Over the past year I've started to use Photoshop Brushes a lot more. I remember my friend
Ken Coleman trying to convince me to use them years ago,I wish I had listened to him sooner, they are a total Godsend.
Basically they are premade images that you can use in photoshop with just one click, a lot of the time they are an outline,which you can use in any colour, and resize to suit your needs. Used very basically, like I have above, they look a little boring, but when you introduce colour, texture, and shading they come to life. The key is to use them with layers, colouring in the background while keeping your brush layer on the top. The images above are just a few examples of a few hundred brushes I downloaded yesterday, I went looking for wedding style brushes, and of course I got distracted by other pretty things.
Here is an example of an image I made which I use on my cards. The top image is with colour, and shading, made with simple texture brushes. In the second picture you can see the image brushes that I used to make the piece. Combined together to make a nice Olde Worlde piece.
This second piece has a few more layers to it, I separated out the colour and texture layer so you could see what I'm talking about. I used a mix of dripping paint brush with a bristle one. I print out these pictures on glossy paper and use them as embellishments on my cards. It's a lot lot of work at the outset, but I can continue using them, and in the long run it works out more economical then buying card embellishments.
Some good and free brush websites:
