clipped from www.scrapjazz.com

Creating Borders in Photoshop Computers have quickly become an indispensable tool for scrapbookers. One of the main reasons for this is because of photo editing software such as Photoshop. These programs are so powerful, they're like having a darkroom right on your computer. As many scrapbookers are discovering, programs like Photoshop allow you to creatively edit your photos in ways that can greatly enhance a scrapbook page. One such technique is adding borders to your photos. Like most techniques in Photoshop, there's more than one way to do this, and some are easier than others. Here are a few of the easiest and most useful ways. All of the instructions are based on Photoshop CS, but if you use another version or a different program, the instructions should be somewhat similar. As an example, we'll be using a photo of Jamie's (momtoprincesses's) daughter Jillian. Pick a photo of your own to follow along! Always save your photo with a different name before you make any changes. You don't want to permanently alter your original photo. Using 'Stroke' By far the easiest method to add a simple border is by using the 'stroke' command in Photoshop. To do this, begin by selecting the entire photo (Select>>All), then choosing the stroke command (Edit>>Stroke). You'll be asked to choose how wide you want the border to be in pixels, as well as what color. The more pixels, the wider the border will be. I usually stick to one or two pixels wide. You can leave the rest of the settings alone, but feel free to fool around with them! Using a different blend mode can yield interesting effects. For instance, by using "soft light" here with a navy blue color, I was able to create a border that still showed the photo underneath. Creating a Border Selection For most of the techniques to create a border, you'll start off with the part you want to turn into a border selected. The easiest way to do this, in Photoshop, is to use Select All the way you did before, and then choose Select>>Modify>>Border. Make the border as wide as you'd like. I made it eight pixels. If your program doesn't have the 'Border' option, you can achieve the same thing by selecting the entire photograph, and choosing Select>>Modify>>Contract instead. Contract the selection by the width you'd like the border to be. Then choose Select>>Inverse to leave the border selected. Using Brushes to Create a Border Have you explored all of the things you can do with the brush tool? Playing around with it can be a lot of fun, especially since you can download new brushes online. You can also use this tool to create an easy border. Once you've created the border selection, choose a color you'd like to use and a brush that has a lot of texture. For now, leave the brush's settings at the default values, although changing them around is a great way to experiment. Paint in the border with the brush tool. Don't paint over the same place too many times, so that the texture of the brush shows up. Thanks to the selection, you don't have to worry about "coloring outside the lines." Using Texture to Create a Border Another thing that you can download on the internet are patterns that you can import to Photoshop as textures. My favorites come from the Inspiration Gallery (http://www.theinspirationgallery.com/). Once you have a pattern you'd like to use, create a texture by opening the image in Photoshop and selecting Edit>>Define Pattern. Once you've done this, create the border selection again, the way we did before. Then, select the paint can tool and choose "Fill: Pattern." The pattern you just defined should be available from the list-make sure it's selected. To make things easier, create a new layer to make the border on by selecting Layer>>New>>Layer. Now, all you have to do is use the paint bucket tool to fill the selection in with the pattern. Like most techniques in Photoshop, there are thousands of variations on each one! Start with what I've described, and branch off from there. The more you explore the program, the more comfortable you'll become, which will lead to you discovering your own ways of doing things. If you liked what you learned here, be sure to search for more Photoshop tutorials on the internet-they are everywhere!