Designer Challenge - Mini Kit - Brought To You By The Letter E

Welcome to PixelScrapper, Jennifer; it's awesome that you're jumping into the Designer Challenges already! There are lots of tutorials in the Tutorials section here. I'll start by telling you that a paper is easier to make than an element--it's a 12" x 12" (3600px x 3600 px) JPG. For a beginner like yourself, I'd suggest that 2 solids, 2 simple patterns (one small, one larger/bolder), and one multicolor paper should be a good mix to make a really usable minikit. You want a mix of contrasting colors and sizes to make a layout really pop, so you'll want to include that mix in the papers you make for people to use.

Solids are the simplest to make; they're a bottom layer of a base color, then one or more grayscale textures of some sort applied to it, usually in overlay, multiply or screen blending mode. Flatten the image, make sure it's in gamut by converting to CMYK and back to RGB, and save your creation.

Two-color patterns are the next simplest, but can still make for a great beginner kit if you choose wisely; start with a base color layer, then add a pattern overlay and play with blend modes (overlay, screen, multiply, darken, color burn, hard light all make for interesting results, depending on the mood you want!) or add a color overlay to it the same way you'd recolor an element. Finish up by adding texture to it. Flatten and fix any gamut issues, and save as JPG.

Multicolor papers are often the ones that make a kit really pop; there are a few ways to make them. You can download a layered pattern template (grab the PSD so you can recolor layers individually with color overlays), build up from a few patterned overlays (recoloring each with a different color), take a pattern overlay and lock transparency so you can use a brush in Normal mode to recolor it in a multicolor pattern, use paint brushes to make paint layers over a background layer for an artsy mixed-media look, or add a contrasting painted edge to a normal pattern paper using multiple brushes. In all cases, make sure your finished paper has some texture added. If you've created a pattern from several layers, you might wish to save a layered copy so that you can use it as a template later on with a different palette by recoloring the layers. Flatten, check gamut, and save as JPG.

These are by no means the only ways to create papers...a big part of it is experimenting and discovering new cool-looking things; however, they should give you enough of a jump-start to get into it and give you ideas to play around with!

Shannon, I see a lot of yummy edibles there, and the stickers are fantastic! Nice job!