PTU - Broken

This tutorial was written on 11/05/2013 and assumes you have working knowledge of PSP. Any simularities to other tuts is purely coincidental and not done on purpose.

For this tutorial you will need:

PSP - I use X3 but most versions will do

Eye Candy 4000 Gradient Glow

Tube of choice, I used the art of Delphine Demers

You can purchase this tube at CDO. Do not use without purchasing a license first.

IB-Jessica Dougherty-52-2 scrap kit by LadyHawwk Designs. Available for purchase at CDO.

Mask 72 from Designs by Vaybs

 Font of choice, I used Beatrice

Open a new image 700 x 700. Copy frame 1 and paste as a new layer. Open paper of choice, I used paper 4. Duplicate and close original. Resize 50%. Paste as a new layer and move below the frame layer. Use your mover tool to move the paper down so it fills the entire inner part of the frame.

With the paper layer still active, copy your tube and paste as a new layer. Move this layer up so she just barely covers the bottom of the frame:

Duplicate the tube layer and move this layer above the frame and hide for now. Activate the frame layer and click inside with your magic wand. Expand by 5 and invert. Activate the original tube layer, press delete. Activate your paper layer and press delete again. Deselect. It should now look like this:

Give your frame a drop shadow of 0, 0, 100, 8. Activate and unhide the top tube and give it a drop shadow of -3, 3, 70, 10. Repeat the drop shadow at 1, -1, 50, 5.

Now zoom in about 500%. Lower the opacity of your tube to about 50%. Click on your erasor tool and you're going to erase any part of her arm and chest that covers the bottom of the frame. Any parts of her hair that sit independantly on top of the frame, leave that alone. When you're done return opacity to 100% and hide and unhide the tube to catch any stray pixels you might of missed. When you're done she should look like this:

Copy element 24. Paste as a new layer and move below the paper layer. Resize 90%, all layers unchecked. Give it the same drop shadow you did the frame.

Activate the bottom layer in your palette. Copy paper of choice, I chose paper 3. Paste as a new layer and colorize to match your tube. These are the settings I used:

Add new mask from image. Merge group. Use your raster deform tool again and click on the nodes on each side and drag them in a bit so the mask only goes a little bit farther then the swirl element. Duplicate this layer and change the blend mode on the duplicate to screen.

With one of your mask layers still active, click on your cropped tool and click on Layer Opaque on the tools options bar. Make sure no elements, tubes or drop shadows will be cropped off, drag nodes out if needed. When done, double click or click on the green check mark to crop.

If you're going to resize your tag, do it now. I resized mine 80%.

Activate the top layer in your palette. Add your copyright, license info and tagger's mark.

Add your name using chosen font, colors from your tube. Give it an inner bevel of choice. I used:

Then give it a gradient glow, the greyish blue I got from my tube's hair, the color code is #697488.

 

Then give your name a drop shadow of -2, 2, 50, 10.

Merge visible and save as a png or merge all and save as a jpg. Congrat, you're done!

IMPORTANT NOTICE ABOUT MY ROTATOR TUTORIAL

The links for the rotator sites have been temporarily removed. CGIspy seems to have Malware on it's site currently and is not safe to visit and the Ultra Randomization site is completely gone. I apologize for any inconvenience and will update this tutorial as soon as CGIspy is back or I find a better alternative.

PTU - Mother Nature

This tutorial was written on 10/20/2013 and assumes you have working knowledge of PSP. Any simularities to other tuts is purely coincidental and not done on purpose.

For this tutorial you will need:

PSP - I use X3 but most versions will do

Eye Candy 4000 Gradient Glow

Tube of choice, I used the art of Martin Abel

You can purchase this tube at CDO. Do not use without purchasing a license first.

Inspired by scrap kit by Abstract Creations. Available for purchase at CDO.

Mask 2 from Moonbeams & Spiderwebs

 Font of choice, I used Lainie Day

Open a new image 750 x 750, flood fill white. Copy frame 1 and paste as a new layer.

Click on your freehand selection tool, set to Point to point, feather and smoothing at 0 and you're going to carefully go around the frame like so:

Open a paper of choice, I chose paper 1. Duplicate and close the original and resize down 70%. Copy and paste onto your workspace. Move this layer below the frame and arrange it so it fits. Invert selection and press delete. Keep selected.

