Here’s a basic Illustrator tutorial on how to crop an area from a group of multiple shapes or just hide unwanted parts by using opacity masks or clipping masks. I used these numerous times on things like Vector Rulers or Vector Guitars.

First set up a group of shapes on your artboard. Grab various shape tools and fill an area with different kinds; give them a fill color and no stroke.

Select all by dragging over with the Selection Tool (V) and press Ctrl + G to group them.

To make it more interesting, grab some of the liquify tools (Wrinkle, Crystallize, Wrap etc.) and play around until you get something that you like.

Now let’s say that you needed to hide or crop the group according to a circular shape. Grab the Ellipse Tool (L) and while holding Shift drag a circle over the group. Keep in mind that this will be the starting point for all 3 examples that follow – opacity masks, clipping masks and cropping.

Before using the cropping method, it’s best to use opacity masks or clipping masks while your vector art is a work in progress. This way you can still go back and adjust something if you need to.

Opacity Masks – Set the circle fill color to white and then select both the group and the circle with the Move Tool (V). In the Transparency Window (if it’s not open, go to top menu Window > Transparency ) click on that little arrow on the upper right corner and from the drop down options select Make Opacity Mask.

Now deselect by clicking on an empty area and you should have something like this:

Working with opacity masks allows you to do cool things like gradient fades. For instance go back (undo Ctrl+Z) to the previous step of having the circle over the group. This time instead of a solid white fill color, give it a black and white gradient and set the Type to Radial.

Select all and in the Transparency window go again and click on Make Opacity Mask just as before. You will get something like below.

If you look closely at the above image you will notice that the outer edge is still slightly visible. To fix this, first select your artwork and then in the Transparency Window click on the Opacity Mask to edit it.

Now go to the Gradient Tab and double click the black color on the gradient slider. In the pop up window, click on the upper right corner arrow and select CMYK.

In the CMYK options drag all sliders to 100%.

Go back to the Transparency window and click to stop editing the opacity mask. Now the outer edge is completely transparent.

Clipping Masks – Go back to the starting point artboard (press Ctrl+Z to undo).

Select both the group and the circle with the Move Tool (V) and from the top menu Object > Clipping Mask > Make.

Cropping – When you have a complex group of shapes and you want to get a cleaner artboard for your final work you can also use cropping.

So once again go back to the starting point – a circle over the group.

Select them both and then in the Pathfinder Window (if it’s not open, go to top menu Window > Pathfinder) click on the Crop icon.

Visually you will get the same result as applying the opacity mask or clipping mask but this time the areas extending outside the circle are cropped out instead of just being hidden.

One thing to note is that the empty areas also become shapes. You can see that if for instance you decide to change the fill color. It fills the empty spaces as well and you get a full circle.

So to get rid of those extra shapes and also be able to easily change the fill colors deselect the group and with the Eyedropper Tool (I) click on a filled area to pick out the fill color. (Note: if you have a lot of other elements on your artboard make sure you don’t have the same fill color anywhere else – if you do, then go back before the cropping and change the fill color to something unique).

Form the top menu Select > Same > Fill Color to select only the green shapes.

Now that you have only the green areas selected, go to top menu Edit > Cut (Ctrl+X) and before you paste click somewhere in the area to select the remaining colorless shapes. Usually just delete them, but for now drag them to the side.

Go to top menu Edit > Paste in Front (Ctrl+F) and while they are still selected press Ctrl+G to group them. Now you can easily change their fill color from green to something else.

Go back to the “invisible” group that you moved out of the way and if you give it a fill color it would be a sort of negative image of your original art.

Working with Text – To crop the shapes according to some text, similar to my main post image above, start the same way as before by making some sort of shapes pattern group and then with the Type Tool (T) enter your text.

With the text selected, go to the top menu Object > Expand and click OK and then go to Object > Compound Path > Make. Select both the text and group, and click on crop icon in the Pathfinder window.

Then give it a black stroke and a shadow (top menu Effect > Stylize > Drop Shadow).

And it should look something like this:

Hope you enjoyed the tutorial! If you have questions or comments drop me a line below. Thanks!

Hmm, I haven’t really done any Photoshop tutorials. Strange thing considering I use it very often : ). So here’s one on how to add a vintage custom made postmark to the old postcards and airmail envelopes from my previous posts. It’s a cool way of personalizing them.

To begin I’ll be using this envelope image as background for the postmark. You can download it by clicking on it. It’s best to work with the original size and then at the end scale it down for your project.

For this particular image you could just add the city name to the existing stamp mark and be finished, but in the tutorial I’ll cover doing the whole postmark.

1.   Open the envelope image in Photoshop and click on Create a New Layer in the Layers Window (if it’s not open, go to top menu Window > Layers).

