©2004 Leslie Parsons
So, let’s start at the beginning. Scan in your artwork, i.e., the image that you stamped on plain white paper. You may have colored it or not, that’s up to you. Because you will probably want to print the results of your project, scan at 300dpi. You can always change the resolution later should you need to use the image on the web.

When the image is saved in your computer, open it in PhotoShop, (I will be using Photoshop® for my explanation, but you can do the same things in Elements).
Screen Shot A (right) shows the image of the two pear stamps that I stamped on white paper and scanned. I will be using the seven sliced pears image at the top.

You can open more than one image at the same time in PhotoShop, and the background on the left of the screen was scanned in earlier. The plan here is to put the image of the pears over the background image.

Chose the Lasso Marquee tool from the tool bar on the left of the screen. (the Toolbar should be open. If not, open it under the Windows menu).

Screen Shot A
Use the lasso to draw a shape around the seven sliced pears. There will be “running ants” around the shape you drew - showing that the whole area is selected. Go back to the tool bar and click on your pointer tool. Move the mouse inside the selected pears area and click and drag it out of its window and into the window with the background. Screen Shot A shows the drag in motion. Note that the two scans must be the same resolution (300 dpi in this case) in order for this to work correctly.
Layers
First, a tiny bit of explanation about Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. Understanding this one principle will help immensely.

The program works with Layers. Think of it in terms of collage. When you do a collage, you put on layer upon layer of images by hand. The first thing you add is in layer one, the second thing you add is in layer two, and so on. Photoshop works this way also, and when you drag those pears over onto the background picture, it is actually located on a transparent overlay (Layer 1) that is automatically created by PhotoShop.
Screen Shot B
And, the item on the new layer is free floating - in other words, you can drag it to any place that pleases you. Layers are controlled in a window called the Layers palette, which should be open on your screen. If it isn’t, open it under the Window menu. The active Layer is highlighted in this palette. If you are ever trying to do something, and nothing is happening, check that the correct Layer is highlighted.

Now, what would you like to do with your new image?

If you want to make it larger or smaller, select Edit/Transform/Scale. A box with handles will appear around your image (as shown in Screen Shot B. I have drawn a black arrow pointing to it). Dragging these handles resizes the image in whichever direction you drag. Hold the Shift key down while dragging to retain the proportions of the image.

How to get rid of the white background on the pears?
This is a very good trick. Make sure your Pears Layer is active (check the Layers Palette). Go to Layer Styles under the Layers menu, and then to Blending Options. In that dialogue box, under the slider for This Layer (the top slider bar), move the arrow at the far right to the left until you have eliminated all the white, leaving your image on a transparent background. You will only have to pull the slider to about 175, not all the way to the left.

I have drawn a circle around the section you will be using. Isn’t that a cool trick?
Screen Shot C
Color in the image...
Go to the paint brush on the tool bar and choose a brush size from the Option Bar at the top of the page (if you do not see an Options Bar just under the main, go to Window and open the Options Bar).

Go down to the Foreground/Background color options at the lower end of the tool bar. Click on the Foreground color. This will bring up a gazillion color options. Choose or mix one and go to the image and fill it in using the brush. Change colors and color in another section of the stamped image. Try blending your colors using the Smudge tool (looks like a finger).

And here is another neat trick. If there is a color on your background that you want to use on the stamped image, then, in the Layers Palette, click on the Background layer (you still have the brush tool). Go to the page and position your paint brush on the color you want. Depress the Option Key and the paint brush icon changes to the Eyedropper tool. That is so it can suck up the color you want. Now go back to the Layer with your stamped image and paint with the color you picked up (this is called color Sampling).

Want the mirror image of your image...?
Go to Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal. Viola.

Want to add text...?
First, click on the Foreground/Background tool and make the Foreground black, or some other color you wish for the text. Click on the tool bar T for Text. Position the cursor where you want it and type. Change fonts or size with the Option bar that comes up when you click on the Text tool. (you must select any part of your typing that you wish to change).

Once you have typed what you want to say, go to the tool bar and click on the Arrow tool to carefully position the text. Once you go to this tool, you must return to the text tool to change the text. When you click back on the Text tool, it will bring up a new layer of text. To make changes to the old text, you must be sure you have that Layer (Layers Palette) active.

Finally, you can print out the image, with the background and mount it on a card. Is that easy or what!

Or, you could create the layers of the card in Photoshop, but that's another whole article. These are some very basic things you can do with your stamps once you have the images in your computer.

Go have lots of fun with it. If you get started and find you have a problem or a question, send me an email at parsonsl@cableone.net and I’ll try to help.

All the images at my site, www.Parsons-Studios.com, have been done in the manner described above. I hope you’ll come visit me there.
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