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.

Oriental Beauty

YOU WILL NEED:

* Paint Shop Pro. I used version 10 but you should be able to make this tag in all versions.

* Tube of choice. I am using the artwork of Mark Wasyl and you can purchase his art from CILM.

* Oriental Beauty Scrap Kit by me. This kit is available in all my stores as a full size kit or a taggers kit, you will find the links on My Blog. I used the taggers kit for this tut.

* Font of choice - I used Shangri-La HERE (SHANLNC.TTF)

* Vine brush freebie by me, also available from my stores or on my blog.

* Smudge mask by me HERE.

NOTE It is possible to make this tag using the free Oriental Beauty Add on which is available in all the stores, example below. If you need a free glitter tile for the brush, the free Glitterbug 04 download from all the stores has a set of 20 glitter tiles which includes suitable colours for this tag.

LETS START!

1. Open a new image 500 x 500 with a white background.

2. Open your scrap kit and decide which two colours you are going to use. I went with the beige and the red. Copy the darker paper (in my case red) to your canvas and apply the smudge mask. Merge the mask group. I used the paper that matches the fans.

3. Copy and paste the two fans that you wish to you to the canvas. Image - Free Rotate - Left 35 degrees for each fan. Sharpen using the settings below. Place the darker colour at the back and using my tag as a guide, position your fans. Copy and paste your tube between the two fan layers.

4. Copy and paste the flowers to the canvas. Duplicate and resize some of them to 80% to get variety, resize some of the ones already resized and sharpen. If using the Pay kit, mirror and flip the flowers to get variety as well. Place your flowers around your tag (will refine later). The main function of the flowers in my tag is to hide the edge of the geisha tube. Adjust your flower layers so that some are above and some are below the front fan. Sharpen any resized flowers that may require it. Apply drop shadow to the flower and fan layers at the following settings -

5. Activate your mask layer and add a new raster layer. Have your glitter tile open in PSP. Click on the materials palette and select patterns. Find your tile in the drop down list. Scale the glitter to 50%.

6. Open the png for the brush you wish to use (I used vine 15) and export it as a custom brush (File - Export - Custom Brush. This is for PSPX, not sure what other versions require). Change the brush size to 300. Paint the vine pattern on your new raster layer. Change the rotation of the brush to have different parts of the vine peeking out from under the fans and tube. Erase any parts you don't want showing as you go otherwise it will overlap your next brush stroke. When satisfied with your brush work, sharpen and add shadow using the same settings as before.

7. Arrange your flowers where possible so that they look like part of the vine. Copy and paste the dragonfly or other accent to the canvas and position to your liking.

8. Add copyright information and your watermark.

9. Activate your preset shapes tool and draw an ellipse using the dark fan as a guide. We are going to use this to create the curved text but you wont get it perfect because the fan is not a perfect circle - we just want the basic curve for the text. Have the colour for your text as the background on your materials palette. Select your text tool and using the settings below type your name. Your text icon will be on an angle if you have done the vector correctly. It may take a couple of attempts to get the text on the right curve. When satisfied, promote the selection to layer and select none. You can adjust the text slightly when done by using your raster deform tool to tilt your name. Sharpen and apply shadow as before.

10. Save as a .jpg file and you are done. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.

Sunset

YOU WILL NEED:

* Paint Shop Pro. I used PSPX but you should be able to make this tag in other versions.

* Animation Shop.

* Photograph of choice. I am using a photo by Elizabeth Halverson. You can purchase a license to use her work from Mistaken Art.

* Font of choice - I used A & S Snapper Script.

* Eyecandy Gradient Glow Filter. You can substitute a white drop shadow if you do not have this filter.

* Xenofex Constellation Filter. Any sparkle filter will do.

* Mask made by me - right click and save



LETS START!

1. Set up your supplies ready for use. Have your mask and photograph open in PSP. Open a new image 500 x 500 with a white background.

2. Resize the photograph so the height is 500 pixels. Copy to your canvas and position so that the focus of the photo is in the centre.

3. Apply the mask to the photograph ie Layers menu - New Mask Layer - From Image. Find your mask on the drop down menu and click OK. Merge group and duplicate the layer.

4. On the bottom mask layer, Adjust menu - Blur - Gaussian Blur at the settings given below. If your photograph has fairly light colours you may want to change the blend mode to darken on the layer palette.

5. Duplicate your blur layer twice (so that you have 3) and apply the Constellation filter at the following settings. Change the random seed for each layer. If you are using a different filter a smaller sized star looks better.

