Tutorial: Creating Cheater-Beads. Brads, Eyelets in Photoshop

1. Scan in a brad, nail head, button, charm, alphabet bead, etc.
2. Select the brad only – use the magic wand tool on the toolbar and select the white background area
3. This will select all the white background.
4. Hit delete to delete the entire background
5. Repeat selecting any drop shadow from the scan until you just have the brad.
6. Save the image at this point to be able to use over and over.
7. While your background is still selected (the walking ants circling it), choose Select > Inverse to select just the brad
8. Use the move tool (pointer) on the toolbar to drag the brad onto your layout (in another open window)
9. Add a drop shadow Layer > Layer Style > Drop Shadow and experiment with the settings. (I use angle -135, distance 10 px, spread 10, size 20, noise 0%)
10. Then if desired, copy that layer Layer > Duplicate Layer (you can name it if you wish, not necessary)
11. Use the move tool (pointer) on the toolbar to drag the new brad to the desired position. Repeat as necessary.
Examples of cheater brads, buttons, and fiber:

For a printable version of this Quick Class, click here