Digital tuts by Steph

Snow Falling Animation Tag

2011-12-11T12:26:00.001-08:00

This tutorial was written using ONLY Jasc Animation Shop. I believe it can be done in Gif Animator too. Please note that both of these programs are now free. If you need the link to either of them, please send me an email.
The files you need are included in the zip you will find here. They are all sized so they'll be ready to use.
1. Open Animation Shop. Open your fallingshow.psp file. You'll notice there are ten frames.
2. Open your snow scene. You will have to duplicate the frame so that there are ten of them. Go to Edit, Duplicate Selected.

3. You will notice that you now have TWO frames and BOTH are selected. If you go to Edit, Duplicate again, you'll get 4 frames since they are both selected, right?

Bottom line is you want TEN frames here. So keep watch on the number frames you end up with. It is easy to delete any extras but make sure you only have ten frames.
4. Go back to your fallingsnow frames. Go to Edit, Select All (1), then Edit, Copy (2).

5. Click on the snow scene that now has ten frames. Go to Edit, Select All. NOTE: Make sure the Propagate Paste is toggled ON (see pointing hand on screen shot below).

Now, go to Edit, Paste Into Selected Frames.

You will see "snow" poised at the end of your pointer. Place the "snow" so that it is centered as best you can (it is a bit smaller than the scene because you'll have a window over it, right?). It will appear that you'll only get snow in one frame but once you click your mouse, each scene frame will have snow on it. I promise! :) Here is a screen shot of two of the frames for you. There is no way to show you all 10 frames without making it too small.

6. Open you window frame now. Again, duplicate the frame until you have TEN frames. Go to Edit, Select all then Edit, Copy. Just as you did in Step 4. Go back to you snow scene that has the snow on it (that you put there). Your frames are still selected so all you have to do here is repeat the Edit, Paste into Selected Frames.

7. At the top tool bar, at the far right, there is a little "movie" icon ). Click on it for a preview of your animation. Cool, eh?
8. Next, you want to save your masterpiece. Go to File, Save As. Give your animation a file name, making sure to add gif after the dot. I called mine snowscene.gif.

10. If you have size limitations in your groups, it would help to re-size your animation. To do this, go to Animation, Resize Animation.

I re-sized mine 60%. Here is my finished animation:

Obviously, if you want to make this a tag, you will have to put your name somewhere. You can do the same above steps to do that. Do the name part in an image editing program like Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop or Photo Impact. Save and open in Animation Shop (or Gif Animator) and follow the steps!
Both of my friends who tested this for me used different window frames and snow scenes. If you do the same, make sure that your images are approximately the same size so it looks right. That you will have to do in Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop. I hope you enjoy the tutorial. Please email me if you have any questions. I'll try to help!

2010-04-27T20:21:00.001-07:00

Just a short note to let you know that I am limited here on the computer - I fell on Friday and broke my left arm. It is not fun at all to be unable to use both hands! :) I see an orthopedic doctor next Monday so hopefully will get something less bulky, So I won't be doing a whole lot of designing for a while and wanted you all to know why.

2010-03-28T20:58:00.001-07:00

Caution about FictionDB.com - Although they have a great way to copy and paste the book series into an Excel-like spreadsheet, you really have to double-check the listings. I just discovered this problem tonight when updating my Tom Clancy books. I use Quattro Pro which is part of the WordPerfect Office Suite and very similar, I am told, to Excel. Anyway, when at FictionDB, and getting the list for the Jack Ryan books, there are two books in the list that are not Jack Ryan books. Sometimes there are books actually missing from their lists as well. I use Fantastic Fiction to check the information provided at FictionDB.

I am trying this spreadsheet idea that a member at Paperback Swap shared with me to keep track of the series and authors that I read. I still don't know how it will work when I go shopping for used books but we'll see. I would actually love to use a database but I haven't found one yet that specifically does what I want it to do. All the book databases I have found so far are for keeping track of the books one has in one's personal library. That isn't what I want so I will either have to figure out a way to modify the existing ones or keep looking!

2010-01-12T15:32:00.000-08:00

Latest book I just finished was An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon. Now you have to understand that I have waited for at least 3 years for this book of hers which is a sequel and #7, I believe in the series. I bought the book in October and waited until late December to open it and read it.

Almost immediately, I noticed there were way too many sub-plots going on and whole sections of the book that could have been left out. There is the Brianna and Roger & family plot, Jamie and Claire plot, Lord John Grey plot, William (Jamie's son and a British soldier), Dottie plot, Henry plot, Rachel and Denzell Hunter plot, Ian plot, Jenny and Ian plot (Ian Sr., that is), etc. Not only that, but there was quite a bit of switching between the 18th and 20th centuries which was to be expected.

