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Somebody in Flickr posted a picture that appeared to have sticky tape at the corners. There followed a "How's this done" question yesterday and I came up with this tutorial. The link is to my version of the finished item....
http://www.prestophoto.com/photos/image/1378765/24460

Make a new document, black background, around 10" wide (not vital, just that it's best to have room to work).

Make a selection with the rectangular marquee tool, to the approximate proportions of a piece of tape (so perhaps 4:1). Make it quite large.

With the Lasso selection tool, set to "Subtract from Selection", make a selection that looks like 'cut' or perforation at each end of the rectangle. When you complete your loop, you will have removed that shape from the selection, leaving two 'ragged' ends. Keep the selection for now.

Go to Filters > Render > Clouds. Go to Enhance > Adjust Lighting > Levels) and bring the Output Levels sliders inwards from the ends - this reduces the contrast of the clouds. This may need some fiddling - it should look like very low contrast light 'mist' rather than clouds - try both the input and output levels sliders.

Go to the Move tool. Copy (Ctrl-C) the selection and immediately Paste it (Ctrl-V). The "tape" is now a Layer. You can turn off the visibility of the Background or even right click and delete it. You would then just have the 'tape' layer.

As the tape is now a Layer, have it selected in the Layer Palette and go to the Layer Effects. Choose the Bevels and add a "Simple Outer" bevel (with a double-click). The "fx" icon is now on the layer - double click that and turn the bevel size down to 1.

Last touch..... change the blend mode to Linear Burn. This I found the best but it can depend on the background that it goes on - but if kept as a layer, without flattening, you can change the mode as required each time it's used. Save this as a PSD - so that you retain the transparency. I keep these kind of graphic PSDs, with layers, in a separate folder.

OK, you've got a layer you can now drag onto any other open file. In my test picture I wanted it to appear like a photograph had been taped onto a board - but you could use the 'tape' in any way that suits it. When you have another picture open, open the 'tape' psd and just drag the layer onto the 'target' picture. Then move, rotate, resize to suit. Drag the layer onto the picture as many times as you like, to give many instances of the tape.

You could make your tape a different colour by choosing a different background when you make the new file - and this could blend in different ways for the eventual 'target' file.
PSE6 on WinXP, Pentax K10d...... and now a Canon G10.

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Thanks Geoff. Great job on the tut. I know a few times at least, someone has asked how to do tape. There are brushes for it too that you can find online. I personally use some .png files from a scrap kit when I do something with tape.

Kim
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