Brush Help???

[Cupcake]

I tried to make my own brush in Photo Shop. I had the image (a flower) that I wanted to make a brush out of. I erased the background so only the flower remained. I then put a rectangular marque around the flower and went to edit>define brush to create my brush but the define brush was grayed out. I tried another picture and got the same results. I tried several different pictures I even saved one in PNG and one in JPG. I then reopened the pictures in the different formats to see if that made a difference and it didn't. I have made brushes before and can't figure out what I am doing wrong this time. Can anybody help??

[Starling]

I'm not sure, but saving them in jpeg or png might be the problem. Try making the brush AFTER you get rid of the background and BEFORE you save the file.

[rebecca burkett]

I have had this happen before, and I never really figured out why. I can tell you that when youa are making brushes, it is unneccesary to remove the background. The define brush only records black, white and grays. You can use colors when you are painting with the brush to make it a color. So, convert to black and white, and ps will see white as trasnparent. The only thing I can recommend is to close the image and start over.

[Cupcake]

Thanks for all your help and suggestions. I finally figured out what I was doing wrong. Photoshop won't make a brush out of an image larger than 2,500 pixels. I finally brought the flower I wanted to make a brush out and went to image resize. I made sure it was abt 2,000 pixels and it made the brush just perfectly. I then went into the preset manager selected brushes, did a control click on the brushes I had created put them into a folder and named my folder. I could just jump up and down I am so happy. Again thanks for all your help

Vicki