Ellie's Treasures Tutorials - Double Trip Stationery - for all programs
http://www.ellies-treasures.com/universal/doubletripstat/doubletripstat.html
This tutorial will print out on standard 8½" X 11" paper

If you want the tutorial for just your program, select the parts you want to copy and
paste them into Word. That way you only get the parts that are for your program.



Scroll down for more examples

For this tutorial you will need:
ULead PhotoImpact, Adobe Photoshop,
Adobe Photoshop Elements, or Corel or Jasc Paint Shop Pro
This tutorial will work in any of these programs and
in most graphic programs that support layers and filters.

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Filters and Materials needed
VM Instant Art filters - Fog and Tripolis - entire set of VM filters available free here

http://www.ellies-treasures.com/files/plugins/Visual%20Manipulation.zip
Tube, object, png or psd file
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I use a little program called the The Image Tiler to preview my tiles to see if they're seamless.
Not necessary in PI but useful in the other programs.
It's license says it's free to be redistributed and all of the links I found for it are dead, so I've uploaded it.
Download link: http://www.ellies-treasures.com/files/plugins/The%20Image%20Tiler%20v3.0.zip
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My plugin windows may look different from yours as I use Filters Unlimited 2 to manage my plugins - available for purchase here
http://www.icnet.de/filters_unlimited/
I am assuming you know the basics of your graphics program and where the tools can be located.
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Some abbreviations I use: PSP is Paint Shop Pro, PI is PhotoImpact, PS is Photoshop, and PSE is Photoshop Elements.

Let's get started!
It's not as long as it looks, it's just that it's for 3 different programs.
I always put in lots of screenshots too, to make things perfectly clear. It's actually a very easy quick tutorial.

Basic Steps
1. Create the basic tile (just below)
2. Colorize (optional)
3. Create the Stationery canvas
4. Fill the stationery canvas
5. Apply tube, object, png or psd file
6. Apply drop shadow, watermark, save
All Programs - steps 1 to 3
1. Open a new canvas, 200  X 200 pixels, white (if you want a larger pattern, make it
300X300 but then you need to make  your stationery strip 300 high as well.
No need to fill, the filter makes it black and white anyway.
2. Go to Effects (or Filters)>VM Instant Art>Fog
leave all at default

 
You will end up with this
3. Then Effects (or Filter)>VM Instant Art>Tripolis, apply at default and then do it again.


After first Tripolis application

You can use it at this point if you like.

After second Tripolis application

If you want this simple black and silver tile, just skip the next part and go to making the stationery.
If you want a different color,  you will need to colorize it.
Following are some various methods to color the tile.
4. Coloring the tile (optional)
All Programs
Slide the sliders till you find one you like - hue changes the color and
saturation makes the color less intense or more intense,
PI has Lighten, which makes the color lighter or darker.

PhotoImpact
Go to Format>Hue and Saturation-check the colorize box



Photoshop/Photoshop Elements
In Photoshop Elements go to Enhance>Adjust Color>Adjust Hue and Saturation.
In Photoshop go to Image>Adjustments>Hue and Saturation.


Paint Shop Pro
Go to Adjust>Hue and Saturation>Colorize


After colorizing
5. Making the Stationery
Open a new canvas
1280X300 (or about 25 pixels higher than your tube)
Fill the stationery canvas

PhotoImpact

Go to your tile, Edit>Copy; go to the new canvas, Go to Edit>Fill, click on Image
and then check Clipboard>Tile the image.

 

Photoshop/Photoshop Elements
Go to Edit>Define Pattern-name the tile pattern you just made.

Go to a new canvas 1280X300 (or whatever height you need for your tube plus about 25),
In PSE, go to Edit>Fill Layer>choose pattern - in PS it's Edit>Fill,
and in the next window click on the dropdown menu and pick the pattern you just made to fill the new canvas.


Paint Shop Pro
In your color palette, pick pattern. Click on the color box to open the window to see the choice of patterns.
At the top of the choices, you will see your new pattern. Choose it. Leave it at angle 0 and 100%

In your new canvas, use the Paint Bucket to flood fill the stationery canvas.

It seems the darker colors have a slight problem with a line where the strips meet.
In PSP, I fixed it by going to Seamless Tile, mirror, vertical, 100-20-100.

You don't notice this in the lighter colors at all, it was just when I made the Celtic Dragon one in PSP that I noticed the faint line.

Your strip should now look similar to this
3 Add the Tube, Object, or PSD file
Open up your tube, object, png or psd file.
PSD files will work for any program.
PNG files will work in any program as well, but do not always retain their layers and/or transparency.
Objects (ufo) are for PhotoImpact.
Tubes (tub, psp, pspimage, psptube) are for Paint Shop Pro but can also, in most, but not all cases,
be used by Photoshop-Photoshop Elements or PhotoImpact as well.
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Copy the open tube, object, or psd file,
In PhotoImpact, right click and copy (or Control-C)
In Photoshop/Photoshop Elements go to Select>All, Edit>Copy (or Control-A to select all, then Control-C to copy)
In Paint Shop Pro, go to Edit>Copy  (or Control-C)
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Go to your stationery canvas and paste it as a layer.
Control-V works in PhotoImpact and Photoshop/Photoshop Elements
Control-L pastes it as a new layer in Paint Shop Pro
Add a Drop Shadow (if you want)
In PI, right click on the tube, click on Shadow, in the shadow window, click on the box shadow.
Leave the type at default, change the H and V to 5, depending on tube, leave the rest at default.

In Photoshop Elements, go to the palette at the right side>Styles and Effects>
Layer styles in left drop down menu>Drop shadows in right dropdown menu, pick Low)


In Photoshop go to Layer>Layer Style>Drop Shadow. 
I usually change the opacity down to about 40 and leave
the rest at default, but you can change it to your liking
 

In Paint Shop Pro, go to Effects>3D>Drop Shadow.
V & H: 5, Opacity 50, Blur 8 (or whatever settings you prefer)

See below for the final results
Your final result should look something like this.


Merge all (or flatten), watermark and done.  Save as a jpg and don't forget to optimize.
Optimizing
PhotoImpact: I normally optimize the jpg at anywhere from 60-80, just check the preview window
and see how it looks. I use 60 the most but sometimes you need it optimized less for a good graphic.
Paint Shop Pro: I normally optimize at about 10-12
Photoshop/Photoshop Elements: I normally save at medium.

Check out my Fairy Stationery page and my Fantasy Stationery page,
all of the trial stationery I made for this tutorial are available there
(more than you see here), as well as in the Fairy and Fantasy Wallpaper pages
Some more examples.


In this one, done in PhotoImpact, in the layer palette of the tube, I changed the blend mode to soft light,
and then applied FM Tile Tools>Blend Emboss at default settings once.


 

If you have any questions or suggestions, email me at this page
http://www.ellies-treasures.com/email/email.html 
Have a wonderful day!

These tutorials are all my own creations.
Any resemblance to any other tutorial is purely coincidental and unintentional.
Feel free to share any of my tutorials on this site by a link back to my site,
but do not copy and send the entire tutorial to anyone or any group.
You may also save it to your hard drive (go to File>Save As, and save as an mht file-
this will save the pictures with the page in one single file and will open in a browser)
or print it out for your own personal use.
©2003-2006 Ellie's Treasures