There are so many ways to paint a picture to add some artistry to your scrapbook pages.

You can use watery brushes and the tutorial in the DesignerDigitals store. You can simply clip your photo to a mask. Or one of many other techniques.

I’m going to share a variation of a masking technique I frequently use to help you add some artistry to your pages!

1. Select a moderately neutral background paper. I chose Letter Box Simplicity.

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2.Select a photo and size for your page.

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3. Duplicate your photo and go to Filter > Artistic > Paint Daubs
I used setting of Brush Size 5 and Sharpness 1

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4. Make a second duplicate of your original photo and drag that layer above the Paint Daubs layer. Go to Filter>Sketch>Photocopy and I used settings of Details 7 Darkness 8

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5. Set the Blend of the photocopy layer to Soft Light

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6. Select your photo layers, make them a new group

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7. Now you are going to make a layer mask to start your painting. Go to Layer>Layer Mask>Hide All

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8. Now it’s time to start painting! I used Touch Up Paint Brushes and Stamps No. 5. You want to be sure you have the group mask selected and your foreground color is white.

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9. After you’re done painting, I set the blend mode of my photo group to Linear Burn

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10. After seeing my finished image I wanted to tweak the photo to brighten the whites. I selected the Paint Daubs layer, because it is the ‘base’ layer and selected Image>Adjustments>Levels and dragged the far right arrow to the left until the desire effect is achieved.

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To finish off my page I added a Curled Photo Frame, created a layer mask for the frame layer and again used Touch Up Paints No.5 to paint away some of the frame. Added a Traveler Cluster and chose Schooner Script as the font for a handwritten look and, simple as that, it’s done! See the page and page credits in thescrapbooking idea gallery at DesignerDigitals!

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If you’re looking for more… try mixing it up and instead of using Touch Up Paints, try step 8 with Watery Spots or Watery Washes. You can use a stamped block and then add to it with other brushes too. There’s also a layered template that has part of the frame already removed for you that’s great to evolve upon! It’s fun to create a truly custom mask to fit with your photo and there are some great photoshop brushes to work with for this at DesignerDigitals!