Ztampfilicious

Natural, Realistic Looking Use of Digital PaperClips

Ever wonder how to apply the paperclips so they look realistic? Especially pretty tough when using on say, a short piece of tag, or a ribbon – anywhere when the lower bit would show. And how about on a sheer ribbon or a piece of vellum paper?

Well, Ztampf! makes it easy for you. In most cases, I would provide the paper clips in 2 versions:
• Full Version, showing the entire clip.
• Clipped Version, showing how it would appear when ‘clipped’ to a paper/tag/picture with the ‘back’ section partially erased.

Now, to use a paper clip in the most common way, you would just drop the Clipped Version where you want it, align it well with the edge of the paper and you’re done! It even has the natural looking shadow where it should have! Convenient!

For other type of usage as described at the top, you would need to use both versions:
– Place both version on your file, each on its own layer.
– Align them well, so they would look like there is just 1 paper clip. Use the top as the base to align them precisely.
– Next, adjust the layers order: place the Full Version layer to be BEHIND/underneath the layer of paper/tag/picture to be clipped.
– Now, while making sure that they are still linked together, drag them to where you want the paper clip to be.
– Voila! See the result for yourself!

On the left is the common way of using just the ‘Clipped Version’. On the right made use of both versions to create a complete paper clip being clipped through a short material, with the bottom part of the paper clip peeks out.

The samples above were taken from these layouts below. Click the thumbnails to see them larger:

I’ve decided to move the Tips’n Tricks Section on Ztampf.com here over the next few days.
Below is a tutorial I did upon customer requests to use with my The Ultimate Torn Pack, can also be used for similar products.

THE ULTIMATE TORN PACK – TUTORIAL
For using the Cropping Templates with Torn Overlays
based on Photoshop CS

• Choose the paper you want to ‘tear’, open it in your graphic software.
• Choose the style of ‘tear’ you want, noting the name i.e. Circle.
• Open the CroppingTemplates folder and find the cropping template for Circle.
• Open it and copy the layer on top of the paper layer.

• Open the the Circle torn overlay file and copy it on top of the cropping template layer.

• Link or group the Cropping Template layer with the torn overlay layer, they should be automatically aligned when you copy them. Otherwise make sure they are perfectly aligned before you link/group them together.

• Position them where you want the ‘tear’ to be done.

• Use your Select Tool with Color Range or Magic Wand Tool (set the tolerance level to Zero) to select the area, a marquee should appear.

• Now hide the Cropping Template layer and Un-hide the paper layer.

• If your paper layer is a background layer, turn it into a layer (Layer 0 in PSCS).

• Hide all layers except the Cropping Template layer.

• Select the paper layer, then cut/crop (Command X or Control X). Another way to do this is using the Create Clipping Mask under the Layer Menu (Opt+Cmd+G in Mac). This way your paper is not actually being cropped/cut.

• Un-hide the torn overlay layer.
• Remove the remaining unwanted portion of the paper using cropping tool.
• Delete the Cropping Template layer.
• Merge the torn overlay layer with the paper.
• If you want to add drop shadow to the paper, do this before merging it with the torn overlay layer.

• See the samples given to see how they look like.

• Compare the ZtampfTornThings_FloralDelight07.png with the ZtampfTornThings_FloralDelight08.png. The first one used the Framed Circle, while the latter one used the Circle.

• You can combine the tear overlays on 1 paper as shown in the ZtampfTornThings_ChatreuseBloom.png in The Ultimate Torn Pack.

Hope you will find this useful!