Turn a solid image into an outline image with a shadow - H.A. Haunted House

Slow poke, moi....
Today's card was another one I made for the Hero Arts window card
challenge ages ago, but never got to enter, 'cause I craft in slow motion.
Should I dress up as a turtle for Halloween, do ya think? ;o)

It was such a hoot to make!

The digital element of today's tutorial focuses on taking the

"find edges" technique
(that turns a solid image into an outline image)...

(in this older post):


...just a little bit further:
Creating a quick shadow behind
a thin outline image.

Why?
Because sometimes the "find edges" filter in Photoshop
leaves you with an outline that is too thin & the image sort of
seems to disappear. This is one way to remedy that.

My particular project today starts out with this Hero Arts digital set,
but the technique should work with most solid images.

Hero Arts Happy Haunting:

(I turned the solid house image that comes with the set
into an outline stamp for colouring.)



...turn a solid image into an
outline image with a shadow:

This involves:
1) Making a copy of your image,
2) Turning it into an outline image and
3) Then pasting it over the original solid image
(which will show through as a shadow)

It's surprisingly easy & quick to do.

But please note:
Your images need to have a transparent background & solid white fill for
this to work. If they don't have transparency, you should be able to
use the magic eraser tool to erase the background on most images.

here's how...

Step 1) Open your image file in Photoshop. Select filter then stylize and find edges.

Step 2) The find edges filter will create a thin outline (works with most solid images)

Step 3) To make a shadow, paste this outline over the original. Use rectangular marquee tool & control C to copy

Step 4) Go back to the original black version (the white outline one will be in your clipboard).

Step 5) Paste the outline white image over original black silhouette. Use move tool to reveal shadow to whichever side you like.

(Here's a one-page reference sheet)

Click this link to Download
the one page reference PDF
for this tutorial.






Here are some other things I did to make the card...

Fill with different levels of text in Photoshop
(to get the house white & the sky grey).

Step 1) Enlarge the canvas of the new shadow image & make new layer. Temporarily, fill it with text to serve as a guide. Read it to decide what text you want where & move the house accordingly. (Select Layer then new; name it if you like & hit okay.)

Step 2) Delete that temporary text layer (right click & select delete layer).



Step 3) Click the bucket tool & then select the pattern tab & fill with custom text.
There's a tutorial on how to create custom patterns and use them to fill things here.

Step 4) To create grey colour: Switch to foreground fill & fill the background with Black at 50 percent opacity. (Bucket tool; foreground tab; solid black colour).

Step 5) Switch back to pattern & fill the background with text at 27 percent opacity.



Step 6) Print image & cut out the house roughly. Temporarily stick it to a 5 1-2 inch SQ black top-fold card & cut around it.



Step 7) Cut out the windows with a hobby blade or Exacto knife.



Step 8) Colour & glitter the house. I used Copic markers & S.U. Dazzling Diamonds glitter on Heat'n'stick powder.

...and added some vellum:



(The vellum was coloured orange with Copic markers & glittered).



Step 9) Cut out two crescent moon shapes by sticking 140lb watercolour paper back to back. If you like, you can draw a little template to follow.



Step 10) Pressure emboss the 2 moons for texture (this is Provo Craft's Spots & Dots folder).



Step 11) Add the moon to the card:

A) Distress the Moon (I used Copic markers and blender).
B) Adhere the two pieces together, sandwiching apiece of cloth floral wire between them.
C) Attach the wire by wrapping it around the top of the card fold & gluing it in place, if need be.

Step 12) Add a piece of stitched black cardstock and top it with a fence & a gate.

I made these with Hero Arts Flourish Grids clear stamp:

A) Stamp both stamps on a piece of watercolour paper with versamark ink (repeating the square stamp to get a long enough fence piece & cutting the circle stamp to get the gate shape).
B) Heat emboss it with white embossing powder.
C) Distress it with black ink.
D) Cut around the stamping to make the shapes.
E) Adhere the fence to the hill.
F) Attach the gate with mini hinges (I got these at the dollar store).

and there you have it:

Here's the text paper I made
from Edgar Allen Poe's short story The Black Cat
in case you'd like to use it:



Here's a closer view:


and the links:

DARK GREY POE PAPER:
Poe's Black Cat text paper PNG
Poe's Black Cat text paper JPG
Poe's Black Cat text paper PDF

or large JPG (original size) GREY on flickr here
(right click & save image as JPG)

WHITE POE PAPER:
Poe's Black Cat text paper White PNG
Poe's Black Cat text paper White JPG
Poe's Black Cat text paper White PDF

or large JPG (original size) WHITE on flickr here
(right click & save image as JPG)

(For help with how to use Adobe acrobat
to download these files,
please see the bottom of this older post.)