As I neared the end of the book, several major things happened and I could see that there were going to be things left unresolved or, worse, hastily put together. I closed the book today and was thoroughly disgusted! There are WAY too many loose ends and things left to one's imagination and, right now, I am furious with Ms. Gabaldon!! Now it looks like I'll have to wait another three years to find out what happens to Rachel and Ian, William, Henry, Jem, Brianna, Roger, Rob Cameron, Dottie and Dennie, etc. That is totally unfair to your readers, Diana! We are not tepid fans, you know. Most, if not all, of us wait as patiently as we can for your next sequel and deserve so much more than you gave us in this book.

You wasted too much time on details of the battles, side trips of stories that really added nothing to the main characters and the plots. I had seen some poor reviews of this novel on Amazon and dismissed them right away but no so any more. I am not altogether sure I'll put myself through another 888 pages to be left hanging like this again!

2009-12-24T17:14:00.000-08:00

Since this is a personal item, I decided to post these pictures in my "thoughts" blog. On December 5, Hanna had her first slumber party and she had a lot of fun as well as her guests. I scrapped some of the photos and ended up with two really good ones.

I used papers and elements from my Feminine kit for this one. Here is the second one:

I am thinking this really tells the story of the slumber party best. I didn't make the photo collage but simply selected a layer and pasted a photo into the selection. I added papers and elements from the Dawn kit for this one. Thanks for looking!

13 Gift Ideas for a Chronically Ill Gal

2009-12-19T17:55:00.000-08:00

13 Gift Ideas for a Chronically Ill Gal

2009-11-01T22:26:00.001-08:00

For the very first time, I had to use "System Restore" on my computer and, behold, it worked! I was doing some "file management" (actually just looking around to see what I could delete safely) and, by accident, moved some crucial Windows file. I immediately got an error message with an offer to "fix" it. I just kept getting the "retry" button so I had a feeling things were not good. I continued to read email, surf the internet, etc., then decided to open Paint Shop Pro 9. I got some weird error message and no program. I have had some problems lately with PSP9 so thought it had finally died on me. I then tried to open PSPX2 with no success. I got the same error message.

So, I thought I'd better run System Restore since I KNEW I had done something bad. It was so simple to use! I just clicked on System Restore under the System Accessories and a dialog box popped up asking me what date to go back to. Since all was well yesterday, I clicked on that day. After about 15 seconds, my computer rebooted and started back up. Absolutely no problems! I think this is the first time I have ever had something work so well in Windows! By the way, I use Windows XP Pro. I hate to think what headaches I would have had if I had just shut down first.

Thanks for reading! Oh, I am reading, by the way, True Blue by David Baldacci. Wow, what a great, suspenseful book it is. I am a big fan of his anyway but from the first page, it is riveting. I recommend it!

2009-10-14T21:02:00.000-07:00

Update on the Ten-Day Give...well, I enjoyed it! The Bible is right when it says, "it is more blessed to give than receive" - there is a joy in giving that can't be explained unless you do it. A few years ago, I was able to give a car to a friend and I just can't tell you how wonderful that made me feel! I have to admit that I forgot about the giving thing and ended up have to "double up" on some days but that still worked out for me.
One the things I gave was a copy of An Echo of Bone by Diana Gabaldon to my daughter. She is the one who got me reading the Outlander series years ago. I was hesitant to read it because the time period that the book (book one of the series) took place is really not my favorite time period (early 18 century) but once I got into the book, I was hooked. Now I can hardly wait until the next volume comes out! Let me tell you, these are "volumes" too - most books are at least 1000 pages but very worth the reading. Basically, the story line is that Clare in 1945 manages to slip back into time and meets Jamie Fraser, a Scottish soldier. Clare is married but falls madly in love with Jamie. The rest of the series is the story of their unending love with lots of other characters that I have come to feel are family or at least good friends. I got my daughter an autographed copy of the newest novel that came out September 22. She picked it up tonight and is so excited to read it! We agreed that neither of us would start before the other. :) Yes, I got a copy too but just an "everyday" one. I can hardly wait to read this newest novel. I'll let you know when I start it.
Bye for now!

2009-09-26T00:45:00.000-07:00

Hey, everybody, I have joined a group through Christian Personal Finance called the "Ten-Day Give". Starting on October 1 (that is next week), we will give to others "something" every day. It doesn't have to be money...it could be time, or clothing or items in your home, etc.

I encourage you to join me in this effort and let's all find out the joy of giving. It really is better than receiving.

2009-09-06T22:19:00.000-07:00

I finally got a chance to do something fun with Hanna's and Joshua's school pictures. The sad thing is that I won't be able to get it printed so will have to be satisfied to put it in my digital scrapbook. The photos are considered to have copyright privileges. How do I know this? Last year I created one for the kids and took it to Walgreen's to have it printed. They refused because of the copyright issues. I don't blame them; I just didn't think about it when I asked them to print it.

Their photos this year are great! What do you think of my layout here?

Thanks for looking.

2009-09-05T20:52:00.000-07:00

I just finished Danielle Steel's novel, The Dating Game. I must say that I was disappointed at the ending portion of the book. It seems as if she rushed the telling of the two most important things to happen to the heroine. I don't want to give away anything so won't go into detail. I usually can figure out what Ms. Steel will do with her heroines, at least to some extent, but this one didn't go the way her normal romance novels do.

The other thing that surprised and saddened me is that she felt she had to be politically correct and have a homosexual relationship as part of her heroine's relationships. Not that the heroine was involved with another woman but people she met. The relationship was portrayed as a committed one so that was good but, sadly, not the behavior of most that I have seen. A dear friend of mine was suicidal when her partner decided to leave her for another woman. It took her years to recover from it. That happens way too much in both homosexual AND heterosexual relationships today. Our culture seems to abhor commitment, loyalty and fidelity.

2009-07-07T21:24:00.000-07:00

I decided to make this a bit more than a tutorial blog since it has been months since I posted one (April). There are other things I am interested in and that I do that I'd like to post about now and then. Please see on the right the little picture for Paperback Swap. It is a GREAT place to swap books and there is no fee to belong. Basically, you put at least 10 books on your "bookshelf" and then you get two credits. The credits enable you to pick books from other members' bookshelves. You pick a book and the team notifies that member and even lets you know when the book has been mailed. When someone chooses one of your books, you get that book ready to mail (they even provide a mailer of sorts...more about that in a sec). Paperback Swap has an arrangement with a company whereby you can even buy the postage for the book! You do have to put some money on account for the postage, of course, and you can pay by credit card or PayPal. I have been a member since 2007 and it is just a great way to get books, save money and meet new friends.

The other thing that I recently started there was taking part in the forums. There is a ton of information on the service works but also posts about all sorts of things. People are really nice there too. I don't know about you but some of the forums I belong to? The members are really nasty, crude and use ugly language so I rarely, if ever, post anything there. Of course, that is NOT true of the scrap designer forums! If you love to read like I do, you'll love Paperback Swap.

I have read 58 books so far this year and right now I am reading Creme de Cocoa by JoAnna Carl. It is actually three of her books in one. It is a cozy mystery series and the book contains the first three in the series. It is advertised as a "chocoholic mystery" because the protagonist, Lee, works for her aunt who owns and operates a gourmet chocolate candy store. The description of the different candies makes my mouth water! But besides that, they are good books to read....I like Lee, so far, except for her annoying habit of getting her words twisted around. Ms. Carl could cut back on that a bit. :)

Be sure and check my TEA Party blog and see my photos from our local event. That's all for now!

2009-04-25T18:18:00.000-07:00

Plate Tutorial for You!

This is a tutorial using the free plate template referred by my scrap blog at Digital Art by Steph. Unzip the plate file to a location you will remember. Open the plate psp file in Paint Shop Pro, duplicate it and close the original.

Note the screen shot below. The little hand is pointing a light gray circle. This is the vector circle you will use to get your text to go around the plate. The layer marked as text you will use for whatever text you want to appear on the plate. The text layer is highlighted (again see screen shot below).

Find a cursive font that you like. Depending on the font and phrase I wanted to use, I set the size of the text anywhere from 125 to 175. You may have to adjust the kerning of your text to make sure the letters don't run together. I had to set mine anywhere from 5 to 25 depending on the font. Use the background color and close off the foreground color. I picked my background color to complement the color I was going to make the plate. For example if I chose pink, the background color I used for the text would be a dark pink.

Once you have your font all set up, take your mouse and point it to the light gray circle. Once the cursor changes to an A with a half circle under it, click and type in your text in the box that pops up. If you want the beginning of your text to start at a different place, place your mouse on the center of the box (see screen shot below). Mouse your in the direction you want the text to move and you can see your text move.

After applying text and making sure you like its placement, convert to raster layer. Select all then float the text layer, add a new raster layer. Apply cutout of 4, 4, 80, 5 color black. Do not de-select!

Apply a drop shadow of 2, 1, 100, 2 color white.

De-select text, move your cutout/shadow layer below text. If the white is too visible to your liking, turn down opacity of cutout/shadow layer (this is entirely your discretion). Delete the vector circle layer. Turn off the plate layer and merge visible the two layers. If you want to add a graphic, tube, etc. to the middle of the plate, open your graphic or tube, copy and paste to the plate. Turn down the opacity of the layer in order for the plate to appear more realistic.

To colorize your plate, pick a color from your graphic or tube as your background color. With the Color dropper, click on the plate for your foreground color. Go to Adjust, Color Balance, click on Manual Color Correction. See screen shot. Tick the Manual Target Color radio button. Right-click on the top color and pick your gray in the foreground color box. Right-click on the bottom color and pick the color in the background color box. You will see the plate change color. If the color isn't quite right, you can adjust the gray either darker or lighter until you are satisfied. This information on the colorizing in this manner I learned from Shawna. Please see her blog at Scrap Stuff With PSP Tutorials .

