Digital Scrapbook Tutorials: Add a Mat to your Photos

Hi Everyone,

When I’m putting together a digital scrapbooking page, I often like to add a mat to my photos. This is especially true when I’m doing a simple layout because the mat can really help to make the photo pop on the page. But, my use of photo mats isn’t limited to simple layouts. I use them often because I just like the look of an old fashioned mat on a photo.

Adding a digital mat to a picture is a very easy thing to do in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. There are several ways to do this, but here’s the method I use.

Here, I have opened my digital paper (from our Sweethearts collection) and added my photo to it:

We want to select the shape of the photo. To do this, hold down the Ctrl key while clicking on the thumbnail of the photo layer in the Layers Palette:

This will give you a selection outline (marching ants) around the edge of your photo:

Now, we want to increase the size of the selection to be the size of our mat. To do this, choose Selection>Transform Selection:

When you do this, you will see W (width) and H (height) boxes appear in the toolbar at the top of your workspace. First, make sure that the box next to ‘Constrain Proportions’ is NOT checked:

By default, the unit of measurement in the W and H box is percentage. For what we’re doing here, I like to work in inches. To change the units to inches, right-click on the W box and select ‘Inches’ from the drop-down menu:

Change the H measurements to inches in the same way:

Now, add the size of your mat to each measurement. Make sure to add the same amount to both the W and H measurements so that the mat will be even on all sides of the picture. The larger the number you use, the thicker the mat will be. As you increase the measurements, you will see the size of the selection outline increase.

For my photo, I’m going to add 0.4 inches to each the W and H measurements for my mat size. So, the size of my selection is 6″ x 4″ and I’m going to change that size to 6.4″ x 4.4″:

When you have the selection the size you want, click on the green checkmark to accept the change:

Add a layer in below the layer of the photo. To do this, with the photo layer selected, hold down the Ctrl key and click on the ‘Create a New Layer’ icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

This will add a blank layer below the layer of the photo:

Fill your selection with the color you want your photo mat to be. To do this, with the new layer selected, choose Edit>Fill Selection:

Choose your color in the ‘Fill Layer’ dialog box. I’m going to fill my selection with white. Choose the color and then click ‘OK’:

You now have a white mat around your photo!

It’s a good idea to link your photo layer to your mat layer so that if you move or rotate your photo, the mat will move with it. To do this, choose both layers in the Layers Palette by clicking on the photo layer and then Ctrl-clicking on the mat layer. With both layers selected, click on the ‘Link Layers’ icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette:

Now that you have your mat in place, you can take this one step further. You can use the mat you just created as a clipping mask with another digital paper, allowing you to make your mat from that other digital paper.

To do this, select the layer of your mat and then drag your new digital paper onto your layout. The new digital paper will appear in a layer above the mat layer and you will see your photo on the new paper:

Create your clipping mask by holding down the Alt key while hovering your cursor over the line between the new digital paper and the mat layer. Your cursor will change into two intertwined circles:

When you see this change, click your mouse button to create the clipping mask:

Your mat is now cut out of the new digital paper:

With a drop shadow, it looks even better!

Happy Scrapping!

Mary

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