{"id":7024,"date":"2024-07-23T00:30:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-23T04:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yourscrappingcafe.com\/home\/d19521157\/public_blog\/?p=7024"},"modified":"2024-07-23T07:03:19","modified_gmt":"2024-07-23T11:03:19","slug":"even-more-stitching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yourscrappingcafe.com\/home\/d19521157\/public_blog\/even-more-stitching\/","title":{"rendered":"Even More Stitching"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Well, here we are with the 4th<\/sup> installment in my series about creating your own stitches. I do hope this has been a worthwhile series for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My Grandmother always said that for every stitch you sew on Sunday you will have to take out seven with your nose in Heaven. I never really understood that last part. But I know that came from the days when sewing was work and not for pleasure. And I\u2019m glad my stitching tips have all been on Tuesdays. We shouldn\u2019t have to worry about how many stitches we take today \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week\u2019s post was all about stitching around a shape<\/a><\/strong>. This week I\u2019m going to talk about stitching on a selection. I know at first this may sound a bit redundant since I\u2019ve already used this option working with shapes. You have to be thinking this can\u2019t be that much different than how I\u2019ve shown Text on Shape. But it is different. I\u2019ll show you how.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Text on Selection<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Using the Text on Selection tool to create stitching is not the same as the technique I\u2019ve shown you before. But it can be a lot of fun because you can make a selection around just about anything in your layout to then stitch around.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Stitch<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

A quick reminder…I use the current version of Photoshop Elements (PSE \u2013 2024). Some of my screen shots may look different than what you see on your screen depending on the version you are using.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time I\u2019m going to use this cute picture of a dog from Pixabay<\/a><\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Cute<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I pull this photo into my file and position it at the bottom of my page:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Cute<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

That positioning will make sense later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the dog layer active I select the Text on Selection tool:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The settings here are the same as what I used on the green pocket shape from last week\u2019s post. I am going to change at least the font to 1000 Wishes Origami<\/a><\/strong> (available at DaFont) and the Color to a rusty brown (#a5431b). And just as last week\u2026I’m not fooling with the offset setting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can now just position my cursor somewhere near the bottom of the dog\u2019s ear on the left side of the photo and begin to \u201cdraw\u201d my selection:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Cute<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I really only care about the top part of the dog but I can go ahead and select the whole dog:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Cute<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I click the check-mark to confirm the selection. Now I just position the cursor over the dog again at the bottom of the its ear and click where I want to start the stitching. Just as what happened with Text on Shape, the cursor icon changes to depict text mode (the I-Beam). At this point the \u201ctext\u201d options now change just as they did last week so I can set the Size & Tracking:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Text<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The font & color are what I selected just a second ago. But the Size & Tracking are set to what I used on the green pocket shape last week. The justification is currently set to what I used when I was playing around with actual text prior to this post. I\u2019m going to leave the Size & Tracking values as they are for now. But I am going to set the justification to \u201cLeft align text\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all those settings in place I can once again just start typing my stitches. This time I\u2019m going to use the plus sign (+) character for something different:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Partial<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

As you can see, the stitches are a bit wonky. Now\u2019s the time to try and fix that. I\u2019m going to adjust the tracking a little at a time until it looks better. When it was all said and done, I ended up with a Tracking value of 230. I needed to add just a few more stitches after that adjustment. I clicked the check-mark to confirm the \u201ctext\u201d and here\u2019s how it looks:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Complete<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I\u2019ll add a style later. But first I want to show you a little silly thing I can do still using Text on Selection. I thought it would be fun to add a little \u201ccaption\u201d above the stitching that follows the same shape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, I repeat that same process changing some of the settings (including the color – now a medium blue #2e3192) and here\u2019s what happens:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Caption<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

That certainly doesn\u2019t look very nice. But it\u2019s so easy to fix. With that new text layer active, all I have to do is move the text up above the stitching and voila:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Caption<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Again, I can zhuzh that font up with a style later. One last thing. I want to get rid of the white background.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While you might be thinking I could do that with the selection made using the Text on Selection tool. Sadly, that would make things too easy and PSE just can\u2019t have that \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All kidding aside\u2026as nice as that would be I can see why PSE won\u2019t let that happen It could get very complicated from a technical perspective. But I still have my handy \u201cnormal\u201d selection tools. If you aren\u2019t sure how to use those, please check my prior post about making good selections<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before I start to make my selection, I want to hide the stitching & the caption. If I don\u2019t do that making a clean selection without getting those in the mix could be tricky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then using a combination of the Magic Wand & Selection Brush tools, I get the cute dog selected:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Cute<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Next, I go to the top tool bar and click Select->Inverse ( or Shift+Ctrl+I) and press the Delete key. Now with that white background gone, I clear the selection and unhide the stitching & caption:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"White<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Now it\u2019s all set to add a much nicer background and turn it into a funny layout that my grandkids will enjoy. But I\u2019ll do that later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hope you\u2019ll have a bit of fun playing around with adding some stitching or text to an existing photo or other image.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Extra Tips On Creating Stitches<\/h3>\n\n\n
\n
\"Extra<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In the past 3 posts I\u2019ve given you so many extra tips about creating stitches it almost seems I may have covered everything. But there might be some tips worth repeating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keep in mind that changing font size, justification and tracking can help you get \u201cproper\u201d spacing around irregular selections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know I\u2019ve said this repeatedly but it really does bear repeating\u2026be mindful of the font you use. Brush, script, large \u201cdisplay\u201d or very decorative fonts likely aren\u2019t going to work very well for stitches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And there is one thing I\u2019m not 100% certain I\u2019ve mentioned before now. In addition to adjusting the font size & justification, sometimes it helps to add some extra spacing to get the stitches to \u201cspread out\u201d a bit more evenly. Try doing this at the beginning of your \u201ctext\u201d to see if it helps space the stitches out so they aren\u2019t \u201cstepping\u201d on each other. You can also try adding a space between stitches to go around “tricky” parts of your image. And both of those options can apply to any text you may use as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As usual, if you have any questions or want to make a suggestion about a topic you\u2019d like me to cover, please don\u2019t ever hesitate to \u201cMessage Me<\/a><\/strong>\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks for reading this week\u2019s Tuesday Tip. Watch for my next post about creating a unique element using some of the tips you\u2019ve already read over these last several weeks. If you want to stay informed about new posts, just click \u201cFollow Me<\/a><\/strong>\u201d to stay in touch. I hope you have a wonderful week!<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"See<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, here we are with the 4th installment in my series about creating your own stitches. I do hope this has been a worthwhile series for you. My Grandmother always said that for every stitch you sew on Sunday you will have to take out seven with your nose in Heaven. I never really understood that last part. But I know that came from the days when sewing was work and not for pleasure. And I\u2019m glad my stitching tips…<\/p>\n

Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7023,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"0","landing_page":"","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tuesday-tip-day"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yourscrappingcafe.com\/home\/d19521157\/public_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yourscrappingcafe.com\/home\/d19521157\/public_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yourscrappingcafe.com\/home\/d19521157\/public_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yourscrappingcafe.com\/home\/d19521157\/public_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yourscrappingcafe.com\/home\/d19521157\/public_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.yourscrappingcafe.com\/home\/d19521157\/public_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yourscrappingcafe.com\/home\/d19521157\/public_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yourscrappingcafe.com\/home\/d19521157\/public_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yourscrappingcafe.com\/home\/d19521157\/public_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yourscrappingcafe.com\/home\/d19521157\/public_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}