Hello and good morning lovely people! Sonja here with another quick tip for you!

You know I love my layouts to always have a little “artsy” touch. Whether it’s paint, brushes, or an accent or transfer.

Today I would like to show you how to easily make your own transfer using a mask or paint splat AND one of your own photos!

Let’s get started!

I’m using one of my big paint splats. What I love about these is that they are not solid, but have parts where the paint is transparent, so you will see the background paper peek through later.

Next, I placed a photo from the beautiful chives flowers from my garden on top and clipped it to the paint splat. (right mouse click > select “create clipping mask”, or press “ALT” and put your mouse between the 2 layers, until you see an arrow; then click)

The next step is to add a few elements under and over the masked photo. I started with a paint element in the same colors as the photo, and a flower brush (both from the Garden Journals Collection). I changed the color of the brush to match the photo.

I used a solid colored layer and created a clipping mask, but of course, you can also load the brush file to your brush panel and pick a color. Make sure you create a new layer first! This way you can move the brush around until you are happy with the position.

I then added a word art element on top and changed the color to white to make it more visible. And finished the transfer off with a swirly and a bee (also from the Garden Journals Collection). I’m going to remove the black splatters from the paint splat that are outside the photo.

I decided to save my transfer first and then use it on a layout, but you can also move on from here and build your layout around it.

To save the transfer, you make the background layer invisible by using the eye and remove the empty space around it. Most important: save the file as a PNG! This way the background will stay empty (contrary to saving as a JPEG).

Now you are ready to use your transfer on a layout! Here’s my finished layout. I used the Garden Journal Collection and a frame from the February Anthology Family Story:

As always: have fun, don’t be afraid to experiment and if you have questions, let me know!

Here’s the paint splat for you to give it a try. I also added the finished transfer.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

Hugs, Sonja