The tutorial kit of gradient, psp file (mermaid)+ and tear drop shape you can download here :).
Place the gradient into your gradient folder of PSP and the shape into your shapes folder of PSP - (Program Files/Jasc Software Inc/Shapes or Gradiant).
When you place the tear drop file into your shapes folder you may not see the shape appear in your tool palette. If this is the case, close PSP, browse to your Cache folder in Program Files/Jasc Software Inc/Cache, open and delete the "Shapes.jpc" file then close the folder and open PSP again. This will rebuild your cache of shapes and you will be able to see the tear drop.
Open a new transparent image of 400 x 400 pixels.
Go to your colour palette and set the foreground colour to #400000, and the background to the RedHots gradient.
Now click on your Preshapes Tool and go to your Tool Options Menu and find the tear drop shape. Set the line width to 1 and check that 'Antialias' and 'Create as Vector' are crossed.
Draw the tear drop shape onto your image towards the center. Don't draw it to large, approximately 102 x 136 pixels in height is ample. If your shape is upside down don't worry. Go to Image/Flip and it will be the right way up :)
Right click on the vector layer in your layer palette and convert to Raster Layer.
Now let's go to Effects/Plugin Filters/MuRa's Meister/Copies and apply the effects the same as below:
Your teardrop should now look more like our teardrop template now :) You can, if you save templates for other tag making save this file now into your templates folder but make sure you save it as a .psp file so it retains the transparent background.
Go to 'Selections/Select All' then Selections/Float. Now go to Effects/Plugin Filters/EyeCandy 3/ Drop Shadow and apply drop shadow to this layer, with these settings:
Then repeat but change the direction to 333.
Now go to Image/Rotate and rotate your image to the Right/90 degrees. Make sure 'all layers' is unchecked.
Your template will look now look like this:
Open your "mermaid.psp" file.
Go to Effects/3D Effects/Drop Shadow
and use the following drop shadow settings. . Do this once then repeat but put a minus before the vertical and horizintal settings.
Your mermaid should now look like this :)
You'll notice that our tube is a lot larger than our template we've just made. So we are going to 'copy' our template and paste it on to our mermaid picture. Obviously we don't want it to stay on top so right click on your mouse, hold it down, and 'drag' the template layer underneath our 'mermaid' layer. It will now look like this:)
Now add a new layer, Layer/Add Raster Layer. Once again 'drag' this layer right to the bottom. Now take your Paint Can tool and set your background colour to #ffffff (White) or if you prefer #000000 (Black). Fill this layer with your chosen colour and your done :) Go to Layers/Merge/Merge All. Then save it as a .jpg. The following examples show one tag on a white backfround and the other on white. I've resized them by 80% so I can fit them side by side, lol!
I hope you enjoyed this tutoral as much as I enjoyed making it with you.
Should you have any questions relating to Tag Making then please feel free to email me, Michele and I'll try to help :)
and set your background colour to #ffffff (White) or if you prefer #000000 (Black). Fill this layer with your chosen colour and your done :) Go to Layers/Merge/Merge All. Then save it as a .jpg. The following examples show one tag on a white backfround and the other on white. I've resized them by 80% so I can fit them side by side, lol!
