Stars For Us
This tutorial is the property of hollys closet.com and has been written as an assignment for Winni's How To Write Tutorials Lessons. You are welcome to link to it but do not claim it as your own.
What you'll need:
- PSP (I use version X but this can be done in any version) You can get a preview copy of version X2 Here
- A tube of your choice. I used a tube by Antares Puchu, an artist who has given permission to my forum. Whatever artist you use be sure you have permission to use their work and always remember to credit them on your tags in the fashion they require.
- One or more brushes. The ones I used are from Brushes by Pange and PSP Agi Gallery You may wish to choose some different ones there.
- A mask of your choice. All of these selections will depend on what tube you decide to use and the effect you want to accomplish.
- You can download a zip file of the brushes (Blanket of Stars001 and agiBrush168) and mask (hearts'n'ribbons) I used Here
- In addition, although I decided not to add text to my tag, for the test image I used Nip and Tuck Font and it can be downloaded Here.
Preparation
- Open your mask in PSP and minimize it.
- Open your tube, Shift D to copy it and close the original.
- If your tube is a one layer png file use your selection tool to select, copy and paste the copyright information as a new image and then hit the delete key to remove the selection from the tube.
You will want to remove the tuber's information as well. - Minimize both images.
- You can place the brushes in your brush folder but sometimes it's easier and more reliable to import them into PSP. To do this File/Import/Custom Brush. Click Open and go to the folder where you saved the brushes. Select and open them and they will appear in the window. Click on Add All and then close.
The brush(es) should be found when you open your paint brush tool. - On your materials pallete select a color from your tube for the foreground.
Now, to begin:
Open a new 400x400 pixel transparent image.
Floodfill with the foreground color.
New Raster Layer. Floodfill with black.
In your materials pallete change the foreground color to white and the background to null. Select the paint brush tool. Find the Blanket of Stars Brush
and place it so the stars cover the whole image.
File/Save As/ the title you wish to use. Remember to save often and this makes it easy to do.
Step 2
Layers/New Mask Layer/From Image
Select hearts'n'ribbon from the pull down menu. Invert not checked.
This is the result.
Layers/Merge/Merge Group
Step 3
Maximize your tube. Copy/Paste as a new layer.
Image/Resize/ with All Layers unchecked. You will have to decide the percentage necessary depending on the size of your tube.
Place your tube to one side to allow the background to show and to leave room for the text.
Step 4
New Raster Layer
Select your paint brush tool and activate the agiBrush 168. Stamp it over to the top left or where it suits your image.
Step 5
Add your watermark and any copyright information on separate layers so you can move them and you can lower the opacity on either to make them blend in while remaining readable.
Save or Export your finished tag in jpg.
That's it. Hope you had fun.
Here is another tag that I made to test the tutorial. Because the background is lighter I put a drop shadow on the text and a different one on the tube. I also used the text to add more words to those on the brush.
