Torn Paper Style Borders
Want to know how to get borders that look like torn paper on your icons? Then read on to find out how without the use for brushes or textures.
First off, grab an image and do whatever editing you want to it. Here's mine:
Grab the Polygonal Lasso Tool and set it to point-to-point. Then, draw a rugged line at the top of your image, going all the way round the outside and back to join the first point. Like this.
When the ponts are joined, a selection should be made. Like this.
Make sure you have a new layer made and ready to use later and hit the Q key on your keyboard. Your image should go completely red with the exception of your selected area. Like it does here.
Don't worry about the red; that will be gone when we're finished. Go to Filter > Pixelate > Crystallize and a dialog box should open. You should have a preview box which shows you what your edge looks like and a box to change the cell size. Set the cell size to whatever you think looks best. Normally it's a low number if you want it to look like a piece of torn paper. I used a value of 4. Here's what it should look like.
Press OK when you've got it how you want it and you should notice (like in the image above), the edge of the red looks like a torn edge. Hit the Q on your keyboard again and your selection should come back, now looking jagged like your torn edge. Like it does here.
Fill the selection in with whatever color you want and there you have it =D Repeat the process as necessary if you would like any of the other sides done. Here's my finished result:
Hope you found the tutorial useful and have fun with it :)
I decided to turn my finished product into an icon at the end. Don't think that your image has to be large to use this technique though; it works perfectly on 100x100px areas too ;)
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