I offer all of my overlay designs in solid black, which can be great when using blend modes and it often works quite well. In other circumstances though you may want a different look or you may not have blend modes available (like in Canva). In this...

To begin open a blank document in Word size 8.5x11". Because our stencil is white, and our background is white, the first step is to add color so we can see what we are doing.   ADD SOLID COLOR Go to Design in the top menu then Page Color. In t...

This is a basic tutorial and is not software specific. Instead, I'm going to cover the overall concept for using stencil templates which can be done in any software program of your choice. Any software that allows you to stack images and/or text, on...

To begin, open Canva in your browser, 'create new design' and set your canvas size to 8.5x11". Because our stencil is white, and our canvas is white, the next step is to add color so we can see what we are doing.   ADD SOLID COLOR Go to 'Backgr...

To begin, open Procreate on your device and create a new blank canvas sized at 8.5x11". Because our stencil is white, and our canvas is white, the next step is to add color so we can see what we are doing.   ADD SOLID COLOR Go to the layers tab...

I'm often asked why my template shapes are not white... Well, white on white is a problem, like a polar bear in a snowstorm. Adding an outline to define the shapes would be required but if I were to add that for you, I would be creating bigger probl...

For projects that require custom colors you might choose to edit a template by changing the color of each object on the sheet. Whether it's a single object or multiple shapes like the example on the left, the easiest way to change the color is by us...

The clipping mask is one of the most useful tools you'll have when working with templates like these. And once you know how to do it, it is the easiest thing and is super quick to apply. As you can see from my example image, what we're doing is inse...

The Basics Explained - for Absolute Beginners   Templates are to digital design what sewing patterns are to the seamstress. The template is nothing more than a pattern. A guide to give you shape and form for the design project at hand. The temp...

This tutorial works for any image and any shape using the free Photopea online editor. We'll be inserting an image into a shape using the clipping mask tool and this process can be used in any similar situation. You can also do this the same way in ...

Following on from my previous tutorial where I showed how to insert an image into a shape using the clipping mask in Photopea, I'm going to now create a repeating printable page from that one tag I made. This tutorial is useful if you want to quickl...