Icy Blue - PTU Scraps

This tutorial was written by me on 12/21/2014 and assumes you have working knowledge of PSP. Any similarities 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

Tube of choice - I'm using the artwork of Elizabeth Austin.

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

ScrapWDD Cluster Pack 8, also available at CDO

WSL_Mask84  by WeeScotsLass

Font of choice, I used KG A Thousand Years

Filters used:

Eye Candy 4000 Gradient Glow

Let's begin, remember to save often.

Open cluster pack 8b in psp, duplicate and close original. Bring up the resize box, change the resolution to 72, the percentage to 100, make sure all layers are checked and click ok.

Activate layer 1, which is the frame. Hide this layer then go to Layers, View and click on Invert. Click on your freehand selection tool. Set to Point to point, add, feather and smoothing at 0, anti-alias checked.

Now we're going to remove the right frame but make it as smooth as we can. So line your curser up with the right side of the left frame, move the cursor down in a straight line past the bottom of the frame, keeping the line even with the line of the frame, click and then select back around up to your starting point:

Press delete and deselect. Now do the same for the bottom section:

Delete and deselect. Now you can remove the excess of the right frame. Don't worry about the clipped off section of the corner of the left frame, it'll be covered up so it won't show.

Now increase canvas size to 900 x 870 with placement at bottom right.

Now you're going to resize your canvas 80%. With your frame layer still being the only one showing, copy your tube and paste as a new layer. Arrange it on the frame but don't worry about final placement yet. Go back up to Layers, View and click on All.

Activate layer 6, move this layer below your tube. Then move it up higher on the frame so you can see more of it. See my tag for reference.

Activate layer 9. Using your selection tool, remove the right flower.

Activate layer 5, resize 60%, be sure all layers is unchecked. Move behind the left flower.

Activate layer 8, flip and arrange under the left flower.

Activate layer 3, resize 85% and move back up slightly.

Activate layer 2, mirror, rearrange and move under the tube layer.

Activate layer 4, resize 80% and use your raster deform tool to move it over so it's centered over your tube.

Activate layer 10, resize 90% and mirror. Rearrange back where it was before on the ivy stem.

Now let's drop shadow all of your elements except layer 4 with a shadow at 0, 0, 70, 10.

Ok now hide the frame layer, invert the view so you only see this one layer again. Make sure your frame layer is active. Copy the paper included in the cluster pack. Paste as a new layer and move it under the frame layer. Resize 50% and center it under your frame. Now use Manual Color Correction to change the paper color to match your tube. I used a light blue.

Activate the frame layer again and click inside with your magic wand. Expand by 5, invert selection. Activate the paper layer and press delete. Deselect. Give your frame a drop shadow of 0, 0, 80, 10.

Unhide and activate the tube layer. Now we're going to do our final adjustments. First give your tube a drop shadow of -3, 3, 60, 10. Repeat the drop shadow at -1, 1, 50. 5. Now we're going to select around any part of the tube that goes over the bottom of our frame using the freehand selection tool with the same settings as before. Don't worry if there's an empty space on the bottom corners like mine, it'll be hidden by the elements.

Promote selection to layer. Activate the tube layer again and press delete 1 time. Deselect. Move the promoted layer under the frame layer. If there's any parts of the tube that sticks out from under the frame at the bottom, just remove them with the freehand selection tool.

Change the view back to all again. Now crop the excess off your tag. I've written a tutorial on how to crop properly, you can find it here.

Now we're going to add a mask to our tag so increase the canvas size again to 600 x 700, center placement this time.

Copy your paper again, paste as a new layer. Send to the bottom of your layer palette. Change the color again if desired. Add mask from image and merge group. Activate the raster deform tool and drag out the nodes if needed so it extends at least a bit beyond the previous borders of your tag when you cropped it the first time. You can activate the other layers to make sure. When done, make sure your mask layer is active and crop the excess off of your tag again.

Activate the top layer in your layer palette. If you're going to resize your tag, now is the time to do it. I resized mine 80%. Make sure you check all layers again.

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

Add your name using colors from your tube. Give your name an inner bevel, I used this one:

Then apply a Gradient Glow. I used these settings with the glow width at 3:

 

Finally 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!

