Designer Tutorial: Blend Modes

I know there are a lot of designer tutorials out there but I thought I would add my own 2 cents out there!

Today I wanted to share with you about blending modes. They're the magic of what happens with digi-scrapping!

First, where are they? For me in PS they are right above the layers in the layers palette.

You probably are familiar with the Overlay mode but that's not the only one and sometimes not the best!!

Have you ever tried to do an overlay on white paper? Doesn't work! So here's my trick with white papers and really any light-colored paper in general.

First, I want to show you what I mean about the overlay not working. I have here a green paper and I took a crafty paper and did blend mode overlay:

Yuck! not very realistic, there's not a lot of definition and the shadow area is just a darker green and not really a gray. So, we try duplicating the overlay layer. Sometimes that helps add more definition but it can add too much definition......

Yikes! too sharp! It will lighten the whole paper and creates too much of a hi-light! So maybe we can just decrease the opacity on that 2nd overlay layer to around 60%?

Hmmm, areas are still too bright and there's not much definition in them... So here's what I do. Make the top duplicate layer of your texture Overlay @ 100% and then make the bottom duplicate Linear Burn @ 20-30%. This is how you do white papers! I would do both layers. Overlay on top of the Linear Burn layer. If you find this makes your paper darker than you want, change the brightness of the Linear Burn layer. Now see my green paper:

Much better! I have a hi-light on my crinkle and some better definition in my shadowy area! Use this trick on any white or light papers.

Hope you enjoyed the tutorial!

Happy DESIGNING!