Copy your tube and paste as a new layer. Move this layer under the frame and arrange it where it would sit best. Duplicate this layer and move the duplicate above the frame and hide for now. Activate the original and press delete. Deselect.

Activate your frame layer and give it a drop shadow: 0, 0, 80, 10. Activate the top tube and give it a drop shadow of -3, 3, 70, 10. Then repeat the drop shadow at 1, -1, 50, 5.

Now you're going to lower the opacity of this tube to about 40%. Zoom in about 400% and you're going to carefully erase any part of the lower section of the tube that sits on top of the bottom part of the frame. Pretty much from about waist/hips down. Don't erase any of her arms/hands, those stay on top of the frame. You want to be able to see the branches and leaves of the frame above the tube.

When you think you've got it all, return the opacity of the tube to 100% and hide and unhide the tube a few times while still zoomed in so you can remove any stray pixels you missed. Once you got them all, zoom back out to 100% again.

Now it's time to add elements, see my tag for reference on placements. Don't forget to add dropshadows after you add each item.

Element 16, resized 50%. Duplicate, mirror and move lower down. Element 10, resized 50%. Element 2, resized 40%, mirrored. Element 3, resized 30%, mirrored.

Activate the white layer and paste a paper of choice. I used paper 5. Apply your mask from image and merge group. With your mask layer still active, click on your crop tool and click on Snap crop rectangle to: Layer Opaque. Make sure it won't cut off any parts of tubes or drop shadows. Drag out any nodes if needed, then double click or click the green check mark to crop.

If you're going to resize your tag, now is the time to do it. I resized mine 75%.

Activate the top layer in your palette and add your copyright, license and tagger's mark.

Add your name using font of choice, colors from your tube/kit. I rotated mine 45 degrees to the left, gave it an inner bevel, gradient glow and drop shadow of -2, 2, 50, 5.

All that's left to do is to delete the white background layer, merge visible and save as a png or merge all and save as a jpg. Congrats, you're done!

PTU - BCA Think Pink

This tutorial was written on 10/07/2013 and assumes you have working knowledge of PSP. Any simularities to other tuts is purely coincidental and not done on purpose.

For this tutorial you will need:

PSP - I use X3 but most versions will do

Eye Candy 4000 Gradient Glow

Tube of choice, I used the art of Jamie Kidd

You can purchase this tube at CDO. Do not use without purchasing a license first.

Think Pink scrap kit by Rebel Dezigns. Available for purchase at CDO.

Think Pink wordart by Rosa
Mask84 from WSL

 Font of choice, I used Saginaw

 Open a new workspace 700 x 700, flood fill white.

Open frame 2, copy and paste as a new layer. Resize 90%. Sharpen once. Copy paper 3 and paste as a new layer. Resize 60% so you can see some of the pink in the frame. Move this layer below your frame layer.

Copy your tube and paste as a new layer. Arrange it where you want it to sit in the frame, resizing if necessary. Duplicate this layer and move the duplicate above the frame. Hide for now.

Activate your frame layer. Click inside your frame with your magic wand and expand by 6. Invert selection. Activate your original tube layer below the frame, press delete. Then activate your paper layer and press delete again. Deselect.

Activate your frame layer and give it a drop shadow: 0, 0, 100, 8. Activate and unhide your top tube layer. Give it a drop shadow: -3, 3, 60, 10.

Lower the opacity on your tube to 50% and zoom in about 400% so you can easily see what your doing. Click on your eraser tool and carefully remove the parts of the tube that sits on the bottom part of the frame. Make sure you get any stray shadow and go over the frame enough so you can see the frame's drop shadow.

When you get up to the side where her hair blends in with her top, just go close to it without removing any hair, it'll get covered up with elements:

When you're all done, return the opacity of your tube to 100% again and hide and unhide the layer a few times to check for any stray pixels you missed. Zoom back out when done.

Now it's time to add our elements, see my tag for placements. Remember to drop shadow after you add each item.

Element 6.
Element 27, mirror and rotate to the left 45%.
Element 23, resize 50%, rotate 45% to the left and sharpen once. I also used the selection tool to remove the small flower on the right, but this is optional.
Element 2, resize 80%.
Element 21.
Element 30, resize 40%.
Element 14, resize 30%.
Element 17, resize 40%.
Element 10, resize 25%.
Element 18, resize 40%

Open wordart 4 from Rosa. Merge visible and paste as a new layer on your tag. Resize 60%.

