Stitches Cont’d
Last week I talked about straight line stitching using hyphens or one of several other characters. But I also showed you how to “stitch” on a path…not as easy as it sounds 😉
I also mentioned in last week’s post about typing stitches that today I would show you my alternative to creating stitches using Text on Custom Path. If you read that post you know I have a tough time creating a “pretty” path so I almost never do my stitching that way.
Today is going to be about stitching around a shape. But not in the way you may be expecting. I know that sounds perhaps a bit contrary but you’ll understand as you read on…
Text on Shape
You may very well already know how to use Text on Shape. Especially if you read my post about “Upside Down Text”. But have you tried creating a custom shape for your “text”? No, I don’t mean using the shapes available to us in PSE. I’m talking about creating your own special shape.
I do this all the time when I want to write my journaling inside a very specific shape to fit into a particular spot in a layout. I learned how to do that years ago following a tutorial by Vicki Robinson. I referred to that tutorial in a post about camouflaging journaling back in August off 2023. But you don’t need to go back to that old post to find out about that tutorial.
You’re in luck…today I’m going to show you exactly how to do that. I’ll use the same steps I learned years ago to create a custom shape. But this time I’ll use it to “type” my stitching AROUND the shape rather than in it. And I’m going to use that pesky pocket from last week.
Any time I want to create a custom shape for “text” purposes it’s really just a simple matter of “drawing” a combination of random circles, ellipses, rectangles or squares to create the shape I need. I keep all of these shapes on their own layer until I’m completely happy with the final “composite” shape. And, I actually don’t have to worry about creating a blank layer before I draw a new shape. PSE automatically places “drawn” shapes on their own layer!
Going back to the original denim paper I used last week (no stitching), I’ll start by using the Rectangle Tool and create a green rectangle shape:
Note: The color of this rectangle or any of the other shapes that I’ll create is inconsequential. You can make yours any color you choose. The final custom shape will not be visible in the end.
Next, I rotate and reposition it close to the spot along the left side of the pocket where I want my stitching to begin:
You can probably already see that I’ll need to create another shape to fill in a bit more along the left side. So, I’ll do that next. Because that side of the pocket has a slight curve to it, I’m going to use the Ellipse tool to try and fill that space:
You can see I made this shape initially no taller than the rectangle. If I need to re-size it for any reason…that’s easy enough to do later. Now I’ll just reposition it and see if I can close up that space:
I did make it a bit wider to get closer to the edge but there’s still a bit of a gap left on that edge. Another small ellipse should cover that:
I think that looks pretty good so far. And this was the trickier side of the pocket so the rest should be a bit easier. Since we’re using this shape to have stitching go “around” it, the key when using this method is to avoid jagged edges just as when drawing a custom path.
Normally, when I create a custom shape this way, I’m typing my text “inside” the shape. In those cases, there’s not as much concern about trying to keep smooth edges.
For simplicity I’m going to duplicate that first rectangle shape and move it to the right side of the pocket, and rotate it just a smidge:
Not perfect but close enough. I won’t bore you with creating the rest of the shapes. Rather, I’m just going to show you my complete custom shape:
In this particular case I won’t be running the stitching around the top edge of this shape, so I didn’t need to be too careful about any jagged edges across the top. And when I drew the shapes to fill in the bottom triangular shaped area, I did switch to using a rounded corner rectangle.
Since this shape is comprised of multiple layers, I do need to merge all those individual layers into a single layer. But before I do that, I’m going to duplicate the layers that make up this shape. All I have to do is select each layer using the Shift key. Then go to the top tool bar and select Layer->Duplicate Layers (or Ctrl+J). I then hide the original layers.
Most times it’s not really necessary to go through this step. Unless you’re worried about the possibility of having to make adjustments to the shape once you start “stitching”. But if you’re following along with me, please do duplicate those layers. You’ll see why toward the end of this post 😉
Now, using the duplicate layers I’ll merge them into a single layer I do that simply by selecting all of the layers and then Right-Click on any one of the selected layers’ thumbnail and select “Merge Layers”. With the layers merged I now simplify the layer and I’m ready to create the stitching.
With the shape layer active I select the Text on Selection tool:
You can see that the same options show up here as what I had for Text on Custom Path last week. With one exception, this time I have an Offset option. This is supposed to allow me the ability to change the size of my selection. Honestly, I’ve yet to find this a particularly useful option so I never really mess with it.
And I’m going to keep the font, Color and Size as shown. These are the same as what I used for the stitching last week. Now I can just draw a selection around that green pocket:
I then click the check-mark to confirm I’ve completed the selection.
