- Start off by creating a new file.
- Set the height larger than the width (or what ever size you want), I used 400X550.
- Set the colors to Red: 254, Green: 254 and Blue: 240. ( unless you want a color of your own).
- On the layer manager, go to the clone options and choose, 'clone current whole layer'.
- Go to the Adjust color balance options and choose, 'Adjust color balance'.
- In the color controls, turn the 'Brightness' down, all the way to the left.
- Now click on the 'Layer eraser' tool.
- Set the controls to Width = 1, Height = 96, rectangle and Pressure = 10.
- Go to your dark rectangle and start clicking and dragging with your mouse all over the image. This may take a bit of time but try to get lots of vertical lines showing all over.
- Now, reverse the width and height of the eraser, W = 96, H = 1. Leave the rectangle and pressure as they are.
- Again click and/or click - drag with your mouse to create a large number of horizontal lines this time.
- You may see some small dots instead of or through the lines but just click on of the arrows on either side of the 'opacity' bar and you should see all your lines.
- Now lower the opacity of the dark layer until you are happy with the look.
- At this point, you can merge the layer and keep it like that or experiment a bit with the embedded filters.
- A little blur or smooth will give you a bit more of a streaked look.
- Laplacian will give you a cool rectangle and line look.
- Jitter will give you a more of a smudged look. etc.
For something totally different from the paper look
- Keep the layer with the erased marks dark (no opacity) and try a small amount of the embedded 'Pixelate' filter, with 'show grid' checked.
- Experiment some more, go to the top menu, 'Selection' - 'select whole image region'.
- Change the primary color to something you want and click on the 'flood fill tool'.
- Repeat the eraser process again and add more of the 'Pixelate' filter, then lower the opacity...you'll get different results each time.
- You could even set that last layer to 'Mask' for something different.
- Use a rectangle selection any where on there now, 'Edit' - 'Copy' - 'Edit' - 'paste as a new image'.
- The texture here was used for dark paper, then the edges were cut off and a calendar was added for this one.