Create a new document with these

Create a new document with these settings. Note that we are using 300 dpi because this will be made for print. We are keeping RGB but for most publication you will use 4 color CMYK mode. This is just an approximate size that can be used for printing booklets. Consult with your printer on their standards.

Choose a light green color from the color picker. You are going to fill a new and blank layer with this color. Now choose pattern fill (from the pop-up adjustment/fill layer icon on the bottom of the layers palette) and pick this pattern.

Change the mode of the pattern adjustment layer to Overlay. Doing this just gives us a little texture which you can see...it just creates a little more of a ‘background’.

Here’s the fun part. Grab your pen tool (with setting on ‘work path’) and create two points as indicated. Immediately when you create the second point, don’t release yet instead drag your mouse down. Create a somewhat similar arc and then release. This will take some practice. Why? Because mine isn’t even perfect. Hehe. The pen tool will take a while to truly ‘master’. But anyways, what you have left is a work path.

Now, go to the Paths palette and you have your work path. You could also have created new Anchor points at the bottom corners and bring it up to connect, but lets look at what we have. Right click on the work path and ‘make selection’. Now we have this selection (it automatically connects the 2 points in the straight line as you can see).

Now grab your polygonal lasso tool on ‘add to selection’. We are going to expand this ‘selection’ to include the rest of the space to the bottom of the document. Use the poly lasso tool as shown to ‘add’ this area to the selection. Now you have most of the document selected with our rounded shape/corner.

Now, create a new layer by clicking on the new layer icon. Ctrl or Cmd click on the icon to select it with the marching ants. Now press Alt or Option Backspace to fill this layer with your foreground color (doesn’t really matter, white is fine).

Now choose a great photograph (for example from the 2,000+ Images CD) and drag it in with the ‘V’ Move tool.

Now what you are going to do is simply create a Layer: ‘clipping group (or ‘clipping mask’ in Photoshop CS’). What this does is place this new (bitmap) photograph within the layer beneath it which happens to be our curved shape layer. Are you following along? Ain’t this cool stuff..Keep following along b/c it gets better.