6. Duplicate the white background layer twice (so that you have 3) and merge a blur layer to each background.

7. Activate the top mask layer and resize to 90%. Sharpen if necessary. Duplicate twice (so that you have 3) and merge to each background layer.

8. Select your text tool and making sure the top layer is active, add a quote of your choice and position. Text settings are below. I used #676470 as the background colour with the foreground closed. Convert to raster.

9. Apply the Gradient Glow filter to your text using the settings below. If substituting a white drop shadow then have Vertical and Horizontal at 0, Opacity at 100% and Blur at 20. Apply the drop shadow twice if your text doesn't stand out enough. The first settings are EC4 and the second EC5.

10. Change your font size to 72 and type your name as a new layer. Convert to raster and apply glow to your name.

11. Add copyright information. Merge all your text layers together and duplicate twice (so that you have 3) and merge a text layer to each background layer. Save as a .psp Animation Shop file.

12. Open your file in Animation Shop. Select all frames and change the frame properties to 15. Save as a .gif file using the settings below and you are done. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. NOTE since changing to a widescreen digital monitor I have noticed that the Octree settings leave a noticeable background where the median cut doesn't. Experiment and choose what suits you best.

Radiance

YOU WILL NEED:

* Paint Shop Pro and Animation Shop. I used PSPX but you can make this tag in other versions.

* Tube of choice. I am using the artwork of Myka Jelina and you can purchase her images and tubes from CILM.

* VanDerLee's Unplugged Effects Filters. This is a free filter which you can download from HERE.

* Font of choice. I used Chocolate Box

* My Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow kit HERE.

* Mask by me HERE.


LETS START!

1. Open a new image 500 x 500 and floodfill with white.

2. From the scrapkit copy and paste paper01 to your canvas. Apply the mask and merge the group. Change the layer blend mode to darken. Duplicate this mask layer twice (so that you have 3 layers). Apply Unplugged Effect Laserrays to each layer, changing the Control for each layer. Layer 1 = 64, layer 2 = 54 and layer 3 = 44. Duplicate your white background so that you have three and merge a laser layer to each white layer.

3. Copy and paste the oval frame pieces that you want to use to the canvas. I used the frame01, goldframeback and pearlframeinsert02. Merge the frame pieces together and resize to 80% and sharpen. Image - Free Rotate - 90 degrees (direction doesn't matter).

4. Copy and paste your tube to the canvas. I resized to 80% and sharpened. Position the tube to your liking.

5. Copy and paste the gemstones you would like to use to the canvas. Position and size to your liking.

6. Open the doodles from the scrapkit. Shift D and close the original. Open the glitter tile you would like to use (I used glitter-02) and set this as your foreground colour in the materials palette and scale to 70%. Make your background black. Use your colour replace tool to glitter the doodles. Cut and paste the doodles you want to use to your canvas. I used the smallest one and the last one on the right side. For both doodles I resized to 80%, Image Free Rotate - 30 degrees Right and sharpened. The smaller one was positioned above the frame. The larger one was flipped and mirrored and dragged below the frame.

7. Apply drop shadow at the settings given below to the gem stones, the frame and the tube layers.

8. Use your preset shapes tool to draw out an ellipse to cover the frame. Activate your text tool using the following settings. I set #381c72 as the background colour on the Materials palette (foreground closed). Position your cursor at the edge of the flower decorations (if you have done your frame the same as mine) and type your name. Promote selection to layer and select none. Apply drop shadow using the same settings as before but change the colour to white.

9. Add copyright information and your watermark. Close off the three background layers and merge visible. Duplicate twice and merge each tube layer with a background layer and save as an Animation Shop .psp file.

10. Open your file in Animation Shop. Edit - Select all. Animation - Frame Properties - change to 60.

11. Save as a .gif file using the settings below and you are done. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. NOTE since changing to a widescreen digital monitor I have noticed that the Octree settings leave a noticeable background where the median cut doesn't. Experiment and choose what suits you best.

In the Pink

YOU WILL NEED:

* Paint Shop Pro. I used version 10 but you should be able to make this tag in any version.

* Tube of choice. I am using the artwork of Marjolein Gulinsky and you can purchase her tubes from My PSP Tubes

* My In The Pink Scrap kit HERE.

* Font of choice - I used Adine Kirnberg Script.

* Eye Candy Gradient Glow (can substitute white drop shadow).

* Glass filter of choice. I used Super Blade Pro (can substitute PSP inner bevel).

