bonnie. (Not sure if that's what Bonnie did, but it's a great page with the same end results)

2. Clip patterned paper to an overlay. Drag a piece of digital paper on top of an overlay. Ctrl G in PSE or in PS - right click on the paper layer and select Create Clipping Mask.
I did that here .

3. Change the color of the overlay by typing Ctrl U - Selecting the
Colorize box will make it the same as your foreground color if you play with Hue, Saturation, Lightness a little.
Moving the Lightness slider all the way to the right turns it white ... all the way to the left is black.
Here's a beautiful example by Grandma Lynnie.

4. Fill the overlay with a gradient - Cassie's tutorial gives great instructions on how to do this
Here's a cute example by Isherman.

You can also use a gradient to erase part of the overlay by applying a gradient that fades

5. Resize or rotate an overlay: Use Transform to turn an overlay on it's side - don't feel you have to leave it the way it is!
Resize an overlay to make it small enough to be used as a frame or photo mat. Use the SHIFT key as you are resizing so that you can maintain the aspect ratio and avoid the funhouse effect.

6. Use the overlay as an eraser to delete a portion of the top page, revealing page underneath.
Here's how:
open a piece of digital paper.
drag another piece of digital paper on top of that.
drag the overlay over the top of the pair.
Ctrl (Cmd) click on the overlay layer in the layers palette. This puts marching ants all over your overlay.
Target the paper in the MIDDLE. hit Delete.
Delete the overlay.
You should now see the bottom layer showing through the middle (now top) layer in the shape of the overlay.
Try putting a drop shadow on the top paper now to see if you like the "countersunk" effect.

7. For you hybrid girls: print on a transparency and apply it over the top of a digital layout

8. Combine two or more overlays (try something like a grunge overlay on top of a graphic overlay)
Here's a good example by sarebear
and another by Melanie

9. Color in parts of the overlay by using the paint bucket to fill in sections or doing a magic selection, then filling with a brush. Making a selection will keep you from painting outside the area you are working on.
Here are some fantastic examples:
Sarah's and
Katrina's

10. Stroke the overlay to add a white border around everything
Edit | Stroke | (select Outside)
Doing this will give you this effect that Debbie used on brushes .

11. Add drop shadows, bevels or other Layer Styles
here's a cute example by Carol.

12. Grunge them up by erasing parts of them with a grunge brush as an eraser.
Or .... create a new transparent layer over the overlay layer. Stamp the grunge brush on the transparent layer. Clip the transparent layer to the overlay layer.

13. The Double Doozie: LOL!
Apply an overlay to your background paper in one way.
Then lay the same overlay over the the top of your photos or mats and apply it in a different way.
You can "clip" the second overlay to your photos or mats.

14. Crop an overlay and use only part of it.
Here's a layout by Vinnie which is a perfect example of this.

15. Fill parts of the overlay with paper. Drag the paper under the overlay. Make a magic selection. Select inverse. Target the paper layer and hit delete. This will delete everything NOT in your selection (whatever is outside your overlay fill area)
Here's a good example by Dagmar.


Don't forget to post your overlay pages in our Sale Event Gallery here
I can't wait to see what fun things you'll come up with!

[Scrapbird]

Thank you so much, Sara!!!

[B-Jo]

Thanks Sarah~ this will certainly come in handy!

[DebbieHodge]

Sarah, this is great! bummed I missed teh chat, but this looks like a fun way to play around with things.

[digigrandma]

You are just so sweet to post this here, Sara. Thank you and thanks for a great chat!

[jg2924]

Thanks Sara

[PaulaSG]

this is great Sara!

[luv2cre8]

Sara sorry I missed your chat, but thanks for this wonderful tutorial!

[Becky]

Thanks Sara!!

[Jenay23]

I'm new and I'd love to join today's chats but I cannot figure out where to go. I have the schedule and I registered with the chat part but I don't know what do from there. Please help!

[sarahorton]

Jenay...
look up at the menu bar at the top of your screen.
Select Chat Room.
Log in with your name/password.
click on the chat in the MIDDLE called Designer's Studio.
There are lots of us there

[Chris]

Sarah - thanks so much for this. I did save the chat but now I don't have to cut and paste these "fun things to do" of yours. It was a very informative and fun chat BTW!

[digigal]

Thank you sarah

[iUma]

Sara,

Thank you for this. I am pasting it into my permanent tutorial file. This was such a great chat.

[katrinak]

Great chat Sara! So many wonderful tips

[dewnie]

Thank you big time....!! i was having trouble trying to read, copy and paste, and keep up....when you said you were going to post...i could enjoy...which i did!!

[Luisa Migon]

Great!!! And thanks, Sara!!!

But when you say - "9. Color in parts of the overlay by using the paint bucket to fill in sections or doing a magic selection, then filling with a brush. Making a selection will keep you from painting outside the area you are working on.
Here are some fantastic examples:
Sarah's - wow!!! and
Katrina's" - another wow!!! - how do I make the selection?

Using the Magic Wand of Photoshop?! (my selections with this tool are NEVER perfect!!!) I know it's not the right place to ask something like that, but if you can explain me how I make a GOOD selection to use the brushes after, I THANK YOU!

[Shari Z]

Sara, thank you for all the great tips! I can't wait to try them out. I had so much fun all day long!

[katrinak]

Originally Posted by Luisa Migon

But when you say - "9. Color in parts of the overlay by using the paint bucket to fill in sections or doing a magic selection, then filling with a brush. Making a selection will keep you from painting outside the area you are working on.
Here are some fantastic examples:
Sarah's - wow!!! and
Katrina's" - another wow!!! - how do I make the selection?

Using the Magic Wand of Photoshop?! (my selections with this tool are NEVER perfect!!!) I know it's not the right place to ask something like that, but if you can explain me how I make a GOOD selection to use the brushes after, I THANK YOU!

Mine are Pattie's Rainbow papers in all of the flowers --some recolored.

I did use the Magic Wand tool with a tolerance of 20 Check Anti Alias and Contiguous. Make sure Sample All Layers isn't checked. When I had marching ants around it I think did a CTRL J on the paper I wanted and there was my color! (I left the papers on a seperate layer with the eye turned off so that I could easily Cut new pieces from them)

For the Paint Bucket, create a new layer and use the Magic Wand the same way for the selection. Select your color and use the paint bucket to fill it in.

Everything I did I learned through Cassie's Tuturials

Laying It All Out No. 07

She does a MUCH better job of explaining

[Myra]

sara - you were so nice to write this all out for us! it's packed with so many great tips!

[anke]

Sara, thank you so much, I loved all your examples, so glad you posted here, thanks for all the extra work!

[Baylorgrad]

This is great, Sara! I missed all of the chats except one, but this list is a great help!

[katie pertiet]

you're so creative Sara! what a great post!

[BettyJoR]

Thank you so much Sara!!!! This is fabulous! Love all the direct links. This was such a wonderful chat with so much information!!!

[VShalini Pearce]

This is handy Sarah! thankyou darl!

[grandma lynnie]

Sara, this chat was wonderful! You did a great job of preparing for it and it's terrific of you to post all your great information here too! Thank you so much!

[Ampersand Dingbat]

Thanks for the tips Sara, my sheet was all cut and pasted are crazy with bits of dialogue from the chat, this is so nice to have!

[shhbabymine]

thanks for all this info again - all in one nice little reference sara! it was a great chat!