Articles : Tutorials - Digital

Recoloring Digi Elements

Learn how easy it is to make those elements match!

So you have this gorgeous element but you need it in a different color. What can you do? Well in this tutorial I’m going to show you three easy ways to recolor those elements to match any layout. ***You will need a basic working knowledge of PSE for this tutorial***

I’ve chosen a flower from Julie Mead’s Play & Grow Series Kit. Each of these photos are watermarked for Julie’s protection, but I think you can still see what’s going on. ;)


Method One
Open your element. The easiest and fastest way to recolor is just to adjust the hues & saturations. We’re going to go to:  ENHANCE>ADJUST COLOR>ADJUST HUE & SATURATION.
 

By moving the sliders you can change the color of your elements. The top slider will change the color, the middle slider will make that color more or less vibrant, the bottom slider will give you lighter or darker variations of your color.

Method 2
In the second method I’m going to show you, we’re going to use a Fill Layer. Go to LAYERS>NEW FILL LAYER>SOLID COLOR.

Once you do that, a pop up will appear. In this pop up, check the box GROUP WITH PREVIOUS LAYER. This will clip the fill layer into the shape of your element.

Next, the color picker box will pop open and you can choose your color.

The color picker box will always open with your foreground color as the default. So, if I were recoloring this flower to match say a dress on the photo of my layout, BEFORE I added the Fill Layer, I would go to my photo and use the dropper tool to select that color as my foreground. For the tutorial, I’ve just picked a blue shade from the color picker box.

Don’t be concerned about how it looks right now. Here’s where we make the magic. Click on the fill layer, and go to your blending options. Choose COLOR.

Here's the result:

Method 3
I have one more method to show you, and this one can be kinda fun. For this method, we’re going to use a paper to recolor our element. I’ve purposely chosen a print for this. (Polka Dot paper by Chirpi - Secret Garden Kit)

Drag and drop your paper onto your element. Resize it as needed. Then clip the paper to the element. (To do this, press CTL+G). Again, choose COLOR as your blending mode as we did in method two. Here’s the result:

Now I can further enhance this by clicking on the paper layer. Using my eraser tool, and with a soft brush I can erase away the flower center to let the bright yellow show through. Now I have a pretty polka dotted flower.

This looks really nice with papers that have writing on them!! Just use blending mode LUMINOSITY instead of COLOR. I didn’t show a picture because with the watermark, you really couldn’t see it very well.

To see examples of recoloring by our Digi Team, see this article.

Products used in this tutorial.

About the author ...
Tracy joined the Creative Team in June 2008. She has been Scrapbooking for 8 years, and has been Digi exclusive since 2006. Tracy has been featured in Bella Scraps Magazine and Gallery Standouts.

Submitted by -Tracy-