Happy Haunting!

P.S. Disclosure: I'm not affiliated with Hero Arts in any way.
This is just some stuff I bought... :o)

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Using digi paper as a focal image - Ghost Family

Another easy hybrid crafting cheap trick you might like:

Bits of digital papers make nice focal images for your projects.
No need to buy extra stamps or traditional digital outline images!
(And it lets you take a break from colouring.)



My best friend Kim and her hubby have twin girls &
I wanted to make a special Halloween card with the whole family
in it as ghosts. (The four ghosts in the focal image of this card
are a snippet from Cosmo Cricket digital paper.
Don't you just love their little smiling faces?)

---

So....... The ghost paper from this
Cosmo Cricket Matilda digital paper pack...


...turned into a family of four ghosties:



(So easy to do it's scary!) ;o)

You can even clear emboss over printed digital paper
snippets for a quick bit of fancy texture:



here's

...tweak digital paper
to create a focal image:

Step 1) Open your digital paper & use the rectangle marquis tool to
select the portion you want to copy. (Hit the Control button
and the C key to copy quickly).

Step 2) Create a new file & paste your selection into it. (Hit Control V
to paste quickly).



Step 3) If there are areas you want to cover
or fill, you can use the eyedropper tool to
select the fill colour, so that it matches perfectly.



Step 4) Using the new colour that you picked up with
the eyedropper, fill in any areas you like. I used both the paint
bucket or brush in areas. (See the partial ghost head at the
bottom right, above? This was a screenshot of it being erased).

Or customize it even more: If you want the background to be
a different shade, you can fill it with another colour (or even a pattern):



With just one click of the mouse, I used the paint bucket tool and filled the background with black. (Of course, some papers may be trickier than others to alter depending on their style).



Step 5) Print the image and use it as is or embellish it.

I did this stuff to mine:

A) Stamped over top of the printed image with an
Impression Obsession Funky
background cover a card stamp:

in clear Versamark ink.

B) Heat embossed it with clear detail embossing powder & a heat gun.
C) Distressed the edges with black ink.
D) Layered it on a yellow mat.
E) Added doodled dots in white Sharpie paint pen & black marker.
F) Added a black mat (after I added the "Happy Halloween" flag bits.)



G) Cut little bows & a fedora hat out of black cardstock.
H) Added stitched details in yellow embossing thread.
I) Stitched the ghost trails in light violet embroidery thread.

Step 6) Make the sentiments:

"Happy Halloween"

1) Create a word document with "HAPPY HALLOWEEN" in this Graffiti Paint Brush free font
with spaces between the letters to cut tiny flag shape.

You can download my sentiment document here. Please note: the font will not look the same unless you add the same Graffiti brush font that I used to your own collection of fonts, or you can change it up however you like, of course.

2) Print it on 140lb watercolour paper.
3)Quickly heat emboss it with clear embossing powderCut the flag shapes free hand.
4) Colour the flags with Mustard Seed distress ink.
5) Underline the letters with a white Sharpie paint pen.
6) Stick the pieces behind the yellow mat.
7) Add the black mat behind the letters.

"Boo"

To make the 3 "boo" ribbon tabs:

1) Cut a piece of cardstock the same colour as your ribbon to measure the width of your ribbon
2) Cut the strip into approximately 1 inch long sections - 1 inch for each letter.
3) Glue the ribbon around the cardstock strip (I like to use glue that won't gum up my needle or place my adhesive with the stitching area in mind).
4) Pierce holes in the shape of a letter. (If you like, you can draw your letters on with a pencil to use as a guide.
5) Stitch with needle & thread where you pierced the holes.
6) Adhere the thread ends to the back of the ribbon tab.
7) Stick the ribbon tabs under the mat of your image & you're done!

Step 7) Add paper to a 5 and 1/2" square top-fold card

This is that paper that I made with the black circle Overlay and different digital papers:



It's printed on watercolour paper & dry-brushed with white acrylic paint.



Step 8) Make a fancy band of white embossed paper.

This one is made using the EK Success Martha Stewart punch around the page Spiderweb punch:



I embossed paper with Cuttlebug textile embossing folder
& stuck it on top. Then added Versamark ink, Heat'n'Stick powder & glitter.

Step 9) Put it all together:

...and that's it!

Thanks for havin' a boo at this!


P.S. Disclosure: This post is unsolicited, but I was lucky enough to receive the EK Success Martha Stewart punch around the page Spiderweb punch for free.

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