Open paper of choice, I decided to use the same paper I used in the frame. Paste as a new layer, add mask from image. Merge group. Move this layer just above your white layer. Click on your Raster Deform tool and drag the nodes out on all 4 sides so you can see more of the mask. Make sure they all extend beyond any elements or drop shadows. When satisfied crop layer opaque.

Now if you want to resize your tag, now is the time to do it. My example on this page is original size but for my personal tags, I resized down 80%, all layers checked.

Add your copyright, license and tagger's mark. Don't forget to credit your scrap kit.

Add your name using colors from your tag. I used #973664 for the foreground and #eb73ac for the background. Give it an inner bevel of choice, I used:

Then give it a gradient glow. The color is #db5993.



And finally a drop shadow, I used -2, 2, 50, 5.

Delete the white background layer, merge visible and save as a png or merge all and save as a jpg. Congrats, you're done!

FTU Tut - Pumpkin's Bane

This tutorial was written on 09/27/2013 and assumes you have working knowledge of PSP. Any simularities to other tuts is purely coincidental and not done on purpose.

For this tutorial you will need:

PSP - I use X3 but most versions will do

Animation Shop

Eye Candy 4000 Gradient Glow

Tube of choice, I used the art of Tiffany Toland-Scott

You can purchase this tube at CDO. Do not use without purchasing a license first.

Freebie Cluster available on the CDO Designer blog

Animation 35 by Simone at Scrappy Bit Of Fun

Font of choice, I used AcroterionJF

Open a new image 800 x 800. Flood fill white. Copy your cluster and paste as a new layer. I chose to mirror my cluster but this is optional. Now the grass is a bit sparce on one side. So using your selection tool, draw a selection around the grass like so:

Promote selection to layer and mirror. Use your Move tool to move the grass back over so it sits on top of the part that's a bit thin and move this layer down. Merge visible. It should now look something like this:

Give the cluster a slight drop shadow of -1, 2, 50, 5. Make sure the Vertical is negative 1 so the cluster doesn't look like it's floating.

Copy your tube and paste as a new layer. Resize if needed. I resized mine down 90%, all layers unchecked.

Move this layer under the cluster layer and arrange where desired. Your going want it to look like the cat and pumpkins are sitting in the grass. Once you're satisfied with the placement, move it back up again for now.

Use your freehand selection tool to select any areas that you want to sit on top of the cluster. I chose the leaves:

Promote selection to layer. Then click on the original tube layer and press delete. Deselect. Move your main tube layer under the cluster now and give it a drop shadow of -3, 2, 60, 10.

Activate the promoted layer and give it a drop shadow of 2, 2, 50, 5.

Now hide the white background layer and copy merged. Paste back onto your workspace as a new layer. Duplicate and mirror. Move the two layers so they're closer together and with the duplicate active, merge down. Give it a radial blur with these settings:

Move this layer to just above the white layer. Now use your raster deform tool to drag the nodes in so the blur is only slightly bigger then the cluster. Then activate your crop tool and crop layers opaque. Now resize the whole thing down if desired cause it is rather huge. I resized mine 70%, all layers checked.

Activate the top layer in your palette which should be the promoted selection. Add your copyright, license and tagger's mark. If using this same cluster be sure to include Scraps by Hungry Hill in your credits.

Add your name using colors from your tube. Give it an inner bevel of choice, I used:

Then give your name a slight gradient glow. This is what I used, the color is #eddac9:

Then a drop shadow of -2, 2, 50, 5.

To Animate:

Open your animation in AS, if you resized your tag down, you'll need to resize the animation too. I resized mine 80%.

Back to psp, hide the top 4 layers in your palette. Should be your name, the credits layer, the promoted selection and the cluster. The tube, the blur and the white background should be the only thing visible. Lower the opacity for the time being on the tube to 30%. You just want to be able to barely see it.

Copy merged and paste as a new animation in AS. Now you're going to need to make the same number of frames as the animation. My animation has 26 frames, so press ctrl shift L repeatedly until you have the required number of frames.

Scroll back and click on frame 1. Select all. Now activate your animation, make sure the first frame is active and select all on it also. Click and drag the first frame of your animation onto the first frame of your tag. All the other frames will drag along with it and place in the proper places. If you don't like the placement, undo on both and try again. I placed mine so the little orange dot on the left is above the left side of the small pumpkin:

When you're happy with placement then go back to psp. Return the opacity on the tube to 100% again and go to Layers, View and click on Invert. But then make sure you unhide the tube layer again. So now all layers should show but the blur and white background should be hidden.

