Thank you Sue for the info on brushes and to Carole for the answer to my question about the texture layer.
Lesson 7: I tried making a mask for one of the circular paper elements layers (without changing the brightness setting in order to make it opaque). It resulted in a translucent image therefore the background layers showed through. I am now assuming that the template layers are presented as tonal greys sometimes in order to differentiate them from each other especially if overlapping in a design. From your previous answer Carole I guess ClipToIt always treats the tonal template layers as if they are opaque black ones and knows what to do?
For the ribbons I went for plain colours as my overall images are so busy. Coincidentally I have chosen an Australian theme (having never been there though). I added a white border to a couple of the images to bring them out a bit and I used the Selection Expand technique from a previous lesson to do so.
I have found these lessons extremely useful and there is a wealth of creativity and techniques that is being shared. Need the time to read it all again. Thank you everyone especially to Carole.