How To: The proper way to crop a tag

This tutorial was written by me on 12/21/2014 and assumes you have working knowledge of PSP. Any similarities to other tuts is purely coincidental and not done on purpose.

Cropping properly is a good thing. It means you don't accidently crop off any drop shadows, tubes, scrap elements or your mask.

Some people wait till they merge visible on their tag and then crop, but if you do that to your blank (you want a blank tag if you're going to make tags for more then one person) then if you make a goof in your tag like an error in the copyright for example, then you have to remake the tag all over again. Always leave your blanks with full layers intact so if you goof all you have to fix is that 1 layer.

So my cropping method is a 2 step process. Finding a layer that sits closest to the edge of the canvas on one side. Then cropping around that layer by leaving the node for that side where it sits and then dragging the other 3 nodes to the edge of the canvas.

First click on your raster deform tool. Now you're going to find which layer sits at the highest point on your canvas. For my example tag here, it's the tube.So activate that layer, you'll get the deform box around it. If by chance there's a drop shadow or element that extends beyond the top of the tube, well then you're going to want to activate that layer instead. Once you have the layer closest to the top of the canvas active then click on your crop too.

Now with your crop tool active, click on Snap Crop Rectangle to: layer opaque. The box will be only around the tube like this:

Now we're going to leave the top node where it sits. Click on the left node and drag it all the way to the edge of the canvas. The right node all the way to the right and the bottom node all the way to the bottom. Click apply to crop.

Now we're going to do the same with the left side. Use your raster deform tool if you need it to find the layer that sits closest to the left edge. For my tag here, it's the sparkle layer. Once you have the correct layer active, click on the crop tool again. Don't forget to snap the crop to layer opaque.

This time the left node will stay where it's at and you're going to drag the top, right and bottom nodes to the edge of the canvas. Click apply to crop.

Repeat these last 2 steps on the right and bottom most layers. When you're done your tag will be perfectly cropped.

And that's it, congrats, you're done!

New Exclusive Forum Tag Tut - Lilac and Lemons

Hello everyone, I have a new Exclusive tutorial over on Creative Addictions. This is an old school/no scraps forum tag tut. I hope you enjoy it. Remember, I love to see what others make from my tuts so please feel free to share. You can post a link in the comments, on my cbox or even email it to me. Thanks a bunch and happy tagging!

Christmas Cardinal - FTU Scraps

This tutorial was written by me on 12/16/2014 and assumes you have working knowledge of PSP. Any similarities 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

Tube of choice - I'm using the artwork of Melissa Dawn.

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

CDO Grab Bag Freebies: Grab718 (frame), 1128 (bow) and g125 (paper, elements)

Font of choice, I used Nadine Script Extra

Filters used:

Mura Meister Copies
Mehdi Sorting Tiles
Xero Mistifier and Porcelain
Eye Candy 4000 Gradient Glow

Let's begin, remember to save as you go.

Open frame and tube in psp. Duplicate all and close the originals.

Starting with the frame, bring up the resize box. Change the resolution to 72 Pixels/Inch. Then change the pixel dimensions to 100%, be sure all layers is checked and click ok.

Change the canvas size to 600 wide, 700 high with center placement. Add a new raster layer, flood fill with white and move to the bottom of your layer palette.

Copy your tube and paste as a new layer. Move it below your frame layer if it isn't already. Apply Mura Meister Copies with Wallpaper Rotate at default settings.

Give this layer a gaussian blur at 10. Duplicate your blur layer. On the duplicate, apply Mehdi Sorting Tiles with these settings:

Change the blend mode of the tiled layer to Screen. Change the opacity of the original layer to 90%.

Activate the tiled layer again. Apply Xero Mistifier with the haziness at 246, the strength at 195 and everything else at 255.

Now activate your frame layer. Click inside with your magic wand, expand by 5. Invert selection, click on your tiled layer, press delete. Activate the original blurred layer, press delete and deselect.

Activate your frame layer again. Select all, float, defloat. Open paper of choice, copy and paste as a new layer on top of your frame. Invert the selection and press delete. Deselect.