Merge visible all the layers. Select All, Float the Selection (so the plate is selected), then de-float the selection. Now apply Xero Porcelain at 50, 47, 144 and leave rest of settings alone.

Below is a screen shot of my finished plate greatly re-sized.

2009-04-24T16:25:00.000-07:00

I have a new tut in the making but wanted to tell you about a couple of things on my other blogs. First, I am trying to start a "freebie of the day" on my scrap blog. Be sure and check my Digital Art by Steph blog every day or sign up for Feedblitz to get notifications of new posts.

Second, I have another blog now called DAS Tea Party. This is a blog where I write about current events and how I feel about them. As you may be aware, on April 15, there were over 3000 tea parties all over the U.S. that got little to no media attention and was seriously and deliberately minimized. Estimates are that a million people showed up to quietly protest the government that is taxing us and refusing to listen to us. This isn't limited to the present administration as may have been reported by the mainstream media but really started with the previous administration since 9/11.

Take a look at both my blogs and let me know what you think!

2008-12-24T23:03:00.000-08:00

Hello, everyone...before Christmas eve gets away from me, I want to take the time to wish all of you a merry Christmas and a blessed New Year. Thank you, all, for your encouragement and support in learning digital scrapping. That is one of the best traits of graphics friends...the willingness to share what you learn and what you create.

In some parts of the world, it is already Christmas day and some of you may be baking or cooking. You may not get this message until the day is over for you. I can only pray for all of you that you stop and remember that this is not just a "holiday". We celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. No, He wasn't actually born on December 25 but we take the day to remember Him and thank the Father for the wonderful gift He gave us. It was His grace that He sent His Son who paid a horrible price for our salvation while we were yet sinners. That just blows my mind! Wow, He loves us so much. I hope, if anything, that you will see that and understand it just a bit. He really loves us beyond our human understanding!

God bless you all,
Steph

Felt Sewn Letters

2008-11-07T13:53:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd pass on the method I used to create the alpha for Thankful (kit). I was trying to get the look of sewn felt letters. Here are the steps I took:
1. Pick a fat font, block letter style. I used Fatslab. However, the font didn't have numbers! Can you believe that? So for the numbers, I chose Anja Eliane. Again, this font is fat. (please go here to get the supplies for this tutorial). Open a new transparent image 500x500 pixels, with a resolution of 300 dpi.

2. I have also included in the supplies the light and dark felt patterns I made from a tutorial. I don't remember where I found the tut now. Sorry. I used the light felt pattern. Open the felt pattern, pick your color for your letter. Colorize the felt by using the Manual Color Correction tool in PSP. NOTE: in newer versions of PSP, you will have to add this tool to the toolbar. I have PSP X2 but I don't know when Corel stopped including it in the toolbar. Right-click on your toolbar, click Customize. Click Adjust and find the Manual Color Correction and add it to your toolbar. For a detailed description of how to use the tool, see Shawna's tutorial here. Set your text to vector and the size to 300. You want a large letter here. I pulled out the text even more so the letters ended up being about 300 x 300 (this would make them about an inch in size for printing). Type out your first letter, using only the felt pattern for your background and the foreground set to null.

3. Pick a lighter cooler of your main color for your foreground. Turn off the background. Set your Pen Tool to a width of 2 and use the dash styled line (I included it in the supplies in case you don't have it.) Set the Pen Tool at Vector and start your "stitching" inside your letter about 1/8 from your outside edge. (see screen shot) NOTE: for a straight line, hold down the shift key and click to the next place for your line. Take your time and "stitch" carefully all around the outside edge of your letter. If you are happy with it, convert the vector layer to a raster layer.

4. Add a layer BELOW your stitching line. Now set your foreground color to a darker color than your letter. I tried black and it is too dark. It works better to use a darker hue of your color. Set your paintbrush to a size of 4. Click once right at the edge of a stitch. Go to Adjust, Blur, Gaussian Blur of 1. Then, go to Edit, Copy, Paste as a new selection on both sides of each stitch. (see screen shot below) I know this is time-consuming! That is why it took me 3 days to create the alpha! To save a little time, use the control key and the letter E to paste your blurred dot. This saves a lot of time, trust me. After you have put a dot on each side of your stitches, deselect. Turn down the opacity of this layer to 50%. Close all layers except your stitching and your "shadow", merge visible

5. Go to your letter layer, apply an Inner Bevel. Use the 2nd shape (looks like a wedge of pie), width = 9, Smoothness = 4, Depth =3, Ambience = -15 (that is a minus), Shininess = 0, Color = white, Angle = 315, Intensity = 58, and Elevation = 30 (see screen shot).

6. Duplicate the letter layer, turn OFF the copy of the layer, go the original letter layer, and using the move tool, slide the letter to the right just a bit. Go to Adjust, Brightness and Contrast with settings of Brightness = -18 (that is a minus) and Contrast = 12. Click OK. (see screen shot below) Turn your duplicate layer back on.

