Atomic Cupcake Chalked Edges Action
for Photoshop 7.0, Photoshop CS, or Photoshop CS2

Part I -- Installation

1. Copy the "Atomic Cupcake Chalk.atn" file to the location of your choice.

2. Open Photoshop. Open the Actions palette (from the "windows" menu section).

3. Click on the triangle button in the top corner of the Actions pallette and click "load actions" Open the file from the location you chose in step 1.



Part II -- Using the Action

1. Open the image you would like to chalk. This can be a background, paper, a photo, etc.

2. Select an area with the marquee tool. It can be any shape you like (see the shapes section below for ideas.) 

3. Choose the color you want the chalk to be as your foreground color. Feel free to be creative.

4. Click on the name of the action in the Actions palette "AC - Chalked Edges"

5. Press play. (The triangle button at the bottom.)


The chalked version will be created in a new document -- leaving your original paper or photo in it's original condition. 




Part III -- Ideas for Shapes

So what shapes can you chalk? Letters, numbers, squares, circles, tags, hearts, stars, and anything you can dream up... Read on.

1. The obvious squares and rectangles:
	a. Use the marquee tool  on a background image.
	b. Press play on the action.

2. Circles and ellipses:
	b. Click and hold on the marquee tool to bring up "elliptical marquee tool".
	c. Select a circle on a background image.
	d. Press play on the action.

3. Letters and text:
	a. Type the words you want to chalk on a new layer above a background image.
	b. Hold the control button and click on the text layer in the layers pallette. This selects the shape of the text.
	c. Switch back to your image layer. Now you have your paper selected but with the shape of the text!
	d. Press play on the action.

4. Other shapes: You can use the "control-click" method from  to copy any shape.
	a. Use photoshop's "custom shape tool" to make a shape on a layer above a background image.
	b. Hold the control button and click on the shape's layer in the layers pallette. This selects the shape of the shape.
	c. Switch back to your image layer. Now you have your paper selected but with the shape's shape!
	d. Press play on the action. 

5. Chalking tags and other digital scrapbooking downloads you may be using in your project: 
	a. Open the item. 
	b. Hold the control button and click on the items's layer in the layers pallette. This selects the shape of the item.
	c. Press play on the action. Since the action creates a whole new item, it will not change your original file, so you can save both for future use.

6. Freehand shapes:
	a. Use the lasso tool on a background image.
	b. Press play on the action.