Samantha Makes

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5 Amazing Time-Saving Tools That Will Blow Your Mind

Let’s skip the boring parts of design — here are 5 automations for Illustrator and Photoshop that I rely on every week! 1. Magic Background Remover (Photoshop) This script is a lifesaver when you’ve scanned watercolor or gouache paintings on white paper: Once it’s done, you’ll have perfectly transparent PNGs with all that white paper […]

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Let’s skip the boring parts of design — here are 5 automations for Illustrator and Photoshop that I rely on every week!
1. Magic Background Remover (Photoshop)
This script is a lifesaver when you’ve scanned watercolor or gouache paintings on white paper:
  1. Run the script (called Magic Background Remover).
  2. Choose whether to process a single file or an entire folder.
  3. Point it at your scans (I often batch 20–30 images at once).
  4. Pick an output folder (I usually name it Clean Images) and hit OK.
  5. Let Photoshop do its thing (you can’t use PS while it runs, but you can open other apps or grab a coffee).
Once it’s done, you’ll have perfectly transparent PNGs with all that white paper removed—no manual masking required!
Before
After
2. Bulk Art Mockup Creator (Photoshop)
Need 100s of social-media–ready mockups? This one’s for you:
  1. Run the ART Mockup Creator script.
  2. Select your mockup templates (I pre-edit AI-generated mockups to fit the script).
  3. Select your artwork folder (I often use a batch of Palm Springs scans).
  4. Choose an output folder (e.g. Art Mocks 5).
  5. Watch the script churn—usually a few minutes for several hundred outputs.
When it finishes, you get a summary (mine once took 6m 27s to generate 360 images!) and a folder full of ready-to-post mockups. Here are a few samples.
3. Recolor Watercolor Patterns (Illustrator)
To explore new colorways without rebuilding your artwork:
  1. Open your pattern file, with each original hue in its own global color group.
  2. Create matching “New” color groups (e.g. New Creams → gray tones, New Greens → sage & olive, etc.).
  3. Assign the light and dark endpoints for each group using hex swatches.
  4. Run the Recolor Watercolor script.
In seconds, all your global swatches update to the new palettes—just save as a new file and voilà!
Tip: Any stray colors not in a global group won’t change. Just add them if you need every hue swapped.
Before
After
4. Export All Pattern Blocks (Illustrator)
You can read more about it here.
Perfect for whipping up Spoonflower or Photoshop uploads:
  1. Run the Export Blocks script on your artboard.
  2. Choose whether you want PNG, JPEG, or both.
  3. Point it at an output folder (I organize mine by collection—e.g. French Summer/Blocks).
  4. Let it go; it’ll open each block, size it to the artboard, and export flawlessly—no white seams.
The result? A folder of tile-perfect blocks ready to drop into mockups or fabric-printing sites.
You can get this script here
5. Fabric Mock Generator (Photoshop)
Combine your pattern blocks with real-looking fabric textures in one go:
  1. Run the Fabric Mocks script over a set of Creative Market–bought templates. (not an affiliate)
  2. Select your mockup folder, then your folder of exported pattern blocks.
  3. Pick an output folder (Fabric Mocks) and hit run.
  4. Kick back—this one can take a few minutes, but you can work in other apps while it goes.
When it’s done, open the folder and you’ll have dozens of photorealistic fabric shots to showcase on your site or socials.
Here are a few examples:
Hope you enjoyed this peek into my automation toolbox! Which script should I cover next, or is there one you swear by? Let me know in the comments.
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