New templates

Our fourth Stalker template creation challenge was a success with several Stalkers participating over at the Offical Xeracx Stalkers forum. The theme was Winter/Christmas. These are my templates for the challenge, and if you are interested in the others, head on over to the forum to check them out. As usual, they may be used in tuts, but please link back here. It would also be nice if you let me know you're using them so I could pop over and check out your site and maybe give you a link to your tut! You can get them HERE.

Naughty List

For this tutorial you will need the following: Paint Shop Pro, I am using PSP X but you should be able to use any version. Tube of choice. I am using the artwork of Amy Matthews, which you have to purchase at AMI. Scrap kit of choice. I am using Monti's It's Snow Time, which is a PTU kit that must be purchased at AMI. Mask of choice. I am using a mask by EssexGirl called SnowflakeStar. Scroll to the bottom of the page, it's the last one. Font of choice. I used FFF Urban on the sign and CAC Pinafore for my name. Plugins: Eye Candy 3.1 Glow (optional) Please remember that a tutorial is just a guide. You can use a different tube, scrap kit, or just use the same, and change the elements and papers used and have it come out looking completely different. Feel free to experiment and make it your own. Let's begin. Open a new 700 x 700 blank canvas and flood fill with white. This gives us a white background to be able to see what we're doing and room to work. We'll delete the white at the end and crop the image down. In your kit, open Frame Square 9, copy and paste as a new layer, resize about 75%, image, flip. Take your selection tool and click inside the frame, make sure you get all the little sections in between the ribbon and the frame, selections modify, expand by 5, selections invert. Open paper 5, rotate by 90 in either direction, copy and paste as a new layer, image resize about 55% making sure resize all layers is unchecked. Click delete on your keyboard. Drag below your frame layer. Leave selected and open your tube, copy and paste as a new layer. Duplicate your tube, and hide the top tube layer. Take your eraser tool and erase the bits that hang over your frame. Deselect and drag the original tube layer below your frame, add a drop shadow. Add a drop shadow to your frame also. Unhide your duplicated tube layer. Make sure it is above your frame layer. Erase the bits that hang over the frame and ribbon. You don't have to be super careful, because you've already erased the bits on the bottom tube and that one will show through below your top tube. Basically you have the top tube to show the parts that are above the frame layer so you don't have to be super careful using one tube and erasing all the bits pixel by pixel. Open the It's Snowtime Sign 5 element, resize by 60% and add a drop shadow. Use your text tool and type out on the boards "I'm on Santa's Naughty List" You'll have to put a few words on each board and rotate them slightly to make them fit right. Merge all 3 text layers together after converting them to raster layers. Open a few other elements, place them on your tag, resizing and adding a drop shadow as necessary. When I added the tree, I also put a glow of about 5 around the tree before adding the drop shadow. Open paper 2, copy and paste as a new layer, bring down to the bottom just above the white background layer. Open your mask in psp, and go to layers, new mask layer, from image, find your mask in the drop down box, and for this mask, you need to be sure that invert mask data is ticked. Apply the mask, then delete that layer and merge the 2 layers into one group. You may want to resize it and/or change the opacity of the mask layer. Add your name. I used CAC Pinafore with my background set to #7f3738. Then I converted to a raster layer, selections, select all, float, defloat, modify, expand 2 and added a new raster layer below my name layer. Flood fill with white, deselect add a drop shadow to the white layer and merge the two layers together. Add your Copyright and license info and then crop your image, delete the white background layer and save as a .png so it's transparent.