Copy merged and paste as a new animation in AS. Make sure your Propagate Paste is enabled. If you're unsure there's an icon on the tool bar or you can go to Edit, Propagate Paste. Now with your existing animation that you added the sparkles to, should still be all selected. Click on your single frame and drag onto the first frame of your animation, lining the kitty up so it matches. The propagate paste will then place the same image in all frames. If you mess up you can undo and try again.

Save your tag and congrats, you're done!

PTU Tut - Simply Elizabeth

This tutorial was written on 09/17/2013 and assumes you have working knowledge of PSP. Any simularities to other tuts is purely coincidental and not done on purpose.

For this tutorial you will need:

PSP - I use X3 but most versions will do

Eye Candy 4000 Gradient Glow

Tube of choice, I used the art of Enys Guerrero.

You can purchase this tube/scrap bundle kit at CDO. Do not use without purchasing a license first.

The scraps are by Rebel Dezigns and can only be used with this artist.

Mask of choice, I used WSL_Mask84 from WeeScotsLass.

Font of choice, I used Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Open a new canvas 650 x 700. Copy frame 4, and paste as a new layer. Move it down a bit. Copy your tube and paste as a new layer. Move this layer under your frame layer. Resize if needed, all layers unchecked. I resized mine 95%.

Arrange your tube where you want it to sit in the frame. I placed her so the gold metal parts at the bottom were just barely hidden. Duplicate this layer and move the duplicate to the top of your layer palette and hide for now.

Activate the frame layer and click on your freehand selection tool. Select around the frame like below:

Invert your selection, activate the bottom tube layer and press delete. Keep selected.

Open a paper of choice. I used paper 1. Duplicate the paper and close the original. Resize 80%. Copy and paste onto your workspace. Move this layer below the bottom tube layer and press delete. You may now deselect.

Activate your frame layer and give it a drop shadow of 0, 0, 100, 10.

Activate and unhide the top tube layer. Give it a drop shadow of -3. 3, 70, 10. Repeat the drop shadow at 1, -1, 50, 5.

Lower the opacity of this layer to about 50% and zoom in about 400%. Click on your eraser tool. You're going to erase everything that's on top of the bottom part of the frame. Don't worry if you go over, that's what the bottom tube is for. Make sure you erase enough so that'll be able see the frame's drop shadow.

When you're done, keep it zoomed in and return the opacity of the tube back to 100%. Now you can check for any stray pixels you missed by hiding and unhiding the tube a few times. When you're confident you've gotten them all you can zoom back out to 100% again.

Open element 28. Copy and paste as a new layer. Move below the paper layer and down at the bottom of your frame. See my tag for reference. Give it the same drop shadow as the frame but lower the opacity to 50.

Copy a paper of choice, I used paper 4. Paste as a new layer and move below the white mesh element you just added. Add mask from image. Merge group. Click on your raster deform tool and pull on the top and bottom nodes so you can see bits of the mask at the top and bottom. With this layer still active, click on your crop tool. Crop layer opaque. Make sure, however, that you don't crop off any drop shadows from your tube or frame/elements.

Add any other elements of choice or if you're done, resize the tag as desired. I resized mine 80%, all layers checked.

Add your copyright, license and taggers mark.

Add your name using font of choice. I used the same color for the foreground and background, chosen from my tube, #c39ca0. Convert to raster and give it a gradient glow using the settings below, the color is #4f1310.

Then give your name a drop shadow, I used -2, 2, 50, 5.

Merge visible and save as a png. Or merge all and save as a jpg. Congrats, you're done!

Animated Forum Tut - Moving Stripes

I have a new exclusive tutorial over at Creative Addictions. You can find it here. Remember you don't need to be a member to view or even post on the threads of my exclusive tuts. I love to see what people make from my tutorials so please share.

Old School Forum Tag - Rain Rain, Go Away

This tutorial was written on 08/31/2013 and assumes you have working knowledge of PSP. Any simularities to other tuts is purely coincidental and not done on purpose.

For this tutorial you will need:

PSP - I use X3 but most versions will do

Animation Shop

Mura Meister Copies

Xenofex 2 Fluffy Little Clouds

Eye Candy 4000 Gradient Glow

Tube of choice, I used the art of Anna Liwanag.