The edge of the original letter should be visible a bit.

7. Make sure you are now on the duplicate layer (which is on top of your original letter layer), grab the Lighten/Darken tool. Set the size at 14, hardness = 50, step = 25, density = 44. thickness = 100, rotation = 0, opacity = 31. (make sure the swap mouse buttons box is ticked). Run the mouse along the stitching until it is fairly dark (see sample). Right-click and run the mouse along the edge by the stitching. Now increase the size of your brush to about 32. Again, right-click and run the brush on the inside of the letter near the stitching. This gives the effect of stitching holding the letter together. Again, see the sample. When you are happy, turn off the bottom layer, merge visible, copy and paste as a new image, save your completed letter.

Please email me if you have any questions!

Editing Your Blog

2008-08-17T13:25:00.000-07:00

First, go to your Dashboard, click on Layout.

This is what my basic template looks like:

I have all my scrap blinkies and tags under My Scrap Friend. If I want to add a new friend and her blog, then click Edit.
You will see something like this:

It looks like a foreign language, right? If you already know how to create a web page, then the text will look familiar...a reference to a website (a blog in this case) with an image for your viewer to click. To add someone, go to the end of your existing, hit the return key to go to a new line.
I am assuming you already have uploaded the person's blinkie or tag to your photo sharing site (like Photobucket) and copied the html code for that photo. You can either go to Edit, Paste or simply press the control (ctrl) key and the letter V to paste the code you have copied from the photo sharing site.

At the top right of this box is a link Rich Text. Click that and now you will see this:

Highlight the new person's tag/blinkie. At the top of the box is a little green ball with glasses on top of it.

Click that and you get this box:

type in the link to your friends blog...for example, for mine, it would be http://www.nemapunkin.blogspot.com
Click Okay and you are back to the main dialog box. Click Save and your box will close. You'll be back at the main edit page, click Save, then view your blog. That is it!

Now let's say you don't have any friends set up yet and you want to make a new list of them for your blog. Click on Add a Gadget.

You will get a new box with a variety of choices. Pick HTML/Java Script (scroll down to find it) by clicking on the words.

You will get a blank box like this:

Type in your title, then follow the steps above that I outlined for adding to an existing list. Just remember when you are all down, click Save for your changes to take place. When get back to the template page, click Save again then view your blog.
Hope this helps. Email me if you have any questions.

Puffy Journaling

2008-08-02T20:42:00.000-07:00

I saw this in a kit today and figured I could try to make something similar. I am sharing with you how I came up with this "puffy" journal.

1. Open a new transparent image, 1000x1000, 300 dpi. Flood fill with a bright color so you can see what you are doing. I used a bright blue.
2. Click on your Shapes tool icon, making sure that you are using the "Preset Shape" option. Choose "Callout 8".
3. Set your foreground color off, choose white for your background color. Set your shape to vector and draw out a large callout (see screen shot below)

4. You will notice that there is a long "tail" on your "cloud". Let's get rid of that. Convert your layer to a raster layer. Take your Freehand Selection tool, set at point-to-point, with a feather of 1. Carefully, go around the "tail", paying particular attention to the edge near the "cloud". When it is all selected, hit the delete key several times.

This is what my cloud looked like after removing the "tail".

5. Now you have your base. Save the file as a template for later use! Continuing on to make our journal, go to Select All, Float, then Defloat your selection. Now go to Selections, Modify, contract 30 pixels. Add a new layer, fill the new layer with your preferred color. Again, go to Selections, Modify. Contract 20 pixels this time, then hit the delete key. Now you have a colored border. Keep your selection!

6. I used a plug-in called Jeux de lignes to make the lines. To get the lines the color of your border, first go to the Materials Palette and click on the color you just used to make your border. Write down the values for the red, green and blue. You will need them for the plug-in.

7. The effect in the Jeux de lignes is called "entrelacement". I have forgotten nearly all that I learned in high school French so I am unable to translate this for you. :) See the screen shot below. Move the slider for the red, green and blue to the values your wrote down. "Rouge" is red, "vert" is green and "bleu" is blue (that one was easy! lol). Make sure you are on the WHITE layer or you will not see any changes in the preview! Move the slider for "Espacement" to about 34 (this is the distance between lines). Although it looks very wide in the preview, it will NOT be on your image. Hit Apply and you will see what I mean. If the lines are still too close together for your preferences, Undo and go to the plug-in again and adjust the "espacement" number a little higher. "Epaisseur" is the width of the line. The default is 1 which results in a soft line. Move the slider to a higher number if you wish and you can see in the preview how the line looks. This is your preference, of course. (Please NOTE: I used Filters Unlimited. Your screen may look different than mine. The settings, however, remain the same.)

8. Turn off the selection. Close off the bottom layer (my blue layer here). Merge visible. Copy and Paste as a New Image. I applied a light drop shadow to my tag of horizontal and vertical set at 0, opacity at 50 and blur at 5. Save to your hard drive as a png file. You now have your first "puffy" journal tag!