Vacation in Xeracx Valley

For this tutorial you will need the following: Tube of choice: I am using the wonderful artwork of Ismael Rac which you must purchase at AMI to use. Scrap kit of choice. I am using Monti's PTU kit called It's Snow Time which you can also find at AMI. Mask WSL Mask 81 which you can get at Weescotslass Creations. You can find the links to all her masks just a little way down on the right side. Fonts of choice. I used FFF Urban, LD Warm Heart Plugins: Penta.com Color Dot, Eye Candy 3.1 Glow (or another version of Eye Candy graident glow if you have that instead) Keep in mind, tube selection, scrap kit element choices, etc are all subject to your likes and dislikes. You don't have to use the same ones I use, mix it up and make it how you want, be creative! Open a new canvas sized 700 x 700 so you have plenty of room to work, and you can crop it at the end to get rid of any excess edges. Flood fill it with white so you can see what you're doing as you're working. With your foreground set to #8c9ca9 and your background set to blocked off (click the last circle under the colored square) draw out a large elipse with your preset shape tool. Objects, align, center in canvas, convert to raster layer. Take your selection tool set to rectangle and draw out a rectangle on the left side of the oval you just drew out. Apply Penta.com Color dot with the following settings going from top to bottom, 90, 2, 255, 255, 255. Deselect. Do the same thing as above in two or three more spots on your oval shape until you get the dottted areas how you like them on your oval. Make sure you are still on your oval layer, selections, select all, float, defloat, modify, expand by 5. add a new raster layer and flood fill with #e5d7aa. Deselect. Adjust, add/remove noise, and add noice with the following settings: Gaussian, monochrome checked, amount set to 50. Add drop shadow of 1, 1, 60, 5 or a drop shadow of your choice. Open one of the post cards elements. I'm using postcard #2. Copy and paste it as a new layer on your canvas. Resize it by 85% and rotate it to the left by 15. Add drop shadow. Move it to the bottom right area of your oval. With your text too, use a nice pixel font, with the anti-alias set to off, (which helps keep pixel fonts from looking raggedy) type in the address area a name, or just my friend, or something like that, and a fake address. I used on the top line, on the next line: 123 Friendship Lane, on the next line: Any Town, Any State, on the last line: All Around the world. Rotate each line by 15 to the left as you place it on your card and align it how you'd like. When you get done, merge all the address lines together. Take a nice hand writing font and write a little note on the left side of the postcard, make sure you put your anti-alias back to sharp. I chose to write "Vacationing here in Xeracx Valley. It's beautiful. Miss you and wish you were here my friend," because my tube had "Welcome to Xeracx Valley" on the sign post, so I thought it was a good place to say she was vacationing. And below that, your name. Rotate all the lines to the left 15 and merge the text lines all together, except your name if you want to make the tag for others, so leave that on a separate layer. Open paper 1, copy and paste it as a new layer, and move it down so it is just above your white background layer. Open your mask in PSP and then click layers, new mask layer, from image, scroll down in the box and find the mask, click on it, click ok. Delete the mask layer and merge the groups together. Lower the opacity to around 70. Open three of the Baubble elements and a bow element. Copy and paste the first baubble as a new layer. Resize it about 30% and move it to the top so that the little eyelet is touching on the cream colored band around the blue oval, add a drop shadow. Do the same for the next two baubbles but resize them at about 25%. Copy and paste your bow and resize it by 25%. I used a different color bow for each baubble, depending on the color ribbon it was hanging by. Add a drop shadow to each ribbon as you go. Open a mitten element (I used Mittens9) copy and paste as a new layer, and resize by about 25% add a drop shadow and move them down near the bottom right corner of the postcard. Open a snowflake element, resize by 25% and then add a white glow, with the width set at 5. Add your drop shadow. Bring it down to the bottom right corner, and place it over the top of the little string on the mittens. Open the Snow word art 3, resize by 40%, add the same glow and drop shadow you used on the snowflake. Move to the bottom of your tag. Open your journal 1 element. Copy and paste it as a new layer and then move it below your postcard layer. Rotate it to the right by 15. Add your copyright and license info, delete your white background layer, crop and resize as necessary. Save as a .png file so it will be transparent and you're done!

