Inner Border Mask Tutorial

Now this is the first tutorial I have ever written, so please bear with me. As I said before, these masks are really pretty easy. I learned how to do these from Harry Heim's tutorials (http://pico.i-us.com/), and most of my edges/frames came from him.

Bring up both the image you want framed, and the edge/mask you want to apply.

Click on the mask to make it active, go to Colors>Negative Image and click.
Make the mask the same size as your image.

Make sure you have Aspect Ratio unchecked so that you can input the right Pixel Size. Click ok. Now, copy the mask and then paste as a new layer on the Picture/Image you are masking.

Make sure the mask/edge is the top layer.

Using your magic wand, select the inner black area, make sure the marching ants are surrounding the black area, and go to Selections>Modify>Contract. Here is where you have to play a little. I start at contracting 10 pixels, and then see if I want more or less of a border.

Now go back to Selections>Modify, but this time go to Feather.

Again, here is where you play with the setting you like. I start at 5 and check it out. For this image I used 2.

Now go up to the scissors (delete) and cut! Your image should be showing through.

As you can see, you do not need to add any type of drop shadow, as it is already there. You can also use the fill tool to cover the white with whatever you want.

If you are going to do that, use the magic wand, select the white area, go to Selections>Modify>EXPAND, then chose either 1 or 2 pixels, click ok. While the area is still active, use your fill. Then you should not have any jaggies because you have expanded slightly into the mask border..

To add a shadow around the edge, merge all layers while the ants are still active.
Go to Selections>Invert, then do your shadowing.

What if your mask have certain characteristics that makes this last step difficult? Glori tested this tutorial out with a different mask and ran into problems filling the white area. Her mask had flower detail that extended into the white area with shadow detail. Filling with color or a pattern was not working, but using Blade Pro did the trick

See? It is really quite easy!

Email me if you have questions!

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