Download this Photoshop Arrow set for free!

This vector shape set is available as a .csh file for you to load straight into Photoshop custom shapes. The file contains 70 hand drawn arrows for you to use in your designs. The vectors can be copied and pasted into Illustrator from Photoshop if needed.

The image below shows all the designs available in the set.

Hand Drawn Arrows - Vector Shape Set

Click here to download a zip file which contains the vector set as a .csh file

Did you find this arrow set useful for your designs? Any feedback welcomed.

Download this free snowflake desktop wallpaper. Designed for December 2011. You can either download the wallpaper with the calendar or just the background without the calendar.

December 2011 calender preview

no calender preview

Download the calendar by clicking on one of the resolutions below.

With Calendar: 1280×800, 1366×768, 1920×1080, 1680×1050, 1440×900, 1280×1024, 1024×768, 1920×1200
Without Calendar: 1280×800, 1366×768, 1920×1080, 1680×1050, 1440×900, 1280×1024, 1024×768, 1920×1200

This red stitched social icon set is available free to download in a variety of sizes. Either download the whole set where you will find the icons as individual layers within the one psd file. Or download them individually as and when you need them. The individual icons are available to download as png files exported from Photoshop with a transparent background at 3 different sizes 122px x 122px, 70px x 70px and 40px x 40px.

The inspiration for this social media icon set comes from my love of sewing and crafts but they contain a shiny starburst twist so will suit both craft websites and super clean modern websites that need an injection of colour.

Other icons can be created in this style upon request. Please use the comments area if you require a specific icon in this style.

red sitched icon set

Free Red Stitched Social Media Icon Set -
Click one of the links below to download the whole set at either 122px, 70px or 40pxin width:
122px | 70px | 40px

bebo red stitched icon

Bebo 122px | 70px | 40px

Behance red stitch icon

Behance 122px | 70px | 40px

Blogger red stitch icon

Blogger 122px | 70px | 40px

Delicious red stitch icon

Delcious 122px | 70px | 40px

Deviant Art red stitch icon

Deviant Art 122px | 70px | 40px

Digg red stitch icon

Digg 122px | 70px | 40px

Email red stitch icon

Email 122px | 70px | 40px

Facebook red stitch icon

Facebook 122px | 70px | 40px

Favourites red stitch icon

Favourites 122px | 70px | 40px

Flickr red stitch icon

Flickr 122px | 70px | 40px

Google red stitch icon

Google 122px | 70px | 40px

Google Plus red stitch icon

Google Plus 122px | 70px | 40px

Groove Shark red stitch icon

Groove Shark 122px | 70px | 40px

Heart red stitch icon

Heart 122px | 70px | 40px

Last FM red stitch icon

Last FM 122px | 70px | 40px

Linkedin red stitch icon

LinkedIn 122px | 70px | 40px

Myspace red stitch icon

Myspace 122px | 70px | 40px

Reddit red stitch icon

Reddit 122px | 70px | 40px

RSS red stitch icon

RSS 122px | 70px | 40px

Speech bubble red stitch icon

Speech Bubble 122px | 70px | 40px

Spotify red stitch icon

Spotify 122px | 70px | 40px

Stumble Upon red stitch icon

Stumble Upon 122px | 70px | 40px

Twitter Bird red stitch icon

Twitter Bird 122px | 70px | 40px

Twitter red stitch icon

Twitter t 122px | 70px | 40px

Vimeo red stitch icon

Vimeo 122px | 70px | 40px

Wordpress red stitch icon

WordPress 122px | 70px | 40px

Yahoo red stitch icon

Yahoo 122px | 70px | 40px

You Tube red stitch icon

You Tube 122px | 70px | 40px

Like this post? Let us know what you think.

For this tutorial I am going to work at actual size. If you want to create a larger than life photo negative, follow steps 1 to 14 which create the frame. Then re-size the frame to the size you want and drop in the photo at the larger size.

Step 1.
Start with a canvas of 400×400

create a new document

Step 2.
Use the marquee tool at a fixed size of 174×160 pixels to highlight an area of pixels in the centre of the screen.

rectangular marquee

fixed size of 174 x 160px

create a rectangle in the centre of the canvas

Step 3.
Draw the guides across from the top and left and place in line with the selected area. To do this you will need the rulers showing at the sides (Apple R / Ctrl R toggles this on and off).

draw the guides to meet the rectangle

Step 4.
Draw a rectangle with the rectangle shape tool to cover this area.

rectangle tool

draw a rectangle

Step 5.
Use the marquee tool again to section off with guides the top and bottom 24 pixels and 4pixels on the left and 5pixels on the right.

section off areas with guides

Step 6.
With the rectangle vector mask thumbnail selected in the layers palette and the rectangle tool selected. Choose subtract from shape area from the shape options tool bar. Draw the smaller rectangle to the inside guide lines.

