FRAMED BY FRIENDSHIP

Created March 15, 2002 © Copyright Moon's Designs
Property of Moon's Designs
This is my creation, any similarity to other tutorials on the Internet is unintentional.
Please do not copy or place this tutorial or any graphics to any other place without written permission directly from me. Thank you

 

Friends are a very special part of our lives. What better way to let them know how much you care, than by giving them a gift that you made. I was inspired to write this tutorial when I came across the quote "Strangers are just friends waiting to happen". How true this is of the PSP Community. I have met so many strangers here who have become my friends. So many of you have given so much to me, and I thank you!

This tutorial will be using only PSP tools. My tutorials are only guidelines to help you accomplish a certain creation. Please feel free to be inventive and take whatever liberties you would like. I encourage each of you to do your "own thing" and make your creation yours! Your finished creation is yours to do with as you please.

This tutorial is written in and for PSP Version 7.04 and assumes you have a working knowledge of PSP at an intermediate level. 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*

FOR THIS TUTORIAL YOU WILL NEED:
JASC's PSP (30 day free trial)- You can get it HERE

Step 1:
Open a new image 350x250, 16 million colors, transparent background. Set your foreground color to a fairly light color. I used #CFC1C1. Flood fill your layer.

Step 2:
Go to Effects-->Texture Effects-->Straw-wall. I used the Custom 3 preset, applying the default settings.

Step 3:
Add a new layer. Change your foreground color to a darker color of your choice. I used #CA7474. On your color palette you have Styles and Textures. For most tutorials, both texture boxes are set to Null. I want you to open the foreground texture box and choose a textured pattern. I used Pinwheel.

Flood fill Layer2. It will cover your first layer, but we'll take care of that later.

Step 3:
Add a new layer. Pick up your Preset Shapes tool. Choose a shape; I used Hexagon for this tutorial, antialias checked, Retain style and Create as vector UNchecked, width set to 6. Make your foreground textures Null, and your background styles Null.

To make it easier for you to center your shape, go to View-->Grid.

My grid is set to the default from JASC. This is how it is set up.

Draw your shape out on your grid. For the hexagon shape I started at coordinates 70,30. As I drew out there were 4 grids above my top line and 7 grids to the left. I drew out until there were 4 grids below my hexagon and 7 grids to the right. This is just an example to show you to have the same number of grids on each side of your shape so it will be centered for you.

When you are finished drawing out your shape, go to View-->Grid and your grid will disappear.

Step 4:
Using your Magic Wand, tolerance and feather = 0, click in the middle of your shape.

Activate Layer2, press the delete key on your keyboard. Keep selected. Go to Selections-->Invert. Selections-->Float. Effects-->3D-->Cutout and apply the following settings:

(Offsets = 6; Opacity=48; Blur=32.5)

Keep selected. Apply the cutout again, but this time change the offsets to Minus 6. Go to Selections-->Defloat. Deselect. Go to Effects-->3D--Inner Bevel and apply the following settings (for those of you who have done my Earth Angel tutorial, it is the md-earthangel2 preset). Save.

I know that some of you are wondering why we had to defloat. I found if I didn't defloat I had some jagged edges around the rim, and defloat seemed to take care of that.

Step 5:
Activate Layer3. This is the layer you drew your shape on. Selections-->Select All. Selections-->Float. Apply your same Inner Bevel. Deselect.. Go to Effects-->3D-->Drop Shadow and apply these settings. Save.

(Offsets=0; Opacity=52; Blur=16)

Step 6:
We are almost done! How's that for a quick and easy tutorial? *smiles* Activate Layer1. Add a new layer for your text. I used the Gesselle font with the size of 20 and used a little darker color for the text. Make sure that your text is centered and that floating and antialias are checked.

Click OK. Place your text where you want it and deselect. I added a slight drop shadow to my text so it would stand out just a bit. I used the following settings.

(Offsets =1; Opacity=52; Blur=1.2)

Go to Layers-->Merge-->Merge Flatten and you have your friendship gift ready to present. I plan on making many of these using different texture patterns, shapes and colors. Here is another that I did.

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial as much as I have creating it. A special thank you to my tutorial testers, Suz, Suecat, Beckie, Elkay, Terri and Randie. Without these wonderful gals I really wouldn't be where I am today.