You can purchase this tube at CDO. Do not use without purchasing a license first.

Wordart by me and rain animation here

Font of choice, I used Beatrice

Open a new image 600 x 250. Copy your tube and paste as a new layer. Apply Mura Meister Copies, Wallpaper Rotate. If your canvas isn't completely covered, undo and apply again until it's all covered.

Apply a radial blur with Zoom ticked, strength at 50 and Elliptical checked. All other options at 0. Go to Image, Flip.

Add a new raster layer, rename this layer Clouds. Apply Xenofex 2, Fluffly Little Clouds. Click on Settings and click on Factory Default and click ok. Then click on Cloud Mode and change to Fluffy.

Change the blend mode of Overlay and lower the opacity to 50%.

Open your rain image. Copy the Rain 1 layer and paste as a new layer on your tag. Repeat with rain 2 and rain 3. Rename the rain layers from the bottom rain 1, rain 2 and rain 3. Hide layer 2 and 3 for now. *Note, I mirrored all 3 layers of rain so they were going in the same direction of my tube's umbrella, but this is optional*

Now with rain 3 active, copy your tube and paste as a new layer. I moved her so she was slighly off center so she covers the point of the zoom. Give her a drop shadow of -3, 3, 70, 10. Repeat the drop shadow 1, -2, 50, 5.

Add a new raster layer. Select all and flood fill with black or a dark color from your tube. Contract by 1, add a new raster layer and flood fill with a contrasting color. I chose the red from my tube's lips. Contract by 3, add a new raster layer again and flood fill with black again. Contract by 1 and press delete on all 3 layers. You may now deselect.

Activate the middle colored layer. Give it some noise at Random, 20%, monochrome checked. Now activate the top layer and merge down twice. Rename this layer border.

Apply Eye Candy 4000, Gradient Glow. Change the Glow Width on the Basic tab to 3, Then on the Color tab click on Thin and change the color to black.

Add wordart or text of choice to the larger size of the tag. I used Beautiful ES and Beautiful Caps ES to make mine. Arrange where desired.

Add your copyright info, license and tagger's mark.

Add your name using font of choice. Since my tag is so dark I used white for both foreground and background with the stroke width at 0.5. Give it a bit of noise at the same settings as your border but change the number to 40. Give it the same gradient glow as you did the frame, but move the top slider over about to where the little dropper icon sits. Then give your name a drop shadow, I used -2, 2, 50, 5.

To Animate:

The rain 2 and rain 3 layers should still be hidden. Copy merged and paste as a new animation in AS. Back to PSP, hide rain 1 and unhide rain 2. Copy merged and paste AFTER current frame. Back to PSP, hide rain 2 and unhide rain 3. Copy merged and again past AFTER current frame.

Save your tag and Congrats, you're done!

Old School Tut - Puzzle Fade

This tutorial was originally written by me back in 2007, this rewrite was written on 08/22/2013 and assumes you have working knowledge of PSP. Any simularities to other tuts is purely coincidental and not done on purpose.

For this tutorial you will need:

PSP - I use X3 but most versions will do

Animation Shop

Xenofex 2 - Puzzle

Eye Candy 4000 - Gradient Glow

Tube with matching image - I used the artwork of Rachel Anderson.

You can purchase this tube at CDO. Do not use without purchasing a license first.

Font of choice - I used Passion Conflict ROB

Open your tube and matching image. Duplicate both and close originals. Copy tube and paste onto your image, resize till it's the same size as the image and align it up so it fits on your image. I had to resize my tube down 78% so it fit just right.

Give your tube a drop shadow of -3, 0, 65, 10. Merge down and then duplicate. Give the duplicate layer a gaussian blur of 5.

Run your Xenofex 2, Puzzle filter with default settings. You should have something like this:

Add a new raster layer and flood fill with a color from your image. Select all, contract by 2 and press delete. Deselect. Give your border some noise at Random, 40% and monochrome checked.

Add a new raster layer again, this time flood fill with black. Select all, contract by 2, delete and deselect. Move this layer under your border with the noise. Give it a gaussian blur of 3.

Activate the top layer in your palette, should be the border with noise. Add your copyright, license and tagger's mark.

Add your name using font of choice, colors from your tube/image. Give it an inner bevel of choice. I used:

Then I gave it a slight gradient glow:

And then a drop shadow of -2, 2, 50, 5.

