Using ScrapSimple Layer Your Own Brushes for Multiple Looks

If you're looking for some playtime in Photoshop and want to create some customized embellishments, Layer Your Own Brushes are a fun tool to play around with. You can easily create thousands of looks with this one tool. Layer Your Own brushes remind me of the two-step or three-step stamping techniques often used in rubber stamping. The idea is that you have a base shape and pieces that layer on top of this shape to create varying looks. While the shape remains the same, you have the freedom to choose colors and styles and blending modes. These are great tools to just sit down and play with, because experimenting can bring about some great results.

I decided to play with Thao's ScrapSimple Layer Your Own: Artsy Ampersand Brush Set today. This is available in the ScrapSimple Club for October. I loaded the brushes into Photoshop, created a new 8.5x11 document and started to play. The key is to put each brush on it's own layer. This gives you more freedom to add layer styles and blending modes layer by layer.

I want to show you three different looks I came up with and how I achieved each look. Notice on all three ampersands I used only one color. Each layer was brushed on with this same basic blue color shown here.



Choosing different blending modes is how I achieved the color variants.

For this ampersand I used these settings:
basic fill brush; normal blending mode; no layer style
epoxy fill brush; color burn blending mode; slight bevel and emboss and drop shadow style
stripes fill brush; color burn blending mode; drop shadow style
basic edge brush; normal blending mode; drop shadow and outer glow layer style

For this ampersand I used these settings:
basic fill brush; normal blending mode; no layer style
epoxy fill brush; color burn blending mode; slight bevel and emboss and drop shadow style
paint fill brush; overlay blending mode; no layer style
basic edge brush; normal blending mode; inner shadow, drop shadow, inner glow and bevel and emboss with contour layer style
For this ampersand I used these settings:
basic fill brush; normal blending mode; no layer style
epoxy fill brush; color burn blending mode; slight bevel and emboss and drop shadow style
grunge fill brush; color burn blending mode; no layer style
basic edge brush; normal blending mode; drop shadow layer style

If you haven't tried out a Layer Your Own Brush Set yet, it might be just the fun new tool in digital scrapbooking that you're missing. And if you work in a program other than Photoshop, PNG files of each layer are included in the product download, so don't worry, you can play too!