PSP6 You can keep this as a *.bmp or save it as a *.jpg (turn compression to 0 for better quality...instructions on bottom of page). Store it wherever you keep your fills.

PSP7 You may do the same as with the PSP6 instructions OR save it as *.bmp to your patterns folder if you think you might use it a lot (instructions at bottom).

3. Right-click on the image below and paste it as a new image to PSP. Some people do not have that large of a hard drive, so you do not need to save this image to your HD unless you want to.


The Wedding of St. George & Princess Sabra

Working on the Image

• For those that wish to save the original to HD, click shift+D to duplicate your image (or Window | Duplicate from PSP's menu for those that don't like keyboard shortcuts). Name your original whatever you'd like and then close it. The copied image should still be opened on your PSP workspace.
• Resize and sharpen the image now (you want to do this now because if you resize your finished image, the other effects won't look good).
• Turn it to 256 colors: Shift+Ctrl+3 OR
  Colors | Decrease Color Depth | 256 Colors (8bit).
• Apply Touch of Blues color palette
  Get it here if you don't have it in your PSP palettes folder):
  Colors | Load Palette |
  Touch of Blues
  Nearest Color Matching
  Open
  
  Wow is that ever BLUE! Let's fix that before we go blind!
  
  
• Let's desaturate it a bit:
  • Colors | Adjust | Hue/Saturation/Lightness
  • Click on the bottom right box to reset to defaults
  • Edit: Master
  • Colorize: UNchecked
  • Hue: 0
  • Slide the Saturation slider (left) downwards till the blue calms down a bit; watch in the right preview box to see the results
    (try between -60 to -75...those are negatives).
  • After finding a nice greyish-blue, you can adjust the lightness if you wish. Slide the Lightness slider (right) upwards to make your image lighter and downwards to make it darker.
    
    NOTE - I changed images I used to make the tutorial with, so amounts will vary. Just make it pretty *S*
  
  
  Can someone tell me if PSP6 has the PSP7 color menu command shown to the right? Or better yet, mail me the instructions if there's a work-a-round, thanks.

You might find you prefer using Hue/Saturation/Lightness for your color adjustments once you understand why what does what...here's an excellent explanation (opens a new browser window).

You are still in 256 colors, to continue you'll need to increase your colors to 16 million:
Colors | Increase Color Depth | 16 Million Colors (24 bit)

You may save this image as a psp file with whatever name you wish. This will be the last time I remind to save; I expect you'll either save on your own, or eventually learn to after re-doing tutorials over and over LOL. You can decrease your chances of a PSP crash by emptying the command history:
Edit | Empty | Command History
but ONLY after you're certain you're happy with the results so far (be forewarned that you will not be able to use undo once you've emptied your command history, the command history will start up from that point, meaning that you'll be able to use undo but just to the point where you emptied the command history).

Applying the Mask

• Add borders
  (this image required top/bottom: 50 and left/right: 25
  for other images, you will have to guestimate and undo until your mask appears to be covering the correct areas of your image.)
• Add a new layer:
  Layers | New Raster Layer |        OR
  Click on the left upper white box in the layers palette (it looks like 2 papers stacked), you may name the layer if you wish (recommended for images with numerous layers), but for now you may wish leave it as default.
• Flood fill with the silver glitter:

PSP6 It's been a while since I've done it with PSP6; I think it's open the glitter image, click on paint bucket, in the tools box click on pattern, click on the middle tab that looks like a grid, and choose the glitter from the drop down box. Please correct me if I've remembered incorrectly.

PSP7 If you've saved the glitter to your patterns, click on the little triangle in the foreground box (top) in your styles palette (old color palette). Choose pattern (9 dots in a square shape). Click in the 'middle' of the foreground box and a new box will appear. The default pattern will be showing in the preview box, right next to that is a down arrow, click on it for a menu of your patterns. Use the scroll to find your glitter silver and highlight by clicking on it. Leave as defaults if they're scale 100% and angle 0 and click OK.

This probably needs screenshots LOL

• Now change your background (bottom box in styles palette) to Null (slashed circle).
• Flood fill all of layer 2 with silver glitter with paint bucket.
• Apply mask to 2nd layer:
  Masks | Load from DISK
  If the box does not show the masks folder, surf to it, then click on
  jd-mask3.msk then click on OPEN. We do NOT care that the mask is in the wrong place at this time.
• To give OOMPH to the glitter frame, duplicate the layer three times:
  In layers palette, right-click on the 2nd layer and select duplicate, repeat.
• Turn off visibity of bottom layer:
  Click on the bottom layer's eye glasses
• Right-click on one of the visible layers (doesn't matter which one) and select
  Merge | Merge Visible
• To make it even more sparkly, Unsharp Mask:
  PSP7 - Effects | Sharpen | Unsharp Mask
  PSP6 - Image | Sharpen | Unsharp Mask
  Both: Click on bottom right box to set to default, then change Strength (middle) to 50
  OK
• Add a drop shadow (you do not have to select anything since the frame is on its own layer)
  Vertical and Horizontal: 1
  Blur 2
  Opacity 100%
  Color pick a medium gray
  (try to get out of the habit of always applying a black shadow...for the gold glitter I used a medium brown, these frames looked dreadful with black shadows).

