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How to Use the Cookie Cutter Tool for Fun Photo Shapes in PSE

4 min read

Turn Any Photo into a Heart, Star, or Custom Shape

Imagine cutting your grandchild's portrait into a perfect heart shape for a Valentine's card, or trimming a holiday snapshot into a snowflake for your December newsletter. The Cookie Cutter Tool in Photoshop Elements makes this delightfully simple — just like pressing a cookie cutter through dough, except you're cutting through pixels.

This playful tool is one of PSE's hidden gems. While many hobbyists know about cropping to rectangles, fewer discover that Photoshop Elements includes dozens of built-in shapes ready to frame your favourite photos. Let's explore how to use this creative feature to make your photos stand out in scrapbooks, greeting cards, and family projects.

Finding the Cookie Cutter Tool

The Cookie Cutter Tool lives in your toolbox and works best in Advanced mode, where you have full control over shapes and sizing.

  1. 1Open your photo in the Photo Editor and switch to Advanced mode using the tabs at the top of the screen.
  1. 1Look at the toolbar on the left side and find the Cookie Cutter Tool — it looks like a star shape. If you don't see it immediately, click and hold on the Crop Tool to reveal it in the flyout menu.
  1. 1Once selected, notice that the Tool Options bar at the bottom of your screen displays a Shape dropdown. Click this to see all available shape categories.

Choosing the Perfect Shape for Your Photo

Photoshop Elements includes an impressive library of shapes organised into helpful categories:

  • Default Shapes — hearts, stars, arrows, and basic geometric forms
  • Animals — butterflies, birds, and paw prints
  • Nature — leaves, flowers, and snowflakes
  • Frames — decorative borders with ornate edges
  • Talk Bubbles — speech and thought bubbles for fun effects

To browse these categories:

  1. 1Click the Shape dropdown in the Tool Options bar.
  1. 1Click the small menu icon (four horizontal lines) in the shape picker panel.
  1. 1Select a category like Nature or Ornaments to load those shapes.
  1. 1Click any shape thumbnail to select it — a heart works wonderfully for portraits of loved ones.

Cutting Your Photo into Shape

With your shape selected, you're ready to cut:

  1. 1Position your cursor over the photo where you want the shape to begin.
  1. 1Click and drag diagonally across your subject. A preview outline shows exactly what will be kept.
  1. 1Hold Shift while dragging to maintain the shape's original proportions — essential for keeping hearts looking like hearts rather than stretched ovals.
  1. 1Release your mouse when the shape covers the area you want to keep.
  1. 1You can reposition the shape by clicking inside it and dragging before committing.
  1. 1Press Enter or click the green checkmark in the Tool Options bar to apply the cut.

Everything outside the shape disappears, leaving your subject beautifully framed. The surrounding area becomes transparent, shown as a grey-and-white checkerboard pattern.

Fine-Tuning Your Cookie Cutter Results

The Tool Options bar offers additional controls worth exploring:

  • Feather — adds a soft, gradual edge to your shape instead of a hard cut. Try 5-10 pixels for a gentle fade that looks beautiful in scrapbook layouts.
  • Crop — when checked, PSE automatically trims away the transparent areas. Uncheck this if you want to keep the full canvas size for layering projects.

Practical Ideas for Family Projects

The Cookie Cutter Tool shines in creative projects that bring families together:

Valentine's Day cards — Cut portraits of grandchildren into heart shapes, then place them on a coloured background with a loving message.

Christmas ornament designs — Use star or snowflake shapes for photos that you'll print and mount in clear ornament frames.

Scrapbook accents — Circle shapes turn candid snapshots into polished focal points. Flower shapes add whimsy to garden party pages.

Photo collages — Mix different shapes on one page. Perhaps a large heart in the centre surrounded by smaller star-shaped photos of the whole family.

Adding a Background After Cutting

Once you've cut your shape, you'll likely want to place it on a colourful background:

  1. 1Go to Layer → New → Layer to create a new layer.
  1. 1In the Layers panel, drag this new layer below your photo layer.
  1. 1Select the Paint Bucket Tool from the toolbar.
  1. 1Choose a background colour from the colour picker at the bottom of the toolbar.
  1. 1Click on the new layer to fill it with your chosen colour.

Your shaped photo now sits beautifully on a solid background, ready for text or additional decorations.

Why This Tool Matters for Memory Keeping

PSE's Cookie Cutter Tool transforms ordinary rectangular photos into eye-catching design elements. For family historians and memory keepers, this means your photo books and cards gain that handcrafted quality that makes recipients feel truly special. A birthday card featuring a star-shaped photo of the birthday child feels infinitely more personal than a standard rectangle.

Best of all, if you make a mistake, simply press Ctrl+Z (Windows) or Cmd+Z (Mac) to undo and try again with a different shape or position.

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