Are you like me and love digital brushes but don’t use them as much as you should because you are not very good at digital scrapping? Below are a few simple ideas on how to use them.
I tend to buy a lot of my brushes from Designer Digitals and all the ones used here are from there. I am using Photoshop elements 4 but the principle will be the same for most software.
Open your photo and then open a new document that is an inch wider on both sides.
Click the icon that says “tile the windows” and using the move tool [the top one on your left hand palette] drag the photo onto the blank canvas, or you can make the new document A4 size and after you have moved the photo onto it you can just crop it to get the white area that you want.
Then go to layer…new…layer. You can name it “brush” if you want but I just left mine as “layer 1” as it was the only layer I was going to use. 
Now you need to load your brush, it’s on the left hand palette about three quarters of the way down. You now have a new palette across the top. Click on the arrow next to the squiggly line, then little blue arrow, then on load brushes. This will take you to a browser showing which brushes you have loaded to your software, I tend to have all my brushes in a separate folder. Click on the one you wish to use. The brush I used was on the edge flourishes.
On the brush palette you can change the size of the brush to fit your photo by using the slide bar. If you the hover your mouse over the area you will see the outline of the brush to help you see what it will look like.
Now click on the colour palette and choose a colour that compliments your photo, then click onto the white canvas. You can also change the direction of the brush by clicking on “more options” and on the compass changing direction of it.
I used a frame brush in exactly the same way as above for a complete frame around the photo. The brush i used was frames with flourishes.
I used stamped sentiments to stamp a brush directly over a photo then open a new layer as before and then just stamp it where appropriate.
Don’t forget that you just use them on a blank canvas and then print them out onto cardstock, paper or a transparency and use as accents or background papers in your scrapbooking or cardmaking.
I hope this has spurred you on to use digital brushes.
lemon xx
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