Ellie's
Treasures Tutorials - Create Desktop Wallpaper
http://www.ellies-treasures.com/universal/wallpapertut/wallpapertut.html
This tutorial will print out on standard 8½" X 11" paper
Option 1 - Bordered Wallpaper
Option 2 - Nested Tables Wallpaper
Scroll down for more samples and alternate tiles
ULead PhotoImpact, Adobe Photoshop,
Adobe Photoshop Elements, or Jasc Paint Shop Pro
This tutorial will work in any of these programs.
Filters and Materials needed
Option 1
Your side or top bordered strip
Option 2
Picture and tile you want to make into wallpaper
My wallpaper templates
Super Blade Pro filter, or Eye Candy or PhotoImpact Presets
Presets for PhotoImpact or Super Blade Pro
I am assuming you know the basics of your graphics program and where
the tools can be located.
Some abbreviations I used: PSP is Paint Shop Pro, PI is
PhotoImpact, PS is Photoshop, and PSE is Photoshop Elements.
Let's get started! Very easy.
Using a side border or stationery strip
PSP: open the strip, go to palette, and pick material.
Find the strip in your patterns and flood fill the wallpaper canvas
at angle 0, size 100.
PI: open strip, Edit>copy, go to wallpaper canvas, go to
Edit>Fill, Image, check Clipboard, tile.
PS-PSE: Open strip, with it selected, go to Edit>Define pattern, give it a name and it will now be in patterns.
Now go to Edit>Fill>Pattern or *Layer>New Fill Layer>Pattern
(the first option doesn't make a new layer, the second one does),
and your canvas will fill with your pattern.
*If you want to apply a bevel, or other layer styles, such as with the nested table type below,
you have to pick the Layer>New Fill Layer method.
You will end up with this
For most wallpaper, you won't have to mute it, as it can take stronger color and pattern
than stationery would, as you don't have to write on it.
I usually watermark in the top right corner, but it depends on the picture used, sometimes I use the bottom right corner
I usually change the blend mode to overlay, lighting (PI), soft light,
a mode that gives a nice effect but is not too harsh or detracting
from the picture, but just gives a soft or blended in effect.
In PSP, use the Image Optimizer
In PI go to Web, Image Optimizer. I usually find that turning the quality to about 60 is a good compromise
In PS or PSE, a window will come up when you save asking you to pick a quality to save at.
Materials needed (click here)
Making nested table wallpaper
Doing the Center
Here are the elements I used for this wallpaper
1 Open one of my template jpgs.
This is the one titled 1 wide, 1 narrow
2 Pick a color or two from your main graphic or choose the pattern you want to fill it with
You can apply a texture as well to this centre fill as well.
3 With magic wand, pick the center,
I made all of the templates with bright contrasting colors so they would be easy to select.
4 Fill w your choice of color, pattern, texture.
5. Copy-paste your main graphic in the centre
6 Do the borders - pick with magic wand and then fill.
Here's the PI Fill window
Now either apply a preset such as with SuperBladePro
or
in PhotoImpact you can also use some of the presets in the Material or Material Attribute galleries
or any of the imported ones you found on the web
or
Bevel the borders in your program, see below for instructions for each program
For the very narrow borders, they look nice if they are filled with a metallic, silver or gold,
or a darker or brighter color of the color you picked for the center or larger borders.
Here it is after outer border is filled
Here it is after beveling the outer border
Here it is after filling and beveling the small inner border
PSP, Effects>3D>Inner Bevel
or Buttonize
*****************
PI you can use the Button, Material Attribute or Material gallery -
if you do this you have to right click on the selection, convert to object,
right click again, convert object type from text-image to path
then go to your Easy Palette and in the Gallery side, choose a preset from the Button Gallery,
or Material Attribute Gallery Bevel or preset, Material Gallery - any of the presets
*****************
PS: go to Layer>Styles>Inner Bevel
Before you bevel, you need to make sure you are in the top layer,
and then use Layer>New Fill layer and pick your pattern or a color.
Then in the layer palette, right click on that new layer and pick Rasterize layer.
*****************
PSE go to the layer styles in the palette on the right and double click on one of the inner bevels.
Any graphic program:
you can use Super Blade Pro, there are thousands of beautiful free presets on the web
(see Gr8 beginnings page for some sites)
When using Super Blade Pro, make sure you keep the fill color light
as the color will effect how the preset looks after applying.
or
Eye Candy, see settings below
or
In PI you can get some of the great PI presets available (see Gr8 beginnings for some sites)
In any program you can use Eye Candy 3, pick inner bevel and set it as shown for the wide border.
and use these setting for a narrow border
All of the beveling settings are at your own discretion or judgement.
Just play with the settings till you see one you like.
If you use Super Blade Pro in any graphic program
or presets in PhotoImpact you won't need to bevel, that will be part of the preset.
This one was done in PhotoImpact. I used Button>Any Shape>A01 for both of the borders,
PI - second example - I filled outer border with same fill as I used for the center section.
I used Button>Any Shape>A23 for outer border and
Super Blade Pro>Cursed Creations>Simply Platinum for the small inner border.
I made this one in PSP and I used the template 1 wide, 1 narrow, 3 tiny.
Outer border plaid and then I applied an inner bevel,
tiny borders filled w gold gradient and inner bevel, then drop shadow;
narrow border filled w orange from the graphic, inner bevel.
Drop shadow on the main picture.
I made this one in Photoshop and used the 1 wide, 1 narrow, 2 tiny template.
I found that I needed to flatten image between selecting, filling and applying inner bevel to each part
as it seemed overly hard to get the fill layer and layer styles options to show up for that layer.
I always pick the easy way. LOL
For the outer border I used Eye Candy Inner Bevel, and for the 2 tiny copper borders
I used Photoshop Layer Styles>Inner Bevel.
Super Blade Pro would work too but I have too many filters in PS and it won't show
a lot of filters in the menu so I couldn't get to the bottom ones.
I made the next one in Photoshop Elements: I used the template with one narrow border and 1 wide.
When I was done I added a 15 pixel outside border, filled it w color and applied bevel.
I then resized it back to 1280X1024.
In sequence, this is what I did
1 Starting from the inside, I filled with the background tile I was using,
2 I then copied and pasted inner framed graphic
3 Using the magic wand, I selected the narrow border and filled with Layer>New fill layer,
and filled with a matching darker color. I then applied the bevel, and Flattened the image.
4 I selected the wide border, filled as above, applied the bevel, and flattened the image.
5 I then added a 15 pixel outside border, filled with the same color I used on the narrow inner border
, beveled this new border, then flattened image.
I used the scalloped edge bevel for all of the borders.
I flattened image between filling and beveling each border to make it easier to select the borders.
I then resized the wallpaper back to 1280X1024
Have a wonderful day!
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.
©2005 Ellie's Treasures