Note: This is a guest blog post by Eli Burford, and its translation to spanish will be added shortly!

In this tutorial I would like for us to do some simple craft work in Photoshop.

Basically we will be taking a texture (photo) of some wood planks and bringing them into Photoshop to use as a wooden photo frame.

To follow through with this tutorial I would request that you have at least basic knowledge of Photoshop, but it is a fairly easy-to-achieve effect, so if you re-read certain parts I’m sure you’ll be able to complete it no problem.

If you need a hand with anything, please consider downloading the complete PSD file at the end of the tutorial, or leaving a comment down below with your question!

1. Getting Started

Let’s start by getting our wood textures. For this tutorial I went on over to CG Textures and downloaded two completely different plank textures: one, two. Save any of those two to your desktop.

Create a new document in Photoshop (anything that fits nicely in your screen resolution should do).

Now bring in one or two photos of a family member, or something that you treasure Thanks to my brother Joseph for allowing me to use these photos of my nephew and niece!

Since we will only be doing one at a time you should hide one of your photos. Center the photo you want to be working with.

2. Cut out Texture

Now, we need to cut out a few different planks. Open one of your texture images and use the polygonal lasso tool to select one.

After you have selected a piece, copy (CTRL/COMMAND+C) then paste it (CTRL/COMMAND+V) into your other document (containing the photo).

3. Moving/Rotating Texture

That doesn’t look quite right, so, hit CTRL/COMMAND+T to go into Transform Mode and resize (and rotate) your plank to fit one of your sides. I’ll be going: left, top, right, bottom.

Note: remember to name your layers so you don’t have trouble later on.

Repeat the cutting out of a plank and place it over your photo. Remember, all you have to do is:

1. Select a plank from your texture image.
2. Copy it, then paste it into your other document.
3. Resize/rotate it using Transform Mode (CTRL+T).

Remember: this is not rocket science. This is craft (in Photoshop!) Nothing has to be exact, nothing has to be straight. This is just a fun wood photo frame!

Who knows if what I have done is in the realm of possibility, however. I’m not sure they can be overlapping each other like that Oh well!

4. Simple Reflection

For a finishing touch, you may want to add a glass effect to the photo, for this, all you have to do is:

1. Create a new layer above your photo layer.
2. Select your photo’s pixels (hold CTRL and click on the photo layer’s thumbnail in the layer’s palette).
3. With the gradient tool, drag a white to black gradient inside of your selection.
4. Change the layer mode for this new layer to Screen and lower the opacity to something around 50-70%.
5. Repeat this once or twice.

Note: click above image for full-size.

5. Finishing Touches

OK, before doing this next step you should probably group all of your relevant layers and make a duplicate of the group. Merge your second group together and rotate it slightly, then add a soft Drop Shadow layer style to the final layer.

Finished

So yeah, that was a very easy tutorial, now you just need to try some different things. I finished by using the other planks texture with the other photo, and also added some extra little bits in to make a simple desktop wallpaper.

If you found a certain part of this tutorial difficult, please consider downloading the final PSD file for free (from MediaFire), or if that doesn’t work, please leave a comment below!

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the tutorial! Don’t forget to subscribe to Gisele’s RSS feed for updates!

About the Author

My name is Eli Burford and I am a learning web designer and hobbyist Blogger. You can see some of my previous Blogs at PhotoshopStar or Design Blurb.

1) How to flood cookies with royal icing. This is just one of the many sweet & fantastic tutorials Louise ehas to offer in her blog!! Go check it out!! // Este es sólo uno de los muchos dulces y fantásticos tutoriales que Louise ofrece en su blog!! No dejen de verlo!!

2) Cozy Camera Case Tutorial. Make your own quilted photo camera case!! Isn’t it pretty? // Armen su propio estuche para guardar la cámara de fotos!! ¿No es una belleza? Via CraftZine.

3) Shape Book Tute. A wonderful entry to the Birdie Know-it-All contest Build a wonderful pumpkin from an old book!! Don’t miss it! // Una muy bella entrada del concurso “Birdie Sabelotodo” Armen una bella calabaza a partir de un libro viejo!! No se lo pierdan!!

4) Fat Quarter Purse Tutorial. All the how-to’s on making a wonderful handbag!! I just love the final result!! // Guía para hacer una hermosa cartera de mano!! Me encanta el resultado final!! Vía Cratzine.

5) Fig project for Birdie. Another contest entry. This time for a wonderful fig jam!! Yummy!! // Otra de las entradas al concurso: esta vez, para una increíble mermelada de higo!! Riquísimo!!

6) How to design a font from start to finish. A great tutorial, on how to make your own font!! In 4 parts!! // Un gran tutorial de cómo diseñar tu propia tipografía!! En 4 partes!! Via Creattica Daily.

7) Notepads you bind yourself. This is so cool, and so usable in different forms You can even start selling your own notepads!! // Este tutorial es muy bueno, la idea es muy simple, pero podemos hacer cualquier cosa con él!! Como empezar a vender nuestros propios anotadores!! Vía How About Orange.

EN – As I promised before, I am starting a new section in the blog called Birdie “Know-it-All” to list handful tutorials, both for handcraft and for digital crafts. And to start off the section I will be listing a few tutorials from the Tutorial Contest, as well as some tutorials I have found online I hope you enjoy them!!

ES – Como ya prometí antes, estoy comenzando una nueva sección en el blog llamada Birdie “Know-it-All” que va a listar tutoriales útiles, tanto de manualidades como digitales. Y para comenzar la sección estaré listando hoy algunos de los tutoriales que participaron del Concurso de tutoriales, así como también algunos tutoriales muy útiles que he encontrado online!! Espero que los disfruten!!

1) “The weekender”. An amazing bag tutorial. I love this bag so much!! If you find someone selling an already made, let me know (sewing and me don’t get well together hehe). // Un increíble tutorial para hacer un bols de fin de semana!! Me encantaaaa y quiero uno listo para mí!! (no me llevo bien con la costura, jaja).

2) Apple Pecan Bacon Chicken. One of the tutorials/recipes entered in the contest!! I bet anyone would feel inspired to cook with this one!! Props go to Sophie from “Flour Arrangements” // Si se animan a seguir instrucciones en inglés para cocinar, esta parece ser una de esas recetas que motiva a la gente a sacar las sartenes a relucir!! Esta receta fue parte del concurso de tutoriales y es una creación de Sophie de “Flour Arrangements”

3) Felt Candy Canes. One of the most loved entries of the contest. You can create some wonderful felt candy canes for the holidays, all thanks to felt cafe!! // Uno de los tutoriales favoritos en el concurso. Ustedes pueden crear bastones de dulce de felpa para decorar la casa en las próximas fiestas, y todo gracias a felt cafe!!

4) Add a favicon to you Blogger Blog. This one is super cool, for many of you I bet!! Don’t be afraid and try it out!! That’s how we all started making templates, tweaking things around!! (Visit) // Este es un tutorial especial para aquellos que siguen mis templates, no tengan miedo de intentarlo y tener su propio favicon en blogger!! (Visitar)

5) Reuse / Remake crayons. A green and creative tutorial!! Wonderful to gift kids funny shaped crayons! // Un tutorial verde y creativo!! Especial para regalarle a los niños crayones con formas originales