Old tut - Grid Weave - New again

I rewrote one of my old tuts that was originally written way back in 2008. I had posted it here to my blog in 2010. Well along the way I had lost the original example tag and the screenshots. It's now been completely redone and you can find it here.

Earl Grey - Old school style forum tag

This tutorial was written by me on 04/30/2016 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 art of Ash Evans, available at CDO

Do not use this tube without purchasing a license first

Font of choice, I'm using Ababil Script Demo

Filters used:

Mura Meister Copies
DBS Flux Gears & Linear Transmission

Xero Porcelain

Eye Candy 4000 Gradient Glow

 

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

Open a new image 600 x 250. Flood fill with a light color from your tube. I chose a pale pink, #e7c4d9. Copy your tube and paste as a new layer. I chose with mine to move it up so mostly only the tea cup part of the tube is showing, but this is optional. If you do the same/similar then activate the colored layer. Select all and crop to selection.

Activate your tube layer again. Apply Mura Meister Copies, Wallpaper Rotate with default settings. Give it a gaussian blur of 6.

Duplicate the blur layer and on the original apply DBS Flux Gears with the settings at 8 and 18. Change the blend mode of this layer to Multiply and 50% opacity.

On the duplicate apply DBS Flux Linear Transmission with the settings at 5, 10, 50 and Horizontal ticked. Change the blend mode of this layer to Hard Light.

Copy and paste a close-up of your tube. Arrange on one side of the tag. Change the blend mode to Hard Light and the opacity to 75%.

Copy and paste your tube as a new layer, resize as needed. I resized mine 50%. Arrange on the opposite side of the close-up. Apply Xero Porcelain at default settings but change the strength to 98 and the blue slider at 0. Give your tube a drop shadow at 0, 0, 80, 10.

Add a new raster layer. Select all. Flood fill with black. Contract by 1, add a new raster layer and flood fill with a darker shade of your base layer. Contract by 3, add a new raster layer and flood fill with black again. Contract by 1 and press delete. Activate the middle color layer, press delete. Finally activate the bottom black layer and press delete. You may now deselect.

 Activate the middle color layer and apply an inner bevel:

Hide the 3 border layers. Layers, View, Invert. Merge the 3 border layers together. Change the view back to all and give your border the same drop shadow you used on the tube.

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

Add your name using colors from your tube. Give it the same inner bevel we used for the border. Then give it a slight gradient glow with the glow width at 3:

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!

New word art by me

So a challenge in one of my groups was to make tag a using a quote from your favorite movie. One of my favorites of all time is The 10th Kingdom. IMDB has lots of quotes for this movie and it was hard to pick, but I settled on one and made my tag. Since I couldn't find a similar word art, I made my own and have decided to share with you all. Each line in the word art is on a separate layer and the layers are labeled with the font that I used for that line, you can use all 3 layers or just one or two. You're welcome to use this on your tags and/or in tutorials. I just ask that you please direct others back to my blog to download it themselves. Below is the tag I made with the word art on it and you can download it on my 4shared here.

Bad Girls - FTU Animated

This tutorial was written by me on 03/24/2015 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

Animation Shop

Tube w/closeup of choice - I'm using the artwork of PinupToons

This tube was the October 2014 bonus tube from CDO

Template by me here

Mask 53 from Moonbeams & Spiderwebs

Filters used:

Eye Candy 5 Textures & Impact

Xero Porcelain

Eye Candy 4000 Glass & Gradient Glow

Font of choice, I used La Portenia de la Boca

Special thanks goes to:

Kiya Sama

for her permission to write this tut as it resembles one of her own

Let's begin, remember to save often.

Open template and your tube, duplicate and close originals. Delete the credit layer on the template.

Please note: Do not use your magic wand to select any of the circle layers since it'll leave them with jagged edges.

