In last week’s “Neutralizing Colors” post I showed you how to tone down bold bright colors in papers and even elements.

Today I’m going to do just the opposite. I want to share with you a quick way to add color to a grey-scale (or some other neutral color) patterned paper.

Now, don’t shut this down right away. I’m certain you’re sitting there thinking, “This isn’t for me…I really don’t have any grey-scale paper!” Just give me a chance! I promise it’ll be worth the read 😉

It’s going to be quick because this time I’m going to be using a fill layer…

Solid Fill Layer

Before I move forward, just a quick reminder that I use Photoshop Elements (PSE) 2024. If you use a different version, some of my screen shots may not look the same as what you see on your screen.

Using a Fill Layer and a solid color I can quickly add color to a grey-scale or other neutral paper. And before you think this will only work on grey-scale (neutral) paper…I have a surprise coming! This technique can actually work on just about any paper you chose!

I’m going to start with a blank 12×12 file and leave the base layer (Layer 1) blank.

Next, I’m going to be using paper from “Neutral Gray Watercolor” by ThingsbyLarry at Creative Fabrica:

I’m going to pull in the paper that’s next to the last on the right in the top row of the image above:

I really don’t have any particular color in mind at the moment so I’m just going to leave my Foreground/Background color chips set to the default of black and white (Press D on the keyboard). If I did know what color I wanted to use I would set my Foreground color chip to that color.

I already mentioned that I’m going to be using a “fill” layer to re-color this paper. I can create this fill layer either by going to the top tool bar and selecting Layer->New Fill Layer->Solid Color:

Or I can just click on the Create new fill or adjustment layer icon (the circle that’s half white and half black) in the Layers Panel and choose Solid Color.

Either option will work but using the icon in the Layers Panel makes things a little quicker because PSE will immediately display the Color Picker:

I can now just choose any color by using the slider over the color “ribbon” until I hit a shade I like and then clicking somewhere in the color box that looks like a nice color.

Note: If I had already set my Foreground color chip to a specific color, I would just click on the Foreground chip to select the color.

I settled on a nice shade of aqua (#86e9df) and clicked OK to confirm. PSE then placed a Color Fill 1 layer above my grey watercolor paper:

Note: You may be thinking that if I had created the fill layer using the tool bar method and clipped the fill layer to the previous layer, the result might be different. Because this is a solid fill layer, clipping the layer isn’t the issue the result would have been the same either way.

There’s one more step before I can see how this fill layer will alter my paper. The Color Fill 1 layer should be the active layer at this point. Now all I have to do is change the Blend Mode of the fill layer to Overlay:

That turned out so nice. And see how quick that was? I am going to save this newly colored paper as a JPG file with a unique name.

Note: I mentioned above when using the tool bar method to create a fill layer I would have the option to clip the fill layer to the previous (underlying) layer. Since I was working with only one paper, it didn’t matter. I always have the option to clip a fill or adjustment layer to the underlying layer.

If you are planning to apply different changes to multiple paper layers in one file, I suggest you always clip a fill/adjustment layer to the layer you are trying to “change”. Otherwise, the changes will be applied to all layers below the fill/adjustment layer. It’s sort of like a domino effect. I hope that all makes sense.

Now before I expound on this technique further, I do want to clear one thing up.

I suspect there are more than a few people who may have thought that the best choice for re-coloring this grey-scale paper would have been to use the Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer (set to colorize). If you read my “More Glowing” post you already know about using that adjustment.

Well, it may not be exactly the best option. Here’s what happened to that grey watercolor paper when I set my Foreground color chip to the exact same aqua color when using the Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer (set to colorize):

That’s dramatically different from that light aqua paper I got using the solid fill! Changing blend modes didn’t help and trying to match the color by adjusting the Hue, Saturation and Lightness settings was a nightmare and I never really came close.

Don’t get me wrong, this is still a good option, the paper directly above is still nice. But if you’re trying to “paper match”, which I’ll cover shortly, using a Solid Fill Layer is the only way to go!

Earlier I mentioned that this technique can work on a neutral paper. Here’s a good example of one:

This paper is from “Neutral Grunge Digital Papers #4” by Oldmarketdesigns at Creative Fabrica.

Using the exact same Solid Fill and Blend Mode I used above I get this result:

While this seems to have worked just fine, I do get a different result if I turn that paper grey:

The difference isn’t huge but it is noticeable. And actually, both versions of the paper turned out nice.