Merge the paper layer down onto the frame layer. Give it a slight inner bevel, I used this one:

Then give the frame a drop shadow, I used 0, 0, 80, 15.

Now we're going to copy our tube, paste as a new layer. Move it under the frame layer for now. My tube is cut off on the left side, so I'm going to move it over slightly to the left so you don't see the cut off part. Don't worry if you can see part of the tube through the holes of the frame, we'll fix that later.

On your tube apply Xero, Porcelain at default settings but be sure to move the blue slider to 0. Now give it a drop shadow. I use -3, 3, 60, 10. Then repeat the drop shadow but change the settings to 1, -1, 50. 5.

Let's take the time right now to resize our tag, cause it's just huge. I resized mine 80% all layers checked.

Now move your tube layer back on top of the frame layer again. Activate your selection tool. Now you're going to draw around the part of the tube that extends over the left side of the frame. (or right if yours is on that side). Be sure you go a little past the boundary, like below:

Now promote the selection to layer. Do NOT deselect yet. Activate the original tube layer, press delete 1 time and now you may deselect. Move the promoted layer under the frame.

If you can see parts of the promoted layer through the little frame holes then just select around those parts and press delete one time. Deselect.

Activate your main tube layer again. Should be on the top of your layer palette. You can now add any elements you like.

From Grab Bag g125, I used ele2, resized 40%. (be sure to uncheck the all layers box) Ele5, 30% and mirrored. Ele4, 50%. Ele3, 40% arrange at bottom, duplicate and flip, arrange at the top.

From Grab Bag 1128, I used ele1, 15%

Give all of your elements a drop shadow of -2, 2, 50, 5.

Now activate the bottom blurred layer under your frame. Select all, float, defloat. Activate the white background layer, invert selection and press delete, deselect. You need that white layer because you lowered opacity on the blurred layer and otherwise it'll look weird if it's on a colored background.

Now it's time to crop off the excess empty space around our tag. You're going to want to make sure you don't crop off any parts of tubes and drop shadows. Best way I've found to do this is to start on one side and activate the layer that sticks out the farthest. So I start with the left side and for me the red bow on top of the silver ornament sticks out farthest. So I click on my crop tool. It automatically snaps around the bow. If it doesn't you'll need to click on the "Snap crop rectangle to: Layer Opaque". I then use the nodes on the crop box to drag the top line all the way to the top of the canvas. The bottom line all the way to the bottom and the right line all the way to the right and click apply.

Now pick the layer that extends farthest on the right. For me that's the double ribbon under my main tube. So I leave the right border of the crop box where it is and drag the top, bottom and left sides all the way to the edge of the canvas and click apply.

Now we're going to do the same thing with the top and the bottom in the same fashion as before. For me those layers are the strings of Christmas lights. Though I gave it slightly more room on the bottom so there's enough room for when I add names.

By cropping in this fashion, doing each of the 4 sides individually, you insure that nothing ever gets accidentally cropped off. Especially drop shadows.

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

Add your name, I used the same color from my tube for both foreground and background. Give it a bevel of choice, I used:

Then give your name a gradient glow. I used these settings with the glow width at 3:

And then finally apply the same drop shadow you used for your elements.

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

CT Tag - Christmas Beauty - Extras

Hello everyone, I have a new CT tag I've made today using the gorgeous art of Barbara Jensen and WD Designz's part of the CDO 2014 Christmas Collab.

There are also matching extra's on my Fotki here.

CT Tag - Time Stands Still w/ Extras & Matching Stat

Hey everyone. I have a new CT tag featuring the art of Delphine Demers and a beautiful scrap kit by WD Designz

I also have extras and a matching Incredimail stat to share with you. You can find the extras on my Fotki HERE, click the stat preview below to download the IMF file.

Numbers - PTU Animation

This tutorial was written by me on 11/29/2014 and assumes you have working knowledge of PSP. Any similarities 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

Tube of choice - I'm using the artwork of Mashi.

