Tutorial: Create Your Own Digital Shaker Box in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements with Danica
Shaker boxes are a fun interactive element that can be added to your scrapbook layouts. Today I’m going to show you how to create one for a digital layout.
For my shaker box I’m going to use one of the flowers in Traci’s newest collection Besties Who Brunch. (I also used a template from Fiddle Dee Dee for my layout design. The program I’m using is PSE.) The stroke around the flower sticker is going to be the frame for the shaker box. (If your element or shape doesn’t have a stroke, you will need to add one.) The border around the flower needs to be a little thicker, so I am going to add a stroke to it. I used the eye dropper tool and selected the border on the flower so that the color matches the original. To add stroke select: Edit-Stroke(outline selection). For location select outside and I picked 20 pixels. You may need to experiment with the size until you find one that looks good.
Duplicate the flower. Link the two layers so they are locked. Turn off the bottom layer.
On the visible flower I used the magic eraser tool to erase everything except the stroke around the flower.
Turn on bottom layer. Now the stroke is separated from the flower. This will be the frame for the top layer of your shaker box.
The most important thing about your shaker box is the shadowing. There should be shadows deep enough to give the illusion of depth between the top and bottom layers. Here are the settings that I used for my shadow box. You can adjust them to a depth you prefer.
Fill your shaker box with anything you want! If the kit you are scrapping with doesn’t have confetti or sequins in it no problem!!! You can make cute sequins just be resizing elements. This is what I did in my sample. Make sure you fill it about one third to one half full focusing on the bottom of the shaker. Also rotate the sprinkles around keeping in mind shaken things won’t necessarily stay upright.
I then selected all the layers, locked them, and moved it to my layout. I also clipped a paper to the frame to match my layout. I also used glitter style from Mommyish to give it some sparkle!
I hope you try to incorporate this fun item to your layouts! It’s another way to make your digital pages more realistic looking!
