Double double toil and trouble…after brewing up some solutions, the software team got my site back in tip-top shape over the weekend. So glad to have things back to normal.

Since it’s Halloween today I had given thought to doing a themed post for this week. But not everyone celebrates or appreciates Halloween the way I do.

Instead, I thought I’d treat you to a nice little trick that will show you just how scary easy (see how I did that 😉) it is to create paper tears.

Paper tearing is a fantastic scrapbooking technique. Remember how you used to tear up pieces of paper as a kid? Back in the good old days of traditional scrapbooking we could “legally” indulge in tearing paper for our layouts. And I did this a lot.

It was a very popular technique because no special tool was required (though there were some tearing tools available). Within a few quick minutes, you could add texture, dimension and interest to borders of cardstock, patterned papers, vellum, photos and more! It was also popular because it could be easily applied and was one of the simplest scrapbooking techniques to harness. Well at least for some. It did still have its challenges

It’s not quite the same with digital scrapbook paper. But we do still love our torn papers. There are tons of paper packs out there with torn edges. But have you ever been working on a layout and wished your kit had some torn edges to match the kit’s papers? Well, guess what, you can make your own. Granted, they may not look the same as some created by professional designers but it can come pretty close.

So, how do we create our digital paper tears? That’s what I’m here to talk about today!

Paper Tears

First and foremost, there are lots of templates available to help make that job a little easier. One of my favorites is a set by Elif Sahin – “Torn Paper Edges”.

These templates are great. But what if your budget doesn’t support the purchase of more templates? Or perhaps you work with a software package that doesn’t lend itself too well to using templates, they aren’t going to do you a whole lot of good. So today I’m going to give you some steps to create your own tears.

Note: Before I get started, please remember that I use Photoshop Elements (PSE) so everything that follows is done using that software. I’m fairly certain you can accomplish all of this in most any graphics editing software. Just look for any tips you might need specific to your chosen software.

Tearing The Paper

I’m going to be using some papers from “Snowflakes and Evergreens” by River Rose Designs.

I start with what might be the background over which the tear will be layered. I’m using this plaid:

Next, I’ll bring in the piece of paper that I’d like to “tear”:

Now, using the lasso tool (Anti-aliasing box checked & Feather set to 0) I “draw” where I want the jagged edge of the paper to be. But I also have to be sure to close the selection by going all around the other three edges of the paper and go back to where I started before completing the selection.

Some tips on making this selection: Position your cursor at a starting spot that is at the very top edge of your paper as far left of the right edge as you want the “tearing” to occur. Holding the “left-click” button, drag the cursor in whatever jagged fashion you choose down to the bottom edge of the paper.

DO NOT let go of the left-click button and now also press & hold the Shift key as you drag your cursor along the bottom edge, left side & top edge until you get back to the starting point. Be sure you keep your cursor on the very edge (or even just outside the edge) of the paper while doing this. When you get back to the very beginning you can release the Shift key & the left-click button. You should see a completed selection that looks like this:

I know it’s probably hard to see the marching ants in the image above. The tear is in the area highlighted with the gold oval. And the “ants” go all around the outer edges of the paper closing the loop.

With the tear selection made and the “torn” paper selected in the layers panel, I create a new layer via copy (Ctrl+J), name the new layer Tear and I hide the original paper layer.

Next, I duplicate the new “Tear” layer and name it Tear Fill. Using the Paint Bucket tool, I fill this layer with white:

Then I move the Tear Fill layer under the Tear layer. Next, I nudge the fill layer to make it visible along the edge of the torn paper.

Now it’s time to use the Transform tool on the Tear Fill layer using the Skew and/or Distort options to create a more realistic look to the tear. You don’t want the Tear Fill layer to be aligned perfectly with the top layer.

This looks pretty good so far. But flat solid white isn’t quite the right look so I’m going to add some texture. I can do this one of two ways. The easiest option is to just clip a piece of textured white paper to this Tear Fill layer:

I used a piece of textured paper from “Paper Pack #4” by Paula Kesselring. I zoomed in pretty close on the image above so you could hopefully see the nice texture.

But if you don’t have a nice texture paper (or don’t feel like looking for it) there is another way.

Going back to the Tear Fill layer with no other paper clipped to it, I select the Paint Bucket tool making sure that my background & foreground color chips are set to the default. Then I select the Pattern fill option. When I click the down arrow on the Pattern Picker tool, the Patterns dialog box pops up:

Mine defaulted to the Artist Surfaces pattern option. If yours doesn’t, just click the down arrow on the dialog box & you should see a list of available default patterns from which you can then select Artist Surfaces.

With those patterns displayed I select the watercolor pattern (highlighted in aqua on the image above). I just use the default settings for Opacity, Tolerance & Mode. And I ensure that the Anti-aliasing box is checked. Then I position my cursor over the Tear Fill layer and click.

