Brushed Fantasy Background

I love backgrounds and I am sure that there are a lot of others out there that do to. I was experimenting with different things in PSP one day and came up with this type of faded edge and thought it would be pretty in a background ~~ one thing led to another and voila! another tutorial for you. You can either take the background into 20/20 and make it seamless, as I did for this page, or you can leave it just as is.

This tutorial is written in and for PSP Version 7 and assumes you have a working knowledge of PSP. I am sure this can easily be done in Version 6 with a few adjustments in paths but I have only used Version 7 so I can't make promises *S*

You will need:

JASC's PSP (30 day free trial)- You can get it HERE
Fantastic Machines PaintEngine Filter - You can get it HERE
**Unzip into your plug-ins folder AND also unzip into your C:/Windows folder to enable the default settings
20/20 (if you want to make it seamless)- You can get it HERE
This is a stand alone program that you just need to run.
A graphic ~~ The one I used is a picture of a hibiscus taken in my friends backyard. If you want to use this picture, right click on the picture and save to your hard drive.

Step 1:
Open your image in PSP and make a copy of it (Shift + D). The main reason for making a copy is in case I want to use the image again and forget to change the name when I save *S* You can close the original.

Step 2:
Set your background color to a complementary color from your graphic. I used #E9DAA8. Foreground color doesn't matter.

Step 3:
Resize your graphic to approximately 250 pixels wide, make sure resize all layers and maintain aspecte ratio are checked. The height will take care of itself.

Because we resized this we need to sharpen it. Go to Effects-->Sharpen-->Sharpen. This will keep it from getting blurry.

Step 4:
Set this graphic aside for a moment and open a new image. File-->New-->set width for 1024 and height of whatever the height of your graphic is, in this case it is 188.

Step 5:
Go back to your resized graphic and edit-->copy (Ctrl+C) and paste it onto your new image as a new layer (Ctrl+L). When you paste as a new layer it puts it in the middle of your image so go to your Mover tool and position your graphic all the way to the left edge. You can close your resized graphic.

Step 6:
Go to Layers-->Merge-->All Flatten Your new image should now look like this.

Step 7:
Go to your selections tool. Set it for Ellipse and Feather at 10. Antialias NOT checked.

Step 8:
Draw an ellipse around your graphic, taking care not to go too close to the edges.

Go to Selections -->Invert and Press your Delete Key. Keep Selected.

Step 9:
We're now going to add a texture using Fantastic Machines Paint Engine. Go to Effects -->Plugins-->Fantastic Machines-->Paint Engine I chose the temp preset. Press Apply.

Deselect and Save.

Here is what your background should now look like:

Save your image as a jpg and you can use it as a background on your website, in email or as stationary in email.

I do hope that you have enjoyed this tutorial as much as I have had creating it for you. If you have any questions or comments please don't hesitate to contact me here.

To Moon's Designs

To Tutorials Index

 

If you would like to use this tutorial for group settings, please contact me. Just click on the above mail slot *S*

 

Tutorial written and created by Patti Wavinak for Moon's Designs. These Tutorials are copyrighted by law. You may LINK to them only. You may not remove any of the graphics, zip files or html within these pages to reproduce these Tutorials, without the expressed permission of Moon's Designs. These pages may not be removed from this website and sent via e-mail, nor saved, stored or archived in files in YahooGroups or other mailing list sites, nor may they be translated and placed on another site.
Creations made from these tutorials are your creations.

Moon's Designs holds the copyright to all selections, original tubes and original images that I have created and provided for use within my tutorials. Page backgrounds and images are created exclusively for this website and may not be downloaded or used without written permission.
If you would like to use any of my tutorials for group lessons please contact me.