I was doodling and playing with vectors *gasp* and dingbat fonts over the weekend and came up with the above design. I showed it to my group at FBNG to get their opinion and got a resounding "Tut, tut, tut" LOL. Fortunately I had followed my own "rules" while doodling and wrote everything down as I did it, that makes it much easier when you decide to write your tutorial.

This tutorial uses the Ulead Art Texture filter, Designing Dames Fancy Dividers1 dingbat font and Dizzinz Frame dingbat font. I even made a selection for my heart but feel free to vector your own if you care to **winks**.

I make my tutorials as guidelines for you to achieve a certain effect. Please feel free to make any variation and make your creation YOU!

This tutorial is written in and for PSP Version 7 and assumes you have a working knowledge of PSP at an intermediate - advanced 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*

You will need:

JASC's PSP (30 day free trial)- You can get it HERE
ULead's Art Texture - You can get the free version HERE
**When executing the setup the program will look for Photoshop on your computer to install Art Texture. Click on the Browse button and navigate to your PSP PLUGINS FOLDER and install Art Texture there. You will need to do this twice. If you don't do this the program will not work properly for you.
My heart selection ~~ You can get it HERE
Unzip into your selections folder. If you do not have a selections folder then create one in either PSP or a separate folder called Selections on your hard drive.
Designing Dames Fancy Dividers Dingbat ~~ You can get it HERE **The Designing Dames site is now defunct so I am offering this dingbat as a download.
Dizzinz Frame Dingbat ~~ You can get it HERE
**While you are at Dizz's site check out his other Dingbats that you might want for future use. You can either unzip these into your Fonts Folder or you can do what I do and create a new folder called Fonts in My Documents and unzip them there. You can then open the font/dingbat that you want to use and minimize it on your computer ~~ when you need it in PSP it will be there and you won't have your regular fonts clogging up your PSP.
Two Graphics ~~ I used a picture of my son taken during a bike race and a picture of my mother (can you believe this lady is 80 years old!!! Okay, she was 79 when the picture was taken *S*) Sorry, this time you will have to find your own graphics I'm not putting these up for your use. Some things just need to stay with the family LOL.

We'll be using a lot more layers on this tutorial than what I normally have done in the past. For your convenience I have each layer named. Remember to save your work frequently!! (Ctrl+S)

Step 1:
Open your two graphics that you will be using in PSP and minimize them. If you put your dingbat fonts in a separate folder on your hard drive open those and minimize them.

Step 2:
Open a new image 400x400, 16 million colors, transparent background. This will give us a lot of room to work and we will resize it at the end.

Step 3:
Add a new layer and name it heart1. Go to Selections-->Load From Disk and navigate to md-heart and open.

Step 4:
Flood fill your heart with any color. **If you can't get Ulead to work for you, use your favorite pattern or Super Blade Pro preset ** Go to Effects-->Plugins-->Ulead-->Art Texture and the following screen will come up:

As you can see there are many options you can use, please see my Learning Ulead Art Texture tutorial for more information. For this tutorial we will be using the Load Library and the Edit function. At this time press Load Library and a screen with a number of patterns will come up. I chose #31.

When you choose a pattern another screen will come up with that pattern encircled with blue and 5 other patterns to choose from . Click OK.

Step 5:
Keep selected and go to Effects-->3D-->Inner Bevel and apply the following settings:

Deselect and Save.

Step 6:
Go to your layer palette and right click on your heart1 layer and duplicate. Rename this layer to heart2. Go to Images-->Mirror and do not move the heart.

Step 7:
Add a new layer and name it hinge. Open your text tool and go to Dames Fancy Dividers 1. I used the letter c and the size of 72. See below:

Click OK.

Step 8:
Keep selected. Go to Images-->Rotate and rotate to the right 90 degrees. Make sure All layers is NOT checked. Keep Selected.

Step 9:
Move your hinge into place between your two hearts. Go to Effects-->Plugins-->Ulead-->Art Texture and choose Edit this time. Pick #5 (this is the gold one) and click OK.

I then chose the bottom right pattern and clicked OK. Keep selected!

Step 10:
Go to Effects-->3D-->Inner Bevel and apply the following settings:

Keep selected and let's add a drop shadow. Go to Effects-->3D-->Drop Shadow and apply these settings: Vertical and Horizontal Offset = 3; Opacity = 51; Blur=4.7 Deselect and Save. You should now have something like this.

Now it's time to add some pictures into your hearts. This is going to entail adding layers in between existing layers and going back and forth in the layers while selected, so please pay close attention. It isn't as hard as it sounds but you do need to concentrate on what you are doing. *S*

Step 11:
Activate the first picture that you want in your frame. Go to Edit-->Copy (Ctrl+C). Now go back to your heart frame image. On your layer palette go to layer1 and add a new layer naming it picture1 ~~ this should be between your layer 1 and your heart 1 layer. We want your picture under the heart.

