Combination of Blending, Masking, & Extraction!

[StarWarsFans]

I've had a couple of people ask me how I created this page:



It was actually way easier than it looks! It just takes a lot of layers. LOL!

I started off with a great background paper by PsychoZoe from the GingerScraps Essential Basics: Red kit.



Then I added my photo. I duplicated it 4 times, hid the top 3 layers, and set the bottom layer mode to "Overlay":



Next, I placed a photo mask (from my PSE 5.0 shapes) above my blended photo:



Make your next photo layer visable and clip it to the mask:



Depending on what you are doing, you may not need this next step. But I wanted to add some dimension to my photo so it looked more 3D. So I made my next photo layer visable and cropped all but the very bottom of it. That way, when I do the next step, it will look like the horses are standing on a solid surface.



Finally we come to most time consuming and tedious step. I made my final photo layer visable and meticulously extracted the horses. I also added a small shadow behind them making sure I followed the same shadow angle as the original photo:



Finally, I used a template from PhotoCowgirl's Welcome Gift as a guide for adding additional photos and elements. I had taken a photo of the Budwesier Clydesdales truck, so I extracted the title directly from it. Once again, here is the final layout: