I don’t know about you, but I’m all about finding time-saving tips and tricks to make my life easier. That’s why I was so excited to find out about this very special Photoshop trick I like to call my “secret weapon.” My secret weapon makes it possible to create photo collages without wasting a lot of time. It also makes it possible to reuse a design layout you love by only switching out the images. In fact, it’s how I create templates for my shop.

Some tools are just too fun to keep all to yourself, so today I’m going to show you a how to use my secret weapon: clipping masks!

How Clipping Masks Work

The best way to understand clipping masks is like putting your photos into a picture frame. Once it’s inside, you can only see what’s in the widow. You can’t see what’s behind the frame.

For my example, I’m going to use a clipping mask to make a simple + unique Valentine’s card. Follow along and then you can download the files to try it yourself for free!

STEP ONE

Open up a new document in Photoshop. I added text with the Type tool in a fun modern font.

STEP TWO

Create a shape that will eventually hold your image. I’m going to add an oval shape and place it over my “O” in the word LOVE.

STEP THREE

Drag your image of choice into the layout. In your Layer’s Palette (Window>Layers), be sure that your image layer is directly over the Oval shape layer.

STEP FOUR

Right-click on your image layer and select “Create Clipping Mask.” (You can also do this by going to Layer>Create Clipping Mask at the top of your screen)

STEP FIVE

Now your image is “clipped” to the oval shape. All parts of the image that are outside the oval shape will no longer show. You can still resize your image and move it around in the frame like normal.

Also note this cute little black arrow in your layer’s palette? This tells you that your image layer is clipped to the one below it.

STEP SIX

Now let’s say that you don’t want a picture of you and your hottie in the card. You’d rather have a picture of your little cutie pie baby. Drag that image into your document and in your layer’s palette drag the new image below the old one.

You can’t see the baby picture in the document, but you should be able to see it in the layer’s palette with a little black arrow next to it. All you have to do is delete your old image on top and your new one will be revealed in the frame. Ta da!

Want to try it out for yourself? Download these files + font info by clicking here.