I feel silly that I don't know how to do this. But I have downloaded all kinds of GREAT photo masks from blogs and also purchased some from digi shops. Now I want to use one and I kind find instructions. Can anyone help me with the basic instructions on using a photo mask?

thanks ahead

Angela, not knowing what they look like it is hard to be specific. Some of the ones I have you just put on top of your picture and change the blend mode (multiply) I think. Test out the blend modes.Can you send a link to one so that I can give it a try and get back to you.

Are they the ones that are like black shapes or black border effects? When I've used that type of thing I put it on it's own layer in a psd, then group with previous to do a clipping mask to combine it with my photo. Hmmm, I guess it depends on if you want the mask to delete parts of your photo or show parts of your photo. As suzi says, an example would help us help.

Courtney

I thought I'd already posted this once, but if it's the black border kind of mask, there are tutorials here:
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/freedownloads/l/blframesmain.htm

If it's the black shape kind of mask, I just group it with the picture as a clipping mask - but after seeing the grayscale application of the borders above, I'm guessing there's a better way...

Angela, here is a screen shot to illustrate what Courtney is talking about.

Photo Shape Clipping Mask.jpg (145.55 KiB) Viewed 1044 times

Put your "shape" on a layer below your image. It is filled with any solid color. Group your image with that shape layer. The shape then becomes a clipping mask. You can use the Move Tool to resize and/or move around the shape and that will affect how much or little of your image shows.

Rusty

To Everyone

I pm'd Suzi the link because I didn't want to hot link the blog out of respect, pm me if you want a link for the photo mask ...................
the screen shot helped immensely Rusty thanks for everyone's help, and thanks for the link to the tutorial.
here is a quick sample of the photo mask I downloaded....

Thanks for asking this question. I've really enjoyed playing with these borders!

http://www.prestophoto.com/photos/image/1985520/49186

I have directions for using a clipping mask on my blog with a screen shot.
Scroll down a bit.

Very pretty, Angela!

Shari and Kimi - Thanks! Dawn Lee pointed out to me about your blog, but I had already posted and just did a quick mock up. The actual Xmas card took the whole afternoon because I had to get 2 kids and 2 Guinea Pigs to COOPERATE with their hats and their smiles. The clipping masks helped a lot and I downloaded the wordart from Bethany word art blog. I am happy to say the last of the cards are stamped and ready for posting later today.