Digital Scrapbooking Tips

Some skills are basic to the art of scrapbooking. Matting photos is one of those essential skills.

In traditional scrapbooking, mats are created by cutting a piece of cardstock slightly larger than a photo, then mounting the photo in the center of the mat. This helps define the picture as the focal point of the scrapbook page.

In Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, matting photos is quick, easy and precise. You can create a perfectly sized photo mat in any color you choose. Here’s how:

Open a scrapbook page (or new document) and a photo.

Using the Move tool, drag the photo onto the scrapbook page.

Select the photo layer in the Layers Panel.

Ctrl click (Mac: Cmd click) the thumbnail of the photo in the Layers Panel. This creates a selection around the photo.

Next, click the Create a New Layer icon in the Layers Panel to create a new transparent layer above the photo layer. Making sure that this new layer is selected, choose Edit > Stroke Selection to activate the Stroke dialog.

Choose a width and color, then click the Inside radio button to ensure that your mat will have clean corners.

Click OK to confirm the outline.

Your mat will be created on its own layer, so if you decide later that you want it removed, just drag the layer to the Garbage can in the Layers Panel.

If you prefer rounding the corners of your photos, check back next week for our tip on matting photos with rounded corners.