This tutorial was written and all screenshots done in PSP9. You should be able to achieve similar results in earlier versions, although the Select Selection Borders (Step 9) is not available prior to PSP8. Some of the effects you may need to search for in your dropdown lists. The beautiful tube in sample above is by Ginny Hopping, Bunny's Attic, and tube at bottom (left) of page is by Steph Staker, http://www.stakerfamily.com. They have graciously allowed me to share them for this tut (thank you so much, my good friends!). Please do not offer any of these materials for download anywhere, do not change file names, do not send the webpage through emails, and only offer a text link to my tutorial URL. You may save an offline copy of this tutorial for your own use. I do not wish my tutorials to be translated. Thank you for your courtesy...God bless, Diana
Supplies Needed:
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1) File/New Image: 600 x 600, WHITE. Make sure your Layer Palette is open.
Edit/Copy and then Edit/Paste/Paste as New Layer onto your 600 x 600 white background file.
2) Adjust/Blur/Gaussian Blur: Radius 25.00.
3) Close off/Red X top 2 layers by clicking on the eye; see below:
Now click on your Raster 1 layer to make it active.
Now Unhide the Copy of Raster 1 layer and click on it to make it active. Apply the same Tiles effect with the following 2 changes:
Now Unhide the Copy (2) of Raster 1 layer (your topmost layer at this point) and click on it to make it active. Apply Tiles effect with the following 2 changes:
4) Paste as New Layer your tube again (it will still be available in the clipboard).
Go to Adjust/Blur/Motion Blur: Angle: 210; Strength: 50 (if using another tube, you may want to change the angle).
5) Now Unhide the Copy of Raster 2 layer and click on it to make it active.
Vertical: 1
6) Now Unhide Copy (2) of Raster 2 (your top layer) and click on it to activate.
7) Click on the bottom layer in the palette, the white Background, to make it active.
This gives us a selection that has a border of 100 pixels all around it. You could also have used Selection Tool/Rectangle and started at 100x100 and drug over to 500x500, watching your Status Bar at screen bottom, but I prefer this way.
8) Effects/Art Media Effects/Brush Strokes and use the Deckle Softly preset, settings below if you do not have it:
Do not deselect, we still need our marching ants/marquee.
9) Selections/Modify/Select Selection Borders (this is at the bottom of the dropdown list):
Right click on our current pattern layer (Raster 3) in Layer Palette and click on Promote Selection to Layer.
10) Effects/Art Media Effects/Pencil with these settings (Blurred Streaks setting):
Luminance: 0
This produces a soft, shimmery effect. You can experiment with the Floodfill color, followed by the Pencil color to achieve your own unique effect.
11) Now click on the Raster 1 layer to make it active (the Gaussian Blurred; Hexagon Tile, Size 32 layer - just above the Promoted Selection layer.
12) OPTIONAL - Before we add our text, you might want to resize to a smaller tag (mine isn't resized). Text in particular loses quality when resized a lot. I wouldn't recommend resizing more than 75% or you'll lose a lot of the quality of your tag.
13) Click on your top layer in the Layer Palette to make it active. Open your font (I'm using Anywhere But Home) and click on your text tool.
14) Effects/3D Effects/Inner Bevel using the following values:
Edit/Repeat Inner Bevel (CTRL+Y).
15) Effects/3D Effects/Drop Shadow: Vert. and Horiz. 1; Opacity 100; Blur 1.
16) Add your watermark/signature and then File/Export/JPEG Optimizer. I set Compression Value to 15 or 20 usually. And you're done!
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Version below using Steph Staker's hummingbird tube (nelson07_sjs.psp) and Exmouth font (all included in zip files). I omitted the Motion Blur layer that was in Step 4. Used rose-fuchsia.jpg for the Step 7 Selection Fill. I highlighted to make active the 12px border layer, then clicked outside the frame to select. Then went to each of the Tiles layers and hit the Delete key to remove the tiling from the outside of the framework (Promoted Selection) which was created in Step 9.
