I've received several requests for help in creating bordered backgrounds and titles so I thought a tutorial might be in order to aid some of you in creating your own graphics. The only thing you need is a little patience and a copy of Paint Shop Pro . If you
don't already have it now's the time to go download it.
Please keep in mind that these tutorials were made for PSP version 4.12!
Bordered Backgrounds
1. Open a new file and make the width and height 100 x 100, the background white and choose 16.7 million colors.
2. Use the eye dropper to pick a color from the color pallet. Now is the time to get creative....use the "freehand" tool (it looks like a rope on your tool bar) and make a squiggly line.
3. Choose the "flood fill" tool (it looks like a paint bucket on your tool bar) and drag it to the line you just made and left click on your mouse. This fills the line you just made with color.
4. Pick the "magic wand" and right click on the image you just made to unselect it.
5. Now pick another color and go through the previous steps again with the freehand tool. Keep doing this until you have all the colors you want to use. The box doesn't have to be full. Some white space makes it look a little more interesting.
6. The next step is to choose "image" from the menu. When the menu bar drops down pick "deformations" and "motion blur".
7. Another selection box will appear. Move the direction hand around until you see something you like in the preview window then click OK.
8. Select image from the menu and click on "enlarge canvas". Make it 200 x 200 and make sure the "center image" is not selected. Click OK.
9. Go to edit and click on "copy" and then go to edit again and click on "paste as transparent selection".
10. Line the new image up to the right of the original (make sure it's lined up perfectly).
11.While the selection lines are still on click on image "mirror".
12. Go to edit again and click on "paste as transparent selection".
13. Move this image to the lower left hand corner. Choose image and "flip".
14. Paste again placing the image in the lower right corner. This time you will click on "mirror" and then click on "flip".
15. Click on the "magic wand" and unselect the moving lines.
16. Now you want to "resize" your creation to 100 x 100. Click on image and then click on resize.
17. Go to image again and click on "enlarge canvas". I make mine 1030 x 100. Click OK.
18. You now have a bordered background. If you want to make it look 3 dimensional (the shadow along the right side) follow these steps.
19. Click on the "zoom" button (it looks like a magnifying glass on your tool bar) and then click on your background. This enlarges the image and makes it easier to work with.
20. Use the "selection tool" (next to the freehand tool) and starting in the upper left hand corner, select the border, making sure it's 100 x 100. You can see the size by looking at the lower left hand corner of your screen. This step is a little tricky but you can always "undo" your selection and start over if you don't get it just right. The "undo" selection is in your edit menu.
21. Once you have your 100 x 100 border selected click on image, special effects, add drop shadow. In the box that pops up make your color selection "black", opacity "175", blur "15", vertical "0" and horizontal "5". Click OK and you now have a 3D effect.
22. Click on the "zoom" tool to resize your background back to the original size. Don't click on the image. Click on the box right under the "zoom" tool and pick 1.2.
Get creative, play around with the settings. You'll be surprised at the effects you can come up with. If you want to make the "text" portion of your background a color other than white make sure you do it before you put the 3D effect in. To add color use the eye dropper and pick the color you want. Use the flood fill tool to flood the area with color. Remember to use a color that's light enough to read text on and make sure it compliments the border. You can use the eye dropper tool to pick up a color from the border rather than using the color pallet. Something else you might want to check out is The Filter Factory . You can download these filters and use them to get some really unique effects. Also check out PSP Tips . You'll find a lot of really good and useful information here.
If you have any questions or my instructions aren't clear, please, send me an e-mail . I'll be more than happy to help in any way I can.
Learn how to create textured text.
This one is great for creating tiled backgrounds and it's also great for making textured text.
Another great site for creating some really unique picture frames.
This site has several tutorials for making textures, 3-D effects, seamless tiles and fading borders.
A collection of links to more tutorials plus some tutorials done by Fritz himself.
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