select the vector mask

Subtract from shape

subtract from the outer rectangle

Step 7.
Use the marquee tool and guides to create a rounded rectangle at the size of 10px wide by 14px height the corner radius of the rectangle should be set to 3pixels.

use the marquee tool at a fixed size of 10 x 14px

draw the guides into position

rounded rectangle

corner radius of 3px

draw rounded rectangle within new guide lines

Step 8.
Ctrl J / Apple J the rounded rectangle to duplicate the shape. Use the arrow keys to re-position the new shape. If you want to eventually create multiple slides that are is a strip together. The rectangles will need to be moved 22pixels across so that the combined slides will be seemless (12 pixels in between) To move the I use the arrow keys (Shift combined with the arrow key moves the shape 10pixels, single arrow key 1pixel). Continue to duplicate the rectangles until the top is full.

duplicate the rounded rectangle

move the duplicate into position

continue until the top row is full

Step 9.
Select all the rounded rectangles in the layers palette. Right click and choose ‘duplicate’ from the menu. Whilst all the new rectangles are selected move the new set of rectangles to the bottom strip. It is important that they line up with the top rectangles, so either use the arrow keys or press shift as you drag them into a new position to keep them inline.

select all the rounded rectangles

right click and choose duplicate layers

move the duplicates to form bottom row

Step 10.
To make the rounded rectangles part of the slide background so they are cut out of the background rather than seperate. Select each rectangle one at a time and select the path points with the direct selection tool (if the vector mask thumbnail is selected in the layers palette and the direct selection tool is selected in the tool bar you will be able to click and drag over the selected shape to select all the points at once). Once the points are selected Ctrl C / Apple C and Ctrl X / Apple X (click ok to delete the shape if you are presented with a pop up). Choose the main slide background shape, select the pen tool and Ctrl V / Apple V and choose subtract from shape area from the options toolbar whilst the shape is still selected to subtract the rounded rectangles from the slide background shape. Repeat this process with all the rounded rectangles.

select layer mask

direct selection tool

select all points

select the slide background

select the pen tool

paste onto the rectangle shape

choose subtract from the option tool bar

Step 11.
All elements should now be combined within 1 shape area.

all shapes combined in one shape layer

combined shapes in one layer

Step 12.
Next for the text. At the top of the slide add some text to the slide. I have used Arial 8px bold CAPS with tracking of 130.

Add a new text layer

set the text size and weight

position on the top row

Step 13.
Add the number 24 to the bottom of the slide. (This is to represent how many slides are in the reel) For this I have used Arial Bold 10px tracking 130. Also add 23A to the left at 7px.

Add text to the bottom row

Step 14.
Using layer styles, set the layer opacity of the frame to 63% and apply a gradient to the shape to give a slight hint of shine.

set the slide opacity to 63%

set the slide gradient

set the gradient colours

use layer styles to change the colour and opacity

The next steps will need to be completed in a seperate document before they are added to the slide background that we just created.

Step 15.
Open the photo that you want to use as the negative and desaturate the image. To do this select it in the layers palette and choose Image > Adjustments > Desaturate (Shift Ctrl U / Shift Apple U). (Remember not to save over your orignal!)

The original photo that I am using for this tutorial is by Jorge Royan and can be found here.

original image

Choose Edit > Adjustments > Desaturate

desaturated image

Step 16.
Open the channels panel (Window > Channels) and hold Control / Apple whilst you click the top channel (Which should be labelled either RGB or CMYK dependant on which colour mode you are working in). This will select the black areas of the picture.

Open the chanels panel

Channels panel

black areas selected

Step 17.
With the selection still active create a new layer in the layers palette (Ctrl Shift N / Apple Shift N) and fill the selected area with black. To do this go to Edit > Fill and choose black from the drop down menu.

create new layer

Choose Edit > Fill

fill with black

Step 18.
Delete or hide the original photo layer and you are left with your photo negative effect.

Hide original photo layer

left with the layer filled with black

Step 19.
Drag the photo negative effect layer that you have just created on to the negative frame border that we first created and resize it to fit the inside rectangle. Use the transform tool and marquee tool to crop the image to the correct size if needed. You should now have your final photo negative.

photo negative within the frame

Step 20.
To create a strip of negative frames simply copy and paste the frame layers and reposition on the end of the the first negative and add a new image.

duplicate the frame layers and position them next to each other

select the shape mask of the other frame

choose add to shape area and paste frames together

a single layer style now covers both slides

4 combined slides

The original photos used in the above slide are from Wikimedia commons. Image 1, 2, & 3 by Jorge Royan. 4 by Randy Oostdyk

Please note some of the effects below will rasterize the frame, so save the vector format as a psd before you continue so you can go back to it if you wish.

