Tutorial 3: Rounding Corners

This tutorial is about rounding corners - non-destructively! (That means we are not going to loose any of our items that we are rounding out, so we can change our minds later without starting over!) And like pretty much everything in photoshop, there is more than one way to do this, and this is just one of them! I will go through one method for PS and one for PSE, because the PS way wont work for PSE, as far as I know. But the PSE will work for PS.

This will work for photos, papers, or pretty much anything you can think of (journalling mats, tags, etc!)

Photoshop: (using a layer mask)
Step 1: Open a new document for your layout (12x12, 8x8, whatever).

Step 2: Open your photo or paper that you want to round and place it onto your layout (drag it into the other document).

Step 3: On a new layer (this should happen automatically), create a rounded rectangle shape (doesnt matter what color) about the size of your photo (or whatever element you are rounding). This shape can be found beside the rectangle option once you choose the shape tool. You can play with the 'roundness' of your corners by changing the number in the radius box. A higher number will give you a more rounded corner.

Step 4: Holding your ctrl key, click on the rounded rectangle shape in your layers palette. You should see a marqee (marching ants) around the rounded rectangle on your canvas.

Step 5: Now select your photo/paper layer in the layers palette, and click on the button that looks like a square with a circle in it (this is the Add Layer Mask button). You should now only see the photo or paper where the marqee was. If your rectangle shape is in the way, you can delete or hide that layer. Now see it? Awesome! You may also notice in the layers palette you will see a second "part" of you layer, with a chain link in between. The left thumbnail is what is in the layer, and the right thumbnail is your layer mask.

Step 5.5: Now, if you decide that you want to change the size of the photo or paper you have 2 options - you can decrease the size of the layer AND the layer mask (which will decrease the size of the photo in total, or if it is a paper, it will decrease the size of the 'pattern'). OR you can UNLINK the layer from the mask by clicking on the little chain link, and the select the mask part of the layer (on the right) and resize only that. This will change the amount of your item that is visible WITHOUT actually changing the item. Make sense??

Step 6: Finish your layout! :)


Photoshop Elements: (using the Grouping feature)
Step 1: Open a new document for your layout (12x12, 8x8, whatever).

Step 2: Open your photo or paper that you want to round and place it onto your layout (drag it into the other document).

Step 3: On a new layer (this should happen automatically), create a rounded rectangle shape (doesnt matter what color) about the size of your photo (or whatever element you are rounding). This shape can be found beside the rectangle option once you choose the shape tool. You can play with the 'roundness' of your corners by changing the number in the radius box. A higher number will give you a more rounded corner.

Step 4: Move the shape layer under the photo layer. You can do this by dragging it in the layers palette.

Step 5: With the photo/paper layer selected, press Ctrl-G to GROUP the layers together. The photo will now only be visible where it is overlapping on the shape layer.

Step 6: Move and resize the shape layer to your liking!!

Step 7: Complete your layout! :)

Please leave me a comment if you found this helpful, or if you have a question!! I would also love to see what you do with these tutorials so if you work through one, leave me a link to your stuff!!