Grab the Elliptical Marquee Tool from the tools menu and drag out a circle similar in size to the original postmark on the envelope. Hold Shift to drag a circle and if you press spacebar at the same time you can also move the selection.

Give the selection a stroke – top menu Edit > Stroke and in the Stroke Options set Width: 10px, Color: black and Location: inside.

After clicking ok, press Ctrl+D to deselect the selection and you should be left with a circle just like below.

2.   Now we’ll add the city name on a circular path. First get the Ellipse Tool from the tools menu and then in the upper left area right under the top menu there are 3 options – Shape Layers, Paths and Fill Pixels. Make sure you have Paths selected.

Drag a circular path and align it more or less to the inside of the black circle just like in the image below (as before, hold Shift to drag the circle and if you press spacebar at the same time you can also move the path around).

From the tools menu get the Horizontal Type Tool and in the Character Window select a font. I’ll use Arial Regular 24pt (Narrow also works well); choose black for the text color (if the Character Window it’s not open, go to top menu Window > Character).

When you go over the path with the Horizontal Type Tool the cursor will slightly change.

When it changes, click on the path line somewhere on the upper center. Now it should become a blinking cursor and you can type your city in capital letters. When you are done typing, click on a different tool to exit or click on Commit edits button (✓) in the top area.

Now we’ll add a second text area for state or country to the bottom of the postmark. In the Layers Window right click on the current text layer > Duplicate Layer. With the new layer still selected go to top menu Edit > Transform Path > Rotate 180°.

Using the Horizontal Type Tool click somewhere on the upside down text to edit it and type the state or country.

There are two ways of flipping the upside down text to the inside of the path – one is to simply go to top menu Edit > Transform Path > Flip Horizontal – or another way is to grab the Path Selection Tool (A) and drag the text upwards until it moves to the inside of the path – (second way is also useful if you want to move the text along the path).

Now the bottom text doesn’t align with the upper one, so press Ctrl+T (or top menu Edit > Free Transform Path) and then hold down Shilt+Alt and drag one corner to scale up the path.

The bottom text looks a bit crammed so to separate the letters go to the Character Window and type 500 in the tracking box.

Type the day, the hour and year on separate text layers. Use the Move Tool (V) to move and align the layers. To make the minutes smaller select them with the Horizontal Type Tool and then in the Character Window click on Superscript.

In the Layer Window select all layers except the background (hold Shift and click them) and then right click > Convert to Smart Object. Rename it to something more suitable like “postmark text” by double clicking on the name.

Note: to edit the content of a smart object double click on the layer thumbnail and it will open up in a separate window; after making changes save it and it will automatically be updated in your original window as well.

3.   Create a new layer in the Layers Window.

With the Rectangular Marquee Tool drag a selection that covers the whole postmark.

Click on the foreground color to open color picker window and either put the color #3e3634 or with the eyedropper get a dark shade from the original stamp on the envelope.

Fill the selection with the Paint Bucket Tool (or Alt+Delete shortcut) and press Ctrl+D to deselect.

In the Layers Window make sure you have selected the layer you just filled. Now click and hold the mouse button on the “postmark text” layer and without letting go drag it over the Add Layer Mask button. Note: For this to work Layer 1 has to remain selected; remember to click and hold the mouse button as you drag “postmark text” layer.

Now you should see the text instead of the filled rectangle. Go ahead and hide the “postmark text” layer by clicking the eye icon and then click on the Layer Mask Thumbnail for Layer 1 to select it.

Go to top menu Filter > Brush Strokes > Spatter which will open up the options window. If the stamp is not visible in the preview window right click > Fit in View and to do a close up right click on the postmark > Actual Pixels. In the options put Spray Radius: 2, Smoothness: 1 and click OK.

Go to top menu Filter > Distort > Ripple. In the options window you can put Amount: 90% and Size: Medium.

Now the text should look something like this:

To get a smoother look go to top menu Layer > Layer Style > Outer Glow and set the options as in the image below. For the color use the same as the layer fill color (#3e3634).

4.   Now we’ll give the postmark an older worn out look – With Layer 1 selected press Ctrl+G to add it to a Group. With the Group selected click on Add Layer Mask icon in the Layers Window and then click on that layer mask to select it.

Now you will need a grunge brush. You can use your own – or if you don’t have any installed you can download this one here. (abr) (zip file 3.8mb)

Brush Installation Instructions »

• The simplest way is to double click the .abr file and the brush will show in your brushes palette. The downside of this is that once you reset your brushes you would have to go browse again to the .abr file instead of loading it directly from Photoshop.

• The “proper” way to install a brush is to copy the .abr file to your Programs Photoshop\Presets\Brushes folder and then with the brush tool selected click on the arrow next to the brush options to open the brushes palette (or right click on the canvas). Now click on the small triangle in the upper right corner > Load Brushes. Browse to the Photoshop\Presets\Brushes folder and select it. Next time you’ll start Photoshop the new brush will be on the drop down list along with the others.

