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Learn how to make a star pattern in Photoshop. In this guide I will walk you step by step on where to find the star shape in Photoshop and how to create a seamless repeating star pattern in Photoshop.

How to Make a Star in Photoshop

Open Photoshop and click to create a new document. For this tutorial I use the dimensions 400 x 400 px with resolution set to 300 dpi, RGB color mode and transparent background.

To create a star go to the shapes tool and select the Polygon tool. The keyboard shortcut for the shapes tool is U and to toggle between the different shapes Shift + U.

When using the polygon tool pay attention to the top menu settings. With the polygon tool you have the option to change the number of sides. To create a standard star it will have 5 sides. By default if you draw out a shape using the polygon tool with 5 sides you will create a pentagon shape.

In order to achieve a star click on the gear icon and change the star ratio to 50%. Try playing with different percentages to see the effect. In the video I also create a pattern using 75% which makes less of an indent with the star.

On the canvas click Shift and draw out your star shape. When you hold shift down it will maintain the proportions of the star shape.

With you shape settings make sure you have fill set to black and the stroke is set to no stroke.

Create a Star Pattern

To create the star pattern first center the star on your canvas. You can always use the move tool and just drag it to the center, but I like to center it using the align tools. First access the marquee tool (M – keyboard) and then select all (cmd/ctrl + A). Next select the move tool (V – keyboard) and at the top will be the align tools. Click to center the star both vertically and horizontally. Use cmd/ctrl + D to deselect the pixels.

In order to speed up this step I have created an action in my Photoshop Actions for pattern design to easily center an object on the canvas.

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In the layers panel right click on your star layer to duplicate the layer. On this new layer right click to convert to smart object since we are going to use a filter to create the repeat. Go to Filter > Other > Offset. In the dialogue box enter 200 px for horizontal and vertical displacement. To determine this value you have to do half the size of your canvas. In this case our canvas size was 400 x 400 px so half the value is 200 px. For the undefined areas make sure wrap around is selected and then his ok.

This should cause the star to repeat in the 4 corners creating a seamless repeat.

To save your pattern in Photoshop click Edit > Define Pattern.

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

In the bottom of the layers panel select to create a new pattern fill layer. Select your newly created star pattern. When the pattern fill dialogue box is open you have the option to rotate and scale your pattern. If you click on the canvas you can even reorient the pattern. If you want to get back to the original just click Back to Origin.

To change the color of your pattern create a new color fill adjustment layer about your pattern fill layer. Right click on this layer and select create clipping mask. The pattern will take on the color. Add an additional color fill layer below the pattern layer 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.

Looking for more Pattern Design Tutorials?