Copy merged and paste as a new animation into AS.

Now activate the layer that has the puzzle pieces. Run the puzzle filter again but click on the button that says 'Knockout 10% Remaining' 2 times and click on the Lighting tab and change the Groove Darkness to 10.

Copy merged and paste AFTER current frame in AS. Go back to psp, run the filter and click the Knockout button again 2 times. Again, copy merged and paste AFTER current frame.

Repeat these steps until almost all pieces are left. The filter doesn't really remove the last bits, so when you have just a little bit left, then hide that layer and copy merged and paste after current frame.

Now click on your second to last frame. I have 10 frames so I'll click on frame 9. Scroll back to the beginning. Hold down shift and click on frame 2. Now all the frames from 2 to 9 are highlighted. Copy, then go back to your last frame, click on it and paste AFTER current frame again. Then go up, click on Animation and click on Reverse Frames.

Select all, press Alt Enter to bring up the Frame Properties box. Change the speed to 15. Click on your frame with no puzzle pieces so it's the only highlighted frame. Bring up the frame properties box again and change the speed for this frame to 100. Scroll back and click on frame 1, change the speed for this frame to 50.

Save your tag and Congrats, you're done!

New Old School Tut - Falling Leaves

Hello everyone. I have a new exclusive tut over at Creative Addictions. This uses the art of Jessica Dougherty, which you can buy at CDO. 

Remember, you don't need to be a member of CA to view my exclusive tuts and even guests can post their results. I loved to see anything you make from any of my tutorials. 

Old School Forum Tut - Weaved Beauty

Hello everyone. I have a new exclusive tut over at Creative Addictions. This uses the art of Jasmine Becket-Griffith, which you can buy at CDO. 

Remember, you don't need to be a member of CA to view my exclusive tuts and even guests can post their results on the threads. I loved to see anything you make from any of my tutorials.

Lots of Avatars!

It's been awhile since I shared any new avatars with you all. You can find them all here. All the new ones are shown below.

PTU Tut - Showtime

This tutorial was written by me on 07/27/2013 and assumes you have working knowledge of PSP. Any simularities to other tuts is purely coincidental and not done on purpose.

For this tut you will need:

PSP - I use version X3 but most versions will do
Xero - Porcelain
Eye Candy 4000 - Gradient Glow
Tubes of choice - I'm using the artwork of Leonida Preda. You can buy them from CDO. Do not use these tubes without purchasing a license first.
Scrapkit by Ladyhawwk Designs. This kit is part of a Bundle Pack goes with this Pack 4 and can only be used with this artist's tubes from CDO.
Mask of choice, I used Mask 30 from Insatiable Dreams. It's in the 3rd mask collection.
Font of choice, I used Caswallon Demo.

Open a new workspace 750 x 700, flood fill white. Open your mask and minimize.

Copy Frame 1 and paste as a new layer, rotate to the right 90 degrees and resize by 80%. Sharpen 1 time.

Click inside your frame with your magic wand. Expand by 13. Copy a paper of choice, I used paper 10, onto your workspace. Invert selection and press delete. Move the paper the paper under the frame layer. Do not deselect yet. Copy your main tube and paste onto your workspace. Arrange her in the frame as you like. Duplicate this layer and make sure one layer is under the frame and one above it. Activate bottom tube layer
and press delete. You may now deselect.

Activate the top tube layer. Apply Xero Porcelain with the following settings:

Give it a drop shadow of -2, 3, 50, 10. Then repeat the drop shadow with 1, -2, 50, 5. While we're at it, let's give the frame a drop shadow of 0, 0, 100, 10.

Now make sure your top tube layer is active and we're going to temporarily lower the opacity to about 50. Grab your erasor tool and let's zoom in about 400%. We're going to carefully erase any of the top tube that sets above the bottom part of the frame. Make sure that you erase enough so that the shadow from the frame shows on the tube. Here's an example of part of it that I've erased:

When you're done, return the opacity to 100% but stay zoomed in. Now you can hide and unhide the layer a few times so you can see if you missed any pixels that need to be removed. When you're satisfied you can zoom back out to 100%.

Now open up Element 55. Duplicate and close the original. For some reason it has a white background, but we're going to get rid of it. Click on the white area outside the film strip with your magic wand. Make sure you get it all selected. I had to click down at the bottom on mine to get it all. Once it's all selected, hit delete and deselect. Now click on each of the grey squares inside the film strip and remove them like you did the white border. Resize by 70%.

