Paint Shop Pro (all versions have a few Masks already installed as standard either in My Documents/My PSP Files or Program Files/Jasc Software/Paint Shop Pro 7/8 or 9/Masks) Masks are very easy to use and to make but people get a little worried about using them. Trust me, as long as you have ' the Undo' key    , lol, then you can make as many mistakes as like - let's face it, that's how we learn :)

If you only have a few masks then please give me a shout via my email and I'll send you more 'cos I got loads, lol!

These are the materials I'll be working on in this tutorial so if you wish to use the same ones then please feel free to download them here :) You'll need to download the .pspmask into your Masks folder in My Documents/My PSP Files/Masks. Ok, find an image that you'd like to use as a mask. I've chosen this one: If you'd like to use this one, then just right click and 'save as' to a folder on your computer that you store your graphics in or it is included in the materials zip for this tutorial. Then open it up in Paint Shop Pro (whatever version you have).

Go to Layers/New Mask layer/New Image (some versions differ in wording but they are all similar) and the following menu box will appear. Use these settings :)

Our image should now look similar to the following image :)

Now we want to save it as a mask extension that Paint Shop Pro will recognise. So go back to Layers/Load/Save Mask/Save Mask to Disk.

When the menu box pops up, name your file (whatever you think you'll remember, lol, it really doesn't matter.) and press ok :)

Now let's open a new image 400 x 400.    

We are now going to colour this layer with our Paint Can    and I've used the colour #d691d7 but you can use any colour that your prefer. Now go to Layers/Load/Save Mask/Load Mask from Disk. Look for the new mask you have just chosen and using these settings, press ok.

Notice that on your layers pallette you have your 'mask' open as it were and we now need to group these together. So highlight your Group Raster Layer and right click. Go to 'Merge' then Merge Group.You should have a merged layer and a Raster Layer left on your pallette.

The bottom raster layer is going to be the colour of our background so let's rename it now to whitebgrd or whatever colour you want your tag background to be on.

Take your Pain Can and with the bgrd layer highlighted fill it with the colour of your choice. I've used white for this one :)

At this stage you can either add your name to it or start adding .psp or tube files. These are files that have a transparent backgrounds and there are millions on the internet if you just search for PSP Tubes.

I've used this hunky man which is in your downloads materials. Copy the male image (Edit/Copy) and then paste it as a new image on your masked image (Edit/Paste/Paste as New Layer). I placed mine at the lower right hand corner of my masked image. I then lowered the opacity of this layer to 64 and it should look like something similar to this :)

Ok, now highlight the top layer and right click. Go down to Merge then Merge All Visible. We are now working on one layer.

Open up your maskflowers tube and making sure the flower tube is highlighted, go to Edit/Copy and then paste it on to your mask image we have been working on. It should look something like this :)

Right click on the top layer in your layer pallette and go to Merge, Merge Visible. Now we're going to add another mask to show you how masks can be used on virtually anything:) Go to your Layers/Load Mask/Load Mask from Disk. You can either choose one that is standard in Paint Shop Pro or one of your own, or the one I've included in the download materials (tp_Edge 16).

Now go to Layers/Load/Save Mask/Load Mask from Disk and look for our mask to_Edge16, load it and your image will look like this :)

Almost finshed now :) Highlight your Group merged, right click and click on Merge/Merge Visible. Add a new raster layer and drag it to the bottom of your layers on your layers pallette. Fill this layer with white

Well done, you have finished your tag using not only a mask you created but also you masked it again. Masking is unlimited and opens a new world to adding background to your images and your named tags. I do hope you enjoyed this tag as much as I did doing this tutorial.

You could add a border at this stage if you wanted to by going to Image/Add Borders and specifying how big you'd like your border to be. Generally they are between 5-10 symetrically. Just choose a colour you'd like as your border and voila - you're done. I used a border of 10, and by clicking on the colour box I chose the colour #d691d7, on the image we've been working on. I then went to Images/Resize and resized it by 80%. This is the result :)

Should you have any questions relating to Tag Making then please feel free to email me, Michele and I'll try to help :)