Tutorial: It's a bird! It's a plane! No... it's a pretzel!

{The Paper Mama}

I was originally inspired to do this from Bungalow '56. She did a flying ghost cookie! I thought it was so cute and wanted to try it for myself. 

{Bungalow '56}

Tutorial: How to give an inanimate object flight!

SUPER simple. Of course, I say it is because I work with the clone tool everyday. BUT, with some practice it gets easier and easier.

First: Take your photo. I put my pretzel on a little needle so my fingers wouldn't obscure it. Bungalow '56 used a stick.

Second: Edit your photo to your desired brightness and contrast.

Third: Make sure your image is flattened (merged together). Make a duplicate copy of the background layer {CTRL+J}. I always make a copy of the layer I want to work on in case I mess up and need to start over.

Fourth: click on your clone tool and edit out your stick and hand. A quick note about the clone tool. Most of you may already know how to use the clone tool... but, it took me FOREVER to figure out how the clone tool actually works. I mean, I've been using photoshop for about 6 years now and just this last year figured it out. Took me a while!
 

• How to use the clone tool:

(I have a PC and PS CS3): While pressing the "Alt" key, left click on the area of the photo you want to clone. This tells the clone tool where to copy from. That's it. You can now start cloning out the part of the image you want to get rid of. I hope that makes sense!

Fifth: Optional: add a mustache and wings! :D You don't have to do this... but, I thought it was kind of fun. You can download the free wing brush set that I used right here. And, if you'd like to download the mustache I drew... you can click on the photo below, right click on the image and save.

I'd LOVE to see if you use this tutorial! Share your creations in our flickr group and let me know in the comment section!