Free Digital Photo Mask and Back-to-School Layouts

My cousin kindly offered me the use of several photos she took of her kids on their first day back to school this year. I immediately noticed, in the above photo, the "dead" space above the little boy's head, not to mention the distracting glare. So I custom-designed a photo mask to deal with that space
It's basically a soft focus with the title cut out in the upper right corner, right where the distracting elements are in the photo. Here is the photo clipped to the mask and then placed on a very simple layout:

Note: I also used the dodge tool in Photoshop CS3 to lighten the area behind the words, to make the glare even less noticeable and to make the words stand out.

The accompanying page:

. . . and the two page layout:

So, cuz, what do you think??

I must apologize to my customers that I was only able to make 3 Back-to-School photo masks. I had intended to make 8 or so, but client orders have been coming in so I've been very busy with photo-book and digital scrapbook projects. Designing my own products has to take a backseat to my custom-designed layout work, since that is really the main focus of my little biz.

I do have some templates already made, just need to finalize them, zip them and upload to 4shared. I'll be working on getting those up over the next couple weeks.

Meanwhile, click here for a FREE download (at 4shared) of the Back-to-School photo mask featured in this post. Enjoy!

Digital Photo Masks and One is FREE

{paper & elements by Summer Driggs}

Two new photo masks for Back to School pics, and I'm going to give you one FREE! It's got a crookedy, whimsical, and swirly-curly look for girls' back to school photo. I used it with a photo of myself from wayyyy back in the Dark Ages, when I was in about the second grade. I didn't want to put the year on because then everyone would know how ancient I am!

In my layout I added a thin white stroke to the mask, and also a drop shadow. Here's the mask I used, and this is also the one that's FREE:Here's the second Back to School photo mask, the one for boys:

What a fun messy, grungy look, don't you think? Perfect for boys! Here's a layout I made with the mask:

{paper and butterflies by Olga Unger}

Again, I added a thin white stroke - I think it makes the outline of the words stand out much better. This time, instead of a drop-shadow, though, I used the Bevel/Emboss layer style and selected "Down" instead of the default "Up." This makes the mask look as thought it's been pressed down into the paper. I love the look!

If you'd like the second mask you can purchase it from my online store here (set of 2 includes the free mask!), or simply download the free mask from 4shared here.

Create a memory today!