Using your magic wand, click inside the boxes that were grey before. Expand by 3. Copy and paste a paper of choice, I used paper 8. Invert selection, press delete and move this layer under the strip. Deselect.

Ok with the paper layer still active, we're going to work on just one box at a time adding tubes to it. Copy one of your tubes and place her where you want her within the first box. Resizing if necessary. If you want to use the same tube just duplicate and move the dup layer to where you want it in the next box. Keep duplicating or adding new tubes till all all 5 boxes have some part of a tube in them. Now hide all tubes
but the first one and activate the strip layer. Click inside the box with the tube and expand by 3. Invert, activate that tube layer and press delete. Deselect. Unhide the next one up. Click inside the 2nd box with the magic wand and repeat what we did before. Keep doing this till you have all 5 done. When done you'll have something like this:

You can now copy merged and paste the film strip onto your workspace. Rotate 45 degrees to the right. Sharpen 1 time. Arrange over the top right corner of your frame and move this layer below the the top tube layer. See my tag for reference. Give the strip the same drop shadow as the frame but lower the opacity to 80.

Copy element 59 and paste as a new layer. Resize 50% and sharpen. Rotate 15 degrees to the left and arrange on the top left of the frame under the tube like you did the strip.

Copy element57 and paste as a new layer. Resize 40% and arrange it on the right side of the frame.

Copy element56 and paste as a new layer. Resize 40% and rotate 45 degrees to the left. Arrange on the left side of the frame under the main tube.

Copy wordart 2, paste as a new layer, resize 60%, arrange at the bottom of the frame.

Give all of your elements and the wordart the same drop shadow you gave the strip.

Now activate your raster 1 layer which should be the one you floodfilled with white at the beginning.

Copy a paper of choice, I used paper 14. Create a new mask layer from image. Select your mask in the drop down menu and click ok. Merge group. Then copy a second paper, I used paper 8, paste as a new layer and add the mask again like we did before, merging group as you did the first one. Then lower the opacity on this layer by 70%. Merge the gold mask layer down onto the first one. Now resize this layer 105%, all layers unchecked.

With your mask layer still active, crop your tag to remove any excess space. Make sure you don't cut off any tubes or drop shadows. Use the nodes at the top/bottom or sides to drag out if needed.

Now I don't like large tags so I resized mine down 75%, all layers checked. Make sure you resize before adding copyright info.

Activate the top layer in your layer palette, should be the wordart. Add your copyright, license info and taggers mark. Don't forget to add credit for the scrap kit if required by the designer.

Add your name using colors from your tag. If you want to use the same colors as me I used #9e7004 for the foreground and #f1ae02 for the background. Then give it an inner bevel. This is one I've used before when I use gold colors.

Give it a gradient glow, the color is #d7c570:

Then a light drop shadow of -1, 1, 50, 5.

You can now delete the white background layer, merge visible and save as a png or merge flat and save as a jpg. Congrats, you're done!

New Old School Tut - Summer Sexy

This tutorial was written by me on 07/14/2013 and assumes you have working knowledge of PSP. Any simularities to other tuts is purely coincidental and not done on purpose.

For this tut you will need:

PSP - I use version X3 but most versions will do

Animation Shop

Template 82 by Blissfully Beth (download pack 81 - 90 on the left side of the page)

Tubes of choice: I used 3 by PinupToons, 32-1, 36-3, 119-2. You can purchase these tubes at CDO. Do NOT use without purchasing a license first.

Reflet Program here

This is a stand alone program, just save it to My Documents or anywhere you can easily find it.

Doodle frame and water tube here

The frame was made by me using brushes and preset shapes

Xenofex 2

Eye Candy 4000

Font of choice: I used Piranesi It BT

Open all tubes and template in psp, duplicate and close the originals. Remember to save as you go as this tut has a lot of steps.

First, we're going to change our template from 200 ppi to 72 ppi. So shift S to bring up the resize menu and change the Resolution to 72 pixels per inch and the Pixel Dimentions to 100 percent. Make sure all layers is checked. Now resize the template again to 80%, all layers checked and delete the copyright layer, the black circle layer and the 2 dark grey bars at the bottom of the template. Activate the grey circle layer.

Copy your water tube and paste as a new layer on your template. Using your raster deform tool, pull on the top and bottom nodes until the water fills up the entire blue circle frame.

