I Relearned - Clipping Masks & PNG's

One of the prompts for Sundays Scavenger Hunt was collage. It had been a few months since I'd really used a collage template and clipping masks. I was a bit rusty and had to relearn some tricks. So I thought I'd share what I'd learned or relearned.
I'll be using my entry to Live Every Moment - Organic, as the example, here is the finished product.
I used The CoffeeShop Blog Frame no.12 that come's with an inbuilt texture to age the photo, or you can turn it off if you just want a plain frame.

I found clipping masks so confusing to begin with. Rita from The CoffeeShop Blog has a great tutorial here. The thing that I found the hardest was free transforming the image to fit the clipping mask, especially when it's really big and you can't even find a corner. Usually the instructions say to slide the image across onto the clipping mask. But this is what you end up with. You can't even see any apples the image is so large.

Well here's a little trick that saves heaps of time and headaches. Instead of opening your image and sliding it over, make sure your free transform tool/move is selected then click on the actual clipping mask or the clipping mask layer, then go up to file and select place then select your image, just like you were opening it.

This is the result.

So from here you can easily (1) grab a corner and adjust the image making sure to constrain proportions at the top of the screen, then when your pretty happy you can check the tick at the bottom (2), then I press Ctrl - G to group the image to the clipping mask, this is basically tucking it in.

The  image layer will become indented when it's grouped.
If there is a background layer turn it off and instead of flattening the image "merge visible" then save as a png if you want the frame to appear without a background like mine above.
NB. The CoffeeShop Frame no.12 doesn't come with a background, I added for show purposes.But it will still add a white background if you "flatten" your image so make sure you "merge visible" if you don't want a background.
The shortcuts are specific to PSE and windows, check what yours are if you use another program.
By the way I also learned how to take screen shots, windows key and s then select area.

So this is what I used for the collage prompt, Swedish Apple Tea Cake, YUM! 

So I used Paint the Moon Attic Treasures no.8 collage from the Simply Vintage Blog and Web Frames.
This comes with a white background that you can turn off and save the collage as a PNG.
But I used The CoffeeShop Blog Fabric Maker action, where I chose a colour from the top right photo and the action made the fabric (like an opaque texture) in that colour, which I then added above the white background.  Isn't that fantastic, and I think it adds a real homely look to the collage.
By the way I made my blog header with another frame collage from the Paint the Moon Simply Vintage Frames and I also used the fabric maker.

So who wants the recipe!
Beat 125g butter and 150ml sugar until soft and pale. Beat in 2 eggs, one at a time, add 250ml flour, 1tsp baking powder and 2 tbsp cream or milk. Place the mixture in a lined round baking tin.
At the same time or before cut up 2 red apples into 16 pieces each, 1/4 then 1/4 again. Roll these in a mixture of 2tbsp sugar and 1tsp cinnamon, then press into the cake mixture.
Bake 175C for 40 minutes.
Sorry if you don't use the metric system

**Since writing this I looked up what you do to constrain proportions for Photoshop too, this is to prevent the image getting stretched. So in Photoshop you hold down the shift key as you free transform the image. Don't do this in Elements though there you check the "constrain proportions" box but make sure it stays checked when you finish with each picture, sometimes if you adjust the picture a couple of times I find it can become unchecked.

Love the new button!