How to Blend Photos With Color in Digital Scrapbooking

Blend photos with color by choosing supplies that already share your photo’s colors. Get the color right first, and your masks and brushes do the rest.

Your blending success is often decided before you paint a single mask. In fact, it is decided the moment you pick your colors. Choose digital supplies that share the colors in your photo, and the photo dissolves into the page. Choose the wrong ones, however, and no amount of brushing will hide the edge.

In this tutorial, you will follow one layout from blank paper to finished page: a vintage portrait blended into ArtPlay Palette Sashay. Four steps. Each one builds on the last. Along the way, you will also find directions for Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, and Affinity by Canva.

The short version: Match your papers to the main colors in your photo, save the bright accent colors for small elements, then build the page in layers.

Quick Jump: Table of Contents

→ What It Means to Blend Photos With Color
→ What You’ll Need
→ Step 1: Choose Your Photo and Palette
→ Step 2: Build the Foundation
→ Step 3: Add Layers for Visual Interest
→ Step 4: Finish With a Title and Focal Point
→ Take Your Color Blending Further

What Does It Mean to Blend Photos With Color?

Every photo has two kinds of color. First, there are the main colors (Trish calls them primary colors). They cover the largest areas: a stretch of blue sky, green grass, the neutral tones of a living room. They are usually softer, less saturated, and less eye-catching.

Accent colors, on the other hand, are the bold, bright hues that cover much smaller areas. For example, think of a red hat or a small yellow flower. They grab attention and lead the eye.

When your paper holds the main colors, the edge of your photo has nothing to fight against. Similarly, when small elements carry the accents, the eye travels around the page instead of stopping in one spot. Above all, that balance is what makes a blend look effortless.

Match the paper to the main colors. Save the accents for small pieces.

What You’ll Need

→ Photoshop, Photoshop Elements or Affinity by Canva. Affinity by Canva is the free app that replaced Affinity Photo. In addition, each step below shows where to find the tools in all three programs.
→ A photo with clear main colors. For example, a vintage portrait, a garden shot, or a day at the beach all work well.
→ An ArtPlay Palette that shares those colors. Each palette is color-coordinated, with the balance of main and accent colors already worked out, plus papers, transfers, brushes, and elements to finish the page.
→ Finally, WordART for your title.

Step 01

Choose Your Photo and Palette

Start with a photo that makes you want to create. Then take a minute to really look at it before you open a single supply folder.

Name the two or three main colors, the ones that cover the most space.

Next, find one or two accents: small, bright spots that catch your eye.

After that, notice the element properties in the photo: its shapes, lines and textures. They hint at how you might build the page.

Finally, choose an ArtPlay Palette that marries the color of your photo first, and its motif second.

In Trish’s portrait, the main colors are the sage green of the velvet gown, soft gray and warm cream. In contrast, the accents are small: the rose of the lips and the deep brown of the hair. As a result, ArtPlay Palette Sashay was a natural fit. It carries those same sage, gray and blush tones, with gold leaves for a little shine.

Want to learn more about shapes, lines and placement? The Design Principles Digital Scrapbooking class covers element properties in detail.

Anna’s Personal Opinion: I pick the palette for color long before I think about theme. After all, a theme can be added with one brush. However, a color that fights your photo cannot be fixed with one brush.

Step 02

Build the Foundation

First, create a new document. Trish typically works at 3600 x 3600 pixels (12 x 12 inches) at 300 DPI. Then start with an artsy paper from your ArtPlay Palette, or build your own background.

Where to find it:

Create a new document

Photoshop: File > New

Photoshop Elements: File > New > Blank File

Affinity by Canva: File > New

Bring in your paper and photo

Photoshop: File > Place Embedded

Photoshop Elements: File > Place

Affinity by Canva: File > Place

Blend the Photo Into the Paper

Place your photo above the paper.

Next, blend it into the foundation with a layer mask and brushes, or clip it to a mask. Digital Scrapbook Photo Blending: How and Where to Start walks through both, and the Customize Masks Digital Scrapbooking class takes masks further.

After that, add transfers and overlays, brushes and elements around the photo to support it.

Finally, recolor any element that is close but not quite right. Digital Scrapbook Recoloring with Blending Modes shows one easy way.

Where to find it:

Add a layer mask

Photoshop: Click the Add layer mask icon at the bottom of the Layers panel, or choose Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All

Photoshop Elements: Click the Add layer mask icon at the top of the Layers panel, or choose Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All

Affinity by Canva: Click the Mask Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel, or choose Layer > New Mask Layer

Paint on the mask with black to hide and white to reveal. Also, click the mask thumbnail first, not the photo thumbnail.

Clip a photo to a mask

Photoshop: Layer > Create Clipping Mask, or Ctrl+Alt+G (Cmd+Opt+G)

Photoshop Elements: Layer > Create Clipping Mask, or Ctrl+G (Cmd+G)

Affinity by Canva: In the Layers panel, drag the photo onto the right side of the mask layer’s thumbnail. It appears indented when clipped.

Recolor an element

Photoshop: Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation, then clip it to the element (Ctrl+Alt+G)

Photoshop Elements: Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation, then clip it to the element (Ctrl+G)

Affinity by Canva: Layer > New Adjustment > HSL, then drag it onto the element’s thumbnail to nest it

Test the Color Match

Here is the test. In other words, if your photo blends easily with your supplies, you made the right color choices. For example, look at how the sage of the gown flows straight into the sage watercolor on the left, with no visible edge.

Step 03

Add Layers for Visual Interest

Each layer you add increases the complexity of the design, and therefore its visual interest. This part is much like finishing a jigsaw puzzle. Of course, a little trial and error helps you find the best fit for every piece.

First, drag each element onto the page with the Move Tool and try it in different spots.

Then rotate, resize and reposition until it sits right.

Next, move layers up or down the Layers panel to change what sits on top.

Finally, try a blending mode on each layer to add depth and boost color.

Where to Find the Tools

Where to find it:

Rotate and resize

Photoshop: Move Tool with Show Transform Controls ticked in the Options bar, or Ctrl+T (Cmd+T)

Photoshop Elements: Move Tool with Show Bounding Box ticked in the Tool Options

Affinity by Canva: Move Tool. The handles appear on their own.

Drag a corner handle to resize, or hover just outside a corner to rotate. All three programs keep proportions by default now. However, holding Shift lets you stretch the element instead.

Layer order and blending modes:

Photoshop, Photoshop Elements and Affinity by Canva: Drag a layer up or down in the Layers panel to change what sits on top. The blending mode menu sits at the top of the Layers panel in all three.

Click the blending mode menu, then tap the up and down arrow keys to preview each mode on your page. For example, Multiply works well for textures and transfers, and Screen for splatters and sparkles.

Bring In Accent Colors

This is also a good time to bring in a few accent colors. In Trish’s layout, for instance, gray paint drops, a white flower and fine ink splatters now anchor the bottom of the portrait.

Step 04

Finish With a Title and Focal Point

First, place WordART in an area of interest.

Then support it with dimensional elements to build a focal point.

Finally, mix embellishments with different properties, such as a soft paint stroke, a tangle of thread and a hard wooden shape.

Look closely at the cluster in the finished page. It covers the spot where the green of the gown fades into the background, so the transition disappears completely. In addition, the WordART and embellishments form a visual triangle that moves the eye around the page.