Make Your Own Digital Scrapbooking Papers in Photoshop

In case you missed my guest post over at Libearate Creativity, here it is.

Today I have fun tutorial for anyone who likes digital scrapbooking.  If you get sick of the freebies out there and don't want to pay for more, start making your own background papers!  Here are a couple of my favorites that I've created lately.  If you like them feel free to click on them and then right click to save it to your computer. 

Ready to create your own?  Here's How:

Create a new document: 2 inches x 2 inches, 300 ppi.

Fill the square with a design.  Typically you start by choosing a color and using the paint bucket tool to add a background color.  From there you can draw in a design (which I have done and being no artist, it can still turn out!) or using the custom shape tool (which is what I did below). 

Don't have many custom shapes?  Lady Oak is a great place to download loads of free custom shapes!  I typically like to place my shapes randomly.  If you do place them in a tidy order like I did below, make sure to put them closer to the edges otherwise your finished product will end up boxy, as you'll see in the end.

Now, go into the edit menu and define a new pattern.

Now you're done with the 2x2 image, you can save it if you want, I usually don't.  Open a new image that's 12x12, also 300 ppi.

Once you have your new document open, go to "edit", "fill" and choose the new pattern  you just saved.  Voila!  You've got a 12x12 scrapbooking page.  Now we'll just add some finishing touches.

To do that, go into the texture tool and play around!  I almost always add a canvas or burlap texture to make it look like actual paper, but often I find other fun effects in there that add nice touches.  It's fun to play around with!

Once you're happy with your finished product just save it as a jpeg and you're good to go!