Close

With the brush tool selected right click somewhere on the canvas to get the brush palette and select your grunge brush. Make sure you have the brush color set to black and that the Group-1 layer mask is still selected. Click once on top of the postmark and it should give it a nice worn out effect. If you want to fade it out more, click multiple times. Now you should have the finished postmark.

If you want, click to expand these two additional tutorials:

View Extra Tutorial 1 – Heavier Ink Postmark »

Heavier Ink Postmark   It’s interesting to experiment with different filters and settings as well. There are a lot of combinations that work well. For instance here’s one more: Duplicate Group 1 (right click on it > Duplicate Group) and select the layer mask for the Layer 1 in the newly created group (you might want to hide or move the first group so they don’t overlap).

Go to top menu Filter > Stylize > Wind and in the options window put Method: Wind and Direction: From the left.

Then go to top menu Filter > Brush Strokes > Sprayed Strokes and in the options window put Length: 12 and Radius: 7.

And as a final step go to top menu Filter > Sketch > Stamp. In the options window put Light/Dark Balance: 1 and Smoothness: 7.

And now you should have a heavier ink splattered postmark:

View Extra Tutorial 2 – Wavy Stamp Cancel Lines »

Wavy Stamp Cancel Lines   Taking this a bit further, here’s how to make the wavy cancellation lines. Grab the Line Tool and in the options bar above make sure you have Shape Layers selected and put Weight: 14px.

Hold Shift and drag a horizontal line. Now either multiply the line layers and move them with the Move Tool (V) or draw about 7 lines like in the image below

In the Layers Window select the 7 line layers and right click > Merge Layers. Go to top menu Filter > Distort > Wave. In the options window put the same as in the image below: Number of Generators: 10, Wavelegth Min/Max: 500, Amplitude Min/Max: 5. NOTE: Entering a Min value larger than Max will give you an error so enter the Max values first.

The lines will not align so get the Rectangular Marquee Tool to drag a selection around the ends and hit the Delete on the keyboard.

To make the wavy lines look the same as the postmark go to Step 3 above and follow the same procedure.

Ah, the good old days. The Polaroid 600 instant photos have been around forever and despite technological advances they are as cool as ever. Well at least in the design world :). I mean who hasn’t played with a Polaroid template turning images into vintage photos? So in that respect, here are some high resolution Polaroid frame images (around 5100x4200px).

There are 14 unique Polaroid blank frames plus 3 backsides. As you can see in the screenshot below they have some stains, wrinkles etc. Share the post or leave a comment if you find them useful. Thanks!

Photoshop Tutorial – Framing Your Images »

Open the Polaroid frame image in Photoshop. In the Layers Window (if it’s not open, go to top menu Window > Layers) right click on the Background > Layer From Background

Grab the Magic Wand Tool and while holding down Shift click on the outer white and inner black areas to select them – press Delete and then right click on canvas > Deselect (or Ctrl+D).

Go to top menu and File > Place and select the image you want to frame and then hit Enter to place it.

Set the new image layer behind the frame – from the top menu Layer > Arrange > Send to Back (or just drag down the layer in the Layers Window).

Now depending on which is bigger, the frame or the image, you need to scale the larger one down. In most cases the Polaroid will be larger, so select its layer in the Layers Window by clicking on it and from top menu Edit > Transform > Scale (or Ctrl+T).

Hold Shift and drag with the mouse any of the frame corners. You can let go the mouse and Shift if you need to reposition it and then repeat Shift + drag to scale up or down until you get the right framing. Hit Enter when you’re done. – (Note: Holding Shift+Alt while dragging scales it proportionally from the center.)

Select the layer with your image in the Layers Window (use the Move Tool (V) if you need to center your subjects). Now grab the Rectangular Marquee Tool and drag a rectangle along the Polaroid frame.

In the Layers Window click the Add Layer Mask button

And you should have your final picture.

Additional Notes:

• To keep the layers together while you move them, select them both and you can either press Ctr+G to group them or you can click on the Link Layers button in the Layers Window.

• If you want to re-frame your image you can unlink the layer mask in the Layer Window by clicking on that small icon between them. Make sure you have the image selected and not the layer mask and you can move it around; the layer mask will stay in the same place. Once you are finished click again in the area between the image and mask to relink them.

Time for another tutorial – how to make a 3d pencil using the Revolve tool in Illustrator. So just like any other project make a new document and save it. So the idea is to make a group of paths that resemble a dissected pencil and then give it a 3d volume by using the Revolve tool.

1. You will need 6 diferent shapes for the pencil parts, just as in the image below.

To start grab the Rectangle Tool (M) and drag out a thin rectangle.

