Shantung Secret

This Tutorial is entirely my own work and any resemblance to any other is purely co-incidental. This tutorial assumes a basic knowledge of PSP and it's tools. My thanks, as always, to my great group of testers at Force Fantastic who make it all possible.

This is what we will be making.

Shantung Secret

You will need:-

Paint Shop Pro. I have completed this in PSP X but it can be done in 8 or 9

A Graphic (You can create your own graphic using a tube and background and then follow the tutorial from step 1)

Filters Unlimited 2

Two Moon Filters

Simple Filters

20/20 Mask or another circular fade mask. 20-20 Zip Here

This what you do:

1. Open your chosen graphic in PSP. Duplicate twice and close the original. Minimize one copy.

2. Image/Resize. Resize the remaining image to 320 x 320. Make sure that Lock Aspect Ratio is UNCHECKED.

3. Effects/Image Effects/Seamless Tiling at default.

4. Adjust/Blur/Gaussian Blur/Radius 25.

5. Effects/Plugins/Filters Unlimited 2/Tile and Mirror/Radial Tile at default

6. Maximize your saved copy of the graphic and resize so that it is no bigger than 310 on it's longest side. Make sure that Lock Aspect Ratio is CHECKED.

7. Layers/Load/Save Mask/Load Mask from Disk.

8. Add 20/20 mask to your image.

9. Layers/Merge/Merge Group.

10. Edit/Copy and close this image.

11. Edit/Paste as New Layer onto your prepared background image.

12. Layers/Merge/Merge Visible.

13. In your materials palette select the following colours. These will not show when your image is completed but the effects we are going to use work best with these colours.

Select #f6a018 as your foreground colour.

Select #fdfc9f as your background colour

14. Image/Canvas Size. Increase your canvas to 490 x 490 /Image Centre.

15. Close your Image Layer by clicking on the Eye in your layer palette.

16. Toolbar/Preset Shape Tool/Preset Shapes/Rectangle using the following settings.

17. Materials Palette null your foreground (top) colour by clicking on this box under the colour.

18. Beginning in the top left corner of your image drag down to the right bottom corner and create a square 475 x 475. The measurements will appear at the bottom left of your screen. (Not the x and y numbers they refer to position. If you are working with a split screen you may need to open PSP fully to see them) Watch them change as you move your cursor.

19. Objects/Align/Centre in Canvas

20. Layers/Convert to Raster Layer

21. Open your foreground colour by clicking on the and null your background colour (bottom) in the same way.

22. Preset Shapes/Octagon. Leave all other settings as they are.

23. In the same way as you drew the rectangle drag out the octagonal shape 380 x 380.

24. Objects/Align/Centre in Canvas

25. Layers/Convert to Raster Layer

26. Layers/Merge/Merge Visible.

You should now have this.

27. Selection Tool/Magic Wand using the following settings select the inner yellow centre of your octagon.

28. Press Delete on your keyboard.

29. Effects/3D Effects/Cutout using the following settings.

30. Deselect

31. Selection Tool/Magic Wand/Same Settings select the orange octagonal border and the transparent area around the yellow outer.

32. In your Materials Palette open your background colour.

33. Click on your foreground colour and select the gradient tab.

34. In your Gradient Selection Panel Click on Edit and Select Foreground-Background.

Angle 45

Repeats 2

Style Linear.

Invert UNCHECKED

35. Flood Fill Tool/Flood Fill the selected areas with your gradient.

36. Effects/Artistic Effects/Chrome/Flaws 2/Brightness 0/Colour White

37. Open your Image/Bottom Layer by clicking on the eye but do not highlight this layer. You need to continue working on your frame layer.

38. Effects/Texture Effects/Texture using the following settings.

Note:-

The numerical settings are the ones I have chosen which seem to work best but you may find it necessary to adjust the Ambience and Shininess depending on the shade of your chosen colour. The colour can be chosen by moving your cursor over your image until you find something suitable.

39. Deselect

40. Selection Tool/Magic Wand/Same settings as previously used/Select the yellow area of the frame.

41. Material Palette/Gradient/Change the repeats to 3. Leave all else the same.

42. Flood Fill Tool/Flood Fill the selected area with the gradient.

43. Effects/Plugins/Simple Filters/Top Left Mirror

44. Effects/Artistic Effects/Chrome/Use the same settings as before but change the flaws to 1.

45. Effects/Texture Effects/Texture using the following settings. Again adjusting to suit your liking. Leave the colour the same or change it to a slightly lighter or darker hue. Whichever you prefer.

46. Deselect.

47. Effects/3D Effects/Drop Shadow/using the following settings.

48. Highlight your Image Layer (bottom) and add a drop shadow using the same settings.

49. Layers/Merge/Merge Visible.

50. Layers/New Raster Layer.

51. Layers/Arrange/Send to Bottom

52. Materials Palette/Gradient/Change the repeats to 8

53. Flood Fill Tool/Flood Fill the layer with the gradient.

54. Adjust/Blur/Gaussian Blur/Radius 40

55. Effects/Artistic Effects/Chrome/Flaws 2/Colour. Choose a colour from your image the same way as you did for the texture.

56. Effects/Plugins/Two Moon Filters/Wish it would Rain/using the following settings. (you may find you need to adjust these settings depending on your choice of background colour)

57. Layers/Merge/Merge all Flatten.

58. Save as a Jpeg with the compression set at 25.

Leave open in your workspace

To Create the Sidebars and Background.

1. Selection Tool/Rectangle/Make a selection as shown on your main image about 75 pixels wide leaving out the top and bottom borders.

2. Edit/Copy

3. Edit/Paste as New Image. (You can now deselect and close your main image).

4. Effects/Plugins/Filters Unlimited 2/Tile and Mirror/Mirrored and Scaled.

5. Effects/Plugins/Filters Unlimited 2/Tile and Mirror/Mirror Horizontal.

6. Image/Canvas Size/Increase your canvas size to 1024 wide x the height of your sidebar. Placement Centre Left.

7. Effects/3D Effects/Drop Shadow using the following settings. Ensure that Shadow on New Layer is CHECKED.

8. Effects/Image Effects/Seamless Tile/on your shadow layer using the following settings.

9. Layers/Merge/Merge Visible

10. Layers/Duplicate

11. Image/Mirror

12. Layers/Merge/Merge Visible

13. Layer/New Raster Layer

14. Layers/Arrange/Send to Bottom

15. Materials Palette/Colour/Choose a colour for your background.

16. Flood Fill Tool/Flood Fill your new layer with your chosen colour.

17. Effects/Plugins/Filters Unlimited 2/Paper Textures/Fine Canvas at default. (You can of course choose whatever background you prefer)

18. Layers/Merge/Merge all Flatten.

Save as a Jpeg with the compression set at 25.

Assemble in Letter Creator placing the sides and background image in the body section and setting the Image Position at Centre/Top. Adjust the Left and Right Text Boxes to 90. Place the main image in the Header Section and place Centre.

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial.