Cherished Sentiment

This tutorial was written by me on August 6th, 2012. Any resemblance to any other tutorial or tag is unintentional and is pure coincidence. Please do not claim my work as your own and do not post to any other website, blog or forum without permission from me. It is written with the assumption that you have a working knowledge of PSP and its components. It was written for PSP 9.

I recommend that you read through this or any tutorial you are attempting before starting it so you will know what to expect and how to get organized.

As with any of my tutorials when a plugin is required, change only the settings I recommend and leave the others on the default settings.

What you will need to accomplish this tutorial is this sensational kit by the wonderful Ladyhawwk Designs called Inspired by Jennifer Janesko 135-3.  You can purchase this kit HERE at Creative Design Outlet.  You'll also need the beautiful art of Jennifer Janesko which you can also purchase at Creative Design Outlet HERE along with the rest of her stunning art.  Please support the arts and DO NOT use Jennifer's tubes without a license.  Plugins include Alien Skin Eye Candy 5/Implact and Xero.  Floral brush I have included in supplies HERE.  Font is Arabia which you can download HERE.

Alright when you're ready, let's get started...

First of all, you'll need to install your brush into your PSP...it's just a couple of simple steps.  First, open the .png file I provided into PSP then go up to File/Export Custom Brush.  Name your brush and hit Okay.  Any brush you export into PSP this way cannot be any larger then 500 x 500.

 Open the elements and your tube into PSP and start a new 700 x 700 white image.  We'll resize later.  Now copy and paste ele9 into your new image, move it slightly to the left of your canvas and then duplicate and mirror it.  Merge these two layers together and then grab your Selection tool.  With a feather of about 75% select a small area at the bottom of the two merged elements and clear away your selection.  Also select the area inside your merged elements where the two hearts join together and clear this area as well.  Your new 'frame' should appear something like this:

Directly beneath your new frame copy and paste your tube and then duplicate it and drag the duplication above the frame.  Now using my image as a reference you want to make her fit into your frame but with the part of her elbow protruding out from the frame.  For this area beneath the frame where we want her elbow out it's best to use your Selection tool with the same feather for smooth edges.  Erasing this way may take a little practice but it's not that difficult.  If you didn't know, you can move the little marching ants selection around with your Move tool and right mouse button.  You will also need to 'tweak' the original tube you pasted in the same manner.  Once you have them like you want them go to Effects/Plugins/Xero/Radiance and use these settings:

Copy and paste paper of choice behind your original tube layer and using your eraser brush erase the areas outside your 'frame.'

Now copy and paste the gorgeous silk flower which is ele4 into your canvas.  You can use my image as a reference for size and placement, but you don't have to be precise in placing your flowers where I placed mine.  The only thing to remember about placing flowers or anything that grows in nature into your image is that nothing in nature grows symmetrically.  Just place them around randomly and in different sizes.  Speaking of sizes, you can always, always, always use your Raster Deform tool or your Pick tool for precise sizing.  But before you start duplicating and resizing we need to colorize the flower if you wish to use my color palette.  This is achieved by going to Adjust/Color Balance/Color Balance and using these settings:

Once you have your flowers colorized, and placed around give each one a slight drop shadow.  For the rose element I did not colorize.  You can simply paste, duplicate and resize and distribute them randomly amongst your other flowers.

For ele5, colorize, resize and distribute in the same manner.

For the hunter green foliage in the background use your supplied brush.  Add a new layer for each brush stroke so you can resize and move them around your canvas as well.

Now copy and paste the rest of your elements.  For the ones in the foreground I used a perspective shadow to cast a light directly above them.  Go to Effects/Plugins/Alien Skin Eye Candy 5/Impact/Perspective Shadow and use these settings:

You can tweak your shadows by moving the nodes around in the preview window.  To move one node at a time hold down your CTRL key.  It's very important to think about how a shadow would be cast realistically and how dark or how light it should be.  This plugin is one of my favorites and one I use with nearly every single one of my tags.

Now for your name once you have it typed and the size you want it go to Effects/Plugins/Alien Skin Eye Candy 5/Chrome and use these settings: (set your antialias to sharp for crisp edges with your font.)

Then go to Adjust/Hue and Saturation/Colorize and use these settings:

Add a slight drop shadow.

Now to resize.  Close your background layer and merge all of your visible layers together. Using your Raster Deform tool drag the nodes in and down to resize slightly.  Resize your Canvas to your desired size and if needed further resize your merged layers.  I prefer resizing like this as it prevents most of the distortion of resizing in percentages depending how large or how small you go.  You may want to resize your work before adding your name if you're planning to make tags for others.

Add your copyright and you're done.  For a neat and professional-looking copyright I use pixel or copy fonts.  You can Google and find hundreds of these fonts.  These fonts work best usually with your antialias set to off and at size 6.

I'm pleased you done my tutorial and I hope you gleaned something to hone your skills from it.  Please feel free to contact me with any questions you have with any of my tutorials or with issues like broken links, etc.  You can find me on facebook through the link on this blog or you can get me at my email at tresetags@gmail.com.  Please put in your subject line DND blog tutorial.  Happy creating...

Blessing, 

Trese