We're going to start with layer 1 and work our way inwards. You can change the color of this as we do in future steps but for now let's just leave it black. Apply Eye Candy 5, Textures, Swirl with these settings:

Now activate layer 2. Select all, float, defloat. Add a new raster layer. Flood fill with a medium light color from your tube. I used #c62f2f. Deselect. Delete the original layer. Rename the new flood filled layer Outer Light.

Activate layer 4 and repeat with the same color. Rename this layer Inner Light when you're done.

Activate layer 3. We're going to select it in the same fashion but this time you'll flood fill with a darker color from your tube. I used #700708. Do the same with the layer 5 layer. Rename these Outer Dark and Inner Dark.

So now your layer palette from the bottom up should be raster 1, layer 1, outer light, outer dark, inner light, inner dark.

Activate the outer light layer again. Apply Texture Effects, Weave with these settings:

Apply the same weave effect to the inner light layer and layer 6.

Now activate layer 7. Select as before, new layer and flood fill with a slightly lighter color than your light circles. I used #cb2f2f. Delete the original layer and rename the new layer Center.

Copy your tube closeup and paste as a new layer. Arrange her over the center circle. Resize if needed. Apply Xero, Porcelain at default settings but move the blue slider to 0. Give her a very slight drop shadow at 1, -1, 30, 5.

Activate the center layer again. Select all, float, defloat, invert selection. Activate the closeup tube layer and press delete. Deselect. Change the blend mode to hard light.

Activate the center layer once more. Select all, float, defloat as before. This time expand the selection by 1. Add a new raster layer and move it above the closeup tube layer, flood fill with black. Keep selected. Contract selection by 3. Press delete and now you can deselect. This covers up the edge of the center circle.

Now we're going to add the following drop shadow to only some of the layers. Layer 1, outer light, inner light and layer 6. Apply 0, 0, 100, 15.

Activate outer dark layer. Now you're going to give this one the same drop shadow but this time make sure you check the box to put the shadow on a new layer. Do the same for the inner dark layer.

Activate the outer dark layer again. Duplicate this layer 2 times for a total of 3 layers. Name them from the bottom up: outer dark 1, outer dark 2, and outer dark 3.

Apply the same Swirl as you did for layer 1. Activate outer dark 2, apply the swirl but click on the random seed 1 time. Hide this layer. Activate outer dark 3, apply the swirl, once again clicking on random seed. Hide this layer also.

Now activate the Inner Dark layer. Repeat the same as you did for the outer dark layer, making 3 layers and renaming them. Then apply the filter to each as before.

So now there should be 3 outer dark layers and 3 inner dark layers with the filter applied and a shadow on a separate layer for them both.

Now go up and activate the wordart layer. Select all, float, defloat. Add a new raster layer and flood fill with a dark color from your tube. I used the same dark red as I did the dark circles. Deselect.

Apply Eye Candy 5 Impact Glass. My wordart is red so I clicked on Ruby on the settings tab. The basic tab looks like this: (The glass color is the same color used for the light circles)

Activate the white bottom layer for the wordart and give it a drop shadow, I used -2, 2, 60, 10. Be sure to uncheck the shadow on a new layer box.

Now go down and activate the white raster 1 layer. Add a new layer and flood fill with a color from your tube. I used the same dark red. Add your mask from image, merge group. It's a tad small so resize it up about 107%, make sure all layers is unchecked. While still on the mask layer, crop layer opaque.

Now go back up and activate the top layer in your palette. Copy your full tube and paste as a new layer. Resize as needed, I resized 83%. Arrange her how you like and duplicate this layer. Hide the duplicate and activate the original. Apply the same Porcelain filter as you did the closeup.

Activate and unhide the duplicate, give it a gaussian blur of 2. Change the blend mode to soft light and lower the opacity to about 60%.

Activate the original tube layer. Give it a drop shadow of -3, 3, 60, 10. Repeat with a drop shadow at 1, -1, 50, 5.

