How to make your own backgrounds from scratch in PSP?

[Dolphin Crazy]

Hi,

Is there a tutorial on how to make your own backgrounds from scratch please?

I will look forward to someones reply, thank you! 😀

[Susan Ewart]

1 hour ago, Dolphin Crazy said:

Hi,

Is there a tutorial on how to make your own backgrounds from scratch please?

I will look forward to someones reply, thank you! 😀

If you are a Diamond member there are a lot of tutorials on how to make papers, backgrounds, elements etc.  And there is usually a deal to try the membership for a month that would allow you to look around to see if that's what kind of stuff you are looking for.  It has really helped me in learning PSP. the membership is quite flexible too.  You can do it monthly or yearly or just do a month here and there a few times a year.  If you are not a member, check out the "blog" tab and possibly the "Resources" tab (at the top of the page) as you might find some background techniques there.  I would do a search in the search bar for "backgrounds" and maybe try one for "papers" and see what comes up. 

[Dolphin Crazy]

Thank you so much for your reply Susan! 😁
Your very helpful.

[Susan Ewart]

1 hour ago, Dolphin Crazy said:

Thank you so much for your reply Susan! 😁
Your very helpful.

You are most welcome.  Hope to see you around the the Campus.  check out the forums "What are you working on" is for whatever you are doing, and there is also challenges throughout the year which has their own forum post and also lots of Free workshops during the year for everyone!  Hope you can join in with some of those.

[Dolphin Crazy]

Look forward to being around too. Take care!

[Suzy]

There are a million ways….

from your own photos. Just a woods with a creek photo, say, then blown up to the smallest side being 3600 pixels (or whatever size you’re after).  Backgrounds can be blurry with the resize. Crop to,size. Put your zip line or camping photos on it.

a photo of a parking garage wall, a stucco wall, an elevator door…..resize, place on a colored paper and mess with the blending modes, maybe “multiply” then move the transparency slider to 40% and see what it looks like. You can use packing peanuts, a park bench back, old wooden storage barn, peeled paint fence or wall. I used my wood floors, and also a painted wall where you could see the puckers of the paint roller.  As long as the “original” is over 12” square, it will work. (I use 16” as my parameter)

photo of Kraft paper, waxed paper, butcher paper, florist paper, cardboard box panel, packing paper (even if it’s been crumbled). Then add color. And blend modes, use those sliders!

as long as it’s for your own use, these are sometimes popular:

scan or take a photo of newspaper, wrapping paper, wallpaper.

When you have it, start looking at textures. effects-texture, texture. Add one that is subtle, but not too subtle. I find this the trickiest.

Post your results!

 

[gwen jewitt]

Hi Suzy did you post an image of your finished project, I don't see it if you did.

[gwen jewitt]

These are the two backgrounds I created from the clematis photo from my garden last year and the bridge

photo which I took last year also. I used various blend modes and effects using the blind mode and balls and baubles.

It may be difficult to see as the images are small. Thank you Suzy for igniting  my curiosity in making backgrounds.

[gwen jewitt]

Thank you Anne and Susan

Edited April 2 by gwen jewitt

[Suzy]

Hi, Gwen, I’ve been super busy with daffodils which takes me out of the campus for 6-weeks, Mid- March thru April. I just now saw this. Sounds like you’ e got them going!

on the woods and bridge photo you posted, that is EXACTLY what I meant. So you put that on a background of maybe off- white and change the transparency so you can see the pic, but it isn’t wholly in-your-face visible.  Bottom Layer off white or white, next layer above it, your photo at 20% transparency. Or less or more… 🙂. I HATE directions like that, but it’s the truth. Now run out to your garage wall or a parking garage wall or a cement wall or even a cement driveway if you can take a pic straight down with your toes not showing, or somewhere-anywhere, and take a pic. Now put that on TOP of your photo at say, 2% transparency. This sort of pebbles your photo so it isn’t quite so crisp. You can stop anywhere along the process, but the final thing is to play with the blending mode sliders. Try “multiply” with your cement wall. Now you should have to squint to even tell it”s a bridge in the woods and the photos you’d scrap on top will take center stage. 
Suzy

[gwen jewitt]

Hi Suzy I re-did my background using your suggestions, I really liked the effect that  the cement photo added to the overall image.I did play around with textures etc but I liked it just the way it was. I added a photo frame around the edge  of the background and used the buttonize  effect, the tree came from a blogtrain but I can't remember which one.

The Happy Birthday card  in the shape of a birdhouse was one I made for my son a few years back, thanks again for passing on your knowledge. Is the size of the image okay? 

[Suzy]

Wow, that turned out great, Gwen!
The card is really, really great, too, so I guess you aren’t a beginner, see next paragraph.  Did you tell your son he is the baby bird with the giant mouth? Hahahaha!

 Next photo you can step back from the cement, say 5- 7 feet away.  It’s ok if there is a seam or a dirt spot. Or you could go to a stucco wall.  Then you can have two go-to textures, each completely different,  that you can use any time.  
 

From there you can color them, or get Carole’s script that takes the photo and makes a blurry multicolored background from it. Darn it, I forget the name, can anybody help here?  BECAUSE I MEANT TO BUY IT AT THE BIRTHDAY SALE AND FORGOT!  Well, anyway, you put the colors you want on your cement with the script, then when you go to the different blending modes it’s a wow!

Size of the image is perfect.

[gwen jewitt]

On 4/23/2024 at 5:56 PM, Suzy said:

Wow, that turned out great, Gwen!
The card is really, really great, too, so I guess you aren’t a beginner, see next paragraph.  Did you tell your son he is the baby bird with the giant mouth? Hahahaha!

 Next photo you can step back from the cement, say 5- 7 feet away.  It’s ok if there is a seam or a dirt spot. Or you could go to a stucco wall.  Then you can have two go-to textures, each completely different,  that you can use any time.  
 

From there you can color them, or get Carole’s script that takes the photo and makes a blurry multicolored background from it. Darn it, I forget the name, can anybody help here?  BECAUSE I MEANT TO BUY IT AT THE BIRTHDAY SALE AND FORGOT!  Well, anyway, you put the colors you want on your cement with the script, then when you go to the different blending modes it’s a wow!

Size of the image is perfect.

Hi Suzy, thanks for your comments, I will try what you suggested and look at other things I might not of thought of using to create backgrounds with.