Step 12:
Pick up your magic wand (tolerance and feather = 0) Activate your heart1 layer and click in the middle of your right heart. You will get the marching ants around the transparent area in your heart. Go to Selections-->Modify-->Expand and enter 2 and OK. Keep selected.

Step 13:
Activate your picture1 layer. Go to Edit->Paste-->Into Selection. Keep selected and save. Add a new layer and call it cutout 1. Go to Effects-->3D-->Cutout and apply the following settings:

Deselect and Save.

Step 14:
Okay we got through adding the first picture to our frame, now let's add the second one. Activate your second picture that you want in your frame and make a copy of it. (Ctrl+C).

Step 15:
Go back to your Heart Frame image and do the following:
Activate Cutout1 layer and add a new layer calling it picture2.
Activate heart2 layer and click in the middle of your heart with your magic wand. Go to Selections-->Modify-->Expand by 2
Activate picture2 layer and Paste into selection.
Add a new layer naming it cutout2 and apply the same cutout.
Deselect and save.

Step 16:
Go to your layer palette and hide layer1 by clicking on the eyeglasses to the right of the layer. A red X will appear. Activate your top layer. Go to Layers-->Merge-->Merge Visible and you should have something like this:

Rename your merged layer to heart frame. I hope you have been saving all along! Now it's time to add the mirrored tray. We'll be using the deformation tool in PSP7 and using the Metallic Gradient that came with PSP. If you would like to take a little break here and stretch your legs and grab another cup of coffee feel free ~~ I'm going to! **winks**

Step 17:
Ahhh, it sure is nice to get up and stretch once in awhile. Okay, on your layer palette you should have two layers. Layer1 and heart frame. Activate layer1 and add a new layer naming it tray.

Step 18:
Open your text tool and choose Dizzinz Fancy Frames, size 125 (I know, it only goes to 72. Hilight the size and type in 125). I used the letter d for my tray. Apply your Ulead Art Texture Gold as you did for the frame. Keep selected and add the following inner bevel. Deselect and save.

Step 19:
At this point I hid my heart frame layer so I could see my entire tray. In order to flatten it down so it looks like my frame is sitting on the tray you need to open your deformation tool. Move the top middle square down. See below:

Step 20:
Before I applied the deformation, I unhid the heart frame layer and kind of eyeballed it to make sure this is the way I wanted it. I also took each middle side squares and brought them out about 8 pixels on each side. It all depends on what you think looks best for you. When you have it flattened, apply your deformation. Go to Effects-->Sharpen-->Sharpen.

Step 21:
Open your magic wand and click inside of your tray to get the marching ants around the transparency. Go to selections-->modify-->expand and enter 1 and OK. Keep selected.

Step 22:
On your color palette, set your foreground styles to gradient and choose Metallic.

Flood fill your tray with the gradient. Deselect and save.

Step 23:
Unhide your heart frame if it is still hidden and using your mover tool place your frame on your tray. Go to your layer palette and duplicate your heart frame layer and then drag the copied layer beneath the heart frame layer.

Step 24:
Go to Images-->Flip. Yikes! That looks pretty funny. We'll fix it up in just a second so you will have a nice reflection in your tray. Using your mover tool move the flipped heart frame down a bit. Using your selection tool set at rectangle, draw a rectangle along the bottom part of your flipped image and hit delete.

Now using your mover tool bring what you didn't delete under your heart frame and match it up. Go to your layer palette and reduce the opacity of your copied heart frame to about 60 and you'll have your reflection.

You can move any of your layers around until you get it looking the way you like. Save!

Step 25:
When you have everything placed the way you want, hide layer1, go to your top layer and merge all visible. Let's resize this so it's easier to either put in a scene (wouldn't it look nice on a dresser?) or just adding a background and sending it to your group. I resized mine by 75%. Go to Images --> Resize. Here is something you need to know about resizing. One of the tricks you should use to squeeze the absolute best out of a resized image is to always try to resize to exactly three-quarters (75%), one-half (50%), or one-quarter (25%) the original image size. The mathematical reasons this works the best are beyond what I could explain in this little tip; but trust me--it works. Basically, Paint Shop Pro uses a complex algorithm to figure out which pixels to keep and which ones to throw out. Using a standard resize value lets PSP work at its optimal levels. I also have to add that ANY time you resize in PSP (including tubes!) you must sharpen your image for optimal viewing. Go to Effects --> Sharpen -->Sharpen.

If you would like to tube your heart frame for using in scenes do the following. Using your magic wand click on the transparent part around your heart frame, go to Selections-->Invert, go to Edit-->Copy (Ctrl+C), go to Edit-->Paste-->As New Image (Ctrl+V) and tube it.

If you would just like to add a background then activate layer1 and add any color or pattern that you would like. For the one I have below I added a color and then went to Effects-->Texture Effects-->Blinds and added what I already had in there.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial as much as I did creating it. We certainly got a workout using layers this time didn't we?

I am so delighted that the PSP-Magic egroup used this tutorial for one of their lessons. You can see their results by going HERE.

If you have any comments or questions please do not hesitate to E-Mail me.

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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.
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