Let it Snow

For this tut you will need the following: Paint shop pro (I used PSP X but you should be able to use any version to do this), and Animation Shop. The "New Xmas Mask" by Chas at Chas ScrapnBitz Scrapkit (PTU) Listen by Aiya of Juicy Bits I am using the artwork of Elias Chatzoudis which you must purchase at MPT to use. Tag template 79 by Missy at Divine Intentions. Scroll about half way down the page, and a link to her templates is on the right hand side. Plugins: Xero Radiance, Vanderlee Snowflakes Font of choice, I used Peas Miss Stalker. Open the template, delete the copyright layer and resize the canvas to 600x600. It will give you room to work and you can always crop down later. If you like to keep the white background layer while you work, you can click on that layer and flood fill it back in with white to cover the bare edges that resizing left. Click on the circle layer, selections, select all, float, defloat, invert, copy paper 4 and paste as a new layer, and on that paper layer, hit delete on your keyboard. Deselect. Delete the original circle layer. Add a drop shadow. I used 0, 0, 60, 5 Click on your snowflakes layer. Selections, select all, float, defloat, add new raster layer and flood fill with white. Delete the original snowflakes layer. On the scalloped circle layer, click inside with your magic wand, selections invert. Open paper 12, copy and paste it as a new layer. Make sure you are on that layer, and hit delete on your keyboard. Deselect, and apply the same drop shadow you used above. Delete the original scalloped circle layer. Click on your background frame layer, click inside it with your magic wand, selections invert, open paper 13, copy and paste as a new layer, hit delete on your keyboard. Leave selected. Open your tube, and paste the closeup as a new layer. Arrange it how you like and then on the tube layer, hit delete on your keyboard. Deselect. Duplicate your tube and on the top (duplicate) layer, go to adjust, blur, gaussian blur, and change it to 3. Change the blend mode to overlay. On the bottom (original) tube layer, apply Xero Radiance with the following settings top to bottom: 128, 50, 128, 255 and then drop the opacity to about 45 Now on the wordart template layer, take your magic wand and hold down the shift key and click on each letter. Add a new raster layer and flood fill white. Deselect and delete the original wordart layer. On your white wordart layer, click adjust, add remove noise, and use the following settings: Gaussian, monochrome, and noise set to 50%. On that same layer, selections, select all, float, defloat, modify, expand by 3. Make a new raster layer below your white wordart layer and flood fill with #638a89. Merge those two layers together and if you'd like, add the same drop shadow you've been using. Add your tube and add the same drop shadow. Open the heart01 element and add it just below your circle layer. Add a very small drop shadow. I used 0, 0, 30, 1. Duplicate it, image mirror, image, flip and move it into place. Open paper 14, copy and paste it just above your white background layer, and then open your mask. Layers, new mask layer, from image. In the drop down menu, search for your mask, and then click ok. Delete the mask layer and merge the group. Arrange the mask layer to where you'd like it. Add any other elements you'd like. I added a ribbon and tag and put the words "Let it snow" on the tag. Add your name and copyright info. If you are not going to animate, then you can crop your image down, and save. If you want to save as transparent, then delete the white background layer and save as a .png file If you want to animate, then let's go on. To animate: Click on your scalloped layer, which should be right above your white snowflakes. Selections, select all, float, defloat. Duplicate it twice for a total of 3 layers. Do not deselect. Click on the bottom layer. Apply the Vanderlee snowflakes, change the amount to 90 and the random seed to 1255 (or you can choose another number). Leave the other numbers as is and click ok. Do the same thing for the second layer just changing the random seed to 3081 (or any other number, but not the same as the first layer). Do the same for the top layer, but change the random seed to 4530 (or any other number, but not the same as the first two layers). Deselect. Open animation shop. Back in PSP, hide the top two scalloped circle layers and your white background layer, copy merged and take it to your animation shop. Paste as a new animation. Back in PSP, hide the bottom layer and unhide the middle layer. Copy merged and take to animation shop. Paste after current frame. Back in PSP, hide the middle layer and unhide the top layer. Copy merged and take to animation shop. Paste after current frame. Now you have an animation with 3 frames. Click on the first frame, and go to animation, frame properties and change it to 15. Move the slider at the bottom over until it shows frame 2, click on it and go to animation, frame properties and change it to 25. Do the same thing to go to frame 3 and change that one to 30. Crop and resize your animation as necessary and save. You're all done! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Comments are appreciated, and if you want to send in any completed tags, I'd love to get a slide show started of tags made from my tuts! Here's an example using the same colors and kit, just changed the tube so I could use it in the Rac Stalkers group.