Version below using wk-sandal_greenfloral.psp and Anywhere But Home font (all included in zip files). I omitted the Motion Blur layer that was in Step 4. Step 6 Charcoal layer is different: Changed Opacity to 70 and Blend Mode to Burn (instead of Overlay). In Step 7, after making the 100px border selection, I went to Selections/Modify/Feather and used 15, then filled with the rose-fuchsia.jpg (I then changed Layer Opacity to 75). I omitted the Step 9 border and Step 10 for this one.
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I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial and perhaps learned a little something from it. If you would like to send me an email with your results, I would be delighted to see them. ..God bless, Diana
Open your tube and make a duplicate: Window/Duplicate or Shift+D.
2 of the tubes included in my supplies are larger than we'll need for this tag so we'll resize only a duplicate image. The tube used in above sample was originally 549W x 543H. We want our tube no larger than 500W or 500H (keep this in mind if you're using another tube).
Image/Resize or Shift+S:
Right click Raster 1 in your Layer Palette and Duplicate.
Right click Copy of Raster 1 and Duplicate.
You now have a white background and 3 Gaussian Blur layers.
Effects/Texture Effects/Tiles and use the following settings:
Tile Shape - change to Square in the dropdown list
Tile Size - change to 16.
Tile Shape - change back to Hexagon
Tile Size - change to 8
Right click on this layer (Raster 2) in your Layer Palette and Duplicate.
Right click on the Copy of Raster 2 and Duplicate.
Close off/Red X the top 2 layers in your Layer Palette by clicking on the eye, as we did before.
Go down to the bottom layer of these top 3 layers (Raster 2) and click on it to make it active.
Click on your Freehand Selection Tool (looks like a Lasso) and draw loosely around just the birds:
Selection Type: Freehand; Mode: Replace; Feather: 0, Anti-alias checked.
You may need to Zoom in on your project. We will just be selecting around the hummingbirds, not the flower, then using Motion Blur for a feeling of movement (see below):
Selections/Select None.
In your Layer Palette on this motion blur layer, change Opacity from 100 to about 49.
Effects/3D Effects/Drop Shadow with these settings:
Horizontal: 4
Opacity: 35
Blur: 5
Color: #000000
Shadow on New Layer - UNCHECKED
Effects/Art Media Effects/Charcoal with Detail: 100 and Opacity: 20.
Change opacity of this charcoal layer to 90 and then Blend Mode to Overlay.
Notice how this really brightens and defines your tube?
Here is how your Layer Palette should now look:
Layers/New Raster Layer. This blank layer will now be below the 6 hummingbird layers we've worked on.
Click on your Selection Tool and then click on the button I've circled in screenshot for a custom selection and use the values I've shown:
Open the purple-pink-fuchsia.jpg image that came with the Supplies and minimize it in your workspace.
In your Materials Palette, this image will now be available as a Pattern only while working on this project. You'll find it near the top of the list of patterns.
Now floodfill the selected area we just created, with the image in Material Palette; Angle 0, Scale 100. Do not deselect.
(This effect is only available in PSP8 and up. If you don't have it, skip to Step 11).
Now we are on the newly created Promoted Selection layer with our marching ants/marquee showing a 12px border.
Using your Dropper Tool find a pretty color for this border - I used a soft green, #BFD09A, and floodfill the selection.
Do not deselect.
Blur: 80
Color: #EDF1C5
Intensity: 100
Selections/Select None.
Change Blend Mode to Hard Light and Opacity to about 64.
Go up and click on Copy of Raster 1 layer to make it active and change the Opacity to about 64.
Go up and click on Copy (2) of Raster 1 layer and change Blend Mode to Overlay and Opacity to about 64.
Please note that this font uses only lowercase letters - no capitals.
Create as Vector; Size 72 (depending on font used), Anti-alias on, Stroke 0.0.
Change Foreground to Null (not using)
Change Background to a light/medium color (I'm using #BFD09A light green)
Key in your text and use the handle inside the bounding box to rotate the text slightly. Once you have your text placed, right click Vector 1 in your Layer Palette and Convert to Raster.
OPTIONAL: Edit/Repeat Drop Shadow (CTRL+Y)
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Created 08/30/05
Revised 07/11/06
Westie Kids/Diana Dorsey 2001-2007
(all rights reserved)
Thank You and God bless........Diana