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

Please note that all Mashi tubes are only available till Dec 26th, 2014

  Animation 27 (Pack 9) by SophisticatSimone, also available at CDO

Template 35 by Spawn

Animation Shop

Font of choice, I used Gasoline Alley NF

Filters used:

 Mura Meister Copies
Eye Candy 5 Impact
Xero Porcelain
Eye Candy 4000 Gradient Glow

Let's begin, remember to save often.

Open your tube and template in psp. Duplicate both and close the originals.

Working on your template, click on your Bottom Wave Line layer and move it up in your layer palette until it's above the Top Wave layer. Activate the Top Wave Line layer and merge down 1 time. Rename this layer Wave Line. Activate your Top Wave layer and merge down 1 time. Rename this layer Wave.

With your Wave layer active, copy and paste your tube as a new layer. If using same tube as mine, click on the link toggle to change it to none. No clue why this tube has a layer lock:

Apply Mura Meister Copies, Wallpaper rotate at default settings. Apply a Radial Blur at Zoom and strength at 30%. All other options 0.

Activate your Wave layer. Select all, float, defloat. Invert Selection, activate your blurred layer and press delete. Deselect.

Activate your wave Line layer. Select all, float, defloat. Add a new raster layer. Go to selections, Modify, Smooth and apply these settings:

Flood fill with a dark color from your tube. I used black. Deselect. Activate the Wave Line layer again. Press delete on your keyboard 1 time. Activate the flood filled layer and merge down 1 time.

Apply Eye Candy 5 Impact, Glass. Click on the Settings tab and click on Opaque Black with Reflection. Click on the Basic tab. If your line wasn't already black, then click on the Glass Color box and change it back to the color you used. Change Drop Shadow Opacity to 0. Click ok.

Copy and paste your tube as a new layer again. Remember to click the link toggle if needed. Resize as needed. I resized mine 70%. Move it to the left side of the tag. Duplicate your tube. Resize again, I resized mine 90%. Move this duplicated tube over to the right side of your tag and move this layer under the Wave Line layer. Rename this layer small tube.

Now I chose to rotate my tube 15 degrees to the left, this is optional. If you do this be sure to sharpen 1 time. Position your tube on the top part of the Wave. See my tag for reference. When you have it where you like it, duplicate this tube. Hide the duplicate for now.

Now with the original small tube layer active. Click on your selection tool and select around the excess tube that covers the bottom part of the Wave:

Press delete 1 time and deselect. Now activate and unhide the copy of your small tube. Move it down so it's over the bottom part of the wave as you like it. Again, use your selection tool to select and remove the excess above:

Deselect when done and you should have something like this:

Make sure your copy of small tube is active and merge down one time. Activate the Wave layer. Select all, float, defloat. Invert selection, activate your small tube layer and press delete. Deselect. Apply Xero Porcelain at default settings but move the blue slider to 0. Change the blend mode to Multiply and reduce the opacity to 60.

Activate your Wave Line layer. Apply Eye Candy 4000 Gradient Glow with these settings and the glow width at 3:

Activate your main tube layer. Apply the Xero Porcelain again. Give it a drop shadow of 0, 0, 100, 15.

Your main tube should be the top layer in your palette. Add a new raster layer. Select all. Flood fill with black. Contract selection by 1. Keep selected. Add a new raster layer. Flood fill with the same color you used for the Wave Line or white if you used black like I did. Contract by 3. Add a new raster layer again. Flood fill with the black. Contract by 1 again and press delete. Activate the white (or colored layer), press delete and then finally activate the first black layer and press delete. Deselect.

Activate the white (or colored layer) and give it noise at Gaussian, 100% and monochrome checked. Now activate the top black layer and merge down 2 times. Rename this layer border.

Give your border layer the same drop shadow as your tube but change the opacity to 80.

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

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

Then give it a gradient glow, again with the glow width at 3:

Then give your name a drop shadow. I chose to use the same one I did for the border.

Now if you choose not to animate then you can just merge all and save as jpg. Otherwise, continue with instructions below.

Open the psd or mng file for your animation in AS. Select all. Go back to PSP. Hide all layers except Main Background, Black Lines and the original Wave layer. Copy merged and paste as a new animation in AS. Now our animation has 13 frames so our tag must have 13 frames as well.

