Santa Friends - PTU Scraps

This tutorial was written by me on 12/09/2015 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

2 Tubes of choice by the same artist. I'm using the art of Maryline Cazenave. You can buy these tubes at CDO here & here.

Do not use these tubes without properly obtaining a license first.

Scrap kit of choice, I'm using IB-MarylineCazenave-44-3 by Monti. also available at CDO.

 Xmas Mask 2 by Designs by Vaybs

Font of choice, I used Santa's Sleigh

Eye Candy 4000 Gradient Glow

Let's begin, remember to save often so you don't lose your work.

Open frame 2 from your kit. Duplicate and close the original. Resize 85%, all layers unchecked. Add a new raster layer and send it to the bottom and flood fill white.

Open paper of choice, I used paper 3. (preview below shows a different paper, I changed my mind later in the tut) Copy and paste as a new layer onto your tag. Make sure this is below your frame layer. Resize 60%, again all layers unchecked.

Activate your frame layer again, click inside the 2 stars of the frame with your magic wand. Expand by 6. Keep Selected. Take your selection tool and draw a small rectangle around the little spot where the two frames are linked.

Invert selection. Activate the paper layer, press delete and deselect.

Open your first tube of choice, duplicate and close the original. Copy your tube and paste as a new layer on your tag. Resize as needed, I resized mine 70%. Arrange under the top star. You want your tube to be a little bit bigger then the star, see my tag for reference.

Open your 2nd tube, copy and paste as a new layer on your tag. Arrange this tube under the bottom star, resize if needed. I chose to mirror mine, but this is optional. If any part of your tube hangs off the edge of the canvas, move the tube over a bit so you can see all of it, then draw a selection around the part that would be outside the right side of the frame and delete.

When you have that part removed, move the tube back to where you had it before. Give both of your tubes a drop shadow, I used 0, 0, 60, 10. Repeat the same drop shadow on the frame. Keep the tubes under the frame for now, we'll rearrange them later.

Activate the white bottom layer. Select all and add a new raster layer. Open a paper of choice, I used paper 3 again. Copy and paste into selection on your tag. Deselect. Be sure you have your mask open and minimized. Still on the paper layer, add mask from image and merge group.

Activate the frame layer again. It's now time to add our elements. See my tag for reference on where to place items.

Element 17, resize 90%. Rotate to the right 45 degrees, place on the bottom left of the frame. Duplicate, mirror and then flip. Arrange on the top right of your frame, but move it just above the mask layer. Element 14, resize 60%, place above the spray that is above the mask. Element 15, resize 50%. Element 20, resize 30% and sharpen once. Add any other elements of choice. When done be sure to give all of your elements the same drop shadow as you did your tubes and frame.

If you're going to resize your image, now is the time to do it. I resized mine 80%. Be sure all layers is checked.

Now, hide all layers except the white background, the 2 tubes and the frame. We're going to remove what sticks out from the bottom of the stars and make the top of the tubes coming out of the top of the star. So it's important that your tubes be placed where there is a gap between the tube and the frame where the top part of the tube is going to be on top of the frame. This eliminates any part being cropped wrong. Zoom in if you need to, to be able to see and move the tubes slightly if needed. The two black circles in the preview below shows an example of the gaps needed. See my tag for reference on how the top part of the tube is above the star.

Hide one of the tubes for now. I'm going to hide the bottom tube and work on the top one.

Activate your freehand selection tool, draw a line along the bottom part of the star that has any parts of the tube sticking out under it and then around that section of tube.

Make sure the correct tube layer is active and press delete. Deselect. Now unhide your 2nd tube layer and do the same thing.

Now remember those gaps I had you check? Zoom in so you can see your work and you're going to select around the top part of those tubes. Be sure the tube you're selecting around is active.

Now promote to layer. Activate the tube layer again and press delete. Deselect and move the promoted layer above the frame layer.

Now repeat with the bottom tube. You might need to hide the top tube for now so you can see better.

Once you have both your tubes done you can now unhide all layers. Activate your mask layer and click on your crop tool. Click on layer opaque. Take note of the borders where it'll be cropped, you should have no tubes, mask or drop shadows outside the crop square. If you do, then you can drag out the side of crop square to accomodate the excess. Crop your tag when you're ready.

Add your copyright info, license and tagger's mark. Be sure to credit the scraps if required.

Add your name using font of choice and colors from your tubes or kit. The kit I'm using has a color palette and so I'm using the two red colors with the darker being the foreground. Size will depend on your name but I'm using 72 and the stroke is 1.5.

Give your name an inner bevel. I used this one.

Then give it a gradient glow with the glow width at 3.

Then drop shadow your name, I used 0, 2, 50, 5.

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

There's also a matching Incredimail letter. Click on the preview below to download.

3 new tags, 1 Forum set plus sharing new avatar

This first tag is from a tut by Bright's Kreationz. You can find it here. 

The forum set below is also from Bright. Though don't know if it could be classified as a tut, plus it's very poorly written sadly. But you can find it here.

I've also made a bunch of avatars like the one above to share. Most common letters are there. You can find them here.

