I recently did a quick explanation on Flickr on how to imitate the look of an old-fashioned Cyanotype.
I could probably work on it for longer (I'd love to give it a more glossy look) but here's a quick method.....
I've put five sample backgrounds on my Photo Club website.....
01.... http://www.kingstonphotographicclub.ca/Border-01.jpg
02.... http://www.kingstonphotographicclub.ca/Border-02.jpg
04.... http://www.kingstonphotographicclub.ca/Border-04.jpg
05.... http://www.kingstonphotographicclub.ca/Border-05.jpg
08.... http://www.kingstonphotographicclub.ca/Border-08.jpg
You'll need to open one of the above files (they're at 240ppi, so quite big), rotate to suit your image if necessary and change the colour to a blue.- I suggest #0d224d but you could go darker. It's best to select the white areas and then invert so that you select only the black parts, then use the paintpot with that blue colour. Deselect when you're done. Don't bother to crop anything off the background just yet - you'll need the space at this stage.
Choose the image you want to put over the background. I suggest converting it to a black and white with a good contrast. For a slightly different look, you could also use the same blue as above to make a Gradient Map (Foreground to Background) - you'll need the background to be white or just off-white. That will get you a split-toned image.
Open the background, painted image. Then drag your main image over to it. Make the edges fall outside the boundaries of the blue painted effect (either stretch or shrink the image with the handles). Set the Blend Mode to Lighten or Screen, but try a couple of others, like Linear Dodge and Color Dodge..... you may like the effects.
Flatten when you're happy.
I could probably work on it for longer (I'd love to give it a more glossy look) but here's a quick method.....
I've put five sample backgrounds on my Photo Club website.....
01.... http://www.kingstonphotographicclub.ca/Border-01.jpg
02.... http://www.kingstonphotographicclub.ca/Border-02.jpg
04.... http://www.kingstonphotographicclub.ca/Border-04.jpg
05.... http://www.kingstonphotographicclub.ca/Border-05.jpg
08.... http://www.kingstonphotographicclub.ca/Border-08.jpg
You'll need to open one of the above files (they're at 240ppi, so quite big), rotate to suit your image if necessary and change the colour to a blue.- I suggest #0d224d but you could go darker. It's best to select the white areas and then invert so that you select only the black parts, then use the paintpot with that blue colour. Deselect when you're done. Don't bother to crop anything off the background just yet - you'll need the space at this stage.
Choose the image you want to put over the background. I suggest converting it to a black and white with a good contrast. For a slightly different look, you could also use the same blue as above to make a Gradient Map (Foreground to Background) - you'll need the background to be white or just off-white. That will get you a split-toned image.
Open the background, painted image. Then drag your main image over to it. Make the edges fall outside the boundaries of the blue painted effect (either stretch or shrink the image with the handles). Set the Blend Mode to Lighten or Screen, but try a couple of others, like Linear Dodge and Color Dodge..... you may like the effects.
Flatten when you're happy.