Hold down ctrl and shift and press L repeatedly until you have 13 frames of your tag. Go back and click on the 1st frame. Select all.

Now click on the first frame of your animation and drag it onto the first frame of your tag. Drop it into place in the middle of the tag. If you goof you can undo both and try again, just making sure that both have all frames selected.

Once you have your animation placed go back to psp and click on Layers, View, Invert. Copy merged and paste as a new animation in AS.

Make sure you have Propagate Paste turned on, if you're unsure you can find it under Edit.

Now again your tag with the animation should have all layers selected with the 1st frame being highlighted. Click on the newly pasted frame with the top parts of your tag and drag and drop onto the first frame of your animated tag. You might have to undo and redo a few times to get it to be lined up just right.

Save your tag as a gif and congrats, you're done!

Siggy Showoff

I have several tags to show off today, made by other people, inspired by my tutorials.

This tag is made by Deb from my Sitting Pretty 2 tut.

This tag is made by Amber from my Red Poppy tut.

This tag is made by Genea from my Grid Weave tut.

The 2 tags above are from my She's A Star tut. I apologize I don't remember who made the first one. The second one is made by Genea.

Thank you ladies for the fantastic tags. If anybody else does any of my tutorials, please share with me your results and I'll post it on my blog. You can find my contact info above.

Countdown - PTU - Animated

This tutorial was written by me on 11/13/2014 and assumes you have working knowledge of PSP. Any similarities 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

Tube of choice - I'm using the artwork of Steve Baier.

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

Scrap Kit of choice. I used ScrapWDD_IB-Pinoops-5-2, also available at CDO

  Christmas Countdown template by Dee'Sign Depot

Animation Shop

Font of choice, I used Gavotte Linotype Regular

Filters used:

Xero Porcelain
VanDerLee Snowflakes
Eye Candy 4000 Gradient Glow

Let's begin, remember to save often, especially if your psp is prone to shut down often, as mine does.

Open your template and tube in psp, duplicate and close the originals. This template has LOTS of layers so it is very important to label your layers as you go along. I'll try to keep this as non-confusing as I can.

Activate the Image 1 layer, flood fill with white and send to the bottom of your layer palette. Activate your raster 4 layer. Copy a paper of choice, I used paper 6. Paste as a new layer, resize as needed so it's smaller then your canvas size but bigger then the template layer. I resized mine 80%.

Activate your raster 4 layer again. Select all, float, defloat. Invert and click on the paper layer. Press delete and deselect. Delete the original raster 4 layer. Rename this layer Red Squares 1

Activate the merged layer (small red squares) repeat the steps above with a different paper, I used paper 5. Rename this layer Red Squares 2.

Repeat this process with the raster 3 and raster 1 layers. I used papers 4 and 3 respectively. So now the gold squares will be renamed Gold Squares, and the green renamed Green Squares, natch. So now if you did it like mine you should have the square's colors starting with top left going red, gold, red, green, and so on.

Now following the same color pattern, we're going to do the same steps above with the thin squares bordering the larger squares. So to make it easier to remember which papers go where, rename the layers now. Change raster 5 to Gold Outline. Raster 7 to Green Outline. Raster 6, Red Outline 1 (Use the same paper as red squares 1), and then finally raster 8 is renamed Red Outline 2 (using same paper as red squares 2).

Don't forget to delete the original layers and rename the paper layers again if needed. What I do is to activate the template layer, press delete on my keyboard, activate the paper layer above it and merge down 1 time. So now the paper layer has the correct name on it.

Now on to the numbers. You could follow the same color pattern, but I decided to make the numbers the same colors as the outline surrounding them. So the first square has a green outline, so it'll have a green number. Next red 1 outline, red 1 number, etc. Having your layers labeled, helps with this. Make sense? I hope so. lol Don't forget to rename the paper number layers. Oh and the last set of numbers, the layer is above the Copy of Raster 13 layer. Move it down in your layer palette so it's above your red outline 2 layer to make it easier if you like.

Ok so now your layer palette should look like this:

And your tag like this:

Ok now activate your raster 2 layer. It's the big green square. Select all, float, defloat. Go to Selections, Modify, Smooth. Apply with default settings. Add a new raster layer. Flood fill with black, deselect. Delete the original green square layer.

