The gorgeous kit used for this tutorial is called Anika by Australian Digital Designer Jude Reid, it can be purchased at Plain Digital Wrapper.

Digital Scrapbooking is so versatile, you can re-colour, use kits over and over, create everything from scratch or alter almost any element or paper to suit. In this tutorial I will show you how to use a lovely flower element as a template and turn it into a paper element...

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Step 1: File>New change the settings to 12 INCHES x 12 INCHES, making sure that the files resolution is at 300 PPI (Pixels Per Inch).

Step 2: File>Open, navigate to the papers and element you want to use and open.

Step 3: Select the Move tool (Hit the letter "V" on the keyboard to quickly select the Move tool). Click. Drag and drop each of the papers into the layout.

HINT: If you hold the SHIFT key down, while you CLICK, DRAG and DROP, it will always drop in the exact centre of the layout, especially handy if you are dragging in paper, you won't have to move it around to put it in place.

Step 4: Make sure your layers palette looks like the graphic on the left. The paper that you want to be the main area of your layout should be at the bottom of your layer stack. The paper that we are using to make the paper flower should be at the top of the layers palette and the flower should be in the middle.

Step 5: Now we are going to clip the Red Paper layer and the Flower layer together to create our new paper flower. You need to hover on the line between the two layers, then hold down the "Alt" key on the keyboard. The cursor will change to a double circle, when you see this left click on the mouse.

Step 6: Now the Red Paper layer should have a downward pointing arrow to the left of the thumbnail. The layout should now look like a red flower sitting on a background. See below left for a close-up.

Step 7: Layer styles are still able to be applied to the flower layer. In the example below right, I have added a Drop Shadow and also a Stroke. For the stroke I used the colour picker to select one of the darker tones on the Cream background Paper.

This technique can be used in many ways, try it with text and other elements. You can also target one layer with Adjustment layers, in this way you can change Contrast, Levels, Hue/Saturation, Black and White and achieve other effects, by just changing the layer you are clipped to. Try experimenting and see what you come up with.

For more tips and tricks check out my blog at The blissful Pixel. Be sure to check out this gorgeous kit with the links above.

Here is a larger version of the clipped flower...

Please visit my blog and leave me a comment if there is a technique that you would like to see covered here.