So, this means you can absolutely use a solid fill to re-color neutral papers, just know that the results will likely be different than what may be achieved with a grey-scale version.

Important Note: Even if you desaturate and re-color a paper, you still must credit the original designer when posting a final image on any online site/forum.

No Grey-Scale Paper?

Remember how at the beginning I said not to give up on this post just because you don’t have any grey-scale paper? Guess what? You have more grey-scale paper than you think.

You should be able to pull in just about any colorful paper you have and turn it into a gray-scale paper. All it requires is that you desaturate the paper (remove the color).

Desaturating The Paper

For example; here’s a multi-colored piece of paper from “Daisy Days” by Cindy Ritter Designs:

The first thing I have to do is simplify this paper because it was pulled in as a Smart Object. If you’ve read some of my recent posts you already know that PSE won’t let me apply edits to a Smart Object without first simplifying it.

With the paper simplified I go up to the top tool bar and select Enhance->Adjust Color->Remove Color (Shift+Ctrl+U):

As soon as I do that voilà…:

I now have a grey-scale heart pattern paper that I can re-color just as I did the watercolor paper above. I’m going to use that same shade of aqua I used above but a Blend Mode of Color Burn:

I’d encourage you to give this a try on some of your colorful papers!

And technically speaking, this technique could work on most any paper even without desaturating it. Though the results will tend to be less monochromatic. A lot will depend on the colors in the paper and the Blend Mode that you use.

From my experience, most Blend Modes (over the full color paper) will not produce results similar to what you see above. Only blending with Hue or Color consistently seem to produce a similar look.

But here’s an example of that heart paper (in full color) when I use the same aqua fill layer and set the Blend Mode to Hue:

Using a Blend Mode of Color, the hearts were colored about the same as what you see in the image above but the background seemed to have less white.

So, you can see that it is possible to use this technique on any colorful paper. Just know that the results will be unpredictable and may likely vary depending on what colors are in your paper.

Therefore, it does seem to work best (in my opinion) on papers with mostly neutral shades. And, if all else fails, you can just desaturate the paper you want to re-color.

Changing Colors

Let’s go back to that light aqua watercolor paper I created above. Clearly, I seemed pretty happy with that paper, right? But maybe I really kind of wanted something a little more on the blue side. Perhaps I want a completely different color altogether! No problem.

All I have to do is go to the Layers Panel and double-click on the thumbnail of the Color Fill layer. PSE will then open the Color Picker and I can once again choose any color by using the slider over the color “ribbon” and clicking somewhere in the color box that looks like a nice nice color. Or I could use my Foreground color chip if I already had a specific color in mind.

This time I settled on a nice shade of mustard yellow (#f9c64b):

Now, remember, all I did was change the color of the fill layer. The Blend Mode is still set to Overlay. I’m not sure I’m 100% happy with how dark this turned out. Rather than going back and playing with the color again, I’m going to try a different Blend Mode.

Here’s what it looks like if I use Hard Light:

And this is what happens if I use Screen:

Both of those are nice. I hope you can see how many different options can be created using varying colors and different Blend Modes. And it really doesn’t take much time at all.

Now earlier a mentioned something about color matching. We’re going to take a look at that now…

Exact Color Matching

I’m not normally a betting gal. But if I had to bet, I’d say you’ve likely, more than once, run across a project where you had trouble finding just the right papers in just the right colors that coordinate relatively perfectly. Okay…that was a lot of adverbs 😉

Well, this fill technique might very well be the answer.

I’m going to use another paper from “Daisy Days” by Cindy Ritter Designs:

I want to use this particular paper in a layout but the background color is all wrong. I like this paper specifically because of the daisy image in the lower left corner. But I also want to keep that daisy image with it’s original colors. Bet you’re wondering how I’m going to pull that off!

As they say, there’s more than one way to peel an orange😉 Before I do anything else, I make a selection of only that portion of the paper and create a new layer from that selection. Then using multiple selection tools/options, I remove the background from that new layer:

I’m going to hide that layer for the moment and go back to the original paper and make that the active layer. There is at least one other paper from that same kit that I know I will ultimately use as the “base” of my layout:

I just pulled that into my document directly above my other paper. Now, you may be thinking I should be trying to just blend this into the original paper. Yeah…I tried that. I just wasn’t happy with the blending.

