Hi Oddies! 

As promised in last week’s blog post, I wanted to sneak in and share two more ways to add texture to your stamp images. Last Wednesday I showed how to add texture to “Sea Song Mae” tail in Silhouette Studio. This week I wanted to add a whimsical texture that you may not see on mermaids, but I thought it would be cute. 

Because I tend to type a lot to give thorough instructions, if you don’t want to read my full out descriptions, please see the caption below each photo to see shortened instructions of what I am doing. 

Step 1: look online for a pattern you want to use. I used a zen tangle like scallop in black and white so I can colour over the pattern, But you can use any pattern as long as it is a jpeg or png. (I downloaded mine from Creative Market a website with lots of digital resources) note I added my watermark as this was a purchase I made and I do not want it stolen. If you like the pattern visit their website and purchase it. 

Step 2: Open up your photoshop software. (I am going old school and using my Photoshop elements, but since elements is the most basic photoshop you most likely can use any Photoshop software and achieve the same results)

Step 3: Open up your digital stamp (PNG will be easiest) I decided to use Puffer Cone Mermaid for this technique. You can use any digital stamp, but it is ideal to pick a stamp with lots of open white space. I did blow it up so I can best illustrate what I have done to the tail.

Step 4: Open up your digital pattern, select your whole pattern (make sure it is not on a locked layer or this wont work), then under edit drop down menu (might be in a different location with different programs) click on define pattern from selection. Label your pattern so you can find it again later! (note I found that you want to find a pattern that has larger shapes than small, or you may find that you can see your seams a little bit more, also want one that isn’t too symmetrical) I also had flipped my pattern so the scales were going in the other direction.

Step 5: Go back to your digital stamp, use the Magic Wand Selector to select the area you want patterned. In this case I want her tail to be patterned. This will add the marching dash lines in the empty space.

Step 6:  Click Layer on the drop down menu, then hit new fill layer, then pattern. This will bring up a box that will say Pattern fill one. Just hit ok unless you want to change the opacity from here. (if you decide you want to change your opacity you can do it from the layers box on the right hand side after)

Step 7: This will bring you to a box called pattern fill, from here you can click on the arrow beside the display box, to choose your pattern. From here you can change the size of the pattern to make it larger or smaller, and it will stay in the shape you selected. (I increased the scale to 111% for larger scales)

Step 8: Your image now has a faux fussy cut pattern and you didn’t even have to take out any scissors! you then want to print our your stamp onto some white printer paper to make sure you are happy with the results. I decided that I didn’t like her fins having the pattern, so I carefully erased some of the pattern from there. 

Step 9: When you are happy with the results Print off on your colouring paper and colour her up! I love that the tail now has a zen tangle feeling to it, and I never had to break out pen and paper to add this fun pattern. 

Now for those who do not have complex editing software, you may just have to open up your pattern in whatever software you use to print your digis, print it then put it back in the printer and print out the image over top of it. Then fussy cut with regular scissors and glue it to the image you printed out normally. I am not an expert at this, but in the past, I did do this a few times to add pattern piece dresses to my images with pattern paper.

If anyone else has any tips or suggestions on how they add patterns to digital stamps feel free to let me know in the comments below! 

Lots of hugs!

~Patti