(Above screen shot has been greatly reduced)

Folded Ribbon

2008-06-27T17:52:00.000-07:00

Someone asked me to write a tutorial on how I did my folded ribbon. I actually can't take create for the uniqueness of the ribbon itself. Melissa of Sensational Style had a folded ribbon in a kit she did. I opened that ribbon and studied it and came up with this idea. On with the show!

1. Open a new transparent image 750 x 300 pixels. Normally, I don't make a ribbon that wide but for this folded type, I made it about an inch wide. Finish it in your favorite way. Copy and save the new image as a ribbon to your hard drive. Keeping the original open, take the rectangle selection tool and make a selection about 1/3 of the ribbon. This is YOUR folded ribbon so do it the way you want it to look!

2. Go to Edit, Cut, Paste as a New Layer.

3. Go to your new layer, grab the Deform or Pick Tool (depending on your version of PSP). Rotate it so that right side angles down a bit. (see screen shot below)

4. When happy with the placement and angle, sharpen it a bit. Using the deform (or pick) tool blurs your selection a bit. Go to Adjust, Sharpness, Unsharp Mask. See my screen shot below for what I use.

5. Continue making rectangle selections of your ribbon. Do NOT simply duplicate the layer since you want it to look like a real ribbon. Some of the selections will be longer than the others as well. To get the angled, layered look, you'll need to cut off part of the ribbon on top. Making sure you on the layer you need to cut, lower the opacity of that layer a bit so you can see under it. Take the Freehand Selection tool, set at Point to Point. Carefully go around the ribbon using the edge of the ribbon layer under it for a guide. Cut that piece off by hitting the delete key a couple of times.

6. Use my folded ribbon as a guide, if you want. Once the ribbon pieces are where you want them, take the lighten/darken tool, set as below, and use it in the places the layer above crosses the layer below. However, make SURE you are on the layer under it since you have more control of where the darkness (or lightness) goes. I used the lighten tool on the edge that is "folded" and the darken tool so it appears there is a slight shadow. This makes it appear more folded, I think. Play around with the settings for the lighten/darken tool. I found that the lighten opacity and density is better with lower numbers than when using the darken tool.

6. When you have completed the above, merge the layers visible and save your folded ribbon. Below is a screen shot of my final product.

Making a Different Clip

2008-05-31T14:04:00.000-07:00

I saw a paper clip the other night that was different and thought I'd try to duplicate it. It looks somewhat like the one I saw but I do like it. It is always fun to have some different things in your kit, right? I am going to pass on to you how I did it. Let's go!
Open a new transparent image 500x500 pixels, 300 dpi. Set the foreground color light gray #c0c0c0. Set the background color to null (off). Grab the Shapes tool set at ellipse with a width of 15.00 pixels. Draw out a fairly large oval, center it. When you are happy with the size and shape, convert this layer to a raster layer.
Grab the Shapes tool again and draw out a second oval (ellipse). You want the top of the new oval to be laying on the top of the first one and the oval smaller than the first. See screen shot.

When you are happy with the oval and its placement, convert this layer to a raster layer. Turn off the bottom layer and merge the two layers visible. Apply Eye Candy chrome. I used Eye Candy 5 Impact. Here are the settings I used.

Take the Magic Wand and click in the center of the smaller oval. Go to Selections, Expand, enter 3 pixels. Add a new raster layer, fill the selection with your color. Keeping it selected, apply Flaming Pear Super Blade Pro glass clear preset (ships with the plugin). Keep it selected! Apply an Inner Bevel. I used Eye Candy 5 Impact Bevel with the settings below. NOTE: The bevel shape is "custom" meaning you create it. If you look at the screen shot below, you see the bevel shape has 2 "humps". To get that shape, click on the basic button shape line. That adds a node (I guess that is what it is called). You can now grab that node and move it up and down. It takes a bit of practice to get the shape just the way you want it. If you happen to add a node you didn't want or it is in the wrong place, highlight that node and then click the Delete down at the bottom right-hand corner under the shape box.

Move the beveled color layer under the oval layer. Merge visible and save as a PNG file.
This is what mine looks like.

Grungy Alpha Tutorial

2008-05-29T11:14:00.000-07:00

I recently shared a new alpha and thought I'd share how I did it. I used a nice, crisp font, New Times Roman (comes with Windows). The pattern I used for the "fill" was one I made using a painting. You could use contrasting color too. I used a brush created by Touchstone. I don't think that I can share it. It is a set of brushes. You could use any grungy brush. Below is the setting I used:

Okay, use the medium color for the font set as your background. The foreground is set at null. Set your font size to 300, vector. Open a new, transparent image, 500x500, 200 dpi. Type your first letter. Go to Objects, Center. Convert your vector layer to a raster layer. Select all, float, then defloat. Add a layer, Pick your pattern or color, set as your foreground color. Using your brush, place it varied places on your selected letter. Keep selected!

