The winner of the Creating Keepsakes subscription giveaway is commenter #2, Chrystiana Miller who commented:

Thanks for the tutorial!

Congratulations, Chrystiana Miller! Please send us an email to claim your prize.

Hey RP fans! Deena Boese from Creating Keepsakes magazine back at the table with another Photoshop tutorial! This week’s tip comes from the request of last month’s tutorial reader Tenika. She wrote:

The fact that we, as digital memory keepers, can alter and recolor any item is one of the major benefits of digital scrapbooking! We can create custom looks, recolor any paper to match our photos, and double (or triple) the life of every product we have in our digital library! While using the well-known Hue/Saturation Adjustment will change the entire color value of a product, there are sometimes we just want to alter a single color while leaving the others intact. What to do? Let me introduce you to “Replace Color”!

Wanna learn how simple it is to replace color in papers and elements? Read on!

In Photoshop, open the patterned paper you wish to recolor. Select Image>Adjustments>Replace Color.

With the eyedropper tool already selected, click on the area of the paper you wish to recolor. Here I sampled the tan background color. In the dialog box, you’ll notice the image portions in the tan value have turned from black to white.

For this example, we’re changing the tan background color to a crisp white. To do this, simply adjust the Lightness slider all the way to +100 and click OK.

Let’s say we have a photo with a green background and want to change the blue flowers in the paper to green. Once again, select Image>Adjustments>Replace Color.

With the eyedropper tool already selected, click on the blue color value in one of the flowers. Again, you’ll notice image portions in the dialog box have turned from black to white. This time adjust the Hue slider until you reach the desired green value. You can also play with the Saturation and Lightness sliders to get the exact color you desire.

Success! Use this technique to create custom looks and breathe new life into digital papers and elements you already own.

And now you know! Try altering a single color in a paper or element, or go crazy and adjust them all to create a one-of-a-kind product, color-designed specifically for your photos! I hope you have fun discovering creative ways to use this fun and easy technique in your layouts! For easy reference, I’ve included a PDF handout you can download and add to your “Wanna Learn How” library.

As always, we want to hear from you! Have you seen a digital technique that made you say, “Oooh! I wanna learn how to do that!”? Leave a comment to let us know what techniques you want to see here. I have a free one-year subscription to Creating Keepsakes magazine in my hands that will go to one random (and lucky) commenter. So be sure to drop us a line to be entered in the drawing! Good luck!

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Tutorial: How to Replace Color

Deena Boese

Deena Boese is a Contributing Writer for Creating Keepsakes magazine and enjoys designing both digital and hybrid projects for each issue. She was first published with Creating Keepsakes in early 2007. Deena has a passion for story-telling and graphic design, and brings these elements into her digital and hybrid scrapbooking.

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Tags: Photoshop | Wanna Learn How