Naughty Christmas

For this tut you will need the following: Paint Shop Pro, I used version PSP X, but any version should work. Tubes of choice. I am using the awesome work of Ismael Rac (lol, big surprise right?) which you have to purchase at AMI to use. Scrap kit of choice. I am using a kit called Santa's Friends by Monti, which is a PTU kit which you can also find at AMI. Link to kits is HERE. Template by Ella at Creative Misfits Creations. It's the 3rd link down. Plugins: Pena.com Color Dot, Xero Radiance, Penta.com Jeans, Eye Candy 3.1 Glow Font of choice. I am using Clarisse. Remember the tut is just a guide, and you can change it up to suit your tastes. Have fun and let your creativity flow! Open your tubes and your template. Delete the copyright layer and the background layer off your template. Image, resize, all layers by 75%. Image, canvas size 700 x 500. You can crop yours down at the end, this just gives us room to work. Click on the layer "inner box" selections, select all, float, defloat. Copy and paste the Red Velvet paper as a new layer, selections, invert, make sure you are on the paper layer, and hit delete on your keyboard. Leave selected. Copy and paste your close up of your tube as a new layer, just above the Naughty Naughty Naughty layer and move to the left side(if you have one, if you don't, then resize to your liking). After you get it where you want it, make sure you are on your tube layer and hit delete on your keyboard. Do the same for 2 more tubes, one in the center and one on the right hand side. Deselect and delete the original inner box layer. Merge the 3 tube layers together. I usually click on the top tube layer and then merge down and then click on that layer and merge down into the next layer. Duplicate the merged tube layer. On the top tube layer (the duplicate) adjust, blur, gaussian blur set at 3. Then go to your plugins and use Penta.com color dot set at the default settings. Change the blend mode to soft light. On the bottom (original) tube layer apply the Xero Radiance plugin with the default settings. Click on the Naughty Naughty Naughty layer. Adjust, brightness and contrast, using the following settings: Brightness -255, Contrast 0. Click ok. Add drop shadow of choice. I used 1, 1, 60, 5. Click on the Frame layer. Selections, select all, float, defloat, modify, expand 2 pixels. Add a new raster layer and flood fill with black. Deselect and delete the original frame layer. On your black frame layer, apply Penta.com Jeans with the following settings: Amount 94, width and distance both 2. Add drop shadow of choice, then selections float, selections defloat, modify, expand 3 and add a new layer below it and flood fill with #89282b. Deselect and merge it together with the black layer. Click on the Long Box layer, selections, select all, float, defloat, modify, expand 2. Open the Blue Velvet paper and paste as a new layer. Selections, invert, and on the paper layer, click delete on your keyboard, selections, modify, expand 3, add a new raster layer below the blue layer and flood fill with #89282b. Deselect. Delete the original Long Box layer. Click on the Naughty Layer. Selections, select all, float, defloat, add a new raster layer and flood fill with #89282b. Modify, expand 1, add a new raster layer below the layer you just filled with red, and flood fill with white. Deslect and delete the original layer. Merge the red and white layers together, and then add your drop shadow. You can do the same thing with a glow if you'd like but this leaves a cleaner edge. Do the same you did for the Naughty layer for each of your snowflake layers, except when you expand, expand by 2 instead of 1. I used red and white for mine, you can use whatever colors match your tube/scrap choice. Add your tube and bring it up to the top, add a drop shadow. For the ribbon layer, I added it below my Naughty layer and resized it. Then I duplicated it twice, moved one to the left and one to the right, then erased extra bits that showed and then merged it all together so it looked like one long ribbon with a bow in the middle, then added a drop shadow. Open the Folded Star Blue Snow element, resize by 20% and copy and paste as a new layer moving it down to the bottom right of your tag. Apply Eye Candy glow, changing the width to 3, image, free rotate, right 10. Apply drop shadow. Open 4 of the stamp elements, I chose the Santa, North Pole, and Reindeer. Resize each one by 35%. Place the first one on your tag so that it's just above the blue wavy layer, below the ribbon layer and the Naughty layer. Image, rotate, left 10, and then add your drop shadow. Do the same for the second stamp, rotate it to the right 10, do the same for the next two stamps, and alternate rotation to the left or right so that each stamp is going the opposite direction of the one next to it. Click on edit at the top of the PSP toolbar, and copy merged. Edit paste as a new layer, line it up so that it sits evenly with the tag layers below it, right click on that layer, arrange, move to bottom. Adjust blur, gaussian blur 10. Add your name using your font of choice. I used Clarisse, with background set to #89282b and foreground to white, and stroke set at 2, then added the same 1, 1, 60, 5 drop shadow. Add your Copyright info, license info, scrap kit makers info as required in TOU. Crop it down, resize if necessary and save as a .png file so that it will be transparent and you're done. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Please feel free to send me any finished tags to the email listed in my contact info so that I can get a showcase of finished tags on my site!