Step 21.
To make it look realistic try combining all the layers and adding a transparent gradient to the whole image to add a shine across the negatives. Use the transform wrap feature to slightly lift the middle of the negative at the top and bottom so that it doesn’t sit flat on the page. Also add a slight soft drop shadow. Below are the settings that I used to create the complete negative strip.

Combine all layers

drop shadow settings

gradient settings

gradient colour & opacity settings

add gradient and drop shadow

lift the middle section of the slide with the wrap tool

How to create a photo negative in photoshop

Download this free desktop wallpaper. Designed for November 2011. You can either download the wallpaper with the calendar or just the background without the calendar.

preview-with-calendar

preview-no-calendar

Download the calendar by clicking on one of the resolutions below.

With Calendar: 1280×800, 1366×768, 1920×1080, 1680×1050, 1440×900, 1280×1024, 1024×768, 1920×1200
Without Calendar: 1280×800, 1366×768, 1920×1080, 1680×1050, 1440×900, 1280×1024, 1024×768, 1920×1200

The best way to combine 2 shape layers in Photoshop is to keep both shapes in a vector format so they will still be editable. However, there is a quicker option available if you are happy for the finished product to become a raster layer.

The 2 separate shapes

Shape 1

Shape 2

2 separate shape layers

The raster option
The easiest way to combine 2 shape layers in photoshop is to select the 2 layers in the layers palette (press shift to select more than one layer at a time) and right click on one of the layers in the layers palette and choose merge layers. This will combine both your shapes into one raster layer but the individual Shapes will no longer be editable or scalable.

Select both shape layers

Right click & choose merge layers

Combined in 1 raster layer

The vector option
The best way to join 2 shape layers is to select all the path points on one shape layer. To do this, use the direct selection tool and press shift to select multiple points.

Use the direct selection tool

select all the points in one of the shapes

Once all the points are selected you can press Apple C / Ctrl C or Edit > Copy. Apple X / Ctrl X or Edit > Cut to delete the layer.

Select the other vector shape which you want to combine it with and select the shape area in the layers palette.

Select the vector mask thumbnail

With the pen tool selected choose ‘Add to Shape area’ from the shape option tool bar.

Pen Tool

Add to shape area

Apple V / Ctrl V or Edit Paste. Your 2 shapes will now be combined within one shape layer.

Combined Shapes

Combined within 1 shape layer

To combine shapes whilst drawing new shapes
To combine shapes whilst drawing with the shape tools, make sure the ‘Add to Shape area’ option is pressed as you start drawing each new shape.

Why combine shape layers?
The advantages of combining 2 shape layers means that you can not only move and scale shapes together whilst keeping them in proportion to each other but also apply layer styles such as gradients and shadows to what appears to be one seamless shape.

2 shape layers with layer styles applied

combined shape layers with layer styles applied

To be able to edit an animated gif in Photoshop, you will need the original .psd file. If you try opening an existing .gif you will find that you can only view 1 frame of the animation.

Open the psd file and open the animation panel if is not already open. To do this go to Window > Animation.

Open Animation Panel

You will either be presented with the Animation Timeline or Animation Frames.

Animation Timeline

Animation Frames

Click on to Animation Frames by clicking on the symbol in the bottom right corner of the panel to show the Animation Frames.

Change to frames

Under each frame is the time the frame will be shown for in the animation. In this case 0.2 seconds.

Time on frames

To speed up or slow down the animation click the time shown under each frame and change the amount of time.

Change the speed

There are preselected amounts of time shown in the menu on click. To set your own value. Choose ‘other’ from the list and you will get a pop up box where you can manually enter the time that you want.

Set your own time

Animation 0.2 seconds

Animation 1 second

Animation 2 Seconds

As an ode to my WordPress theme I am creating for this blog, I thought I’d create a WordPress inspired tutorial; How to create an icon in the style of their ‘W’ WordPress logo mark.

wordpress

This tutorial will be using vector shapes, so you can work to any size and the logo will be scalable.

Step 1.
Create a new blank document in Photoshop

a-create-a-new-document

Step 2.
Use the eclipse tool and draw a circle on the centre of the canvas. Press and hold shift whilst dragging the mouse pointer to keep the eclipse to a perfect circle.

Eclipse tool

Draw a circle

Step 3.
Using the direct selection tool, click and drag the mouse pointer across the canvas to select the points of the circle.

Direct Selection Tool

Select Circle Points

Step 4.
With the points selected, Apple C / Ctrl C. To copy the points. (Edit > Copy)

Step 5.
and Apple V / Ctrl V. (Edit > Paste)

Step 6.
Next use the transform tools. Apple T / Ctrl T and drag the points inwards whilst holding Shift and Alt to keep the circle in proportion and decreasing from the central point. When you are happy with the new position press return to deselect.