Next, I just position the cursor over the shape and click where I want to start typing. Just as before the cursor icon changes to depict text mode (the I-Beam). At this point the “text” options now change just as they did last week so I can set the tracking. I’m once again going to set the tracking at 150.
However, there is one thing this time that’s going to be different than Text on Custom Path. I absolutely need to select a Justification for my text. If I select “Left align text” then position my cursor at the top left corner of the shape and type my hyphen character, the “stitching” will run across the top of the pocket shape:
I definitely don’t want that so, I need to try something else.
You might think the best option would be to select “Center align text”. I know that’s what I thought my first time working on something like this. Depending on the shape…this could work.
Unfortunately, because this shape is not oriented completely straight/level across the top if I select “Center” and position my cursor at the bottom “point” of the shape, the “stitching” will run around each side of the pocket shape just fine. But it will end up running around the top right corner and over the top:
I don’t want that either. Trust me, no amount of fiddling with the number of “stitches” or tracking worked to get the stitching to start/stop at the desired spots. Now I could fix this later by erasing the unwanted stitches. But quite honestly, it’s just easier to fix this using “Right align text”.
When I select “Right align text” and position my cursor at the top left corner of the shape, the “stitching” will run around the pocket shape and I can just stop typing when the stitches hit the top right corner of the pocket shape:
Now I can hide or delete the green pocket layer, add a style to the stitching (like Karen Schulz’s “String Style” or “Stitching Style”) and call it a day! But I did make that custom shape a little too close to the edge of the denim pocket. Not a problem. I just resized it a tiny bit and here’s the finished stitching:
Note: If like I, you need to re-size your stitches be sure to do that BEFORE you apply any style(s). And remember to duplicate/simplify the text layer first.
I would love to tell you that I was going to show you how to save that pocket shape in PSE for future use. Unfortunately, we cannot create a shape in PSE and then “define” it as custom shape (.CSH files) the way we can create custom patterns or brushes.
All of the custom shapes that come with PSE are Smart Objects (vector-based). PSE does not give us the capability to create these types of shapes. If you’re not familiar with Smart Vector objects please refer back to my “Files Size” post from July 2023. In that post there is a discussion about those objects.
It really is such a shame that we can’t save any of the custom shapes for use later within PSE. Oh, but wait…we can! We just can’t save them as a CSH file. But we can save them as a Brush! If you don’t know how to do that, please refer back to my post about “Modern Gesso” from June of this year. With a brush created from that pocket shape it’s just a simple matter of “stamping” the pocket onto a paper in whatever color you choose:
Luckily, sometimes we can get creative and discover alternate paths that will lead to the same end. Take that Adobe 😊
And since I’m talking about CSH file being saved into PSE…did you know you can download other vector (should be .CSH) files that can be added to the shapes “library” in PSE?
There are a lot out there but there are two spots I’d recommend. I’m sure you won’t be surprised to hear that one shop is Brusheezy.com.
I love them. If you’ve read some of my recent posts you know I go to them for A LOT! The second shop is shapes4free.com.
The last time I was out there it said that they offer more than 2,800 Photoshop shapes. Sorry if that leads you down the proverbial rabbit hole!
But you have to know where to look if you want to “install” new Custom Shapes. The process for adding shapes from a third party is pretty much the same as what I discussed in my “Save That Color” post back in March of this year.
When I download these shape files I first unzip and store them somewhere on my hard drive. I keep all of my brushes, color swatches and shapes in one place (a dedicated folder on my computer’s hard drive) so they’re easy to find when I want to load a new one.
Once I have the .CSH file(s) unzipped and stored on my hard drive I can “install” them in PSE by copying the file into the PSE preset Custom Shapes folder. For me that is in this location: “C:\Users\###\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Photoshop Elements\24.0\Presets\Custom Shapes where ### is the username that I chose when I set up my PC.
The exact location of that folder for you is going to be dependent on how your system is configured. But the path should be similar. You just need to find Custom Shapes:
Note: I probably should have mentioned this in my posts about saving brushes and color swatches. In that file path above where it says “AppData”…again, depending on how your system is configured, that may be a hidden file. If you can’t find that folder, you’ll need to tell Windows to show hidden files, folders and drives.
Since not everyone uses the same version of Windows the best I can tell you is to search the internet for “How to unhide folders in windows ##” where ## represents the version of Windows installed on your system. Once you do that you should be able to find that presets folder.
Now I’m going even more off topic here because I want to give you another little bonus!
Text In A Shape
I wanted to show you how to type some journaling INSIDE that exact same custom shape. The biggest difference is this; I will still merge the individual shape layers I just won’t simplify the “merged” shape before typing. For some odd reason if I simplify the shape PSE isn’t very cooperative when I try to type in that shape. I don’t know why and I’ve never found anyone that can explain it.