Turn off your first layer, merge visible. Apply a bevel. I used Eye Candy Impact. The settings are below. It is just a nice flat bevel with a slight edge.

Go to Selections, Expand. Enter 5 pixels. Place your mouse on the bottom layer, add a layer (this puts the dark color under your letter). Change the color of your background color to your dark color and fill the layer. Selections, none. Merge visible, copy and paste your completed letter as a new image. Save in PNG format. Continue with the rest of the alphabet in this manner.

When I set my colors, I put the medium color as my background color (see above) and the dark color as my foreground color. Then all I had to do to get the dark color was click on the arrow to the right of the large color swatches (it is small - see screen shot below). This simplifies and shortens the changing of the colors.

That's it! Here is the letter A completed. I hope you find this useful. :)

Safety Pin Pierced Tut

2008-05-19T16:14:00.000-07:00

I know there are other tuts that address this issue but I thought I'd share how I did mine. For purposes of this tut, open a transparent image 400 x 400 pixels. Fill with a medium color, I used a muted pink. Copy and paste your safety pin as a new layer on your image. Take the Freehand Selection tool, point-to-point, anti-alias on and no feather. Make a selection in the middle of your pin.

Hit delete once. Go to Selections, Modify, Feather, 10 pixels.

Hit delete again....this rounds the edges of the pin just a bit for a more natural look.

Making sure you are on layer 1 (in my case the pink layer), grab the Lighten/Darken tool set as below:

Carefully go around the edges of the pin (making sure now that you are on the "fabric" layer).
Change the settings on the Lighten/darken tool as below:

Click the left mouse button at one edge of pin edge, hold down the shift key, and click again at the other pin edge. Do this on both sides. In the middle of the edge, using right mouse button, click once. Hold down the shift key again and click with the right mouse button again. Holding down the shift key gives you a straight line, by the way. I played a bit with the left and right buttons to get this final look:

Merge visible your layers and save. Hope this is helpful!
bye for now - until I think of something else I figure out on my own. lol

Making Buttons (my way)

2008-05-09T12:28:00.000-07:00

I realize there are a number button tutorials out there on the internet but I thought I'd share how I make mine. I am not saying other tutorials aren't good but after playing around with them, I just wasn't pleased with how my buttons turned out. So I played a bit and came up with this.
1. Open a 400 x 400 transparent image. Set background color to color you want the button. Turn off foreground color. Using the Shapes tool, set at vector and ellipse, draw out a circle (hold down shift key to make it round).
2. Go to Objects, Align and center your circle. Convert your vector layer to a raster layer.
3. Set your background color to black, pick up the Shapes tool again and draw out a tiny black circle. Move your circle to the place on the button you want. Convert the black circle layer to a raster layer.

4. Go to Edit, Copy, then Paste as a New Selection (or ctrl-E). Place the black circle at the end of your mouse where it looks right (up to you and your eyes! lol).

5. Select All, Float, Defloat. Your two black holes are selected. Expand the selection by 1 pixel. Move down to the button layer, hit delete, then back to your black hole layer, hit delete. Keep selected! Now invert your selection and promote the selection to a raster layer.
6. Apply a drop shadow, vertical and horizontal set at 0, Opacity at 86 and Blur at 14.85.

7. Move your Promoted Selection Layer to below the button layer. This makes it look like there is some height to the button. Turn off layer 1 and the promoted selection layer and merge visible.

8. I added an inner bevel using Eye Candy 5 Impact. You could use Eye Candy 4 Bevel Boss or Eye Candy 3 Inner Bevel or, finally, the Inner Bevel that comes with PSP. Play around with the settings with whatever you use until you are happy with your button. Below at the settings I used in Eye Candy 5.

9. Unhide the promoted selection layer, merge visible. Copy and paste as a new image, save as a png file.

10. If you want to add a thread layer, use the Pen Tool set at vector, with the foreground color white (or any color you wish actually). Set the Pen Tool to straight line. Click in the center of one buttonhole, hold the shift key down and click in the other buttonhole. This will give you a straight line. As far as the width of the "thread", it depends upon how big your buttonhole is. You may have to experiment to find out what looks right. Thank goodness for the "undo" button, right? I applied a bit of inner bevel to the thread as well. Again, I had to play with the settings to get it to look right to me. You may have a different setting you like. Below is a screen shot of my settings. Please note: I had already applied the bevel when I took the screen shot.

11. Merge visible layers, copy and paste as a new image. Save as a png file. I hope this tut has been useful to you!

Stickpin Shadow Tut

2008-04-13T22:20:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to figure out how to make a stickpin look as if it is actually going through the fabric. I have tried various things but thought this looked pretty good so am sharing with you what I did.

