Saying Thanks

YOU WILL NEED:

* Paint Shop Pro and Animation Shop.
* Tubes of choice. This tag needs a main tube and a flower vine tube for the background. I am using the art work of Erin Ewer, the vine is in the element pack. You will need a license to use this art work and tubes can be purchased from MtA.
* Super Blade Pro and preset made by me DOWNLOAD PRESET HERE.
* Font of choice - I am using Shangri-La.

Lets Start

1. Install your SBP preset ready for use (save to SBP Environments and Textures folder in your Plugins folder). Open your tubes in PSP. Open a new image 500 x 300 with a white background.

2. Using the settings below, activate your text tool and type the word thanks. I had #b5c2d4 as my foreground and background colour.

3. Stretch your text out until it is the same size as in my tag. Convert to raster. Select - Float - Defloat your text and apply Super Blade Pro using my glass preset.

4. Duplicate this layer and resize the bottom layer to 90%. Cut this layer and paste as a new layer. Apply Gaussian Blur at 20 to the bottom layer. Delete the blank layer. On the text layer apply drop shadow at the following settings -

5. Copy and paste the fairy tube to the canvas and resize to 40%. Mirror and position to your liking. Sharpen using the settings below and add the same drop shadow as before. Hide this layer for now.

6. Copy and paste your flower vine to the canvas and resize to 60%. Duplicate layer. Image - Free Rotate - Right 90. Position vine layers to your liking using my tag as an example. Erase any excess. Merge the vine layers and duplicate. Drag one vine layer below your text layer and apply the same drop shadow as before. Activate the top vine layer and carefully erase the parts of the vine over the text to give the impression of the vine weaving through the text.

7. Add your copyright information and watermark. Make the fairy layer visible and close off the white background and blur layers. Make sure you are satisfied with the position of all the elements then merge visible. Make the background and blur layers visible.

8. Activate your blur layer and change the opacity to 75%. Duplicate so that you have three layers. Apply twirl (Effects - Distortion Effects - Twirl) to each blur layer, changing the degrees so that layer 1 is 360, layer 2 is 540 and layer 3 is 720. Promote the background layer and duplicate so that you have three layers. Merge a blur layer to each background layer. Duplicate your tube layer and merge to each background layer.

9. Activate the top layer. Using your text tool with the size changed to 36 and stroke to 1, type your name and the word says. Stretch the text if required. Apply SBP glass as before and the same drop shadow. Duplicate this layer and merge to each background. Save as an Animation Shop .psp file.

10. Open in Animation Shop and change the frame properties to 40. Save as a gif using the Median Cut settings and you are done. I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial.

Pink Roses

YOU WILL NEED:

* A good knowledge of Paint Shop Pro (or similar).
* Tubes of choice. This tag needs a main tube and a flower (or other object) tube for the background. I am using the art work of Italia Ruotolo. You will need a license to use this art work and tubes can be purchased from MtA.
* Gold Bead pattern tile and pink gradient (made by me in PSPX) DOWNLOAD HERE.
* Font of choice - I am using Bickham Script.
* Eye Candy Gradient Glow

Lets Start

1. Install your gradient ready for use (save to My PSP Files - Gradients). Open your tubes and gold bead pattern in PSP. Open a new image 500 x 500 with a white background.

2. Using your selection tool, create a custom selection using the following settings -

3. Add a new raster layer and floodfill with your gradient at the settings shown below. Duplicate the layer. Deselect and apply a Gaussian Blur of 20 to the bottom layer. Apply Blinds (Effects - Texture Effects - Blinds) to this layer using the settings below -

4. Activate your top gradient layer and apply sunburst (Effects - Illumination Effects - Sunburst) at the settings below -

5. Add a new raster layer. Using the same custom selection as before, floodfill with the gold bead pattern, Selections - Modify - Contract by 3 and hit the delete key. Deselect and apply drop shadow at the settings below -

6. Copy and paste your flower tube to the canvas and resize to 80%. Position to your liking. Create the same custom selection as before and invert. Hit the delete key. Change the layer blend mode to Lighten (or your preferred blend). Select none and drag this layer below the gold frame.

7. Copy and paste your main tube to the canvas and resize to 80%. Sharpen if necessary. Position to your liking and duplicate. Apply the same drop shadow as before to the bottom tube layer. Drag the top tube layer above the frame and using your Selection tool roughly select the part of the tube that covers the top of the frame. Invert the selection and delete the excess.

8. Using the settings given below, add your text to the canvas. I used #d64179 for the foreground and background colour. Apply drop shadow but change V to 1, H to -1 and Blur to 1. Apply Gradient Glow to highlight your text on the canvas. I used a glow width of 10 and opacity 45.

9. Add your copyright information and watermark. Save as a jpeg and you are done. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.