And this time, when I select the green pocket layer it looks like this:
Don’t be scared. I know this looks funny. But you can see all the different shapes I created to make this custom pocket shape. I only created 10 shapes but it looks like a lot more 😊
I double-click on the shape layer thumbnail to ensure it is “active” – like I would if I was trying to make sure a layer mask was “active”. This is a very important step. If I just select the layer, the next part generally won’t work correctly.
I then select the Horizontal Type tool, pick a color (I used white), set the Size, Leading, Tracking and change the justification to “Left align text”. I then position my cursor inside the top left portion of the shape and just as before the cursor icon changes to depict text mode (the I-Beam).
If you’re following along and you don’t see the I-Beam, then your shape layer isn’t fully active.
Once I see the correct text mode “cursor”, I just position it inside the shape and insert (or type) my text. It will then conform to the shape::
And when I say it conforms to the shape…you can see that in the image above. Because of the size of the font, there isn’t enough room at the top left (due to the angle of the pocket) for the text to start any closer to the left edge than it did. And the same is true at the bottom.
Text On PSE Shapes
Now one last thing about Text on Shape…just in case you don’t already know how to use that with a shape already available in PSE. It’s pretty straight forward.
If I select the Text on Shape tool, I have an extremely limited number of shapes available within the tool:
Not too many shapes from which to pick. Using actual text, I definitely wouldn’t recommend the butterfly…
Regardless, I can select a shape from within the Text on Shape tool, draw the shape to whatever size I like, position the cursor at a starting point (watch for that I-Beam) and type! It’s that simple.
With the Text on Shape tool open I select the speech bubble shape and draw one out on a white background:
I then position my cursor (watching for the I-Beam) at the left side of the bottom “point” and type my text. For a change of pace, I’m going to use the = (equal sign) character:
Looks like the stitching is “stepping” on itself a bit. So, I’m going to adjust the font size and/or tracking until it looks better. I ended up using a font Size of 30 and a Tracking value of 140 to smooth it out. I finished my stitching, clicked the check-mark to confirm and this is the result:
You probably see that I couldn’t quite close the gap at the bottom of that speech bubble. Rather than continuing to fiddle with the size/tracking…there’s another trick to fix that. I just put a new instance of the = character on its own layer using the Horizontal Text tool:
I simplify that layer and I can rotate and move that = character to close that gap. I actually had to duplicate that extra = character a couple times to completely close the gap:
This worked out quite nicely! Then I just link those layers together to keep them “attached”.
Notice that the shape itself doesn’t remain…only the “text”. This comes in real handy if you’re just trying to put some stitching (text) around an existing shape on a layout. But that typically works the best when working with rectangular (square) or elliptical (circle) shapes. And getting the size/placement of the shape right can be tricky. But most times, that’s easy to fix after the fact simply by moving and/or resizing it. Just be sure to simplify the layer before doing so.
Now, if I want to use any one of the hundreds of “standard” shapes within PSE I can do the exact same thing I did with my custom shape above. I just select/draw whatever shape I want in whatever color I choose. Like this leaf:
Then I use the Text on Selection tool, make the selection around the shape, position the cursor at a starting point (watching for that I-Beam) and type my stitches! This is what it looks like after I hide that original shape:
Is the stitching a little wonky? Yes, but now that you’ve learned the steps to manage the font size and tracking, it really is pretty simple to fix. I’ve found that sometimes adding a style can also help make it less noticeable.
And with this last example, you’ve also learned how to create some interesting stitched elements 😉 Now go have fun with that!
More Tips For Stitches On Shapes
If you want to make a custom shape for stitching don’t be afraid to start with an existing shape that you can modify to meet your needs.
When you’re trying to create a very unique custom shape around which to stitch, just take your time assembling all the individual pieces that will make up the finished shape.
When using text to create stitching be careful what style of font you use. Sans Serif fonts typically will provide the best outcome. That doesn’t mean that a Serif font won’t work. You can try one and see how it looks.
It’s a good idea to avoid script or overly decorative fonts. Though some could work depending on the character you’re hoping to use.
Remember that experimentation with font styles, justification and tracking is key in helping you create lovely stitching.
And don’t forget…if you keep a single segment of stitching on its own layer you can duplicate it, rotate it and reposition it in any number of ways to help complete certain stitching configurations.
As usual, if you have any questions or want to make a suggestion about a topic you’d like me to cover, please don’t ever hesitate to “Message Me”.
Thanks for reading this week’s Tuesday Tip. Watch for my next post about creating stitches on selections in photos or other images. If you want to stay informed about new posts, just click “Follow Me” to stay in touch. I hope you have a wonderful week!