Although I use Eye Candy and Super Blade Pro frequently, this is the first tutorial I have done using both of these filters. I am using Eye Candy 4 Marble and this is included in their trial demo. You also receive the trial demo of Eye Candy 4 when purchasing the PSP7 Anniversary Edition from JASC. This tutorial also uses the Corners 1 Dingbat created by Helen Duggan.

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 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
Eye Candy 4000 ~~ You can purchase it or get the demo version HERE
Super Blade Pro ~~ You can purchase it or get the demo version HERE
Corners 1 Dingbat ~~ You can download it HERE
**you can either unzip it into your Fonts Folder or open it and minimize it and it will be available when go to text in PSP
A Graphic ~~ I used Smugglers Crossing by Jonathon Earl Bowser. He does give permission on his website to use his art for noncommercial use with a link to his site. Please view his wonderful art HERE. If you would like to use Smugglers Crossing please right click and save to your hard drive.

Step 1:
Open your graphic 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 out your original graphic. Set your foreground and background to white. Remember to save often.

Step 2:
Go to Image-->Add Border--> Make sure symmetric is checked and add a border of 8. Take your magic wand and select the white border -- you will get marching ants around the border. Make sure the tolerance for the magic wand is set at 0 or it could select more than just the border.

Step 3:
Go to Effects-->Plugins-->Flaming Pear-->Super Blade Pro and apply the Gold_Shiny preset (or a gold preset of your choice). Keep selected.

Step 4:
Go to Selections-->Invert and apply the following cutout (Effects-->3D-->Cutout)

Apply once more but change the vertical and horizontal numbers to minus 10 and minus 8 respectively. Deselect and save.

Step 5:
Go to Images-->Border and add a border of 30. Using your magic wand select that border and get those ants to start marching. **grins**

Step 6:
Go to Effects-->Plugins-->EyeCandy4000-->Marble. Go to Settings and choose Pale Marble with the following settings:

Keep Selected

Step 7:
Go to Effects-->3D-->Inner Bevel and apply these settings:

Deselect and Save.

Step 8:
Let's add one last border, size 10. Grab your magic wand and get those ants marching and add the Super Blade Pro preset that you used for the first border. Deselect and Save.

Step 9:
Add a new layer. Open your text and select Corners 1. I used the size of 72 and the letter D. Make sure that floating and antialias is checked. Place it in the left corner of your frame and keep selected.

Step 10:
Apply the same Super Blade Pro preset and the following Inner Bevel.

Deselect and save.

Step 11:
Go to your layer palette and duplicate your text layer. Go to Images-->Mirror.

Step 12:
On your layer palette hide the background layer by clicking on the binoculars. Make sure that you are on the duplicated text layer and go to Layers-->Merge-->Merge Visible. You can unhide layer 1 and Save.

Step 13:
On your layer palette duplicate your Merged layer. Go to Images-->Flip. Congratulations your Elegant Marble frame is complete!

If you are using this tutorial as a group lesson to be sent in we might need to have a Step 14 *S* It really depends on the size of your image to begin with. If you used Jonathon Earl Bowser's graphic, as I did, it is way to big to send to your groups especially after adding a frame.

Step 14 if needed:
If you need to resize your final work 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.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial as much as I enjoyed making it for you. Many thanks to my testers ~~ without you I wouldn't be where I'm at today.

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.
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.