Transform the shape

Drag the points inwards

Step 7.
Click on the Vector Mask thumbnail in the layers palette to re-select the circle’s shape and select the inner points of the circle using the Direct Selection Tool. Hold Shift to select all four points together.

Vector Mask Thumbnail

Select the Inner Circle

Step 8.
With all four points selected, click on the pen tool, and click subtract from shape area from the shape options bar.

The Pen Tool

Subtract option

The centre should change to reveal the background

Step 9.
Select the outer points again, and copy and paste again and transform the new points to create an inner circle.

Select outer points

Create 2nd inner circle

The 3 circle paths together

Step 10.
Use the direct selection tool to select only the inner circle and copy this Apple C / Ctrl C or Edit Copy and cut this from the canvas Apple X / Ctrl X or Edit Cut.

Step 11.
Create a new shape layer by drawing a small rectangle with the rectangle tool on the side of the canvas. It doesn’t matter what size or shape you draw as this is purely to create a new shape layer.

create a new shape layer

Step 12.
Select the new rectangle with the direct selection tool. Choose the Pen tool and choose add to shape area from the options. Paste the circle onto the new shape layer by using Apple V / Ctrl V or Edit Paste. You can now select the rectangle and delete it.

Add to shape Area

Step 13.
Use the Horizontal text tool to draw a text box over the top of the circle and enter the letters you want to use.

Horizontal Type Tool

Step 14.
Choose a font and set the size of the letters. The letters should ideally fill the central area and overlap into the white area but not the outer circle. We can delete the bits that go over the outer circle at a later stage but you should be happy with how the letter interacts with the inner circle at this stage. I’ve chosen a B in Champignon Alt Swash. Champignon is free to download from Da Font.

Choose a font to use and position the letter

Step 13.
With the letter selected in the layers palette, right click the layer and choose convert to shape.

Select the type layer

right click and convert to shape

Step 14.
The letter has now changed to a vector shape layer and you can edit it as such.

letter becomes a vector shape

Step 15.
Using the direct selection tool. Select all the points of the letter shape.

select all the letter points

Step 16.
Copy these points Apple V / Ctrl V or Edit > Copy and Cut the points by using Apple X /Ctrl X or Edit Cut. You will get a pop up box explaining that this will clear the vector mask. Click OK. Select the inner circle in the layers palette. Choose the Pen Tool and choose subtract from the shape area and then use Apple V / Ctrl V or Edit > Paste to paste the letter onto the circle layer.

Combine the shape layers

Step 17.
And to finally combine the outer circles with the letter shape you have to first select the smaller outer circle.

select inner circle

Step 18.
Copy these points and cut them from the shape layer. At this point the shape will turn to a solid circle. Hide that layer in the layer palette so you are able to see the layer on the canvas with the letter shape.

Hide Layer Visibility

Step 19.
Select the top layer with the letter shape and paste the circle.

Paste the circle onto the letter shape layer

If the shape looks different from above choose ‘Exclude Overlapping Shape Areas’ whilst the shape is selected.

Exclude overlapping shape layers

Step 20.
Finally, turn back on the layer visbility for the remaining circle and follow steps 18 and 19 and paste it onto the letter shape layer. After you have pasted it you will have to choose ‘Exclude Overlapping Shape Areas’ this time. And you should have your final shape.

Final Shape Layer

Step 21.
The advantages of having all the shapes combined in this way on one shape layer means that they will always stay in proportion to each other. You can also use layer styles such as gradients and drop shadows and this will be applied to the whole shape rather than just a part of it.

Add Layer Styles to the whole shape

Step 22.
Need a professional logo made in illustrator? You can copy all the points on the shape layer with the direct selection tool and paste straight into illustrator. You can even continue to edit the paths as much as you like

Head over to WordPress.com to check out a nice bit of functionality surrounding their logo.

Wordpress

They have preempted the fact that people may be looking for a copy of their logo to use in blogs and in the press, and upon right-clicking the logo on their website (as if to copy or save the image) you are presented with logo options.

Wordpress Logo Options

This is not only very useful to people looking for the logo, but it will save the people at WordPress a lot of time supplying various logos in different file formats. Having the correct file formats at a touch of a button will also help their brand consistency,  as people will be less likely to use the older or low res versions that can be found on the Internet.

Download the file below to turn your photographs into line drawings.

Click here to Download – Photoshop Buzz – Line Drawing Action File

Save time by installing pre-defined action files. Repeat the effect simply by pressing play on the file which will appear in your action panel. Find out how to install actions in Photoshop.

Examples of the Photoshop Buzz Free Photoshop Action which turns photos into line drawings:

Original Photo

Line Drawing

Original Photograph

Line Drawing

original photo

Line Drawing

To find out how to repeat this process on your own and modify the settings, see the Photoshop Tutorial – How to change a photo into a line drawing.