coloring black and gray embellishments

[briarrose]

I am a newbie to digi. I love it, but I have a question.

I recently bought bows and buttons from scrapkut that are in black and gray. I would like to know how to color them. The kit shows a bow in orange.

Barbara

[Sexy__Eyes]

What program are you using?

[goldscraps]

If you are using Photoshop (I don't know if this will work for elements, but it does work for the full Photoshop), open one of the elements and do the following:

1. Duplicate the grayscale element layer.
2. Add a new blank layer between the two element layers.
3. Fill the blank layer with the color you want to use.
4. Use a clipping mask (right click and choose create clipping mask) to clip the color layer to the bottom element layer.
5. Change the blending mode of the color layer to either color, vivid light, or linear light...which ever one looks the best.
6. Change the blending mode of the top element layer to either overlay or soft light. Also adjust the opacity of this layer until it looks good.
7. You might have to experiment with different blending mode combinations between the color layer and the top element layer to see what combines well with the color and the shade of gray on the element.

That's it!

[eb2177]

In Elements it works the same as Andrea discribed above with one small change. On step 4, instead of right clicking to do the cliping mask, do ctrl-G (hold down the ctrl key and press G) to do the cliping mask. (Make sure before doing this that the color layer is highlighted.)

Or ( I just learned this way tonight when looking up the clipping mask issue) you can hold down the alt key and position your pointer over the dividing line between the two layers. Your pointer will then change to overlaping circles. When this happens, click on the top layer. I think the first way with ctrl-G is much easier.

Then continue as Andrea explained.

And Andrea, thanks for the tip on changing the blending mode on the color layer, I didn't know this part. My little bow looks much better now. Great tip!

[PamWhit]

Thank you Barbara for that question! I had the same issues being a newbie to Photoshop. And thank you Andrea for your help -- you're the best, super woman!

[Mom_of_5]

Wonderful tips!

[briarrose]

Thanks for the info. I am using photoshop elements.