Americana Plate

Created January 16, 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

 

I saw a plate in an ad in my Crafts Magazine that I knew that I had to try to recreate in PSP. The events of 9-11-01 still affect me, as well as many other Americans, and I write this tutorial to show my love for America.

This tutorial uses only the tools available in PSP. I thank Mahogany for showing the PSP community how to do text, using the bezier curve tool, in her Roller Coaster Text tutorial that you can find HERE. When doing the text for this tutorial we will be using some of the techniques that I learned from Mah. I will be providing a lot of screenshots.

This tutorial is written in and for PSP Version 7.04 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*

JASC's PSP (30 day free trial)- You can get it HERE
A graphic of the Statue of Liberty. If you would like to use mine, you can get it HERE. Unzip and open in PSP.
My plate inner bevels ~~ You can get them HERE
There are TWO presets in the zip file. Unzip into your PSP Presets Folder.

Step 1:
Open a new image 400x400, 16 million colors, transparent background. Set your foreground to the color you want the rim of your plate. I used #7BA0C3.

Step 2:
Add a new layer, name it plate rim. Pick up your selection tool, , set at Circle, feather - 0, antialias checked.

Put your cursor on coordinates 200,200 and draw out a circle so it almost fills your image.

Flood fill with your color, keep selected. Go to Selections-->Modify-->Contract. Enter the number 60 and click OK. Press your delete key. Deselect.

Step 3:
Pick up your selection tool and change it to rectangle. Draw a rectangle around your rim and and click on the rim to select it. You won't get as many jagged edges by using this method for selecting. Go to Effects-->3D-->Inner Bevel and apply the md-plate1 preset. Deselect and Save.

Step 4:
Change your foreground color to white. Activate your layer1 and add a new layer, name it inner plate. Activate your plate rim layer. Pick up your magic wand (tolerance and feather - 0) and click on the middle transparent circle. Go to Selections-->Modify-->Expand and enter 3. While selected activate your inner plate layer and flood fill with white. Deselect and save.

Step 5:
Change your foreground color to a darker blue. I used #6088AE . With your selection tool, still set at rectangle, draw a rectangle from coordinates 30,20 to 396,179.

Click on the white part that is in the rectangle, add a new layer. Flood fill with your blue. Save.

Step 6:
Change your foreground to Null and your background to White. Add a new layer and name it star. Pickup your preset shapes tool . Using Star2 draw out a star on the blue.

With the mover tool place your star in the upper middle of the half blue circle. Go to Effects-->3D-->Drop Shadow and add the following:

Step 7:
Go to Edit-->Copy (Ctrl+C) to make a copy of your star. Go to Edit-->Paste-->As a New Layer (Ctrl+L) and paste your star. Pasting as a new layer will make it much easier for placing your stars. With your mover tool move it to the left of your first star. Continue to paste as a new layer and move your stars until you are satisfied with how they look. Save. This is how mine looked when I finished pasting the stars.

Step 8:
Change your foreground to red, I used #C00000, and your background to Null. Add a new layer and name it stripes. Pick up your draw tool, , set to single line and width at 12. Antialias Checked, Vectors UNchecked. Holding down your shift key (this will keep your lines straight), draw several red lines down. This is how mine looked when I was done.

Step 9:
If you haven't opened the Lady Liberty yet, then do so now. Activate your lady liberty and make a copy of her. Go back to your plate and paste it as a new layer. With your mover tool, move your lady liberty to where you would like her placed. Here is where I put mine.

Go to Effects-->3D-->Drop Shadow and add the following settings. Save.

Step 10:
Go to your layer palette. Hide your layer1 and your plate rim. Make sure you are on an open layer and go to Layers-->Merge-->Merge Visible and name this layer inner plate. Save.

Step 11:
Now it's time for the fun part, we're going to add some text. Set your foreground to white and your background to null. Activate your top layer, which should be the plate rim. Add a new layer and name it text. Pick up your draw tool. Set it to bezier curve, width 1, antialias and create as vector checked.

Starting on the left rim of your plate draw a line to the right end of your plate. Don't go all the way to the edges on either side. Click just above the end of the line and just below. It should look something like this.

Click on your object selector, , and click on Node Edit in the Tools Options box.

I added two nodes to my line. Using the Ctrl key, I placed my cursor about 1/3 of the way in from the left side and clicked to add a node. I added the other node about 1/3 of the way from the right side. Using my cursor I pulled those two nodes up and made the curve. It doesn't have to be an exact curve, as you can see by mine, below.

When you have your curve the way you want it, click on the object selector and then your Text Tool. Place the cursor on the line and when you see the letter A with a curved line beneath it, , click on the line. Choose the font and size you want to use and make sure Floating and Antialias is checked. Change the colors to the color of your rim for the foreground, and white for the background. Type in what you want on your plate.

Click OK. You can move the text down to where you want to on your plate. When you are happy with where your text is placed, go to Selections-->Select None. It will ask you if you want it defloated to the nearest raster layer. Say yes. You can now go to your layer palette and delete the vector layer that we drew the bezier curve on. Now that wasn't so hard, was it? *grin* SAVE!!

Step 12:
Make sure you are on your text layer. Go to Selections-->Select All (Ctrl+A). Selections-->Float (Ctrl+F). Effects-->3D-->Cutout and apply the following settings: Keep Selected.

Go to Effects-->3D-->Drop Shadow and apply the following settings. Please note that the shadow color is white! Deselect and save.

Step 13:
It's looking pretty good isn't it? We're almost done, we just need to add some stars to the bottom half of the plate. Add a new layer and name it red star. Set your foreground to null and your background to red. Draw out a red star on the left side of your plate rim. Go to Effects-->3D-->Inner Bevel and apply the md-platestar preset. Go to Effects-->3D-->Drop Shadow and add the same drop shadow that we used for lady liberty. Here's the screenshot again.

Go to Layers-->Duplicate. Image-->Mirror and your red star will now be on the right side, also.

Step 14:
Add a new layer and name it white star. Change your background color to white and follow the same instructions as Step 13. Add a new layer and name it blue star. Change your background color to blue and follow the same instructions. If you want a red and white star at the bottom you can copy and paste as a new layer and move them in place with the mover tool. That's it! We're done!

If you want to add a background to your plate, hide Layer1, make sure you are on your top layer and Merge Visible. Open Layer1, activate it and add your background. If you want to tube your plate, then merge all layers, resize your plate and export it.