* Round mask of choice. I used Mask 208 from Weescottslass (click on navigate then downloads).


LETS START!

1. Open a new canvas 500 x 500 with a white background.

2. Copy and paste Paper01 from the scrap kit to your canvas and apply your mask. Merge group.

3. Copy and paste Frame2 from the scrap kit to your canvas.

4. Copy and paste your tube to the canvas. Place under your frame and resize and sharpen if necessary. If you want part of your tube to overlap the frame as I have, then duplicate the tube layer and place the copy above the frame. Carefully erase any parts of the top tube to reveal the frame. Make sure on both tube layers that none of your tube is outside the frame.

5. Close the white background layer and merge visible. Resize to 85% and sharpen if necessary. Duplicate and apply Gaussian Blur of 20 to the bottom layer. Change the blend mode for the blur layer to Darken. Open the background layer again. I moved my frame and blur layer slightly towards the bottom right of the canvas so there will be room to build up the frame with flowers. Be careful not to move it too much or it will show in your blur layer when you are done.

6. Now comes the fun part! Copy and paste the accents you want to decorate your frame with to the canvas. I used Flower Accents 1 and Gem accents. Select the items you want using your freehand selection tool and copy them as individual layers to the canvas. I started with the flower branch and resized to 80%. I placed in above my blur layer at the top of the canvas. I then copied each of the flowers to the canvas and resized to 80%. I duplicated the pink flower several times and resized in increments of 80% to get a variety of sizes and placed them around the frame. With the pearl strand I copied it to the canvas and placed it above the blur layer. It was duplicated several times and moved around by use of Flip and Mirror and Free Rotate to place bits of the beads around the frame. Excess beads were erased - be careful not to leave any half beads on your canvas. Finally the small pearl flower was copied to the canvas. I applied a light drop shadow to make it stand out more and duplicated it several times. I placed the flowers to fill any obvious gaps. Move your layers around so beads or flowers are showing through the transparent flowers. Once you are satisfied with your frame, merge visible.

7. Activate your text tool and type your name. I used Adine Kirnberg at size 100. Apply glass filter (or effect of choice). Apply Gradient Glow (or white drop shadow) using thin setting. Position your name to your liking.

8. Add copyright information and your watermark and you are done. I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial.

Vintage

YOU WILL NEED:

* Paint Shop Pro. I used version 10 but you should be able to make this tag in earlier versions.

* Tube of choice. I am using the artwork of Selena Fenech. You will need a license to use Selena's work and her tubes are available at CILM.

* Scrap Kit by Yvette from Misfits Scrapz. I used the Kinda Vintage kit.

* Font of choice - I used Honey Script.

* Gold bead pattern (right click and save)


LETS START!

1. Open a new canvas 500 x 500 with a white background.

2. Copy and paste Doodle 2 from the scrapkit to your canvas. Resize to 85% and position in the bottom left corner of your canvas (use my tag as a guide). Duplicate, mirror and flip. Merge the 2 doodle layers together and duplicate.

3. Click on the bottom doodle layer and resize to 85% and apply Gaussian Blur at 20. Change the blend mode of this layer to Darken.

4. Add a new raster layer. Copy the paper of choice from the kit (I used paper 1). Activate your selection tool and create a custom selection using the settings below. Paste your paper into the selection. Adjust menu - Brightness and Contrast - set Brightness to -30 and Contrast to 10. DO NOT deselect.

5. Add a new raster layer and floodfill with the gold bead pattern. Selections - Modify - Contract by 3 and press the delete key. Select none. Duplicate this layer.

6. Copy and paste your tube between the gold bead layers. Resize and sharpen if necessary. Position the tube to your liking. Apply drop shadow to the bottom frame and the tube layer at the following settings.

7. On the top frame layer carefully erase any parts of the frame covering the tube eg the wing tip if you are using the same tube as I am. On the tube layer carefully erase any parts of your that are outside the frame that you don't want to show.

8. Open one of the painted flower elements from the scrapkit (I used 2). Resize to 75%. Image - Free Rotate - Right 20 degrees. Position over the bottom left corner (use my tag as a guide). Duplicate and mirror the copy. Position the copy over the top right corner. Sharpen the flower elements if required.

9. Add your text using the settings below. I used size 60 for the name and 28 for the quote. I used #752a38 for my foreground and background colour. I closed the foreground for the quote text.

10. Add copyright information and your watermark.

11. Save as a .jpg file and you are done. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.