Using Brushes in Photoshop

[marylee]

So I have some alphabet brushes I've been using on some of my layouts. I recently thought of taking these brushes to the next level and I am trying to make them look a little more realistic (like a rubber stamp with ink) on my pages (such as having imperfections in the opacity of the ink, differences when going over two different materials, etc.)

Do any of you know where there are any good tutorials on making my brushes look more like a rubber stamp?

I'm not sure if I explained myself well, but hopefully you get the idea.

[glumirk]

Is this what you are looking for?

Fonts Don't Float

[marylee]

Originally Posted by glumirk

Is this what you are looking for?

Fonts Don't Float

Thank you, that was helpful and I will definitely use that technique, but it wasn't exactly what I was looking for. (Or maybe it was and I'm just being stupid and not understanding.)

Within the last two weeks I read a tutorial and I didn't bookmark it and now I wish I had.

See in this sample how I have a brush that is partially on the picture and partially on the paper? In real life the stamp would probably show a) the texture of the materials it is on and b) when going from one material to another the rubber stamp may not leave ink where the two materials meet (there would be a little ink missing right up against the photo). I've tried selecting the photo, then selecting the inverse, and then erasing a small line along the brush where the stamp would be crossing the two materials, but it isn't looking quite right and I feel like I'm missing something.

I'm looking for a tutorial or something that would help the stamp look like it isn't floating (like the other tutorial suggested) across the two different materials. Sort of like I have attempted here:

Maybe the tutorial you suggested Megan is the answer to this, but it seemed like it wasn't quite what I was looking for.

[Aemilius]

What I usually do is duplicating the stamp, then on one layer erasing the part that should be, say, on the picture and on the other layer erasing the part that should be, say, on the paper. Then you can slighly offset the "lower" part i.e. the one on paper. It will allow to show a slight gap as well as the picture shadow giving a more realistic look.

I actually did it for the adventure stamp on this LO but I guess it's kinda too subtle as you hardly notice when the LO has this size!



As for having texture showing through, can't help much, I just always somewhat lower the opacity of the stamp until I like the look. Needless to say, there's probably a better/more complicated way to do it.

One of my favorite trick is to "ink" my stamps - or the stamped-like fonts - with Miss Mint's Oil Paint Papers collection (retired). They have such a nice uneven paint coat and pretty much look like ink especially when lowering the opacity a bit. A good example is the green floral stamp above which is a Patchwork Princess stamp I recolored that way. It can be done with the Simple Solids Papers as well.

[marylee]

Ok, thanks. Those are ideas I hadn't considered but I will try. Both the tutorial Megan suggested and the ideas you have used should be very helpful. I've kind of been stuck in a rut doing the same things a lot in my designs and I've been wanting to use new techniques and make things a little better. Thank you.