Inspiration - how to create your own texture

How funny that inspiration comes from the unlikeliest of places. I recently took a class at a Scrapbook Expo here in Atlanta on digi scrapping and got more out of just chatting with the instructors than what they were teaching. I picked up a few tips, but most of it I already knew. The biggest thing I learned was that in order to create wonderfully textured background papers in my scrapbook kits, I had to go out and take pictures of TEXTURE!!

Texture can be anything from your favorite pair of jeans, to your mother's heirloom lace, to your hair, and to all things found on the ground. Yep, there is wonderful texture on the ground. That rock bed surrounding your begonias. The wood chips lining your walkway. The very grass itself!!

Go outside right now and take a picture of anything that has a bumpy, lumpy, gritty feel to it. Upload it to your Editor and open the picture.

Save it as a .psd file to Program Files > Adobe> Adobe Photoshop > Presets > Textures.

Now you can use it to give your papers a unique feel.

Open up the file you'd like to add texture to. Click on Filter > Texture and then in the far right next to the textures name there's a little right pointing arrow. Click it to find the option to Load Texture.

Manuever to your newly saved file in the Presets folder and VOILA! Instant texture.

Here's one I did with woodchips: