Do you love the look of punched circle embellishments but don’t know how to do it in PSE?  I will teach you how to create a custom shape to use as a clipping mask for your digital paper and how to add an outline accent.

First you will create a document.  I used the rounded rectangle tool to create a filled rectangle.

Then I used the ellipse tool to remove sections from my rectangle.

To use the ellipse tool as a circle, I selected circle from the option menu.

I then drew the circles on my document where I wanted to remove sections from my rectangle. As I draw the shape it shows an outline.

And as soon as I let go of the mouse, it removes everything inside the circle.

I add one more circle shaped cutout.

Simplify when done.

Then I create a new layer above the shape.  With the new layer selected, CTRL-Click on the shape thumbnail to create a selection around the shape on the new layer.

Next go to Select*Modify*Contract.

A dialog box will open and you select the number of pixels to contract.  I used 20px.

The selection will contract 20px.

Go to Edit*Stroke (outline) selection

A dialog box will open and you will select the pixel width, color of your stroke, and where to draw the stroke in relation to the selection.  I used 5px, white, centered on the selection.

Ctrl-D to deselect and you can now add any background papers using your custom shape as a clipping mask.