Introducing my, free, CU-okay, knockout style! Simply create a placeholder, one that you would normally clip a photo to, apply my knockout style and voila! All layers beneath the placeholder magically disappear… only to easily reappear by turning off the placeholder layer.

Before:

As you can see, I’ve got my background layer (note that it is unlocked). My placeholder, and then my frame. This way, I don’t see anything I might tuck under my frame… however, it is still there when I turn off the placeholder.

After:

I have applied my free knockout style to the placeholder layer. Now everything layered below this will be invisible. That is everything that is “covered” by the placeholder will be invisible. Simply turn off invisibility by clicking on the “eye” symbol next to the placeholder symbol to turn on all the invisible parts. It is really that simple.

The easiest way for you to try this is to download, unzip and drag my CU-okay Knockout style into your style palette.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE KNOCKOUT STYLE

Or, follow these simple directions:

In photoshop you can “knockout” all the layers underneath that layer. Soooo absolutely ideal for making quickpages. Here’s how:

• go to add layer style
• choose blending options
• Set fill opacity to 0%
• Set knockout to deep

Note: background layer must be unlocked

Lots of smooches,

Toiny

Ever buy a CU product and wish it was another color?  Did you try moving the Hue/Saturation sliders?  Did you try moving the Color Balance sliders?  And still it’s just not the new color?  At least not evenly.  I’ve got another trick you can try.

I’m going to start with a CU bloom: 

Perfectly lovely bloom.  But too pink for my tastes.  I’d love a gorgeous blue.  So I try: 

Image–>Adjustment–>Hue/Saturation and move my sliders back-n-forth.  I get lots of pretty colors, but not the nice, solid, even blue I want:

After trying: Image–>Adjustment–>Color/Balance and even: Image–>Adjustments–>Variations.  I get frustrated.  Time to try something new!

I like the yellow center.  I’m a big fan of yellow of blue together.  All I want to replace is the too bright, too pink, pink.  I go to:
Select–>Color Range

Use the eye dropper to select the color you want to replace.  You can change the amount of color variation selected by sliding the Fuzziness slider from 0-to-200.  Once you have everything desired selected click OK.

Create a New Layer above your CU item (in my case, my flower).  Fill the selected area with the new color (I picked a soft periwinkle blue) using your Paint Bucket Tool.  Change the Layer Blend Mode to Color:

Note: You may need to SelectàColor Range more than once to get all the bits & pieces selected.  I create a New Layer (and set the Color Blend Mode to Color) for each newly selected Color Range.

I also use the Clipping Mask feature in the Layer Palette to prevent any stray pixels or colors from appearing:

Any questions?  Please ask away in the forum.