Place your pin where you want it on the paper, bow, etc. Make a rectangle selection on the area of the pin you want hidden. Not too wide though. Hit the delete key a couple of times. Move to the layer that you want the effect on; in my example, it is fabric. Activate the Lighten/Darken tool. Below are my settings:

Run the Darken (left mouse) brush along the edge of the pin on both sides. Run the Lighten (right mouse) brush on TOP of the pin area. I took my time with both brushes until I was happy with the result. Of course, you may have a different method but this worked for me. Hope it helps someone!

Wrinkled Fabric

2008-04-08T12:25:00.000-07:00

I started looking at fabrics for another tutorial and took side trip when I got there. :) Do you ever do that? Happens to me all the time. First, I want to give you a really site to find lovely fabric patterns (courtesy of Shawna, once again!)....I spent a good hour here going through page after page and saving these patterns.

I wanted to get a realistic fabric, complete with the slight wrinkles and colorations as I saw at the website above. First, I made a 400 x 400 selection of a light-colored fabric swatch called "cornsilk yellow".

If you look at the above, you'll see that there is a light edge on the left, some wrinkles in the middle and a bit dark at the top. I wanted to make a template for this kind of fabric background. This is how I accomplished it. Copy the original and set the original aside (just in case! lol). Go to Image, Grey scale (see 1 below). Next, go to Image, Increase Color Depth (see 2 below).

This is your result:

This screen shot shows the flaws I mentioned above much clearer, don't you think? Now, I wanted this to like the real thing, with a 3-D look - I guess that is how I want to describe it anyway. Click on the Lighten/Darken tool.

Below are the settings I used. You may want to play around and see if other settings give you a result you like better.

If you haven't used this brush before, the important thing to remember is that the left button on your mouse will darken your image and the right button on your mouse will lighten your image. That took me a bit to get used to. The first thing I did was create the light edge on the left. Little trick here if you are like me and can't draw a straight line (lol)....click with your right button, hold down the SHIFT key. Click at the bottom of the line and you'll get a straight line! Amazing, eh? I did the top dark line in basically the same way. However, I set the brush size to 10 to make sure it wasn't larger than the line. Here is what I have so far:

Now to work on the bumps and wrinkles. I set the brush even smaller and roughly (again I can't draw a straight line), I followed the wrinkle across with the left mouse button. Then, I followed a bit higher the same line with the right mouse button (the lighten tool). Before your very eyes, your fabric is wrinkled!

Now you have a wrinkled fabric for a template. Colorize to match your particular color scheme and there your have it! I hope this helps. :) Have fun. Any questions, please email me or leave a comment.

Staple Shadow

2008-04-08T12:10:00.000-07:00

When I first made my staple, it looked okay but not real. I realized that the ends needed to look punched in or something. Applying a drop shadow didn't help because the entire staple then had a shadow. Here are the instructions of my result.

Add a layer, set your foreground color to #404040 (a medium dark gray). Set your selection tool to circle. Holding down the shift key, make a small circle just slightly bigger than the end of the staple. You may have to try more than once to get it just right.

Fill the circle with your foreground color. Apply a gaussian blur of 2.0.

Select none. Duplicate your layer, then go to Image, Mirror. The duplicate circle will not be right at the end of your staple so take your Move tool and slide it over.

Turn off all layers except the two circle layers, merge visible. Turn the layers back on. Move your merged layer under your staple layer. Turn down the opacity of your circle layer to about 70% (or however you like it).

Merge visible and save. That's it!

Tut on Grommet blur

2008-04-08T12:04:00.000-07:00

I taught myself a couple of things when doing my scrap kit and today that I thought I'd share here. If you downloaded my kit or looked at the preview, you'll see the double frame with the lacing in between. When I had placed the lacing on the frames, it didn't look "real" to me. It didn't look like it was made as part of the frame at first. This is what I did to get the affect you see.

The gold grommet I used is mine. I resized it 10% of its original size to fit the lacing. To achieve the look I got, take your grommet, resized, of course, and go to Adjust, Brightness and Contrast. Move the settings to -129 (brightness) and -88 (contrast) or until your grommet turns black.

Go to Adjust, Blur and apply a Gaussian blur of 2.0.

Move the blurred black grommet layer under the lacing to the top right gold grommet.

Turn down the opacity of this layer to 70%, go to Edit, Copy. Then go to Edit, Paste as a New Selection. You'll notice that the blurred grommet is at the end of your mouse pointer. Move your mouse until it over to the left, top grommet and click. If it isn't at just the right place, hit Undo and try again. If you want to use the keyboard, press the control key and the letter E and you will get the same action. Unselect, then merge visible your layers. Save as a png file.

Why didn't I use a drop shadow? Using the drop shadow would have put a shadow on all of the lacing and I just wanted a bit of shadow under the grommets. This was the way I came up with to do that. To put the frames together, I made my frame, duplicated the layer and mirrored it. I copied the shadowed lace and pasted it as a new layer. I just moved the duplicated layer over so that just the grommets rested on the edge of each frame. Hope this helps!