Spiked Frame

Have you ever seen a frame tutorial that says to "use the artwork you
did from such-N-such tutorial", but it never gives you the link to that
particular part of the tutorial? Well, I have and it is frustrating. Then
you have to look at the screen shots that they provide and come up with
something close so that you can continue to do the frame.

This brought me to write this tutorial. You can use any image, or artwork,
and you will get different colored "artwork" to make frames. I will not be
furnishing the beginning images, so any image you use will give you your
own colored frames. Plus, I am using the effects that come with PSP,
so there are no fancy plug-ins to install.

#1 Open your image. SHIFT D to make a copy and then close
out the original. This way, you do not make a mistake when
saving any changes and end up losing the original image. Click
on background layer and Convert to Raster. I now resize my
image to 400 at the longest side. The width will be automatically
changed depending on original size of your image.

Now that you have your image ready, let's get to work at making
it an art piece for a frame.

#2 Go to Effects/Distortion/Spiky Halo and use these setting.
You can play with the settings if you want.

#3 Name this SAMPLE1. SHIFT D to make a copy. Name this
copy SAMPLE2. Minimize SAMPLE1 as we will use it later.

#4 With the SAMPLE2 copy, go to Effects/Image/Seamless Tiling
and use these settings.

#5 Your two images should now look something like these....

#6 Now, let's make a quick and simple frame using these two images.

#7 Maximize your SAMPLE1 image. Selections/Select ALL.
Selections/Modify/Contract and use Radius 50. Then
hit your DELETE key. This will remove the center
section. KEEP selected.

#8 Add a NEW Raster layer and Arrange/Send to Bottom.
Make your foreground a gradient of your choice, I
am using a gold gradient, Angle & Scale both 0.
Flood Fill with the gradient. Selections/Modify/Contract
with Radius 5. Hit your DELETE key.

#9 Selections/Modify/Expand with Radius 5. Selections/Invert.
Hit your DELETE key. Select NONE.

#10 Using the Magic Wand, click INSIDE the empty center.
Selections/Invert. Selections/Float. Now you will
have Marching Ants around JUST the gold trim.

#11 Use Effects/3D/Inner Bevel and use these settings. Select NONE.

#12 Make your top layer active (this should be the colored border).
Select ALL, Selections/Float. Apply Effects/3D/Cutout and
use these settings.

Repeat the CUTOUT but change the Vertical & Horizontal to -5 (MINUS 5).
Select NONE. Merge/Merge Visible.

NOTE: You can stop here and EXPORT as a
picture frame -- File/Export/Picture Frame and give it a
name that you like. Or you can follow the remaining
steps and make a fancier frame.

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Spiked Frame

Continue to Part 2

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