Ok if you're going to resize your tag, now is the time to do it. However, resizing in psp causes some of the circle layers to have a ugly edge to them, so we're going to resize in Animation Shop. Make sure your 2nd and 3rd dark circles for both outer and inner are hidden. Copy merged and paste as a new animation in AS.

Back to psp, hide outer and inner dark 1 and unhide the dark 2 layers for both. Copy merged, back to AS and paste AFTER current frame.

Back to psp and this time we're going to hide the dark 2 layers and unhide the dark 3 layers. Copy merged and paste after current frame in AS.

Now in Animation Shop, resize 85%. Click on frame 1, select all, copy and paste as a new image in psp.

All 3 layers will same Frame 1 but don't worry about that, it won't matter. Make sure the top layer is active. Add your copyright, license info and taggers mark. Merge all of your credits onto a single layer. Now duplicate twice. And move them so there's a credit layer on top of each frame layer. Your palette will look like this:

Now merge down each of the credit layers onto the frame layers. So when you're done you'll still have just the 3 frame layers again.

Now with the top layer active again, add your name using chosen font and colors from your tube. I used the same colors as I did for the template.

Convert to raster and give it a glass bevel with Eye Candy 4000 Glass and these settings:

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

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

Now you're going to do just like you did with the credits. Duplicate twice for 3 layers, moving each one so they're on top of each frame:

Merge down each one so you have the just the 3 frame layers again. (Though I have a script that does this for me.) Now you can transfer this to AS two ways. You can copy each layer over as did before. Or you can just save your tag as a psp or psd file. Then open that file in AS.

Either way, once you have it back in AS. Make sure the 1st frame is active. Select all. Alt Enter to bring up the frame properties box. Change the speed to 15. Now save your tag and congrats, you're done.

*Tip, save the 3 frame tag minus your name, what I call an animated blank. Make sure you include in the file name the speed you have to change it to before you fully animate it. This makes it much easier when you have to make tags for others if most of the work is done for you. Also, you can save the full tag before you intially moved it over to AS as a blank also. Remember to save with layers intact (not merged) so if you make a goof it's much easier to go back and fix it.

Mardi Gras - FTU Forum tag

This tutorial was written by me on 02/07/2015 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 and image of choice - I'm using the artwork of Jasmine Becket-Griffith

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

Template by Just Fi

Beads of choice, I used some from a Mardi Gras kit by Randy's Sin

Unfortunately they took their blog down so I can't provide the link

Wordart by RedHeadFalcon

Eye Candy 4000 Gradient Glow

Font of choice, I used Mardi Gras

Let's begin, remember to save often.

Open your template, tube and image in psp, duplicate all and close originals.

On the template delete the info layer, proud member text, thezone text, the glitter edge text and spots layers.

Activate the background layer. Add a new raster layer, select all, copy your image and paste into selection, deselect. Now please note, my image is only slightly smaller then the template so it worked well, if yours isn't you could always use another method to cover the template.

Once you have the white background covered, give it a radial blur at these settings:

Activate the stripes layer. Select all, float, defloat. Activate your blurred layer and promote selection to layer. Deselect and delete the original stripes layer. Change the blend mode of your promoted layer to screen or one that suits your image/colors. Rename this layer stripes.

Activate Wavy Line 1. Use Manual Color Correction to change the grey color to a color from your tube:

Repeat with Wavy Line 2 and Wavy Line 3, changing each to different colors. As you can see on my tag I did purple, green and gold. Give your lines a slight drop shadow. I used 0, 0, 50, 5.

Activate the frame back layer and mirror. Move this layer down to just above your blurred layer. Select all, float, defloat. Activate the blur layer and promote selection to layer. Deselect.

Delete the original frame back layer. Move the promoted layer back up to under the glitter edge frame layer and mirror so it's under the frame again.

Copy your tube and paste as a new layer. Move it over so it's under the frame. Use your raster deform tool to rotate it so it lines up inside the frame. Resize as needed to get it just right. I had to resize mine 60%.

