Tutorial: Stroking a Path

Hey everyone! Sorry about no tutorial last week, it took everything from me to whip out the HUGE Boys and Girls Mega Bundle and I was just wiped out!

Anyways! I wanted to show you something I LOVE doing to add cute little dot borders to shapes.

First,  start with the shape you want to add a border to. Make sure it is rastersized.

Next,  use the magic wand to select the shape and you'll get marching ants around the shape.

Next,  go to Select-->Modify---> Contract (Should be from menus at the top)

In there, you can choose any value you want, I generally go between 20-50, you can always undo and try again or do Expand to go back out.

Now,   create a new layer above your shape layer, go to the paths palette and click on the button at the bottom that says " Make work path from selection".

The marching ants will now go to a solid line.

Next, click on the brushes and find your basic round brush. Hold it over your shape to check it's the size you want and change as needed.

Then, find the brushes palette,  and go to "Brush Tip Shape". Here is where we make it fun!

We adjust the spacing so the dots make a trail instead of a line. I usually adjust the spacing to around 200% or more. You can play around with it and undo and go back til you get what you like.

Then, click on "Stroke path with brush". Check that it's as you want. If not, click undo and mess with the spacing until you get what you like.

Then, it's important that you delete the path otherwise that line will persist in your shape. So click on the little trash can to delete the path. Your dots will remain.

Then, since you made the path it's own layer, you can easily re-color your dots if you change your mind.

You can also make fun dot trails by just free-hand painting on your canvas:

Hope this was helpful and new to you!

Happy Scrapping and have a great weekend!