December 20, 2013
Being on Kissing Kate's CT team, I got to play with her beautiful kit called Night Before Christmas.
So I made this tag with it, using the artwork of Ellie Milk.

TUTORIAL - ALWAYS YOU

This tutorial was written by me using PSP X, but any version should work.
Resemblance to any other tutorial is purely coincidental.
This tutorial assumes a good knowledge of PSP and tagging.
Supplies:
Tube of choice.  I am using the artwork of Ellie Milk, license and tube available at PFD (the tube I used is an Exclusive tube)
Kit: PTU kit Night Before Christmas by Kissing Kate, available at PFD or The Art of Spazz store.
Mask: DD_WinterMask_10 by Dee of Dangerously Delicious Designz, available here
Font: Dobkin Script, available here
Eye Candy 4000 Gradient Glow

Unless otherwise stated, I have used a Drop Shadow with settings of: 2,2,30,5, color black.
For sharpening resized tube/elements, I have used Unsharp Mask with settings of: Radius 3, Strength 30, Clipping 3, Luminance Only unchecked.
Let's get started!
Open a new image 650 x 650, flood fill with white.
Add a new layer, Select All.  Open Paper 10, copy and Paste Into Selection.
Open DD_WinterMask_10, apply mask.  Merge layer group.

Open Frame 2 and copy and paste as a new layer, sharpen.
Duplicate the frame, and merge the original and duplicated frame.  Add a drop shadow.

Open Element 63, copy and paste as a new layer above the frame layer.  Resize by 85%, and move slightly to the right.
Change the Blend Mode to screen.
Open Element 57, copy and paste as a new layer above all layers.

Open your tube, and copy and paste as a new layer above all layers.
Resize your tube to your liking, sharpen.  Place in the middle of the frame so the upper body will appear as if she's coming out of the frame.
This next bit is a bit complicated, but not too hard once you get the hang of it.
Duplicate tube layer.  Apply a Gaussian Blur of 5 to duplicated layer.  With original tube layer active, Select All - Float - Invert Selection.
Make your duplicated tube layer active, hit Delete, then Select None.  Apply a Blend Mode of Soft Light to your duplicated tube layer.
Duplicate your duplicate tube layer, change the Blend Mode of this second duplicate layer to Screen, and change the opacity to 30%. 
Now merge all 3 layers, but do so in this order:
Merge the Soft Light layer with your original tube layer.
Merge the Screen layer with the original tube layer.
Rename this layer Upper, and duplicate it.
Apply a drop shadow to the Upper layer.
Rename the duplicate layer to Lower, and using your Layer Palette, move the Lower layer just below the Frame layer.
Now hide your Upper layer.
Make your Lower layer the active layer, and use your Erase tool to erase all parts of the tube that are visible below the Frame.
Now unhide your Upper layer, and again use your Erase tool to erase the parts of the Upper tube showing below the Frame.  But also carefully erase the lower parts of the Upper tube layer so that the leaves of the Frame are showing over your tube.  Be careful not to erase the edges of the Upper tube as you still want your drop shadow to show.  When you're done, it should appear like your tube is popping out of the Frame.

Now that we have the Frame and tube place, it's time to add the elements.
For the elements, resize each element according to the percentages below.  Use your Pick Tool (or Image --> Free Rotate) to rotate the elements to your desired positions.  When necessary, duplicate, mirror, sharpen, add a drop shadow, and use my tag as a guide for placement.
Just a hint: I find it best to paste your element onto your image, rotate your element to the desired angle, resize, then sharpen.  This order gives a crisper, sharper image (as opposed to resizing then rotating).
Element 11: 13%
Element 41: 19%
Element 60: 25% for the candy canes around the wreath frame
Element 60: 35% for the candy canes at the bottom of the wreath frame
Element 31: 50%
Element 29: 13%
Element 17: 40%
Element 15: 50%
Element 4: 22%
Element 3: 22%
Element 1: 30%
Element 51: 37%
Add copyright.
Add your name.  I used Font Dobkin Script in white, with an Eye Candy Gradient Glow of width 3, colour green (colour from one of the elements to match), and a drop shadow (with opacity of 15% this time).

Delete your white background layer, and save as a png.

DONE!!
I hope you've enjoyed this tut.
If you have any questions or find a mistake, please feel free to send me an email.
Also, I'd love to see any tags made using this tut, so again, please feel free to email me your creations, or post the link to your tag in the comments below.
~Allison~

0 people loved this post!:

Post a Comment