Whimsical Star
by Jen White
There are Christmas stars, stars of the show, starry nights, and the list goes on and on. One simple star cannot possibly fill all those assignments. So, unless you are willing to go trudging through the web looking for star shapes, knowing how to create your own unique stars will save you time and effort. I should also mention that it’s MUCH more fun!
Photoshop and Photoshop Elements comes packaged with one 5-point star shape. That’s right, just one. But with a few simple tools and a little bit of know-how, your possibilities for that star are literally endless.
Once you’ve created a whimsical star, what can you do with it? Again, the possibilities are endless. Here are a couple simple ideas:
- Change the color of the star, lower its opacity, and use it as an overlay.
- Clip a piece of paper to the star and add a small contrasting stroke to give it definition.
How about this idea? Your star doesn’t have to remain a shape. Try defining a brush from it and then play with the brush settings. Again, you are really only limited by your own imagination.
For this scrapbook page featuring my freshly made whimsical star, I decided to keep it simple. I really like how this big star anchors the page while relieving some of the busyness in the papers and photo.
Watch the Video
Click on the video below to watch how to turn Photoshop’s 5 Point Star shape into a whimsical expression of your creativity using either the Polygonal Lasso tool or the Direct Selection tool. Written instructions are below the video.
This video tutorial was originally recorded by Linda Sattgast in August of 2012.
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Author: Jen White | jen@digitalscrapper.com
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2 Responses
Esther Perry
Jen, my friend, Happy New Year to you and all the DS-crew as well !
While I am not that fond of stars, especially not this 5-pointed kind, I find this kind of tutorial very valuable as it gives me incentive and even courage to start trying things out for myself.
I’ve got PSE 12, and when going through your tutorial just now, discovered that I can also make 9 pointed stars or 23 pointed, or any number I like, with rounded or sharp point, rounded or sharp indents,all with the star shape tool. I can stroke them, I can give them a bevel and/or drop shadow, and using those I can make it look like the bottle cap you showed us a while ago, or like one of those paper thingies that quality chocolate or candy is sold in. So: Thank you, not just for the tutorial, but for the inspiration that comes with it!
Esther
xiaofano
WOW!! Big screen of video, Thanks ^0^/
I hope you had a lovely Holiday and are ready to embrace 2015