I really want the beige of that solid paper to replace the colors in the original paper. So, I’m just going to nudge this solid paper to the far left of my document so I can see both the beige and the original paper:

Now, just as I did before, I’m going to simplify this original patterned paper and remove the color:

Now, with that “grey” layer active I can add the Solid Fill Layer and use the Color Picker to select one of the shades of beige in the other paper. I ended up selecting a color with the hex value of #d6bba6.

I then clipped the fill layer to my “grey” paper and played with the Blend Mode until I was happy with the result. A blend using Overlay was a bit too light; Hard Light was some better. But I ultimately settled on using Color:

This looks so much better than anything I got when I just tried blending the beige paper with the original colored background.

I can now delete (or hide) that beige paper and see my new background:

This is going to work perfectly in my layout!

Now, this was a bit more complicated than it generally needs to be simply because I wanted to retain the original daisy element. In most cases, I’m not going to go to that extent. So, I’m going to show you a simpler example using two other papers.

This time I’m going to use a floral paper from “Gray Watercolor Floral Paper” by Sagorarts at Creative Fabrica:

I’m going to be using the last one (to the right) in the top row of the image above:

This paper is not completely grey-scale. I can probably work with it the way it is but I know the results will be different if I remove the color. So, I simplify the layer and remove the color just as I’ve done before:

For all intents and purposes, it looks mostly the same. But the original version did have a bit more of a blueish cast which could affect how the blending worked! So, I think I’ll be happier using this one.

Next, I’m going to pull in a different paper from “Daisy Days” by Cindy Ritter Designs that I want to “color match”:

I really want the darker blueish-green shade in that artsy paper. So, I’m just going to nudge this artsy paper to the far right of my document so I can see both papers:

Just as before, with the grey floral layer active I can add the Solid Fill Layer and use the Color Picker to select one of the blueish-green shades from the artsy paper. I ended up selecting a color with the hex value of #358079.

I then clipped the fill layer to my floral paper and again played with the blending until I was happy with the result.

A blend using Color Burn was interesting but a bit too dark. Screen was nice but a little too light. I tried Color again since it worked so nicely the last time but I was afraid it was a bit “bolder” than I wanted. Overlay was also nice but a little more subtle than I expected.

I ultimately settled on using Vivid Light which at first was a bit too dark but after lowering the Opacity to 60% I was quite pleased:

I think these two papers will work very nicely together! And as you can see, it isn’t just the Blend Mode that can make all the difference…so can the opacity level.

And this technique can also work on elements 😉 Just think about all the possibilities there for a minute!

I pulled in a white flower, a red frame & a peach bow from that “Daisy Days” kit by Cindy Ritter. I removed the original color and created a Solid Fill Layer with that same blueish-green (#358079) I used above:

Now for the white flower I did make a selection of the “gem” center and create a new layer using the selection. This way I could keep the original center. And on this flower, I also used the Vivid Light Blend Mode. For the frame & bow I used the Overlay Blend Mode.

I almost forgot…here’s the layout where I used that modified daisy paper:

If you want to see all the details about this layout you can find it in my 2025 Gallery.

I hope you’ll try using this Solid Fill Layer technique. It can certainly help you expand your paper (or element) stash substantially. And all without spending dime!

Coloring Tips

First and foremost, even when you desaturate and re-color a paper (or element), you still must credit the original designer when posting on any online site/forum.

Remember, this technique could work on most any paper. And, when it doesn’t, you can just desaturate the paper you want to re-color.

Experiment with different papers (or elements) to see upon which ones this technique will work the best.

This technique works great on textured paper. Even if you desaturate a textured paper…you will still retain the texture even when you use the blended solid fill.

Try different Blend Modes. Overlay is usually my first (and often best) choice. But modes such as Multiply, Color Burn Screen, Soft Light and others also provide nice results

Don’t stop at playing with the Blend Mode. Also experiment with different Opacity levels to see how it changes the effect.

Don’t be afraid to try this technique on elements as well as paper. This will even work on some paints, stamps & transfers.

Thanks for reading this week’s Tuesday Tip. Remember, if you have any suggestions or questions please don’t hesitate to “Message Me“. Check back next week for some fun tips about thick titles. Click “Follow Me” to stay in touch. I hope you have a wonderful week!