Faux Foam Stamping Technique

By and © 2006 Clara Wallace – Matter Of Scrap Scrapbooking Graphics

Foam stamps are used in real layouts in a variety of ways. In this tutorial we’ll imitate the foam stamped look on your digital pages.

This tutorial is written using Photoshop Elements 4.0 but can also be adapted to other programs.

1. Open up a new document (or just use the layout you are working on) and type in your text using a nice bold and thick font. I’ve used a font called Headline One.

Right click on the layer in the layers palette and SIMPLIFY LAYER. This flattens the layer and rasterizes it so that the text is no longer editable.

TIP: Make sure the text is the size you want it for your layout before simplifying it.

2. Now, before we go further, duplicate your simplified text layer (right-click DUPLICATE) and hide the original layer by clicking on the eyeball in the layers palette. We’ll save this for a later step.

3. We’ll be using the eraser tool to erase bits and pieces of the text. Click on the eraser tool (keyboard shortcut – press the letter “E” on your keyboard). There are many brushes available to use and here we want the FAUX FINISH brushes. Select these by clicking on the dropdown arrow for the brush presets in the brush palette and find the faux finish brushes. Choose the ROLLED RAG – TERRY 120 PIXELS brush.

TIP: If your brush palette doesn’t show you the name of the brush, click on the circle with the small triangle in it and choose LARGE LIST.

4. Click on your original simplified text layer and with your eraser tool start “sponging on” with the eraser on different parts of the text, clicking around randomly.

TIP: If you end up erasing too much in one swipe, click the undo button and just start again.

You’ll see parts of the text starting to disappear and show the background behind it. (If you don’t see anything being erased when you do this, make sure that you have hidden one of the layers (step 2). Keep doing this until you’ve erased a fair amount of the text.

Here’s what my text looks like now.

If you are happy with the way it looks, you can call it done and use your text as is. However, what I want to achieve is a more stamped on look so we’ll keep going.

5. Unhide the original layer. Your text will look like it’s gone back to being solid black (or whatever color you started with). Now, either with the same brush or a different brush, start randomly erasing, now both “dabbing” your brush (click here, click there) and by doing small “wipes” with the brush, back and forth all over the text.

Now you should have a nice look with the text looking like it has been stamped with a foam stamp.

6. Now for the finishing touch. Click one of the layers in the layers palette (it doesn’t matter which) and use the TRANSFORM TOOL (keyboard shortcut – V) to make that layer just the slightest bit smaller. Move it a few pixels to the left or right and up or down. You will have a look now that gives the ‘stamp’ a smudge-y effect!