Dingbat Slats Tag 

This tutorial has been written for Paint Shop Pro (PSP) Version 8, but it should be possible to complete using version 7 or higher if you are familiar with the version you have.

You will need the following supplies:

Visman (VM) Extravaganza filter set - this tutorial uses the Shoutin' filter.  You can download the filter from HERE

A dingbat font with solid shapes (not outlines).  The one I have used is Animals 2 - you can download it by clicking HERE  .   Open the zip file and open the .ttf file then minimize it so it is open on your task bar at the bottom of the screen.

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Create a new image 400 x 300 pixels, raster, white background
Flood fill the background layer with a colour of your choice. Layers menu, New Vector Layer Make sure you have your dingbat font open and minimized. Click on the Text tool On the Materials Pallet, set the background material to the colour, pattern or gradient you want to have your slats filled with.  Set the Foreground material to null
Click in the centre of the canvas with the text tool On the tool options pallet, select the dingbat font you've chosen to use, and set the size to 72. Click in the text edit box and work your way through the letters of the alphabet until you find the one you like (lower case and then capitals for some dingbat fonts).   When you are happy with the shape, click the Apply button. You may want to use more than one dingbat character. Click on the Object Selector tool (picker tool in PSP 10) Drag out the corners of the dingbat so that it fills most of the canvas and centre the dingbat in the canvas.
Layers menu, New Raster Layer Effects menu, Plugins, VM Extravaganza, Shoutin! Bars = 20 Gap Width = 60 Top Amplitude = 0 Bottom Amplitude = 0 Top Rhythm = 0 Bottom Rhythm = 0 Transparency = 255 Move On/Off = 255 Note: These setting are only a guideline - try experimenting with different values for the Bars and Gap Width.
On the Layers pallet, click on the Vector layer Use the Object selector tool to adjust the postion of your dingbat. On the Layer pallet, click on the top (Raster) layer. Selections menu, Select All Selections menu, Float Selections menu, Defloat On the Layers pallet, delete the top (Raster) layer. On the Layers pallet, the Vector layer should now be selected. Layers menu, Convert to Raster Edit menu, Clear (or press Delete on your keyboard)
Selections menu, Select All Selections menu, Float Selections menu, Defloat Selections menu, Load/Save Selection, Save Selection to Disk (so you can use it again) At this stage, if you want to create slats from your background layer, delete the top layer.
Now apply whatever bevel, shadow or other effects you want to use on your slats.  I used an Inner Bevel with the following settings on this example. Bevel Shape = 9 Width = 2 Smoothness = 14 Depth = 2 Ambience = 0 Shininess = 0 Colour = White Angle = 313 Intensity = 50 Elevation = 30 In the example with the tutorial title, I applied noise and a drop shadow to my slats.
Add text to complete your tag.
To re-use the selection you saved, create your background and then load the selection (Selection menu, Load/Save Selection, Load Selection from Disk) and either fill it or apply affects directly to whatever is on the background layer.   In this example I used a fill pattern on the background and then loaded selection.  Then I made the selection stand out by applying a drop shadow.