Do the same thing with the large square outline, which is raster 10, and the number 25, which is raster 12. I used paper 4.

Now hide these 4 layers: Raster 14 copy, Copy of Raster 15, Raster 14 Copy 2 and Copy of Raster 14. Now go to Layers, View and click on Invert. So now all you should see is the words Merry Christmas. Merge visible. Change your view back to All.

Activate Copy of Raster 13 and merge down 1 time onto the Raster 13 layer. Give this layer a slight drop shadow of 1, 1, 50, 5.

Let's go ahead and give a drop shadow to the 4 outline layers and 4 number layers. For these layers I did 0, 0, 70, 8.

Ok you still with me? Activate the flood filled black square in the middle of the template. Copy your tube and paste as a new layer. Resize if needed and arrange how you like it. It's currently under the large gold outline layer but that's fine so leave it there for now. Apply Xero, Porcelain at default settings but move the blue slider to 0. Give your tube a drop shadow of -3, 4, 60, 15.

Use your freehand selection tool to remove any part of the tube that is sticking out from the bottom of the gold outline:

Now you're going to activate the top layer in your palette, we're going to start adding elements from our kit.

Open element 1, copy and paste as a new layer. Resize 90%. Move down in your layer palette so it's under the black square, give it a drop shadow of 0, 0, 80, 10.

Open element 5, copy and paste as a new layer. Make sure it's at the top of your layer palette. Resize 40% and move to the bottom left corner of your tag, see my tag for reference. Give it the same drop shadow as above.

Open element 8, copy and paste as a new layer. Resize 40% and arrange on the bottom right corner of your tag, give same drop shadow.

Open element 24, copy and paste as a new layer. Resize 80% and arrange so it's under the black square but on top of the green branches. Duplicate and mirror.

Now before we go any further, let's resize our tag. If you choose not to resize, then skip this step. I resized mine 80%, all layers checked.

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

Now let's fix our tube which is still under the gold outline. Activate your tube layer. Use your selection tool to select the part of the tube that is under the outline:

Promote selection to layer. Activate the tube layer and press delete one time on your keyboard, deselect. Click on the promoted layer and move it above the outline layer.

Activate the black square, rename it Snow. Give it the same drop shadow you did your elements. Make sure you click the box to apply the shadow to a new layer.

Now duplicate your Snow layer 2 times for a total of 3 layers. Name them from the bottom up as Snow 1, Snow 2 and Snow 3. Activate the large gold outline layer. Click inside with your magic wand. Expand selection by 3 and activate the Snow 1 layer. Apply VanDerLee Snowflakes with these settings, keep selected after you apply the filter:

Activate the Snow 2 layer, apply the filter but click the right arrow on Random Seed a few times.

Repeat with the Snow 3 layer, making sure you change the random seed again. You may now deselect. Hide Snow 2 and Snow 3 for now.

Activate the top layer of your palette again. Add your name using colors from your tube or scrap kit. Give it an inner bevel of choice, I used this one:

Then apply a gradient glow. I used this one with the glow width at 3:

Then apply a drop shadow to your name. I used -2, 2, 60, 10. Be sure you UNCHECK the box to apply shadow on a new layer.

Now to animate! If you choose not to animate you can delete the extra snow layers and the white background layer, merge visible and save as a png. Or merge all and save as a jpg. Otherwise, continue on to the next step.

All layers should be visible EXCEPT Snow 2 and Snow 3. Copy merged and paste as a new animation in AS. Back to psp, unhide Snow 2. Copy merged and paste AFTER current frame in AS. Back to psp a 3rd time, unhide Snow 3, copy merged and paste after current frame. Click on frame 1. Select all. Alt Enter to bring up the Frame Properties box, change the speed to 23.

Save your tag as gif, congrats you're done!

Dragon Whisper - Animated Forum Tag

This tutorial was written by me on 11/08/2014 and assumes you have working knowledge of PSP. Any similarities 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

Tube of choice - I'm using the artwork of JM Leotti.

