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The Fleur de lis pattern, with its elegant and intricate design, has long been associated with royalty, heritage, and a touch of regal charm. Originating in ancient civilizations such as Egypt and Mesopotamia, this stylized depiction of a lily flower has since become an iconic symbol throughout history.

Adorning flags, crests, architecture, and various decorative elements, the Fleur de lis pattern carries a sense of grace, power, and cultural significance.

Its three delicate petals and central stylized stamen create a visually striking motif that has stood the test of time, transcending borders and cultures. Whether it graces a majestic tapestry or adorns a piece of jewelry, the Fleur de lis pattern adds an air of sophistication and refinement, making it an enduring emblem of beauty and nobility.

In this guide I will walk you step by step on how to create a simple Fleur de lis pattern in Photoshop.

How to Make a Fleur de lis Pattern

Open Photoshop and click to create a new document. For this tutorial I use the dimensions 600 x 600 px with resolution set to 300 dpi, RGB color mode and transparent background.

To create this pattern we are going to use the built in Fleur de lis symbol that comes with Photoshop. Access the custom shape tool which is nested under the rectangular shape tool. The keyboard shortcut for the shape tool is – U. To toggle between the different shape tools you can use Shift + U. Continue to use Shift + U until you get the custom shape tool.

At the top click on the shape icon to navigate to the Fleur de lis shape. You can also open up your Shapes panel by going to Window > Shapes.

By default Photoshop comes with some build in custom shapes titles Legacy Shapes and More. If for some reason you do not see this folder in your shapes panel click on the three line icon in the top right of the shapes panel and select Legacy Shapes and More from the drop down. This will load the default shapes into Photoshop.

Click on Legacy Shapes and more and then select All Legacy default Shapes. From here scroll down until you find the Ornaments folder and then select the Fleur de lis shape.

Click on the canvas holding down the shift key and drag out the Fleur de lis shape. Holding down the shift key allows you to maintain the original proportions of the shape.

Make sure fill is set to black and that stroke is set to none.

Next center the object. You can use the move tool and drag it to the center or I like to use the align tools. Access the marquee tool (M – keyboard) and select all (cmd/ctrl + A). Switch to the move tool (V – keyboard) and at the top you will see the align tool. Click to align the shape both vertically and horizontally and then deselect the pixels with cmd/ctrl + D.

I have created an action to quickly center an object that is included in my Photoshop actions for pattern design.

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In the layers panel right click to duplicate your shape (cmd/ctrl + D – keyboard). Right click again to convert it to a smart object. We are going to use a filter to create the seamless pattern and it is always a good idea to convert it to a smart object before applying a filter.

Go to Filter > Other > Offset.

For the offset values enter 300 both vertically and horizontally. When deciding on these values you will base it off of the size of your canvas and half of that value. For this example our canvas in 600 x 600 px so we will use 300 px as our half value.

For the undefined areas make sure wrap around in selected because we want it to be seamless in all 4 corners.

Now define your Fleur de lis pattern by going to Edit > Define Pattern.

To test your pattern open up a new document the size of digital scrapbook paper – 3600 x 3600 px, 300 dpi with transparent background.

In the layers panel create a pattern fill layer and select your newly created pattern. To be able to change the color of the pattern add a solid color fill layer and right click to create a clipping mask.

Finally add another color fill layer to the bottom so you can change the background color of your pattern.

I like to use color fill layers because it makes it easy to change the color of your pattern.

To export and save your pattern as digital scrapbook paper go to File > Save a Copy. Give you file a name and then change the file type to JPG.

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