Last week I posted another riveting installment of "This Day in Zielske History," and one reader asked, "Hey Cathy, could you show us how you make those overlays? And I say, blog reader, yes!
Here's a video tutorial using Photoshop CS3, and below you'll find a printable PDF with the corresponding step-by-step instructions. For those of you using Photoshop Elements, you should be able to achieve the same results. There's nothing in CS3 on this particular tutorial that you can't replicate in PSE.
Photoshop Frame & Overlay Tutorial from Cathy Zielske on Vimeo.
Note: PC users may have to right-click the above link and then "Save Target As."
I will check comments throughout the day to see about any questions you may have. Good luck in building your own overlays.
Cathy, I've watched tons of youtube tutorials and the quality of yours was so much nicer. What are you using and how do you get it to zoom in/scroll/highlight to your dropdown selections? Whatever it is...it's brilliant.
Posted by: Karen Breen-Bondie | July 29, 2009 at 05:20 PM
Can't thank you enough for this very well explained tutorial - now if I could learn to take such a crisp
photo as yours, I'd be really happy!
Leslie
Posted by: Leslie | July 29, 2009 at 05:41 PM
Hey Thanks Cathy... I always wanted to learn how to do this!!
Posted by: Dawn | July 29, 2009 at 09:59 PM
CZ is AWESOME! Thanks for the share. I can't wait to try it out thi weekend. I'm such an impatient person when it comes to learning digital but you make it look easy. Thanks!
Posted by: Rhonda P | July 29, 2009 at 10:26 PM
Very cool! Thanks. I had a picture to add words to and this was perfect for me to know what I was doing! You are the best!
Posted by: Joan in Kingman | July 29, 2009 at 11:10 PM
Too cool for school! Love it---thanks for the tutorial & pdf :).
Posted by: Jana | July 29, 2009 at 11:54 PM
Thanks for the video. I've been looking all over for how to kern text in PSE and I think you've shown me an approximation that'll work for me.
Posted by: Jane Simmons | July 30, 2009 at 12:15 AM
Hi Cathy -
Thank You!!!
You have a lovely, calm, relaxed way about you on this tutorial, which I so appreciate!
Great tips. I love "Stroke", but I have never used it in this way.
I use stroke to create a quick border for photos to give them an old fashioned look.
Then I sometimes will "write" on the bottom border to label and date them.
Thanks again!
;o)
- Lee
P.S. Your PDFs are always great. Unfortunately, online PDFs have begun to crash my Safari browser on the PowerBook G4. Grrrrr... But my husbands MacBook Pro handles them just fine.
Posted by: Lee | July 30, 2009 at 12:34 AM
that was awesome Cathy! Thanks for sharing!
Posted by: Jacqueline M. Dunn | July 30, 2009 at 03:54 PM
This is awesome! So glad I saw it on COTW & took the time to watch. Every little tutorial teaches me something great. And even though you weren't using PSE, I found it really easy to follow along. THANKS!
Posted by: Mari | July 30, 2009 at 04:31 PM
Thanks for the terrific tutorial! Q.: I did everything but when I tried to delete the part of the outline where "life" busts out, it doesn't delete when I hit delete. I am on the outline layer and I've used the lasso. Any help? Thanks.
Posted by: Linda Lum DeBono | July 30, 2009 at 07:57 PM
Cathy, your voice sounded so different to what I imagined. Weird how the mind does that.
I loved the video tutorial and was totally able to do it in PSE5, haven't got the rounded tool so will still follow that link. You can see my efforts here.
http://cathyzielske.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/07/video-tutorial-create-your-own-photoshop-frame-and-text-overlays.html
Thanks so much, it was totally awesome and loads of fun.
Posted by: Stefanie | July 31, 2009 at 04:36 AM
Thanks so much Cathy, so easy when you know how. I was totally able to do it in PSE5.
If you'd like to see my efforts?
http://semplydone.blogspot.com/2009/07/home-today-with-me.html
Posted by: Stefanie | July 31, 2009 at 04:39 AM
For everyone that was asking. With a little googling, PSE does not support tracking (or kearning).
Posted by: jillconyers | July 31, 2009 at 06:09 AM
Thanks for the info!
Posted by: rebekah | July 31, 2009 at 08:47 AM
Thank you Cathy. That was awesome! It worked great in PSE. I've always wondered how to make just a line around the edge like that without having to draw the lines individually. I didn't imagine was so stinkin' easy!
Posted by: Heather H. | July 31, 2009 at 11:11 PM
Thank you, thank you, thank you Cathy! Been wanting to be able to do this for ages. Tried it tonight and it worked a dream on PSE and I learned some techniques like the Lasso tool which up til now I had no idea how to use. Can you do some more of these tutorials, pretty please?!
