One of the biggest fashion trends right now – from dresses to curtains to hair – is ombre. This graduation of color from light to dark isn’t just something that’s reserved for fashion, though. It’s a great technique that you can apply to your favorite patterned papers, brushes, or elements with just a few clicks of your mouse.
This technique works best on graphic patterns with strong lines: stripes, chevrons, polka dots, or other geometric shapes all work particularly well. Patterns with ornate flourishes can also work well, such as the snowflakes in the background paper on my layout below, as long as the patterns aren’t too detailed or too distressed.
Credits: Brown Paper Packages by Karen Funk, Clipped Frames by Audrey Neal; March Foundations template #6 by Crystal Livesay
Here’s how to get the ombre look:
1. Select two colors; ideally, these colors should be in the same color family. You want the pattern to look like it is fading from dark to light. Set the darker color as your foreground color and the lighter color as your background color.
2. Use the magic wand tool to select the area to be recolored. I usually set my tolerance level to about 35. Once I select one of the stripes, I right-click and select SIMILAR to pick up all the other stripes of that same color. If you find that you are picking up other colors that are close to your intended color, you can reduce the tolerance setting to a 5 or 10 and the tool will be pickier about the color it selects.
3. Once you have all your stripes in your pattern selected, right-click and select LAYER VIA COPY.
4. Now, go up to the toolbar and select LAYER > NEW FILL LAYER > GRADIENT and select OK. When the dialogue box pops up, choose the drop-down arrow next to GRADIENT and select the first box from the options shown. Click OK.
5. Now, just clip your layer to your pattern layer by selecting CTRL+G. Merge the layers by selecting CTRL+E. To finish things off, merge your pattern layer with the original paper by using CTRL+E again.
That’s all there is to it! Now you have an awesome ombre patterned paper with just a few simple steps.
For APRIL’S TECHNIQUE CHALLENGE at Design House Digital, we're asking you to put this technique to use on a layout. You can use it on your patterned paper, on a brush or word art, or on an element of your choice. Upload your layout to the TECHNIQUE CHALLENGE GALLERY by the end of the month. Don’t forget to add a link in the challenge forum if you’d like to share your layout with us. At the end of the month, all participants will be entered in a drawing for a $5.00 DHD Gift Certificate.
Of course, if you don't want to go to the trouble of creating your own papers, you can also pick up these two paper packs from my shop: Ombre Chevron and Ombre Dots and Stripes.
Recent Comments