Triple Treat Part 1©
Framed Header with Side Borders
Although at first sight this looks like a huge and complex tutorial don't let that put you off. It is not a difficult tutorial as most of the steps are repetitions and once you have completed the first border you will find the rest extremely easy.
The beautiful tube I have used is Vector Girl by Yoka
I have completed this tutorial in PSP X but it should work fine in PSP 9 and possibly 8
You will need:-
PSP X or 9
A tube
IC Net Software Filters Unlimited 2
RCS Filter Pack 1.0
Mezzy Filters (Freeware available Here)
Simple Filters
Let's Begin!
1. We are going to start by creating our gradient so you need to select the following colours in your materials palette:-
a) Click on your Foreground Colour Box in your Materials Palette and select colour #d29c46
b) Once the colour is selected click on the 'Add to Swatches' Button
c) Name your swatch Gold 1 and click OK.
d) Now click on your Background Colour Box in your Materials Palette.
e) Select Colour #fdf3ad
f) Add to your swatches in the same way and name it Gold 2.
g) Select your Swatch Tab in your Materials Palette and your two colours should be there ready for use. We do this because we will be switching colours throughout the tutorial and it just makes them easier to find and use.
h) With your two colours selected in your Materials Palette click on your foreground colour and select the Gradient Tab
i) Click on Edit and select Foreground/Background
j) Select the following settings for your gradient. Angle 45/ Repeats 5/ Invert NOT Checked
k) OK this selection and you should now have a gold gradient in your foreground box.
2. Select and Open your tube in your workspace. Duplicate twice and close the original. (Don't worry about size for the moment)
3. Minimize one copy and with the other copy open in your workspace select Layers/New Raster Layer.
4. In your swatches RIGHT click on White. This will bring it into your background colour box.
5. Flood Fill Tool/Flood fill your new layer with white.
6. Layers/Arrange/Send to Bottom
7. Layers/Merge/Merge all Flatten.
8. Image/Resize/Resize your image to 210 x 210 using the following settings making sure that Lock Aspect Ratio is UNCHECKED. Don't worry about distortion this is going to be the background for our other copy of the tube.
9. Effects/Image Effects/Seamless Tiling at default.
10. Adjust/Blur/Gaussian Blur/Radius 25.
11. Effects/Plugins/IC Net. Software Filters Unlimited 2/Tile and Mirror/Radial Tile at default.
12. Effects/Plugins/Mezzy/Dusty using the following settings. Intensity 60. Contrast 0.
13. Maximize the other copy of your tube and Image/Resize making sure that Lock Aspect Ratio is CHECKED resize your image so that it is 208 pixels on it's longest side.
14. Edit/Copy and close this image.
15. Edit/Paste as New Layer onto your prepared Background Image
16. Effects/3D Effects/Drop Shadow using the following settings:- Vertical 3/Horizontal 3/Opacity 40/Blur 10/Colour Black/Shadow on New Layer Not checked.
17. Layers/Merge/Merge all flatten
18. Image/Add Borders/Symmetric/30 Pixels/In white
19. Selection Tool/Magic Wand/with the following settings:- Add (shift)/RGB Value/Tolerance 0/Use all layers and Contiguous checked/Feather 0/Anti Alias Checked/Select your newly created border.
20. Selections/Invert.
21. Effects/3D Effects/Cutout using the following settings: Vertical 0/Horizontal 0/Opacity 40/Blur 20/Colour Black/Fill interior with Colour not checked.
22. Selections/Invert
23. Selections/Promote Selection To Layer
24. In your materials Palette/Swatches/Right Click on Gold 2 and this should bring your gold gradient in your foreground box back to the one we created earlier.
25. Flood Fill Tool/Flood fill your border with the gold gradient.
26. At this point you need to choose a colour from your tube as the overlay to your borders. Select your colour into your background (bottom) colour box in your materials palette. It is worth noting at this point that some colours work better than others. Most browns work well allowing the gold to shine through. Heavy reds and blues will drown the gold and produce a different effect. Also remember the colour you choose will be the background colour for your finished letter. I have chosen the mid brown from the girls hair. Add this to your swatches naming it block colour. Make a note of the # number of this colour and then return your background colour to Gold 2 by right clicking on your swatch. This is done because the next effect will differ depending on the colour in your palette.
27. Effects/Texture Effects/Weave using the following settings. Click on the Weave Colour box and enter the # number of the colour you have just chosen. Do the same for the Gap Colour entering the same # number so both boxes are showing the same colour. CHECK the fill gaps box. Gap Size 1/Width 1/Opacity 100./ OK.
28. Your border should now look like this depending of course on your chosen colour.
29. Effects/Plugins/RCS Filter Pack 1/Triple Exposure/Separation 145
30. Effects/Plugins/Simple Filters/Top Left Mirror
31. Effects/Plugins/Simple Filters/Top Bottom Wrap
32. Deselect.
33. Image/Free Rotate using the following settings:- Left Checked/90 Checked/All Layers not checked/Rotate Single Layer around canvas centre Checked.
34. Selection Tool/Magic Wand/Same settings as previously used/Select the two white blocks on both sides of your image.
35. Layer Palette/Highlight your Background layer
36. Materials Palette/Right Click on Block Colour in your swatches to bring it into your background box.
37. Flood Fill Tool/Flood fill the selections with your block colour.
38. Effects/Plugins/Mezzy/Dusty same settings as before
39. Effects/3D Effects/Drop Shadow using the following settings:- Vertical 0/Horizontal 0/Opacity 40/Blur 20/Colour Black/Shadow on New Layer unchecked.
40. Deselect
41. Layer Palette/Highlight your top layer.
42. Effects/3D Effects/Drop Shadow using the same settings.
43. Layers/Merge/Merge All Flatten
That is the first part of our frame created. The rest of it is basically repetition with just a few changes.
