Creating an Anniversary Image

[Wendy]

Anniversary Image ..

Start off by choosing some fairly simple images that you can blend together. Some black and white ones do seem to add to the passing years theme.

I made a fairly large file and did a pale cream background for the whole thing
Then added a little noise to it (Filter>Noise>Add Noise ... and adjusted the slider until it started to break up the solid colour)
Next added the marriage certificate, distorting it a little so that the background didn't look too too flat (Image transform>Distort)
and dragged the four images into the file and roughly positioned them ...

Take a bit of time at this stage and get the layout looking OK
Bear in mind that you may want to add other embellishment such as text, numbers, ribbons, clipart etc
so add them now before you sort out all the positions .. its easier to do it at this stage than later.
Try to vary the angle and heights to get some interest into it.

Once you are happy with all the positions then you need to blend the images together.
I used masks on each of the images ...
You don't want to remove all the background from the images so a soft low opacity brush on the mask is ideal ... or experiment with a gradient

Next I chose a colour from one of the images for the border
Created a new layer above the image, used the rectangular marquee to make the selection and then stroked the selection
(Edit>Stroke ... experiment with the size but make sure that the stroke is set to inside to keep the corners crisp)
I added a bevel from the layer styles to it.

The flowers and stars were added on several layers using a set of confetti brushes I made
I varied the sizes of them and finally added bevels and drop shadows using Layer styles

If its for an anniversary then add text such as Happy Golden Wedding or 30th etc
Use it for birthdays too .... but use a birth certificate for the background.

Here is the one I did:



The possibilities are endless ... so enjoy



Wendy