Digital Papers ---> Planner Dashboard - Photoshop Template Tutorial

WOW!!! Two days in a row. I'm kind of shocked I've posted twice this week, especially during Holy Week. Since it's one of my favorite holidays, I've got more freebies coming later this week to my newsletter subscribers too, so be sure you're signed up so you don't miss it.

I am totally addicted to decorating my planners and love that I can use digital papers to create my own planner dashboards. It's like hybrid happiness for me. I love hybrid so much that I wanted to make sure everyone knows how to use these templates. I am using Photoshop, but you can do this in Photoshop Elements too.

• STEP ONE: Open up the freebie template from yesterday's post, and you will see a bunch of rectangles on top of each other. For printing you want to toggle off the layers so that none of the rectangles are overlapping. For this tutorial, I'll be using the a5 layer only.

• STEP TWO: I have my windows folder open to the right of my screen, there are many ways of opening your file. I like to just drag it from the windows folder over to Photoshop. Then you want to increase or decrease the size so that it's completely covering the rectangle layer. Also, you want to make sure that the paper layer is directly above the a5 rectangle (or whatever layer you are working on)

• STEP THREE: once you have it the size you want, double click the paper or click the checkmark in the upper right... this will complete the transformation so you can move to the next step.

• STEP FOUR: now you want to clip the paper to the rectangle and there are a few ways to do this...

1. while holding down the alt key (option on Mac) hover your mouse on the line between the two layers and you'll see a symbol that looks like two circles merging together, when that symbol appears click your mouse and the paper will clip
2. use a shortcut - CTRL + ALT + G (Win) | Command + Option + G (Mac) | CTRL + G (PSE Win) | Command + G (PSE Mac) 
3. select the paper layer, then right click and choose "create clipping mask" 
4. Layers > Create Clipping Mask

• STEP FIVE: (optional) You can move the paper around to get it positioned the way you want it. I didn't like the way it clipped the bike so I moved the paper over until I liked it.

• STEP SIX: print, cut, laminate, hole punch, and put in your planner.

Below are some screen shots of me doing some personal sized and pocket sized dashboards. After doing two personal sized dashboards, I did another one with only two pocket sized.

In the template there are four pockets. Since I use my Filofax Pocket as a wallet, I don't need all four. I just toggled on the top two and left the bottom personal sized one on.









I'm so happy with how they printed out. I can't wait to print out some more and for my laminator to arrive so I can finish them up.

Disclosure: This site contains affiliate links. I may receive a small commission on purchases made, using my link. Heather Greenwood is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.