Ellie's Treasures Tutorials - Sunset Swag Frame and Stationery - for all programs
http://www.ellies-treasures.com/universal/sunset-swag/sunset-swag.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.
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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. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Filters and Materials needed Filters: All are free except for FM Tile Tools, but after the time limit runs out on it, blend emboss is still one of those that work. Funhouse-Facet Offset and Heizenberg's Mirror http://www.photoshop-filters.com/html/funhouse.htm Eye Candy 3.1-Inner Bevel and Swirl http://www.ellies-treasures.com/files/plugins/EyeCandy3.zip Simple-Quick Tile http://www.btinternet.com/~cateran/simple/ FM Tile Tools-Blend Emboss http://www.fantasticmachines.com/ Greg's Factory Output 2>Pool Shadow http://hem.passagen.se/grafoman/plugtool/plugs.html Cybia>Edgeworks>Shine (optional) http://www.cybia.co.uk/edgeworks.htm Picture
Corners (optional) I have
lots of links on my Resources page, here |
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Let's get started! |
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1. Open your graphic
if not open yet, 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. |
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2.
Using the eyedropper, pick 2 colors
from your graphic for the tile. For a subtle effect, such as the orange one here, use colors close together, 2 shades of the same color. Here is the palette I used for the tutorial tile.  For a more dramatic effect, like my black and white one, use two widely different colors. |
| Create the background tile |
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1. Open canvas 150X150.
2. Apply the gradient PI: I used colors light: ##FBAC42, and dark: #FF7602 Gradient is the square one, second from end in PI,
PS-PSE-Layer>Fill
Layer>Gradient, in next window check group with previous layer
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3. Effect (or Filter)>Funhouse>Facet Offset at default of 152
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4. Effect (or
Filter)>Funhouse>Heizenberg's Mirror at default of 14. Repeat. After first time  After repeat  |
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5 Effect (or
Filter)>Eye Candy 3.1>Swirl with these settings
381-48-85-89-Warp and
Smooth on |
| 6. Effect (or Filter)>Simple>Quick Tile |
7. Effect (or
Filter)>FM Tile Tools>Blend Emboss at default |
It should look like this now |
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If you don't
like the color it turned out, you can either start again or
colorize PSP: Adjust>Hue and Saturation>Colorize PS: Image>Adjustments>Hue and Saturation, check the Colorize box, and leave it on preview PSE: Enhance>Adjust Color>Adjust Hue/Saturation, check the Colorize box. For all programs, move the sliders till you get what you like.Your tile is now done, copy and minimize. In PS and PSE, Define the pattern before minimizing, rather than copying. while having your tile canvas highlighted, go to Edit>Define Pattern, give it a name and save. 
 If you are just making the tile and not assembling into stationery, you're done. Merge, save and optimize. |
| FRAME |
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Over to your graphic. 1. Expand canvas by 5 evenly, with the darker color you picked earlier. Note about the color: You can experiment with this, the darker color normally works out well, but for the black and white one I used the white instead of the black. If this color will be too close to your picture colors and will grab some of the picture instead, pick a contrasting color. PhotoImpact Format>Expand Canvas make sure you check the expand sides equally box, it is off by default  on to step 2 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Paint Shop Pro Image>Add borders  on to step 2 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Photoshop/Photoshop Elements Resize canvas (in PS go to Image>Canvas Size - in PSE it's Image>Resize>Canvas Size), In PSE 4 and PS CS2 you can also right click on the title bar of picture to get to Resize Canvas Increase width and height by 10 so you have 5 added evenly all the way around. Don't change the arrows.  |
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2. Pick with magic wand PI and PSP: behind selection tool, PS and PSE, on the toolbar Set tolerance to 0, feather (or soft edge) at 0, all left at default If you find that this is picking parts of your picture, change the color in the expansion to a contrasting color to pick it more easily. |
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3.
