Plaid Tutorial : Make it Flannel plus a Freebie

Some years ago Marisa, from Digital Scrapbook, asked me about my method of making plaids. So I shared it with her and she posted about it here. But, I am oftentimes playing around with my plaids to get interesting effects.

I love the coziness of flannel plaid and so for my Winter Cozy bundle, released back in 2021, I had created some flannel like plaids.

For today’s tutorial I will show you how I did it, making some plaids that coordinate with At the Hearth bundle. And there is also a freebie for you at the end of the tutorial. Just a note I use Adobe Photoshop CC and Elif Sahin’s Plaid Maker to create this tutorial.

Step #1

First, I used the same method of making my plaid paper as discussed in the previously mentioned link, but be sure to select the Twill Plaid or your results will not come out like flannel. I specifically selected the Twill Plaid – Large Diagonal. You could certainly experiment with the other Twill options in the action. And any of the images shown can be clicked on to view it larger.

Step #2

1) Then, in my layers I made a copy of the plaid paper layer. On this layer I ran Filter->Distort->Ripple. I set the Amount to -12 and for the Size I chose Large. This gave my plaid a slight rippled effect. See below.

Step #3

2) Next, I made a copy of my rippled plaid layer. On this I ran Filter->Pixelate->Crystalize. I set the Cell Size to 4. Then I set the Opacity of this layer to 75%. Also, you can experiment with the cell size and opacity to get the desired effect you are looking for. See below for this step.

Step #4

3) Lastly, I then just added some kind of texture like a cardstock or such. For these I used the following for textures on my plaid papers –

1. Sahin Designs Recycled Paper Textures 04 – this layer was set to Blend Mode Soft Light Opacity 86% & Fill 60% [I also had an adjustment level clipped to this layer which was set to 19 | 1.20 | 233 ]
2. Sahin Designs Transparent Textures Vol 4 – 05 – this layer was set to Blend Mode Soft Light and Opacity 41% & Fill 100%
3. Sahin Designs Transparent Textures Vol4 – 03 – this layer was set to Blend Mode Soft Light Opacity 46% & Fill 100%

The plaid now is a little softer in feel, and similar to flannel- especially after adding a little texture, as you can see below.

And that’s it for the tutorial!

Flannel Plaid Tutorial Freebie