This cute tag is from a tut by Capricorn Caz. You can find it here. Though her animation instructions are confusing, I'll warn you now. Her blog drives me bonkers, it's super wide (and I've got a wide screen monitor and still have to scroll to the side) plus she's only got 1 post per page, very frustrating when you're looking through stuff on her blog.

This tag is from a tut by Chas Designs. You can find it here. This is another one who's blog is frustrating. She's got a blog and a website, and the same tuts are posted in both places, which makes it confusing. Even more so, she's got a lot of Christmas/Winter tuts, only almost all of them are so old that the scrap kits used aren't even available anymore. It's enough to make you pull your hair out.

If one of my older tuts used a kit or whatnot that was no longer available I'd either pull it, rewrite it with a new kit or at the very least post a note that the kit is no longer available, but maybe that's just me.

Lots of Tags!

Ok I have a bunch of tags with links to share today.

 

These first two tags are from tuts by ooh...babelicious. You can find them here and here.

These next 4 tags are from tuts by Becky's Creations. You can find them here, here and here.

 

This forum set is from a tut by Vaybs. You can find it at Creative Addictions here.

 

This tag is actually a smaller version of my current timeline cover on Facebook. The tut is by Bethy at Dazzled By Beth-Ann. You can find it here.

This tag is from a tut by Mystery Designs. You can find it here.

This explosion of pink tag is from a tut by Angel Tuts. You can find it here.

These next 2 tags are from tuts by SuthrnPrincess Tuts. You can find them here and here.

This tag is from a tut by HorsePlay's Pasture Tutorials. You can find it here. She does not provide a direct link to the kit used, and it's hard to find so here's the link.

This tag is from a tut by Tasha's Playground. You can find it here.

Well that's all of them. Whew! Didn't realized I've done that many tags just in the last few weeks. lol

More Challenge Tags

Ok the following are challenge tags from Creative Addictions.

So for this first tag. I did this tut by Mystery Designs.

This one is from a tut by Disturbed by Gaby.

Then I did this tut by PSP Pastimes.

Then this adorable tag is from a tut by Tuts By Abstract. I thought this cute tube by Maryline Cazenave was perfect.

Now this next tag, I like this tut so much I did it twice. The animation looks difficult, but it really isn't. It's much easier then it looks and the tut is well written.

Now I did one more tut challenge that was posted at Creative Addictions, it's the current header tag on my blog. You can find that tut here. It's a bitchy tag and I didn't want a bitchy tag. So I did a love tag instead.

Challenge tags

Ok there's going to be a lot of tags on this post cause I'm a couple weeks behind on posting. So first up we have this one...

Our challenge for this tag was we had to do one of two tutorials. I chose this one. I thought this gorgeous tube from Olivia fit the tag well.

Our second challenge for that week was to use a template. I chose this one, and my tag is below.

Then for last week's challenges, the first challenge was to pick a tutorial from either Fiona, or Mona. I chose Fi's Rainbow End tutorial.

Then for the 2nd challenge we had to make a monotone tag with a pop of color. I found this tut and thought it was perfect. And of course Jennifer Janesko's art is always gorgeous. Though I was a bit irritated that the ribbon provided in the supplies was NOT the ribbon shown on the sample tag. So I didn't use it.

Challenge tags

Challenge 1 this week, we had to use this tut by Just Fi and/or just this template. This one has so many possibilities and it's been so cool seeing all the different tags people are making in the group.

Challenge 2 we had to use 3 shapes, 2 filters and a mask. I found this tut on Vix's site and OMG it's a hard one. I applaud anybody who can do this thing from start to finish cause it was a challenge all in itself. LOL

Several new tags

I made 3 new tags today. This first one is from a tut by Heidi at Scottish Butterfly Creations, you can find it here.

This next one is by my friend Bobbie at Rebelle Doll Designs. You can find it here. It does use a PTU kit but it was on sale when I bought it.

And finally the forum set below is by Tracy at Freebie Friends. You can find it here.

Challenge tags

Ok for one of the challenges this week, we had to pick a season and make a tag. I chose summer. As it happened somebody shared a misted water tube in a group that I'm in that doesn't allow sharing. But I snagged it before she got her hand slapped. So I used that plus a wonderful little program called Reflet to make the animation. It's a nice 100% free stand alone filter. And is soooo easy to use. I'm toying if I want to write a tut for this. It would be quite detailed but other then that the tube in the center was a bonus tube from CILM and so is no longer available. Not sure if that'd be fair writing a tut using a tube that can't be purchased anywhere.

The other challenge involved making a tag that did not use any scraps or alphas or anything that you can't find within PSP. Not an easy task sometimes, especially when using scrap kits is all the rage and some people don't even know how to make a tag without scraps. Often I can usually come up with my own ideas but this time I was just drawing a blank. So I turned to a friend's site and did one of her tuts. It's called Pink Pooch, it's by Fi and you can find it here. 

And the matching avatar.

This is my first tag using Maryline Cazenave's tubes since I bought them a week or two ago. I just love them, they're so darn cute!