Fitting the Image Into the Frame

• If the bottom layer is called background, you must change it to a layer:
  Right-click and select Convert to Layer        OR
  Double click on the bottom layer
• Select the mover tool (up/down and sideways arrows) and center your image better (it might still be too big, that's ok)
• If necessary, resize your layer (if you're using the image here, it will not be necessary to resize):
  Image | Resize | Click Percentage of Original radio button
  Put a number in the width box for the percentage you want your image to be reduced, you will not need to enter in the height, it will do it for you as long as you leave the smart size and Maintain Aspect Ratio alone (highly recommended for most resizing jobs). But...UNcheck Resize All Layers. Click OK and move again if needed (mover tool).

Cropping the Outside of the Frame

• Click on layer 2 to activate it, click on magic wand with tolerance set to 20. Click inside of the glitter frame.
• Read closely:
  Selections | Modify | Expand 3
  Selections | Modify | Feather 15
  Selections | Invert
• Click on bottom layer to activate it, then hit your delete key (or Edit | Clear). Your outside of the image layer should disappear, if not, you forgot to invert your selection. Once its right, Selections | Select None.

If you wish to add an additional drop shadow to the outside only, feel free to follow the instructions below, or skip to Finishing the Image section...

• Click on the frame layer to activate it, use the magic wand on the outside of the frame.
  Selection | Modify | Expand 1
  Selection | Invert
• Click on main image layer (this is imporant since we changed the selection, if you applied the drop shadow to the frame layer it would be messed up, the image layer is covered by the frame and will cover any jaggies caused by such intricate selections). Apply your drop shadow:
  • You can use black if you wish, I did.
  • Vertical & Horizontal 2 (with this trick always make your V&H at least one more than the amount you expanded).
  • Blur 5 looked good to me
  • Opacity 50-80 whatever you like

Finishing the Image

• Add a new layer and drag it to the bottom of the layers palette (or Layers | New Raster Layer...then Layers | Arrange | Send to Bottom if you prefer clicking your mouse a lot LOL).
• Click on paint bucket and READ CLOSELY:
  Hover over a nice color (I think one of the darker colors works best) and HOLD DOWN YOUR CTRL key (wow did it just change to an eyedropper? LOL...this trick also works with paint brush, color replacer, spray can, paint bucket, and pencil...pick your color and let go and VOILA it changes back to the original tool, which is paint bucket in this case.) You can just click with the paint bucket now since you activated your bottom layer already, the eyedropping thing didn't change your layer, COOL! And even cooler is you can repeat this over and over till you get your perfect color, saving a LOT of clicks).
• Texturize your bottom layer with texturizer plugin:
  Effects | Plugin Filters | Texturizer | Texturizer and settings to your heart's content.
  
  (I don't know where textuizer plugin is, I'll find it if someone tells me they don't have it. I would think that most would have this or could find it easily, let me know).

If you wish to use an image you made on a webpage, turn off visibility of all layers except bottom. Click on selection tool, changing shape to square (feather 0; antialias UNchecked). Make a square in the center, it doesn't have to be exact, just make sure to stay far away from the edges. Selections | Convert to Seamless Pattern. Save this image as your background for the page, making sure to save it as a jpg or you'll have color differences. On your main image, deselect, and Merge | Merge All.

You're done! Congratulations!

You can do what you wish to frame it if you desire a frame. Personally I think a very small border of the glitter looks much nicer than a thick one, which would draw the eyes away from the main focus of the image.

Ready for a Gold Glitter Mask Frame?
The instructions are not as detailed as on this page, but you've already done it once *S*

To make an image into a pattern (PSP7):

• Open your image
• File | Save As        OR
  F12
• Put any name in the name box, click tab key to move to extension box (or just click it), and click on W key to bring up the lists of Windows extenions....scroll till you see bmp (it really states: Windows or OS/2 Bitmap (*.bmp) and surf to your PSP7 folder, then to your patterns folder within your PSP7 folder and save it.
  
  Now you'll be able to pull up this pattern from your styles palette at any time, without having to open the image.

To change jpg compression settings:

1. Save your image
2. Enter name in File Name box.
3. Click in Save as Type box and enter 'J' to bring up JPG.
4. Before clicking Save button, click on Options button.
5. Under Compression Factor, enter a number (lowest is 0 [zero] which will is the lowest compression...your image will look better but its size will be the largest...good for printing, but bad for internet. The experts usually recommend a compression factor of 10-20 for the internet. You'll learn to know which settings to use with experience. Welcome banners might not look good with too much compression, but buttons are fine to use higher settings.
6. If you close out a saved JPG and then re-open it and save again, it gets compressed AGAIN...do this a few times and see how ugly your image becomes LOL. You should try to work on an image in PSP format until the very end and then save as a jpg.

   shreela@NOSPAMdirecway.com
   copy/paste into email program; remove NOSPAM