Paint Shop Pro Tutorial

Woven Mat Tag

This tutorial is written for PSP 8, with some additional instructions for PSP 7. It should also be possible to do it in later versions of Paint Shop Pro. For versions other than PSP 8, commands and tools may be in different places to those specified in the instructions.

You can make this using any tube, I've used my Orange Dahlia, which you can download HERE

You will also need my Icy Tones gradient HERE
(save to your gradients folder)

and my Diffused Blue pattern HERE
(save to your PSP Patterns folder)

Create a new image 250 x 250 raster, white background Layers, New Vector Layer Click on the Preset Shapes tool and select the Rectangle. On the Options Pallet make sure Retain Style is unticked and Create As Vector is ticked.
On the Materials Pallet (color pallet), set the foreground material to Null and set the background material to gradient, and click the gradient block to select a gradient. Use the following settings. Gradient: icy moods jh Angle = 90 Repeats = 10 Style = Linear
Draw a rectangle that fills the canvas top to bottom but leaves a gap to the left and right. Objects menu, Align, Centre In Canvas. Layers menu, Convert to Raster Layers menu, Duplicate
Image Rotate, Free Rotate Direction = Right Degrees = 90 All Layers = unticked Rotate Single Layer = unticked
On the Layer Pallet, change the Blend Mode to Multiply.

On the Layer Pallet, turn off the visibility for the Backgrounds layer. Right click on the top layer (Copy of Raster 1) and, on the pop-up menu, click Merge, Merge Visible. Make the Background layer visible again, and then click on the top layer.
Drag the bottom right corner of the image window down and to the right, so you have space around your canvas. Click on the eraser tool Size = 10 Hardness = 0 Step1 Density = 100 Thickness = 100 Rotation = 0 Opacity = 100
Use the eraser to create an uneven edge. Drag the eraser along one edge at a time, keeping close to the edge of the canvas
Click on the Soften brush Size = 50 Hardness = 0 Step = 25 Density = 100 Thickness = 100 Rotation = 0 Opacity = 35 PSP 7 - use the Retouch tool with these settings: Use the brush to soften the edges of the mat, by going along all the "frayed" edges with it only half on the canvas, as shown.
Layers menu, Merge, Merge All (Flatten) Layers menu, New Raster Layer
Click the tube tool, select the tube you want to use, and click in the centre of the canvas to place it.
Effects menu, Texture Effects, Sculpture Pattern = Diffused Blue Size = 100% Smoothness = 5 Depth = 20 Ambiance = 0 Shininess = 20 Color = White Angle = 315 Intensity = 50 Elevation = 30
Layers Menu, New Vector Layer Click on the text tool, and set the foreground and background colors both to white. Add your text (Create As Vector) in any fairly fat font. Set the stroke width to 0 unless you need to make your letters fatter, in which case set it to 1 or 2. (I used font Cooper Black and stretched its height a little).
Layers menu, Convert To Raster Layer Effects menu, Texture Effects, Sculpture - use these settings: Pattern = Pastel Blue Splatters (or any blue pattern) Size = 100% Smoothness = 15 Depth = 10 Ambiance = 0 Shininess = 20 Color = White Angle = 315 Intensity = 50 Elevation = 30 .... and that's your tag all finished.
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You can create all sorts of variations by copying the gradient and changing its colors, and by using different patterns with the sculpture effect, or colorizing after you apply it. Here's another exaple, using a pink color scheme.....