Beautiful Serenity (another oldie)

OBJECTIVE
Learn how to make a custom brush
No Outside filters/learning to use those provided in PSP
Make a border

Supplies Needed:
Tube of Choice
Font of Choice
I have supplied a few papers and a bow from Raspberry Road's "Away In A Manger" Scrapkit HERE. You can find her site HERE. Awesome kits there!
For my tube I am using the wonderful artwork of Steve Baier. His tubes can be purchased at Up Your Art.
I have also included word art in psp format. I will explain how to make it into a brush later on into the tutorial.
Ready? Let's Get started!
The colors that I chose on the papers make them easily colorized, if need be to suit your tube.
Remember to save often!
1. Open a new image 600x450
2. Copy & paste "away in a manger 05.jpg" onto your new image.
3. Go to Textures at the top of your psp screen.

4. Click on Texture effects.

5. Select rough leather.

MY SETTINGS:

Angle 45

Luminance 135

Contrast 5

Sharpness 14

Blur 10

4. Next, copy & paste your tube to your image.
5. Add a drop shadow of 1, 1, 20, 5, color black.
6. Go to your layer palette and change the blend mode of your tube to hard light.

*Make sure that you place the tube to where you will have room for brush stamp (or word art) and a name. This is why I also chose an oblong dimension as opposed to equal dimension image.

Are you saving as we go? Just checking....

7. Copy & paste the "away in a manger 02.jpg" on top of the tube. With this paper, we are making a frame.
8. Using your selection tool, draw out a rectangle of equal dimensions. You can refer to my example above to see what size.
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*These next few steps are optional*

I like a raised look to my frame. This next few steps explain how to do it. I chose on this tag to make the "raised look" subtle. To make it darker, simply change the opacity number to a higher number.

Go to "selections" at the top of your psp screen and click on "invert".

We are going to add drop shadow to the frame. I use this setting: 1,1,20,5 with the color black....apply that and then go back to drop shadow and change the horizontal and vertical to negative numbers:

-1,-1, 20, 5

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MAKE SURE YOU HAVE SAVED YOUR IMAGE UP TO THIS POINT.
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Next, we are going to make a brush for our text on our tag....
or you can use the word art I provided.

1. Open a new image of approximately 350x350.

2. There are many ways to type up your text. You may chose to type up what i've used and that's cool.

3. After you have typed it up and cropped off the excess, go to...
FILEEXPORTCUSTOM BRUSH & then OK

4. You may now close out the word image you just created.

5. Use your dropper tool and chose a color from your image.

6. Add a new raster layer.

7. Click on your paint brush.

8. Go to your tool options and select the option that is next to the presets. There will be a drop down menu, you should be able to find your brush that you just made in this area.

9. Then Click "Ok"
You will need to adjust the size of your brush, most likely.

10. Once you have the size right on your brush, stamp it on your new raster layer. *the reason I do a "new raster layer" is it frees you to make effects on the brush like drop shadow, lowering opacity and changing the blend mode.

11. Add any effects you wish to the brush layer at this point.

12. Add any embellishments you wish to use. As a general rule, I use the same drop shadow throughout the tag. It makes for a good balance in the tag. If you use the bow I provided, c/p to your top layer, which should be your frame. Rotate it to the left 20%, making sure to add the drop shadow you've been using. Place it to the bottom right as i have. Once it's in place, duplicate this layer and mirror it. It should be perfectly in place on the lower left of the image. If not, make the adjustmnets needed.

13. Afterwards, you should add your copyright information, making sure its labeled and license number is added if you are using a pay tube.

14. Layers....Merge...All Flatten.

There you have it!
I hope you have enjoyed the tut!