For information about which fonts, programs, etc I used to construct my pages and my headers, click here.
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For this tutorial you will need: ULead PhotoImpact - available for trial or purchase here or Corel Paint Shop Pro (or Jasc PSP pre version X)- available for trial or purchase here or Adobe Photoshop - available for trial or purchase here or Adobe Photoshop Elements - available for trial or purchase here ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This tutorial will work in any of these programs and will also work in most graphic programs that support layers and filters and expanding the canvas. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Filters and Materials needed Funhouse-Facet Offset and Heizenberg's Mirror - available free here Eye Candy 3.1-Inner Bevel and Swirl, download here Simple-Quick Tile, available free here
FM Tile Tools-Blend Emboss, available free
here
-
this is
commercial, but after the time limit
Greg's Factory Output II>Pool Shadow,
available free
here
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. Click here to see that tile and click here to see the one made with yellow and blue. |
| 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 Back to the top |
| 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-just below Click here for PSP PS/PSE 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. Click here for the next step. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 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). Click here for the next step. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 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) Click here for the next step 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, click here to 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, click here to 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, click here to 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, click here to 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 are just making the frame and not assembling into stationery, you're done Back to the 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, click here. 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)   Back to the top |
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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, click on the email button
below to contact me. |
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These tutorials are all my own creations. |
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