Again, I zoomed in pretty close on the image above so you could hopefully see the “paint bucket” watercolor pattern texture. The layer now has a very slight texture. I would like it to be a little more pronounced than this. So, I duplicate the layer, change the blend mode to Linear Burn and set the opacity to 50%. At this point I feel like I’ve achieved a little more “depth”. Then I merge these two layers together.

Either with the clipped paper or the Paint Bucket texture, everything still looks too flat so I need to add some more depth with drop shadow and/or bevel styles.

On the “textured” Tear Fill layer I select Styles in the panels pane. I select Drop shadows > Soft Edge. You may see a dialog box like this:

I’m honestly not 100% certain why this happens but all I have to do is click OK.

So, there’s now a shadow on the Tear Fill layer. But this is just a starting point. Right now it looks too dark and “steep”. So, I’m going to adjust the settings. I go back to the layers panel and double-click on the style icon. This opens the Style Settings Dialog box.

If the color chip isn’t set to black, change it to black. Set Lighting Angle to 90 degrees, Size to 10, Distance to 15 and Opacity to 55% click ok. How dark & big you set the shadow will depend on how dark your background paper is. With the plaid that I’m using I went with a “deeper” shadow than what I may have used on a lighter background.

That looks good but perhaps a bit too subtle. Adding more depth to the tear might help. I now select Styles > Bevels> Simple Emboss.

This definitely added more depth but it looks like way more than what I need. Not to worry, this too is just a starting point so I’m going to adjust the settings. I go back to the layers panel and double-click on the style icon. Be sure the Lighting Angle is still set to 90 degrees. Leave the drop shadow settings as they are (should be: Size to 10, Distance to 15 and Opacity to 55%). Set the bevel settings to 4px & Direction to Down then click ok.

This looks much better (at least to me). You can play around with all of these settings if you want to try different options. A lot will depend on how dark your background paper is. With the one I’m using (the plaid) I went with a “steeper” bevel than what I may have used on a lighter background.

I’m going to do one more thing to this white layer. I tend not to care much for a stark white tear. That’s just my preference. If you’re okay with white you can skip down to the next step. Otherwise, I’m going to add a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer. First click the Colorize box.

Don’t panic, you can see that the background below the paper tear is also changing. I’ll fix that in a minute. Again, this is just to get me started. I’m going adjust the settings to get a color that seems less glaring to me. I keep the Channel set to Master. Then I just use the sliders to make other adjustments until I’m happy with the result. The settings I ended with are Hue to 42, Saturation to 31 to & Lightness to -7.

And yes, that plaid paper has also changed. But all I have to do is clip that adjustment layer to the Tear Fill Layer and everything is fine.

So, I feel like there’s more depth to the “not so white” layer but the top layer could use a boost. I copy the layer style from the Tear Fill layer to the Tear layer. Again, the settings will need some adjusting.

On the Tear layer I double-click the style icon. I could choose to eliminate the drop shadow altogether. A lot of tutorials will tell you not to shadow the “original” paper layer. If you want to do that all you have to do is uncheck the drop shadow. Over the years, I’ve found I tend to be happier with the tiniest bit of a shadow on the top paper. For this I set the Drop Shadow settings as follows: Size to 6, Distance to 5 and Opacity to 25%. Next, I change the bevel settings to 4 px & up.

Again, you can play around with these settings if you want to experiment with different looks.

There is one last thing that you might want to experiment with. Sometimes I think the “torn” edges of the top paper & the Tear Fill layer look too sharp. I think it should look more torn rather than cut. The bevel helps some but I still feel like it looks too crisp. So, occasionally I’ll apply a Gaussian Blur filter with a radius of 2 pixels. This is just one more thing you can play with to see what you like the best.

Here are the three different versions of my paper tear:

Following the steps above should give you a pretty nice torn paper. And as I always say, the more you play around with making these tears…the better they’re going to be!  Have fun!!!

Some Extra Pointers For Paper Tears

I know it seems like a lot of steps but if you don’t have a paper tear template…it’s so worth the time if you want a torn edge that coordinates with the paper you’re using.

The key to getting a nice tear is to really fine-tune your “lasso tool” skills.

Don’t stop at tearing paper. You can apply this same technique to photos, pocket/journal cards, paper frames or any other element that you feel like “ripping”. Let your imagination run a bit wild and play to your heart’s content.

And if you’re not as “fussy” as me, please don’t feel obligated to transform, texturize, bevel or colorize your tear. I would still encourage you to at least apply shadows.

There are some torn paper brushes available that can make creating your torn edge a little easier. I’ll try to do a post about using a brush sometime soon. Until then you can always do a search for tutorials about using torn paper brushes.

I know I say this all the time but it bears repeating. PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. After all, practice is the only way to become proficient in a new skill or behavior. Sometimes we just need to embrace the discomfort of being “beginners” in order to continue to grow and improve.

As always, if you have any questions or need a bit of help, please don’t hesitate to “Message Me” for some assistance.

Thanks for reading this week’s Quick Tip. If you want to stay informed about next week’s post, just click “Follow Me” to get an update. I hope you have a wonderful week!