Now copy this layer and paste as a new image. We're going to temporarily save it as a psd file on our desktop. I named mine water.psd.

Open up your Reflet program. Click on the folder icon and find your water image that you just saved on your desktop. Make sure you have images at 5, height at 90% and perspective ticked. Click on the 3rd icon, looks like a floppy disk. Make sure export format is gif. Tick Reflection Only. Color count should be 256. Click ok and name it water.gif. Again, save it on your desktop. When it asks if you want to create a HTML page for test, click no. You can now close Reflet.

Open up Animation Shop, find your water.gif file on your desktop and open it up. Select all and copy. Go back to psp and paste as a new image. Starting from the bottom rename them water 1, water 2, etc.

On your template you can now delete the water layer. Make sure the grey circle is active and go back to your water frames that you pasted over from AS.

Starting from the bottom copy the water 1 layer and paste as a new layer on your template. Go back and copy water 2 and paste it as a new layer on your template again. Repeat for all 5 water layers. Rename the layers in your palette on your template to reflect the same you did for the copied layers from AS. It should look like this:

Activate the blue frame, click inside with your magic wand. Expand by 5. Invert selection, activate the water 5 layer and hit delete on your keyboard. Then activate the water 4 layer and hit delete. Repeat with the other 3 water layers. Deselect. Hide all the water layers but the first one. Give your blue circle a drop shadow of 0, 0, 50, 5.

Make sure your blue circle layer is active and copy your Luci tube and paste as a new layer. Resize 85%, all layers unchecked. Arrange her so her finger tips are hanging over the bottom of the frame. See my tag for reference. Give her a drop shadow of -3, 0, 60, 10.

Activate the heart layer and mirror. Use your mover tool to place it where you like it. Repeat the mirror with the heart frame layer, line it up with the heart layer.

Activate the heart layer again. Click on with your magic wand. Apply Xenofex 2, Little Fluffy Clouds with these settings:

While you still have the heart selected, this is good time to line up that heart frame again in case you didn't get it quite even before. Deselect when done.

Make sure your heart frame layer is active. Click on it with your magic wand, add a new raster layer and flood fill with the same color as the blue circle. Deselect. Activate the heart frame layer again and press delete on your keyboard. Now click the flood filled layer and merge down. Give it a drop shadow of 0, 0, 50, 5.

Now select your second PUT tube, copy and paste as a new layer. Move her over the heart, resize if needed. I resized mine 80%. Move this layer under the heart frame if she's not already. Give her a drop shadow of -1, 0, 50, 5. Activate the heart frame. Click inside with your magic wand. Expand by 4. Invert Selection, activate the tube and hit delete. Deselect.

Copy your 3rd PUT tube, paste a new layer on your template, resize same as the other tube. Arrange where desired and give same drop shadow as before.

Now I moved the wordart over to the left so it lines up with the main tube fingers. See my tag for reference. Use your Manual Color Correction tool to change the color of the wordart. I changed mine to #49bae5.

Give it the following inner bevel:

Then give it a slight gradient glow using these settings. The basic tab at 3, 25, 100, the box checked. Then the color tab like this, the blue is #2f7b97:

 

Copy your doodleframe and paste as a new layer. Arrange it so it's centered with the blue circle and move down in your layer palette so it's under the grey circle. Give it a drop shadow of 0, 0, 50, 5. Now with this layer still active, click on your crop tool. Where it says Snap crop rectangle to: click the middle icon for layer opaque.

If you need to, drag the top and bottom nodes so you don't crop off the main tube's head/drop shadow or the wordart. Double click or click the green check mark when you're satisfied.

Now activate the top layer in your palette. My tag is too big for my tastes and so I'm going to resize it again by 85%, all layers checked.

Now add your copyright, license info and taggers mark.

Click on your text tool, add your name using your chosen font and foreground/background colors from your tag. I used #057cb3 and #66c9e4. Rotate 45 degrees to the left. Arrange where you like it and convert to raster. Give it the following inner bevel and gradient glow and then a drop shadow of -2, 2. 50, 5:

 

Activate on the blue circle layer. Copy merged and paste as a new animation in AS. Go back to psp, unhide water 2, copy merged and paste AFTER current frame in AS. Repeat with each of the other water layers until you have all 5 frames in AS.

Save your tag and congrats, you're done!