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

 Forum template 69 by Spawn

Animation Shop

Font of choice, I used Gaheris Demo

Filters used:

Mura Meister Copies
DBS Flux Bright Noise
Greg's Factory Output II Pool Shadow
Xero Porcelain
Eye Candy 4000 Gradient Glow

Let's begin, don't forget to save often.

Open forum template, duplicate and close original. Delete credits layer.

Copy your tube and paste as a new layer. Resize if needed, I resized mine 75%. Arrange where you like it. Mine is cut off on one side so I moved her over to the right so the cut portion doesn't show. Move your tube layer under your border layer.

Activate the main background layer. Copy and paste your tube again. Apply Mura Meister Copies, Wallpaper Rotate at default settings. Now I wanted more green showing on mine in the area opposite the main tube so I clicked undo and reapplied again till I got something I liked. So this is optional for you, depending on your tube.

Apply a Radial blur with these settings, and rename this layer Blur when done:

Activate the black lines layer. Add a new raster layer and flood fill with a medium color from your tube. I chose #353f2d.

Activate the black lines layer again. Select all, float, defloat and invert. Activate the flood filled layer and press delete. Deselect. You can now delete the original black lines layer. Or what I do is just delete what's on that layer and merge the flood filled layer down onto the now blank layer so it's still labeled properly.

Ok we're going to rearrange some layers here to make things a bit simpler. Click on the Top Light Twirl layer and bring it down in the layer palette so it's above the Bottom Light Twirl layer. Merge down and rename Light Twirl.

Now click on the Top Dark Twirl layer, bring it down in your layer palette so it's on top of the Bottom Dark Twirl layer. Again, merge down and rename Dark Twirl.

Finally repeat this same thing with the twirl dots layers.

Now activate your Dark Twirl layer. Select all, float, defloat. Add a new raster layer and flood fill with a color from your tube. I chose #687b53. Deselect. You can now delete the original dark twirl layer.

Repeat this same step on the light twirl layer using a lighter (or darker if you want) color from your tube. I used #949c63. Don't forget to delete the original layer when you're done. Apply DBS Flux Bright Noise at 30%, Mix selected.

You can change the color of the twirl dots but I opted to keep them black.

Now we're going to add some drop shadows. Activate your black lines layer again. Give it a slight drop shadow of 0, 0, 50. 5. Your Light Twirl layer is going to be a bit darker at 0, 0, 60, 10. And then finally a light drop shadow again on the dark twirl layer. I used, 0,0, 30, 5.

Now we're going to go down and activate our Blur layer. Duplicate this layer twice for a total of 3 layers. Rename them from the bottom as Blur 1, Blur 2 and Blur 3.

Activate the blur 1 layer and apply Greg's Factory Output II, Pool Shadow with default settings EXCEPT change the Center to 90, Intensity to 100 and the Lightness to 120.

Activate blur 2 and repeat the filter but change the Center to 130. Repeat with the blur 3 layer and the Center at 180. Hide the blur 2 and 3 layers for now.

Now activate your main tube layer. Apply Xero, Porcelain at default but change the blue slider to 0. Give your tube an overall drop shadow at 0, 0, 80, 15.

Activate your border layer. Select all. Add a new raster layer and flood will with black. Keep selected. Contract selection by 1. Fill with your dark color you used for the black lines. Contract by 2. Fill with black again. Contract by 1 and press delete. Deselect.

Activate the original border layer again. Select all, flood fill black. Contract by 4, press delete and deselect. Give this layer a gaussian blur at 3.

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

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

Then I gave it a gradient glow using these settings, with the glow width at 3:

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

Now to animate. If you choose to skip this step you can just merge all now and save as a jpg. Otherwise, continue.

Make sure that your blur 2 and blur 3 layers are still hidden. Copy merged and paste as a new animation in AS.

Go back to PSP, unhide blur 2, copy merged and this time in AS paste AFTER current frame. Easy way to do this is to press Ctrl Shift L.

Back to PSP again, unhide blur 3, copy merged and in AS, paste after current frame.

So you should now have 3 frames. Click on frame 1. Select all. Press alt enter to bring up the frame properties box. Change the speed to 20.

Save your tag and congrats, you're done!