Flower Fairy

YOU WILL NEED:

* Tube of choice. I am using the artwork of Molly Harrison. You need a licence to use her art and you can purchase her artwork from CILM. Molly's art is particularly good for this tag!

* Accents are taken fom your tube - one detailed and 1 simple

* Font of choice - I used Santas Big Secret HERE

* DSB Flux Bright Noise filter HERE

* Mura Meisters Copies filter HERE

* A good working knowledge of PSP and Animation Shop

LETS START!

Set up your supplies ready for use. If you are working from an image and tubing yourself, you will need a tube of the full image, one of the subject alone, one detailed accent and one simple accent.

Open a new image 500 x 500 with a white background. Copy and paste the full tube (one with the most detail) to the canvas. Resize to 75% (depending on size of the tube you are using). Apply Gaussian Blur at the following settings -

Cut and paste your blur layer as a new image (control-c, then control-v). Add a new raster layer and floodfill with white. Drag the white layer to the bottom. Close the original canvas.

Copy and paste your detailed accent to your new canvas, above the blur layer. Resize layer to same % as before.

Apply Muras Copies at the following settings. Adjust the Shift X and Shift Y settings to make sure all of your image is on the canvas if need be.

Resize this layer at 80%. Reduce the opacity to 60%.

Copy and paste your simple accent above the detailed layer. DO NOT resize. Apply Muras Copies at the same setting as before.

Copy and paste the tube of the subject alone to your canvas. Resize to the 60% (or suitable size). Sharpen your tube if necessary and add a drop shadow if you want to (I used 1, -1, 45, 4 and #000080 for the colour). Position this layer and the simple accent layer to your liking. Close off the subject layer.

Activate your simple accent layer and duplicate twice. Apply the DSB Flux Bright Noise filter to each layer at the following settings. Remember to click on Mix for each layer before applying.

Close off the subject layer and the 3 simple accent layers. Activate one of the other layers and merge visible. Duplicate the merged layer twice. Merge a simple accent layer to each background layer. If you want to resize your canvas now is the time to do it. Sharpen if necessary.

With your top background layer active, select your text tool. Choose two complimentary colours from your tube. I used dark - #7495de and light - #adc2eb. Type your name with your text tool on the following settings -

Position your text and convert to raster. Apply a text effect of choice and a drop shadow (same as you used on your tube layer).

Add the appropriate copyright information and your watermark on another layer. Merge with your text and tube layers. Duplicate the layer twice and merge to each background layer.

Save image as an Animation Shop .psp file.

Open image in Animation shop. Save as a .gif and you are done. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.

Avalon Hearts

YOU WILL NEED:

* Tube of choice - I have used Molly Harrison's art work which you can purchase at CILM

* Gold pattern tile (right click and save to your own computer)

* Heart Things font Here and another font of choice

* Super Blade Pro (can substitute PSP Inner Bevel or Eye Candy Glass

* Xero Tekstya filter (can substitute PSP Blinds effect) Here

* Paint Shop Pro and Animation Shop (or similar). This tag was made in PSPX but should be able to be made in any version.

LETS START!

Set up your supplies ready for use ie you want your gold pattern on the materials palette, install any fonts or plug-ins and restart PSP if necessary. Have your tube open in PSP.

Open a new image 600 x 435. Choose two complimentary colours from your tube. I used #9d596b (dark) and #c8abbc (light). Change your material palette to gradient and select the foreground-background gradient. Change the style to sunburst. Make sure the lighter colour is at the centre of your gradient and floodfill your canvas.

Apply Xero Tekstya to your gradient layer at the following settings (you may substitute PSP Blinds Effect applied twice, once with horizontal checked). Tone = 0; Density, Depth and Highlights = 127; Sparsity = 2.

Select your text tool and open the Heart Things font. Using the gold pattern tile as the foreground and with no background, type the letter S with a stroke width of 5 and size 300.

Stretch the vector out and position to the right of your canvas, using the above tag as an example. When you are satisfied with the size and position, convert to raster, select all, float and defloat. While still selected, apply Super Blade Pro with a clear glass or coconut ice preset (may substitute Eye Candy Glass or PSP inner bevel). Duplicate and rename the layers frame 1 and frame 2.

Open a new raster layer under each frame layer. Rename the layers colour 1 and colour 2.

Change the materials palette to colours and put your original colours back on the palette. Activate the frame 1 layer and using your magic wand, select the large heart in the middle and alternate hearts around the outside. Selection modify and expand by 2. Activate the colour 1 layer (under frame 1 layer) and floodfill the selected areas with one of your colours. Keep selected and activate colour 2 and floodfill the selected sections with the other colour. Select none.

Your layer palette should look something like this -

Activate the frame 1 layer again and using your magic wand select the hearts that have not yet been coloured. Selection modify and expand by 2. Floodfill with alternate colours on the colour 1 and colour 2 layers. Merge each frame layer to a colour layer.

Resize canvas to 500 wide (all layers ticked).

Copy and paste your tube as a new layer. Resize and position to your liking. Rename the layer tube.

Add a new raster layer and floodfill with the gold pattern. Select all, selection modify, contract by 2. Press the delete key. Selection modify, contract by 1, floodfill with the gold pattern. Selection modify, contract by 2 and press the delete key. Select none and rename the layer frame.

Add the © and your watermark as new layers.

Select your text tool and using your second font, add your name as a new layer using the gold pattern and the foreground and background.

Apply drop shadow at the following settings -

Merge the frame, tube, the ©, the watermark and name layers together. Duplicate. Collate your layers so that you have two sets of (from the bottom) background, hearts, tube which should look something like this -

Merge each set together so that you are left with two layers. Save as an Animation Shop .psp file.

Open your file in Animation Shop. Select the Edit menu - select all. Animation menu - frame properties. Change the number to 60. Save your file as a .gif file and you are done.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!