BEGIN BUILDING THE COLLAGE
CREATE THE FIRST LAYERS WITH MASKS AND ADJUSTMENTS.
Open all the texture and photo files you plan to use in your collage. These can be the ones provided on the FileSilo, some of your own photos, or scanned textures. To build the collage, work from the top of the canvas downward. The first image you paste in is at the bottom of the layered collage. The second image will be layered on top of it, and the method for creating a torn edge effect is applied. PLACE THE FIRST IMAGE 01 Create a new file with your required dimensions and a resolution of 300ppi. Use the Rectangular Marquee Tool to select a section from ‘pix_2695569_starry_sky.jpg’, copy and paste it into your black canvas, resize and then position it at the top of the canvas. OVERLAP THE NEXT 02 Copy and paste in a section from ‘pix_1913661_glitter.jpg’, position it near the top of the canvas, overlapping the starry sky. Add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer, and click the Clip to Layer icon at the bottom left of the window. Enter Hue: +63, Saturation: +75, Lightness: 0. ADD A TORN EDGE 03 Use the Lasso Tool (press L) to select a section of white edge from one of the torn paper files. Copy and paste it into your collage. Press Cmd/Ctrl-T and stretch it across the width of the canvas, positioned a small distance from the top, over the glitter. SELECT AND MASK 04 Go back to the glitter layer and use the Quick Select Tool (press A), with Sample All Layers ticked to select the area of glitter below the white edge as well as the white edge itself, then add a layer mask to the glitter layer. GROUP THE GLITTER LAYERS 05 Hold Shift and Cmd/Ctrl-click the torn edge and glitter layers in the Layers palette to select them both, then go to Layer>Group Layers (or press Cmd/Ctrl-G) to group them. Rename the group Purple Glitter. DROP SHADOW 06 Go to the Styles palette, choose Drop Shadows from the menu, and then Low Drop Shadow. Click the cog icon to access settings, and change the Lighting Angle to -90, Size to 27 and Distance to 0.