44. Image/Add Borders/30 Pixels/Symmetric/White
45. Selection Tool/Magic Wand/Same settings as previously used/Select the border.
46. Selections/Promote Selection to Layer
47. Flood Fill Tool/Flood fill the border with your gold gradient
48. Effects/Texture Effects/Weave using the same settings as before
49. Effects/Plugins/RCS Filter Pack 1/Triple Exposure/Separation 145
50. Effects/Plugins/Simple Filters/Top Left Mirror
51. Effects/Plugins/Simple Filters/Top Bottom Wrap
52. Deselect.
53. Selection Tool/Magic Wand/Same settings as previously used/Select the two white blocks on the top and bottom of your image
54. Layer Palette/Highlight your Background layer
55. Materials Palette/Right Click on Block Colour in your swatches to bring it into your background box.
56. Flood Fill Tool/Flood fill the selections with your block colour.
57. Effects/Plugins/Mezzy/Dusty same settings as before
58. Effects/3D Effects/Drop Shadow using the same settings as before
59. Deselect
60. Layer Palette/Highlight your top layer.
61. Effects/3D Effects/Drop Shadow using the same settings.
62. Layers/Merge/Merge All Flatten
63. Image/Add Borders/30 Pixels/Symmetric/White.
64. Selection Tool/Magic Wand/Same settings as previously used/Select the border.
65. Selections/Promote Selection to Layer
66. Flood Fill Tool/Flood fill the border with your gold gradient
67. Effects/Texture Effects/Weave using the same settings as before
68. Effects/Plugins/RCS Filter Pack 1/Triple Exposure/Separation 145
69. Effects/Plugins/Simple Filters/Top Left Mirror
70. Effects/Plugins/Simple Filters/Top Bottom Wrap
71. Deselect.
72. Image/Free Rotate using the same settings as before
73. Selection Tool/Magic Wand/Same settings as previously used/Select the two white blocks on both sides of your image.
74. Layer Palette/Highlight your Background layer
75. Flood Fill Tool/Flood fill the selections with your block colour.
76. Effects/Plugins/Mezzy/Dusty same settings as before
77. Effects/3D Effects/Drop Shadow using the same settings as before
78. Deselect
79. Layer Palette/Highlight your top layer.
80. Effects/3D Effects/Drop Shadow using the same settings.
81. Layers/Merge/Merge All Flatten
82. Image/Add Borders using the following settings making sure Symmetric is UNCHECKED
83. Selections/Select all
84. Selections/Modify/Contract 30
85. Selections/Invert
86. Selections/Promote Selection to Layer
87. Flood Fill Tool/Flood Fill the selection with your gold gradient
88. Effects/Texture Effects/Weave using the same settings as before.
89. Effects/Plugins/RCS Filter Pack 1/Triple Exposure/Separation 145
90. Effects/Plugins/Simple Filters/Top Left Mirror
91. Effects/Plugins/Simple Filters/Top Bottom Wrap
92. Deselect
93. Effects/3D Effects/Drop Shadow using the same settings as before.
94. Layers/Merge/Merge all Flatten. This is the size of your finished frame. The next border will become part of the background.
95. Image/Add Borders/30 Pixels/Symmetric
96. Selection Tool/Magic Wand/ using the same settings/Select the border.
97. Flood Fill Tool/Flood Fill with your block colour
98. Selections/Invert
99. Effects/3D Effects/Cutout using the same settings as before
100. Selections/Invert
101. Effects/Plugins/Mezzy/Dusty/Same settings as previously used.
102. Deselect
103. Add a new layer and add your Watermark if desired.
104. Layers/Merge/Merge all Flatten.
Save as a Jpeg with the compression at 25. Keep open in your workspace.
To Create the Sidebars and Background.
1. On your main framed image make a selection as shown in the image below:-Avoiding the drop shadows at the top and bottom frame borders make a selection of the two sidebars of the main frame.
2. Edit/Copy
3. Edit/Paste as New Image
4. You can now Deselect and close your main image.
5. Effects/Plugins/IC Net Software/Filters Unlimited 2/Tile and Mirror/Mirror Horizontal
6. Effects/Image Effects/Seamless Tiling/Corner/Vertical/Vertical Offset 0/Transition 50
7. Image/Canvas Size/Increase the width of the canvas to 1024/make the height the same as the height of the image. In my case this is 305 pixels. Placement/Click on the Centre Left Button
8. Effects/3D Effects/Drop Shadow using the following settings:- Making sure that Shadow on New Layer is CHECKED.
9. On your Shadow Layer/Effects/Image Effects/Seamless Tile using the following settings:- Edge Vertical
10. Layers/Merge/Merge Visible.
11. Layers/Duplicate
12. Image/Mirror
13. Move Tool/Click on your Right Sidebar and using your left arrow tool on your keyboard click it 17 times to move it inward. This is so that that the image will not be obscured by the scroll bar in Incredimail.
14. Layers/New Raster Layer
15. Layers/Arrange/Send to Bottom
16. Flood Fill Tool/Flood Fill this layer with your block colour.
17. Effects/Plugins/Mezzy/Dusty/using the same settings as before.
18. Layers/Merge/Merge all Flatten
19. Save as a Jpeg with the compression at 25.
Assemble your images in Letter Creator placing the background and sidebar image in the body section placed Left/Top. Choose your font, size and colour and link settings etc. Set your Text 100 Left and 117 Right. Then enter your framed image in the Header Section placed Centre, complete your footer details, finish and Voila........done!
I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial. Click here to let me know!
Thank you.
Tricia ©
Tricia December 30th 2005 ©
