Hi there everybody!  It’s Amy here with another Photo Fun technique–just in time for those holiday pages!  In the tutorial below I’m going to show you how you can create a beautiful digital snow globe effect on your holiday pages to showcase your photos in–like I’ve done in my page below, “It’s What Christmas Is All About”.

In this layout I’ve used Danielle’s Kiwi Christmas Quick Page No. 2 and added this fun technique to each of the circular photos on my layout–making for a quick yet fun page for the holidays!

To encapsulate your memories inside of their very own digital snow globe use the following steps:

First open a document in Photoshop and create a circular clipping mask (that is relative to the size you want your finished snow globe photo to be) with your Eliptical Shape Tool and rastersize/simplify the layer.

Then select your Eraser Tool and choose a large soft brush (I’ve used a soft 80px brush at 100% opacity) and run the edge of your eraser along the OUTSIDE edge of your clipping mask so that it softens up the hard edge of the mask and gives it a nice soft glow around the edge.

Now take that same large soft brush and change the opacity to 10% and blend the inside of your clipping mask using a spiral motion as you work your way into the center of your circle.

Now clip your photo to your clipping mask–if you are happy with the effect then you can move onto the next step

If not then you can try adjusting the opacity and/or fill of your clipping masks layer to add or take away from the frosty look of your of photo’s snow globe.

You could also try adding a fill layer of white (clipped over top of your photo) paired with your Dissolve blending mode for a fun snowy effect.  Just use your opacity and fill sliders to make the effect more subtle.

Now with your photo’s layer selected in your layer palette, choose Distort and then Spherize from your Filters Menu.  Choose a percentage somewhere between 50 and 100 using the preview to judge what percentage will work best with your photo.   You may want to readjust the placement or size of your photo after you’ve applied this effect.

Once you’ve completed your snow globe you may decide to add a drop shadow to it to finish it off.  And now your snow globe is ready to take the spotlight on your next holiday page!

Amy Kingsford is a happy wife and blessed mother from Northern Utah who has been scrapbooking for 12 years. She teaches at Get It Scrapped and Masterful Scrapbook Design and is a creative team member for Danielle Young Designs and fellow Oscraps Designer Biograffiti.  To see more of her work visit her new site at AmyKingsford.com. And for more “Photo Fun” join us next month to see what other tricks she has in store for you!