Activate the frame layer. Select all, float, defloat. Add a new raster layer and flood fill with a color from your tube. I used a darker purple. Delete the original frame layer.

Activate the glitter edge layer and I used the manual color correction to change it from white to gold. With this layer still active, give it a drop shadow of 0, 0, 80, 10.

Activate your frame layer. Open some beads of choice from your kit. I used the purple and green beads. Copy the purple beads and paste as a new layer. Do not resize. Copy the green beads and paste as a new layer, mirror. Move the green bead layer down in your layer palette to just above the wavy line 3 layer. Give both the bead layers the same drop shadow you did the glitter edge frame layer.

Activate the top bead layer in your palette. Open your wordart. Copy and paste as a new layer. Resize 15%. Give it a slight white gradient glow with the glow width at 3, I used this:

Give it a drop shadow, I used -2, 2, 50, 5.

Activate the double frame layer. I again used manual color correction to change it from grey to black, but you could do another color if you like.

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 with the glow width at 3. I used the yellow color from the glitter edge frame layer.

Finally, give your name a drop shadow, I used the same as for the wordart.

Merge your tag and save as png or jpg. Congrats, you're done!

New Exclusive FTU Tut - Windy

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

FTU - Hot Stuff

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.

FTU - Rockin'

This tutorial was written on 02/11/2014 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

Tube of choice, I used the art of Matt Busch

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

Template by KyLie, available at Creative Misfits

Eye Candy 4000, Glass

DBS Flux, Bright Noise

 Font of choice, I used Rehotalko

 Open your tube and template, duplicate both and close the originals. On the template delete copyright layer. Click on your background layer and promote to raster. Go to Image, Canvas Size. Keep the width what it is, but change the height to 700. Click the down arrow so that the placement will be at the top, then click ok.

Now I'm going to change the colors of the template to suit my tube. Change your foreground color to a color from your tube. I picked a nice blue from her hat. Before you click ok, take note of the H and S numbers. On mine H is 141, S is 118:

 Now let's start from the bottom up, click on your mask layer. Then go to Adjust, Hue and Saturation, Colorize and put those numbers in the box like so:

Click ok and now your mask matches your tube color. Repeat on these layers:

Triple Rect Frames Gradient Glow
Rectangle
Circle
Music Notes

Or you can do each of those 4 layers a different color, it's up to you. Hide your wordart and glitter wordart layers for now so they'll be out of the way for the next step.

Activate your Circle layer, copy your tube and paste as a new layer on your template. Arrange it where you want it to sit. Mine is cropped on the left and bottom sides so to make it easier to arrange, I moved it under the circle layer so I could make sure the cropped parts would be covered. When I had it where I wanted it, I moved it back above the circle layer again.

Now that you have your tube where you want it to be, duplicate it. Give the duplicate a Gaussian blur of 3. Now activate the original. Select all, float, defloat and invert. Click on the duplicate and press delete one time. Deselect. Then click on the original once more and go to Xero, Porcelain and use the default settings but change the blue slider to 0. Now activate the duplicate again and change the blend mode on the duplicate to soft light and reduce the opacity to 60%. You might want to use a different blend mode and opacity to fit your tube.

So now I'm going to give my bottom tube layer a drop shadow. I used -3, 3, 60, 10. Hide the duplicate for now and lower the opacity of your original tube to about 50% so you can see what you're doing in the next step.

Activate your circle layer and click on your freehand selection tool. Set it to point to point, feather at 0. Now you're going to start on one side, going around the black circle, down and around to the other side so any part of the frame that you want on top of your tube is selected, like so:

Now promote selection to layer and deselect. Move this layer above your duplicate tube, which you can now unhide and return the opacity of the original to 100% again.