2. With the new path still selected go to top menu Object > Path >Split Into Grid. In the options window under Rows choose Number: 6 and Gutter: 0px and click OK to divide the rectangle into 6 parts.

Give each rectangle a corresponding pencil part color. (I used #666666, #f0bd84, #fdf1df, #fdb044, #e6e6e6 and #ca5e5c)

Now with the Direct Selection Tool (A) drag over intersecting points of adjacent paths to select them and then while holding Shift move the points up and down to get the right proportions.

3. Now part 1,2 and 3 need to form a triangle that will be the pencil tip. Turn on the Smart Guides top menu View > Smart Guides (Ctrl+U). Now drag a rectangle exactly over those shapes. Make sure that all margins intersect.

Now delete the upper right anchor point with the Delete Anchor Point Tool (-) and you can turn off the Smart Guides (Ctrl+U).

With the Selection Tool (V) select paths 1,2,3 and the overlaying triangular path and click Crop in the Pathfinder Window (top menu Window > Pathfinder)

4. Now on to the metallic part (path 5) Scale the width of this rectangle by dragging the right margin just a touch. Now add two anchor points like in the image below. Select them both with the Direct Selection Tool(A) and while holding down Shift move them a touch to the left.

Grab the Rounded Rectangle Tool and drag a small path. Hold down the Alt key and drag it with the Selection Tool (V) to duplicate it and make six paths just like in the image below.

Now select the metal part and the six newly created paths and click unite in the Path Window.

5.Now for the eraser grab the Convert Anchor Point Tool and drag on the lower right anchor point to give it a rounded edge. Move the point a bit in so it looks like in the image below.

6.Now it’s time for the revolve stuff. First select all paths and group them (right-click > Group or Ctrl+G) and then go to top menu Effect > 3D > Revolve. In the options window you can choose any position you want, but for now choose Front so you can easily adjust the look of the pencil. The Surface should have Diffuse Shading since the Plastic Shading is too glossy; and check that the revolve is set from: Left Edge.

After clicking OK you should have your pencil. Now if you feel it’s a bit too thick you can easily scale it down and it will automatically reapply the 3D effect.

7. You can leave the pencil the way it is or you can go further and add some grooves to the metal part of the pencil using Map Art. First step is to create a Symbol. Grab the Rounded Rectangle Tool and drag a small thin rectangle and give it a slightly darker fill color than the metal part; then hold down the Alt key and drag it with the Selection Tool (V) to duplicate it once. Now press Ctrl+D many times to duplicate the last action a couple of times. (make sure the second rectangle is still selected when you press Ctrl+D or it won’t work).

Now select all small rectangles with the Selection Tool (V) and drag them to the Symbols window (if it’s not visible – top menu Window > Symbols)

In the Symbol Options window choose Graphic and also give it a name like Pencil 01. Select the pencil and go into the 3D Revolve Options Window by clicking on 3D Revolve in the Appearance Window (top menu Window > Appearance).

Here make sure the preview is checked and click on Map Art. In the new window click on Next Surface until you get to the one you want to overlay the symbol to. Keep an eye at the pencil to see which one is the right one. Now choose Pencil 01 symbol from the drop down list and you should see it in the preview. Drag it to the right so it covers the visible area. (Light gray area is visible). Also check shade artwork to give the symbol the same lighting effect as the pencil.

You can also wrap some text on the pencil using the Map Art feature. So type your text and drag it to the Symbols window. Go back into the 3D Revolve Options Window > Map Art, select the surface and place your new symbol. Rotate and align the text to get your desired result.

8. Another thing to point out is that if you export it as a higher resolution image and the surface doesn’t look smooth enough then go to the 3D Revolve Options Window and click More Options. There increase the Blend Steps until the surface looks smooth.

Now here’s something very useful – high resolution sticky tape textures and Photoshop brushes. The images are scans of a few old clear tapes that I have peeled off some book jacket covers. Well, they’re not so clear anymore as time has turned them brown yellow, but now they make cool adhesive tape textures :). As mentioned before the images are hi-res – tape strip width is around 610px.

I have also put together 17 unique high resolution Photoshop brushes (around 2500px). I really like the way these brushes came out as you can quickly plaster a piece of scotch tape across a picture and get a realistic result. Here’s an image sample of how that looks:

Just as with these sticky tape brushes, not all of them have the desired orientation by default. There are two ways of rotating them. The best method depends on the particular brush and how you intent to use it; in the image above I used each brush on a separate layer on top of the picture and rotated them individually with the Free Transform Tool. The other way to do it is to select your brush and then in the Brushes window (Window>Brushes or F5) select Brush Tip Shape and rotate the circle as shown in the image below.

This second method would be very useful if you needed to use the same brush at a certain angle multiple times.

Check out the sticky tape textures and brushes screenshot below and the downloads are right after. Share the post or leave me a comment if you like them. Thanks!