Posted by: Jo E | August 01, 2009 at 02:04 AM
Awesome awesome tutorial. I really enjoyed this (and learned a few new things, thank you). What I would like to know is how you do that track out shortcut on a PC? You said "Option key and arrows" for the Mac but sadly I'm on a PC : ( Suggestions?
Posted by: Carolyn | August 02, 2009 at 06:18 PM
Ahhh. I get it. There is no rounded rectangle tool in CS3. Good thing i ordered CS4 this week!
Posted by: cathy | August 03, 2009 at 01:34 PM
Thank you!! This is great! Now I can make my own!!!
Sandra :-)
Posted by: Sandra K. | August 04, 2009 at 02:01 PM
I finally had time to sit down and give this a try. I love how simple you make this. As always, Cathy, you ROCK! Between your tutorial and Renee's class, I can finally work in PSE and accomplish something other than frustration.
Posted by: Maureen in IL | August 07, 2009 at 08:11 PM
Thank for sharing your talent! I can hardly wait to try this out. I want to make some photo thank you cards...my son had a b-day party a week ago. I'm sort of a newbie to PSE.
Posted by: Anthonette | August 08, 2009 at 09:06 PM
Thanks SO much. I have an older version of Photoshop Elements--4.0--but was able to use your tutorial and make my own version. This was my very first venture into digital scrapbooking, and I'm SO excited!
http://yesourhandsarefull.blogspot.com/2009/08/i-learned-something-new-today.html
Posted by: Sarah | August 13, 2009 at 04:47 PM
I'm on a MacBook with Leopard OSX and Safari, but can't view any of your vimeos on your blog. Just wanted to let you know it's not working for some reason.
I'll drop by at a later date to see if it might work then.
Thanks for sharing so much fun on your blog - our stuff is amazing!
Posted by: Malin | August 15, 2009 at 05:59 AM
Update to the comment below:
The video works now - thank you!
Posted by: Malin | August 29, 2009 at 02:45 AM
oh, thankyou, thankyou,thankyou Heidi!! I have been trying to work this out - have pse6, and no rounded rectangle marqee tool that I can see :-( wouldn't that make life too easy!! but now, with some playing to perfect those jagged edges, I can now make my own overlay WITH ROUNDED CORNERS! I feel like all my Christmases have come at once! did I say thankyou?!
Posted by: Sharon | October 10, 2009 at 11:31 PM
Hi Cathy!
Thanks for this cool video! :)
English is not my mother tongue and there's one word I don't understand in the video. It's the name of the key to make the text smaller or bigger. You say "something" and it should be the coma key at the same time I think. I don't know if it's because I have an european keyboard, but my coma-key will not make my text bigger or smaller...so if you can write the name of this special key I'm looking for, and maybe describe it ;) I'll be able to do it like this as well. :)
Thanks a lot!!
By the way, I loved your grid tutorial as well and have been using it tons since I know about masking!! Thanks for every thing!!!
Marie
Posted by: Marie-Précieuse | November 18, 2009 at 09:47 AM
Thanks for the wonderful tutorial. I've been also using the same basic plan for placing type on top of a photo. Your creations are really admirable.
Posted by: pinnacle security | December 21, 2010 at 03:47 PM
He liked to share his knowledge not by answering questions but by asking them.
Posted by: nike air jordan | April 27, 2011 at 04:23 AM
I just wanted to thank you SO much for this tutorial! I just came across it during a google search and it is exactly what I was looking for. I'd recently purchased PSE and wanted to know how to make overlays for my photos for Project Life. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
Posted by: Melissa | May 18, 2011 at 12:38 PM
Oh cool! I love hearing that an older blog post gets seen and actually helps!
Posted by: cathy | May 18, 2011 at 02:05 PM
Love, Love, Love! Thanks for posting this, it was so helpful.
Does anybody know how I save my .psd file into a .jpg format? Is that possible? I'd like to have all my photos in .jpg so I can upload them a little quicker.
Posted by: Meg M | August 09, 2011 at 05:24 PM
Yes, totally do able. Simply open your PSD file, go to File Save As, and choose JPEG as the format. It will save a copy of your PSD file in JPEG format!
Posted by: cathy | August 10, 2011 at 10:18 AM
I can only say to you: THANKSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: khloe | January 17, 2012 at 12:39 PM
Thank you so much for this amazing tutorial. So easy and perfect to understand!
Posted by: Kylie | March 12, 2013 at 09:11 PM