The Square Necessities

The Square Necessities

The beautiful Rose is a 'Garden by Ocean' Tube.

This is a long tutorial but those of you who know my work will know that I like to make the complete set and my instructions include the sidebars and the background as well as the frame.

My thanks, as always, to the fabulous ladies of Force Fantastic for their hard work and support in testing this tutorial.

This tutorial is entirely my own work and any resemblance to any other is purely co-incidental. Please do not copy, duplicate, translate, script or use in any groups without my permission.

You will Need:-

PSP 8, 9 or X

A Tube of your choice

VM Distortion

Simple Filters

RCS Filter Pack 1

Graphics Plus

Filters Unlimited 2

Here is what we do!

Remember to Save your work often.................just in case!

1. Open your chosen tube in your workspace. Duplicate and close the original. Resize so that it is 250 pixels on it's longest side.

2. Eye Dropper Tool/Choose a Mid to Dark Colour as your Foreground choice and a complimentary Light colour for your Background choice. We will be using these to create a gradient.

3. Edit/copy your tube image

4. Image/Resize/Resize to 250 x 250 pixels/making sure that Lock Aspect Ratio is UNCHECKED/Resize all Layers CHECKED/Resample using Smart Size.

5. Layers/New Raster Layer

6. Layers/Arrange/Send to Bottom

7. Flood Fill Tool/Flood fill with your Lighter colour

8. Layers/Merge/Merge Visible

9. Effects/Image Effects/Seamless Tiling at Default

10. Adjust/Blur/Gaussian Blur/Radius 25

11. Effects/Texture Effects/Texture using the following settings:-

Texture Striation/Size 31/Smoothness 0/Depth 3/Ambience and Shininess 0/Angle 315/Intensity 40/Elevation 40/Colour White

12. Effects/Image Effects/Seamless Tile/using the following settings: Mirror/Bi-directional

13. Materials Palette/Background/Pattern Tab/Locate the pattern you have just created/Angle 0/Scale 100.

14. Edit/Paste as New Layer (this will paste your tube image onto your background) Adjust the size of your tube if necessary using the Raster Deform Tool so that there is space in each of the corners for the 24 pixel squares we are going to create.

15. Effects/3D Effects/Drop Shadow using the following settings:-Vertical and Horizontal 2/Opacity 40/Blur 10/Colour Black.

16. Layers/Merge/Merge Visible.

17. Effects/Plugins/Graphics Plus/Emboss using the following settings:-

18. Close this layer by clicking on the eye in your layer palette.

19. Layers/New Raster Layer

20. Selection Tool/Custom Selection (click on theicon) using the following settings:-

21. Flood Fill Tool/Flood Fill the Selection with your Dark Foreground colour.

22. Selections/Promote Selection to Layer

23. Effects/3D Effects/Cutout using the following settings:- Vertical and Horizontal - (minus) 1/Opacity 100/Blur 1/Shadow Colour Black.

24. Layers/Merge/Merge Visible

25. Selections/Select None

26. Layer Palette/Left Click on this Layer and Drag it into your workspace/Minimise until later.

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

28. Effects/3D Effects/Inner Bevel using the following settings:-Bevel 2/Width 20/Smoothness 35/Depth 5/Ambience 0/Shininess (mine is set at 30. Depending on your choice of colour you may need to alter this)/Colour White/Angle 315/Intensity 40/Elevation 50.

29. Effects/3D Effects/Drop Shadow/using the following settings:-Vertical and Horizontal 2/Opacity 30/Blur 4/Colour Black

30. Repeat Drop Shadow with Minus Settings.

31. Open your Image Layer/Layers/Merge/Merge Visible

32. Close this merged Layer.

33. Layers/New Raster Layer

34. Layers/Arrange/Send to Bottom

35. Image/Canvas Size/Increase the canvas size to 320 x 320/Image Centre

36. Selections/Select All

37. Selections/Modify/Contract 10

38. Selections/Invert

39. Flood Fill Tool/Flood Fill with your Dark foreground colour

40. Selections/Select None

41. Effects/Plugins/VM Distortion/Flip Chop using the following settings:- Horizontal and Vertical 28

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

43. Image/Canvas Size/Increase the Canvas to 390 x 390/Image Centre

44. Selections/Select All

45. Selections/Modify/Contract/10 pixels.

46. Selections/Invert

47. Selections/Promote Selection to Layer

48. Flood Fill Tool/Flood Fill with your Dark Foreground Colour

49. Selections/Select None

50. Effects/Plugins/VM Distortion/Flip Chop using the following settings:- Horizontal and Vertical 24

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

52. Layers/Merge/Merge Visible

53. Image/Canvas Size/Increase the Canvas to 460 x 460/Image Centre

54. Selections/Select All

55. Selections/Modify/Contract/10 Pixels

56. Selections/Invert

57. Selections/Promote Selection to Layer

58. Flood fill Tool/Flood Fill with your Dark Foreground Colour

59. Selections/Select None

60. Effects/Plugins/VM Distortion/Flip Chop using the following settings:- Horizontal and Vertical 20

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

62. Layers/Merge/Merge Visible.

63. Selection Tool/Magic Wand/using the following settings select the three small squares in each corner of the frame. See Image Below.

64. Selections/Promote Selection to Layer

65. Flood Fill Tool/Flood Fill with your Dark Foreground Colour

66. Effects/3D Effects/Inner Bevel/Same Settings as previously used.

67. Effects/3D Effects/Drop Shadow/Same Settings as previously used.

68. Repeat Drop Shadow with Minus Settings

69. Selections/Select None.

70. Close this Layer by Clicking on the Eye in your Layer Palette

71. Highlight your Framework Layer.

72. Selection Tool/Magic Wand/Same settings as previously used/Select the 3 large rectangular shapes on the four sides of your frame. See Image Below:-

73. Selections/Promote Selection to Layer

74. Flood Fill Tool/Flood Fill with the pattern you created earlier

75. Effects/Plugins/Graphics Plus/Emboss/same settings as previously used.

76. Effects/3D Effects/Drop Shadow/Same Settings as previously used.

77. Repeat Drop Shadow with minus settings.

78. Selections/Select None

79. Selections/Custom Selection/using the following settings:-

80. Edit/Copy

81. Edit Paste as New Image and minimize until later. This will be the image for your sidebars.

82. Selections/Select None

83. Close this layer by clicking on the eye in your Layer Palette and highlight your Framework Layer.

84. In your materials palette/Foreground/Select Gradient/Edit/Foreground-Background/using the following settings:- Angle 45/Repeats 3/Invert NOT checked

85. Selection Tool/Magic Wand/Same Settings as previously used/select the coloured framework.

86. Flood Fill Tool/Flood fill with your gradient.

87. Selections/Promote Selection to Layer

88. Effects/3D Effects/Cutout/using the following settings:- Vertical and Horizontal 1/Opacity 100/Blur 1/Colour Black.

89. Selections/Promote Selection to Layer

90. Repeat Cutout using Minus 1 settings.

91. Layers merge/merge visible.

92. Selections/Select None.

93. Highlight and open your image layer

94. Effects/3D Effects/Drop Shadow /same settings as previously used.

95. Repeat Drop Shadow with Minus settings.

96. Open all layers/layers Merge/Merge Visible.

Your basic frame is completed. We just need to add a drop shadow to the whole image but before we do that we need to add a background layer. Instructions for background and sidebars are on the next page so save your work but keep your image open in your workspace and follow this link:-