Now using your freehand selection tool again, you're going to carefully select on the black circle and then any parts of the tube that go outside the circle that you want to remove:

Make sure one of your tube layers is active, press delete. Activate the other tube layer and press delete again and deselect.

Now let's give the template layers drop shadows. I used 0, 0, 100, 10 on the glitter circle frame. On the
rectangle frame I changed the blur to 5. Or as an option you can merge the two rectangle frames together and then give it a drop shadow. Whatever looks best for your tag.

Unhide the wordart and glitter wordart layers. Move these 2 layers below your original tube layer. Give the glitter wordart layer the same drop shadow you did the glitter circle frame.

I left the triple rectangles alone cause a drop shadow just didn't look right with the glow that's on there already.

I decided to give the musical notes a slight gradient glow and then the drop shadow used before.

Now I felt my mask could be bigger so I activated that layer, clicked on my raster deform tool and using the nodes, dragged it up and to the right so you can see it better and so it extends a bit above my tube. When you're happy with how it looks, click on your crop tool and click on Snap crop rectangle to: layer opaque. Make sure none of your tube or template will get cropped off cause that just looks awful! Click the green check mark or double click on your tag to crop.

If you plan to resize your tag, now is the time to do it. I resized mine 80%.

Activate the top layer in your palette, should be the music notes. Add your copyright info, license and taggers mark.

Add your name using colors from your tube. I used the blue that I chose for the colorization for my background and a darker blue for the foreground. Convert to raster.

Select all, float, defloat, expand selection by 3. Add a new raster layer and flood fill with white. Go to DBS Flux, Bright Noise and give it noise at 80 with Mix selected. Move this layer under your name layer. Activate the name layer and go to Eye Candy 4000, Glass and give it a bevel:

 

Merge this layer down onto the glitter layer and give your name 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!

Grid Weave

This tut was originally written in 2008, but I lost the example tag and screenshots that were posted to Photobucket. The tut has been rewritten on 09/04/2018 with all new images.

Supplies needed:

PSP - I use version X9 but most versions will do

Tube of your choice, I'm using the art of Amy Brown, this tube was purchased at CDO, unfortunately she is no longer selling there

Do not use this tube without purchasing a license first

2 papers of choice

Grid tube from Dozi here (It's the 1st kit on the page)

Brush of choice

Ribbon Tube here

Font of choice, I'm using Hydrangea

Filters used:

SuperBladePro

Coconut Ice SBP preset here

Xero Porcelain

Eye Candy 4000 Gradient Glow

Remember to rename your layers as you go. This tut has many layers and it'll help keep them straight. Don't forget to save as you go. Let's begin.

Open the grid tube, papers and your main tube. Shift D to make duplicates on all tubes and papers, close all originals.

On the grid tube, delete all layers except Layer 1. Resize 40%, all layers checked. Rename Grid. Add a new raster layer, flood fill white, send to the bottom of the layer palette.

Select one of your papers. Copy and paste as a new layer. Move this layer under your grid layer. Rename Paper.

Select your 2nd paper and copy. Activate the grid layer, Select all. Selections, float, defloat. Paste your paper into selection. Keep selected. Apply Super Blade Pro with the M_Coconutice preset. Deselect. Give it a drop shadow. I used 0, 0, 50, 5.

Copy and paste your main tube as a new layer on top of your grid. Resize as needed, all layers unchecked. Place it where you want it to sit. Duplicate your tube twice for a total of 3 layers. Hide the duplicates and activate the original.

Give it a gaussian blur with a radius of 10. Then apply Mosaic Antique with default settings. Change the blend mode to Multiply or one that suits your tube and colors of your paper. Rename Mosaic Tube

Move this layer below the grid layer. Activate and unhide your middle tube layer, rename Main Tube. Apply Xero, Porcelain with default settings but move the blue slider to 0. Give it a drop shadow. -2, 2, 50, 10.

Activate and unhide the top tube layer. Give it a guassian blur of 2. Change the blend mode to Overlay or one that suits your tube. Rename Blur Tube

Select ribbon tube. Colorize with both values set to 0. Using your Manual Color Correction tool, change it to a color to match your tube. The source color is #dfdfdf. Your target color will be the color you want it to be. I chose a nice chocolate brown color from her hair.

Hide the top 2 tube layers for now. Copy and paste the ribbon as a new layer on your workspace. Resize 22%, all layers unchecked. Move this layer above the grid layer. Move it into position so it's over part of the grid like below, with one end of the ribbon off the edge of the canvas. Zoom in if necessary, if needed to better see what you're doing.

Duplicate the ribbon and mirror. Merge down 1 time. Rename Ribbon Bottom. 

Duplicate this layer. Image, Flip, or mirror vertically, depending on the version of psp you use. It will not be lined up perfectly on the top so, use your mover tool to align it up with the top part of the grid, so it matches the bottom. Rename Ribbon top

Duplicate this layer. Image, Rotate, Free Rotate 90 to the left. Move it over to the right side of the grid. Rename Ribbon Right. Drag this layer under the Ribbon Bottom layer. Duplicate and mirror. You should now have a 4th ribbon on the left side. Move it into position. Everything should be lined up like this. The 2 horizontal ribbons, should be on top of the 2 vertical ribbons.

Hide all the other layers EXCEPT the 4 ribbon layers. Make sure one of your ribbon layers is active and merge visible. Rename this layer Main Ribbon. Unhide the grid layer and the white background layer only. Make sure your ribbon layer stays active. Give it a drop shadow of 0, 0, 80, 2. New layer unchecked.

Now here's where it's going to get tricky. Click on your selection tool. Set to Rectangle, Add, feather at 0. Starting at the top left corner, zoom in about 800% so you can see what you're doing. Draw a selection around the 2nd rib in the grid going down from the top, like this, allowing some allowance all the way around the ribbon to account for the drop shadow:

Promote selection to layer. Activate the main ribbon layer and press delete. Deselect. Move the promoted layer under the grid layer. 

Now you're going to skip a rib and do the same thing to the 2nd one down from the one you just did. Make sure that you activate the main ribbon layer each time. Work your way around the grid doing every other rib as you go. When you get to the bottom left corner and  you're ready to do the bottom horizontal section of the ribbon, start with the 1st rib on the grid instead of the 2nd. Bottom right corner, going up, start on the 2nd rib like you did the top left corner. But when you get to the top right corner, start on the 2nd rib, not the first. Do the horizontal ribbons like this so that they go over the broken ribs instead of under them.

Very important to save OFTEN when doing this so you don't lose your progress.

 When you're done, zoom back out to 100% . The ribbon will now appear to be woven in and out of the grid, like so:

Now you should have about 25 promoted selection layers. Hide the main ribbon, grid and white background layers. Make sure one of your promoted layers is active and merge visible. Rename this layer Under Ribbon.

You can now unhide all layers. Activate the top layer in your palette, it should be your blur tube. Add a new raster layer. Click on your Brush tool and find your brush. Select a foreground color from your tube. Apply your brush where you want it to go. Move this layer below your grid layer.

Activate the top layer in your palette again. Add a new raster layer. Select all. Selection, Modify, Contract by 5. Selections, Invert. Copy the paper you used for your background and paste into selection. Apply the same SuperBladePro preset as before. Deselect. Apply the same drop shadow you used for the grid.

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

 Add your name using font of choice, foreground and background colors from your tube. Move into position and convert to raster. Select all, Selections Float, Defloat. Apply the same SuperBladePro preset you used for the grid. Deselect. Apply a gradient glow with the glow width at 3.

Finally, give it a drop shadow, I used 0, 2, 50, 5.

Merge all and save as a jpg. Congrats, you're done!

Tutorial ©Queina 2008, 2018. All rights reserved. Any simularities to any other tutorials is purely coincidental.