Quick Collage Basics: Week Three

August 3, 2010 at 7:16 am , by Brittany Hopkins

Welcome to Quick Collage Basics, a six week blog series sharing basic techniques for our free photo templates. Each week I’ll post a new tutorial featuring a technique readers frequently ask about. All of the tutorials will be in Adobe Photoshop, but leave a comment if you have questions about adapting the instructions to the software you use.

Week Three: Deleting and Combining Template Blocks

It’s easy to customize digital templates by deleting or combining template blocks.

Deleting

1. Use your Rectangular Marquee tool to select the template block you would like to delete.

2. Go to Edit>Clear or press the Delete key to remove the block.

Combining

1. Use the Rectangular Marquee tool to select an area that is slightly wider and the same height as the space between the template blocks you would like to combine. Press Control + C.

2. Press Control + V to paste. (This will create a new layer.) Use the arrows on your keyboard to move the block over to bridge the gap between the two blocks.

These are the two methods I use when deleting and combining template blocks, but they aren’t the only way! If you’ve found a method that works for you, share it with your fellow scrappers in the section below! Next Tuesday, check back in for Week Four: Deleting Excess Photo from Shape Templates.

6 Responses to “Quick Collage Basics: Week Three”

1. August 4, 2010 at 1:12 am, by Jackie Schachter

   Hi Brittany,

   Re combining template blocks. This is the way that
   I do it, but I found I needed to ‘merge visible’
   the two layers otherwise my photo went under the
   block and I could see it only through the gap of the blocks, once I’d merged the layers it worked fine. (I use ps7).

2. August 4, 2010 at 8:42 am, by Brittany Hopkins

   Thanks for the tip! Different versions of Photoshop sometimes have slightly different steps, so it’s always helpful to hear how it works in other versions.

3. August 11, 2010 at 11:18 am, by Quick Collage Basics: Week Four | I Scrap, U Scrap

   [...] See Week Three: Combining and Deleting. [...]

4. September 5, 2010 at 8:30 am, by Digital Scrapbooking tips: Quick Collage Basics – Week 3

   [...] Week 3 Tutorial for the six-week series on creating collages is up on the ‘I Scrap, U Scrap’ Blog. This [...]

5. September 8, 2010 at 2:02 pm, by margo brickell

   It never ceases to amaze me – all the resources you provide on your website and in your magazine. I was very excited to discover your tips for changing your templates. When I tried week 3 tutorial and tried to copy (control C)a message popped up “could not complete the Copy command because the selected area is empty. Don’t know what’s happening here. HELP!! I have Photoshop 6.
   Thx for your help.

6. September 8, 2010 at 3:47 pm, by Brittany Hopkins

   Hi Margo! Do you have your template layer selected when copying? Having the wrong layer selected could be why it says the selected area is empty. If that doesn’t help, leave a comment and I will see if I can figure out what the trouble is!