Bevel the border PhotoImpact With cursor on the selected border, right click and convert to object, right click again and covert from text image to path Go to your easy palette, click on the Material Gallery>Gel presets Pick the color you want and right click, pick modify and apply.  In the next window, click on the bevel tab and change the bevel to 3D pipe,  Click on the Border/Depth tab and change the border to 6, don't change the depth (if you change the border to 5 instead of 6, you will end up with a thin band of another color on the inside bottom and right that you will need to select and fill with a color to match the border.  click on the shadow tab and uncheck the shadow (the shadow will make it not fit right into the frame).  Click ok. Deselect. On to step 4 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Paint Shop Pro With border selected, go to Effects>3D Effects>Inner Bevel and set at Bevel 2, 8-0-3-0-0-315-50-30-white  Click OK, deselect (control-D). On to step 4. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Photoshop and Photoshop Elements I used Eye Candy 3>Inner Bevel for PS and PSE, it's much easier and gives a better result. You can use this in any of the programs if you like.  Merge all (flatten). |
Results
after first border |
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4. Expand canvas by 20 evenly pick
with magic wand and fill selection PhotoImpact After expanding by 20, select with the Magic Wand, then go to Edit>Fill>Image>clipboard - check "tile the image" and apply. Deselect (control-D) On to step 5 Paint Shop Pro After expanding by 20, select with the Magic Wand,
click below
one of the palette colors and change it to pattern, Merge all (flatten) |
Results
after step 4
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5. Apply Filter-Pool Shadow Go to Effects (or Filter)>Greg's Factory Output 2>Pool shadow at default
50 for the top 6, 128 for the bottom 2 For the black and white one I had to play with the sliders to make it show up, I slid them nearly all the way to the right. Deselect, PI: right click on your graphic and merge layers PS/PSE: right click on a layer in the palette and merge all-flatten PSP: you don't have to do anything at this point |
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6.
Make a 5 pixel beveled border as in Steps 1 to 3 above (don't use white here for the expansion, even set at 0 tolerance it will pick up parts of the previous border-use a contrasting color) If you don't remember how, go back to step 1 |
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7.
Expand by 20 evenly all around, select, fill selection with
tile as in step 4 If you don't remember how, go back to step 4  Stay in this layer, do not merge In PSE/PS you need to right click on the adjustment layer and pick simplify layer before proceeding |
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8. Apply
Filter Shine or Blend Emboss |
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9.
Make a 5 pixel beveled border as in Steps 1 to 3 above If you don't remember how, go back to step 1 |
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10.
Add a 2 pixel border (not beveled) Expand canvas by 2. Fill with black or a contrasting color from your graphic. I find with some colors they don't show up very well so I change the border to 5 instead of 2. |
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11.
Make a 5 pixel beveled border as in Steps 1 to 3 above If you don't remember how, go back to step 1 |
This is the final result |
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12. 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. If you're not creating the background tile then go Back to top |
| Bordered Stationery |
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1. Make the tile (You must make your tile a size that can be easily divided into your border height or the strip won't tile properly. For instance, if you want your strip to be 300 high, you must make your tile 150 or 300 square. For 400 height, you must make it 200 or 400 square) 2. Open a tube or the framed picture you made above, resized to about 300 or less in width. 3. Open a new canvas, 1280 X the height of the tube or graphic plus 20-25 pixels 4. Fill the new canvas with your tile, see step 4 in the frame if you don't know how, go back to step 4. 5. Copy your tube, paste it into the stationery strip to the left, duplicate and mirror or flip if you like, and move it to the right edge. Apply a shadow if desired. If you are using a framed graphic, paste it only into the left edge. But you can do what you want. LOL 6. Merge all (or flatten), watermark and done. Save as a jpg and don't forget to optimize (see frame step 12 just above for optimizing tips)   |
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13.
Assemble the stationery You could, of course, use just the frame tutorial but to assemble it into stationery, go to the following links: To use as a framed header, go here: http://www.ellies-treasures.com/statdesign/letter-creator/lctut.html To use as a left border strip, go here: 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. |
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That's it! You're
done!! Stationery I created with this tutorial: In the Floral Stationery section Campo de Flores PI Tulips and Blossoms and Poppies PSP Flowers on a Windowsill PS White Flowers in Glass Bottles I PS Sunflowers on Blue PI Bright Flowers and Quilt PI
Tulips and Daffodils PI |
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Some more examples The "Campo de Flores" one above in the tutorial was made in PhotoImpact The next two were made in Photoshop This one was done using black and white for the tile 
 
 This one was made in Photoshop Elements 
 This one was made in Paint Shop Pro 9 
 This one was made in Paint Shop Pro X 
 This one was made in PhotoImpact, as well as the one I made for the tutorial screenshots This is another one I used two very different colors for. 
 I liked PhotoImpact best for making this tutorial, because of the nice gel presets for the borders, I liked Photoshop the least, I didn't like the beveled borders it made very much, so for PS and PSE I used the Eye Candy Inner Bevel to make the beveled borders. |
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If
you have any questions or suggestions, email me at this page |
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These tutorials are all my own creations. |
