This tutorial was written in July 2005 and © by Sorcha. You may make a copy of this tutorial or print it out for your own personal use ONLY. If you would like to LINK to my tutorials to share them with others please let me know. What you create from my tutorials belong to you to do with as you wish....I hold no claim to them other than my tutorial rights.

This is my first time at writing a Tutorial, so please bear with my on some of my wording. I wrote this using PSP 9, but I am sure that you could do it using PSP8. I did this after seeing a Sig Tag that I liked. I did not use a tutorial, and these are my own words and steps. Any resemblance to any other tutorial is strictly coincidental. I am hoping that you already have some understanding of PSP.

You will need: PSP 9 (but I think PSP 8 will work with this tutorial) and Super Blade Pro

You can download the two .bmps RUM and SILK by clicking on their names. The bmps you can download directly into your Plug-in folder (Super Blade Pro/environments and textures). The floral image I used for this tutorial was given to me by Suzie Beary and I do not have her permission to distribute it, so I am including two different floral photos. You can get them here… CROCUS and CAMELLIA. These pictures are from my own floral collection that I have taken, that is why I am encluding them for this tutorial.

I will be referring to the Lotus image throughout this tutorial since that is the one that I used.

Let's get started.

Open a new image 600X500 (I like to have extra room to work with) Transparent. Select your foreground color and background color and make them both black.

Click on your Preset Shape Tool, Retain Style and Anti-alias both checked, choose a shape from the Preset dropdown list. I chose an Octagon.

Starting up towards the left corner, click your mouse at 35/35 (watch your numbers at the bottom right of your screen). Drag down and towards the right until your numbers reach X276 Y285. Then let go of your mouse.

Click on your Magic Wand in the Tool Bar and click in the center of the Octagon. In your Layers Palette, make a new Raster. Change your foreground color to a Metal Brass Gradient (or a gradient of your choice), Angle 0 and Repeat 0.

With Raster 2 highlighted, click on your Flood Fill Tool and fill with the Gradient. Now go to Selections/Modify/Contract 15, click ok. Click the delete key to remove the center. Select/Select None. Name this layer FRAME 1. Do NOT deselect yet. Highlight your Raster 1 layer.

Open your floral image, or whatever image you are using, and duplicate it (SHIFT D). Close the original to preserve it. Go to the lotus layer palette and highlight the background layer. Holding your left mouse down, drag this layer to your main image window. (NOTE: If it is easier, you can also Click on the flower picture, Edit/copy, click back over to the main graphic and click Edit/paste as new layer).This will put the floral image behind your frame. Close the lotus image as we will not need it now. You now have a layer Raster2, name this layer Background.

Click on your Mover Tool and position the floral image inside the frame. Click on the eyeglasses by FRAME 1 to close it. With Marching Ants still active, go to Selections/Invert. Now you should marching ants around the Octagon shape and around the outside edge. It should look like this…..(your image will fill the Octagon)

Now click the Delete Key to remove the excess image. Selections/Select None. Highlight Raster 1 and delete it. We won't need this layer anymore. Click the RED X and make your FRAME visible again. It should now look like this………

Highlight FRAME 1. Go to Effects/Plugins/Flaming Pear/SuperBladePro and use the setting below. I have circled the Texture and Environment bmps in RED, but you can use any other settings that you are comfortable with; these are just the ones that I used.

Now go to Effects/3D/inner bevel and use these setting…..

Highlight FRAME 1. Duplicate layer FRAME 1 twice. Name these FRAME 2 and FRAME 3. Highlight the Background layer and duplicate it twice. Name these Background 2 and Background 3. Click on the eyeglasses by the three Backgrounds and make them invisible. Now you just have the three FRAMES visible.

Click on your Mover Tool and position the three FRAMES to where you want them to be, crossing the frames over each other.

Now, comes the tricky part, since you have your FRAMES where you want them. Now decide which sections of frames you want to go over a frame section and which ones you want to go under a frame section. You will need to ZOOM in and out to do the next few steps and to see your results. Do not worry if you make a mistake, you can always click the Undo arrow and redo it.

Click on the Eraser Tool with these settings… Size 5, Hardness 50, Step 22, Density 100, Thickness 100 and Opacity 100. Remember to use the ZOOM Tool frequently. Carefully erase the overlapping sections of the frames that you want to go "under" a connecting frame.

Unclick the Background eye glasses and make them visible. Click on the Mover Tool and position each lotus image behind each frame. To show more of the lotus on the right side frame, I went to Image/Mirror then repositioned the lotus image.

Now you can crop and resize. I added a new Raster layer and added my name. I added a slight Drop Shadow using these settings; Vertical 6, Horizontal 5, Opacity 50 and Blur 5. When you are happy with how it looks, right click on a layer and Merge/Merge Visible. Save as a .gif or .jpg.

I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial as much as I did writing it.