Distress / Mottled / Grunge Custom Shapes for Photoshop and Photoshop Elements

Use part shape as the design in Photoshop and Elements

You can use the full design or you can remove the rest of the distress mottled shape and use only a fragment of the custom shape in Photoshop. This can be done via the direct selection tool or using the pathfinder exclude / subtract tools.

1) Select custom shape tool

2) Set to shape layer or path (top bar of Photoshop)

3) Go to the middle of the top bar (custom shapes options)

4) Select either 'add to shape area' or subtract from shape area etc option (depending on the design)

5) Select the subtract option to remove existing area from the shape (either use the same shape or perhaps circle or square)

example of mottled shape from the pack 95 set

If you apply the shape as a standard fill, you can also use the selection tool to select part of the shape and copy that part of the design. You do not need to use all the shape.

example of the shapes pack 95 mottled butterfly design cropped and then re-applied and duplicated in a grid in Photoshop

Export Photoshop designs to other software tutorial

The designs can be applied as a path (via the shapes options), use the 'export paths to illustrator' to save the path as AI native Illustrator format file. Use this file in multiple software. The custom shapes can also be copied to some software via the pasteboard / clipboard

1) Select the custom shape tool

2) Click the path option (top bar of Photoshop)

3) File > Export > Paths to Illustrator

4) OK

If the custom shape (distress, mottled or otherwise) is used as a fill design then you can always export that design as a TIFF or JPG file and that can be used in another application.

Text frame mottled design in Photoshop

Load the mottled custom shapes (pack 95) and select the custom shape tool and set the custom shape option (found along the top option bar of Photoshop) to path. Apply the mottled path and then go to the paths palette (found in the window menu). Select the work path and right side menu - make selection. Select > save selection

Select the type tool and type - select > load selection and then select > save selection (call the selection 'text')

Now, finally you can use the load selection (load the mottled shape selection first) and then select > load selection and load the text selection (use the intersect option)

At this point you will have a selection of the mottled and the text which can now be filled with color or a gradient or effects etc

Added: December 26th 2011