Ellie's Treasures Tutorials - Snowflake Stationery - for all programs
http://www.ellies-treasures.com/universal/snowflake-stat/snowflake-stat.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.



For this tutorial you will need:
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
Italian Editors Generatore-Pattern Pirotecnico

Simple-Quick Tile

FM Tile Tools (optional)-Blend Emboss
Tube, Object or PSD file - all programs can use psd files, and PhotoImpact, Photoshop and
Photoshop Elements can use some tubes or psp files. Just check it out, it may work for you
.
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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 it here
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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.
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Some abbreviations I use: PSP is Paint Shop Pro, PI is PhotoImpact, PS is Photoshop, and PSE is Photoshop Elements.
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I am assuming you know the basics of your graphics program and where the tools can be located.

Let's get started!
This tutorial is very easy. Same basic steps are repeated most of the time.
Basic Steps
1 Open your tube, duplicate and close original
2 Open new canvas for tile
3. Apply Italian Editors filter
4. Apply Simple Quick Tile
5. Mute and/or apply FM Tile tools if desired
6. Open new canvas for stationery strip
7. Fill with tile
8. Apply tube and shadow
9. Merge all, watermark and save.
Assemble into stationery
Don't forget to save often as you go along.

1. Open your tube, duplicate and close original
To duplicate, in PhotoImpact it's Control-D, in Paint Shop Pro it's Shift-D;
In PS/PSE: right click on title bar of the picture and pick Duplicate or go to Image>Duplicate.
In older versions of PS you may have to use Control-A to select all, Control-C to copy,
up to File>New>it will automatically be set up for what you have in the clipboard, so say ok,
then Control-V to paste the picture in.
Create the background tile
2. Open canvas 200X200.

(make the tile divisable by your tube or desired stationery height so it tiles easily.
For instance, if you are making a stat 400 high, make the tile 200 or 400, for a 300 high stat, make the tile 150 or 300

3. Effect (or Filter)>Italian Editors Generatore>

Pattern Pirotecnico> leave top at default, play with bottom 3 to get the color you like-
Rosso means red and verde means green and blue means, well, blue LOL

It should look like this when you're done, but your color may be different depending on the ones you chose in the filter

4. Effect (or Filter)>Simple>Quick Tile
It should look like this now
5 (optional). Mute to make it lighter and or go to Effect (or Filter)>FM Tile Tools>Blend Emboss at default

To mute, in PI go to Edit>Fill>Color, pick the color you want and lower the transparency in the bottom right field
In PSP, add new raster layer, fill with desired color and lower the transparency in the layer palette
In PS/PSE go to Layer>New Fill Layer, fill it with color, then lower the transparency in the layer palette

FM Tile Tools Blend Emboss window

After Mute


After Blend Emboss
If you are just making the tile and not assembling into stationery, you're done
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For those going on, in PI copy your tile and minimize, in PSP just minimize,
and for PS/PSE you must define the tile as a pattern.
While having your tile canvas highlighted, go to Edit>Define Pattern, give it a name and save.
 
 
Bordered Stationery Strip
6. Open your tube resized to about 300 or less in width.

Open a new canvas, 1280 X the height of your tile as explained in step 2
7. Fill the new canvas with your tile
PhotoImpact
Copy your tile then go to Edit>Fill>Image>clipboard
- check "tile the image" and apply. Deselect (control-D)

Paint Shop Pro

Click below one of the palette colors and change it to pattern,
then click on the color box and click on the pattern of your open tile,
use your bucket or fill tool to fill the selection.
Deselect (control-D)

Photoshop/Photoshop Elements
Go to Edit>
Layer>Fill Layer>Pattern,

in the next window make sure you click on group with previous layer,

in the next window pick the pattern you just defined, it should already be there
but if not just click on the arrow and find it; click on link with layer, and leave the rest at default;

(in PS you can also go to Edit>Fill>Pattern)
8. Copy your tube, paste it into the stationery strip to the left
Apply a shadow if desired.

9. Merge all (or flatten), watermark and done.  Save as a jpg and don't forget to optimize
(see just below for optimizing tips)
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.
Assemble the stationery
To assemble it into stationery, go to the following links:
http://www.ellies-treasures.com/statdesign/lc-sideborder/lc-sideborder.html
These tutorials on assembling stationery are for Incredimail only, at this point.
One day, I'll write a basic tutorial on how to assemble them for Outlook Express.
I don't know if you heard, but the new Vista Operating System from Microsoft,
coming out later this year or early next year, has replaced Outlook Express with a different
email program, called Windows Mail, so as people switch to Vista, I'm not sure what that will mean for OE stationery.
That's it! You're done!!

Stationery I created with this tutorial:
On the Cold Seat in the Winter section
Butterfly and Yellow Roses in the Floral section
Jungle Gang in the Animals-Wild section
Star Cat in the Animals-Wild section as well as the Fantasy section
Back to top
Some more examples


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.
©2003-2006 Ellie's Treasures