Subtle Beauty

Paint Shop Pro 8, 9 or X (this was done using V9)

Tubes of Your Choice (A misted tube works best.)

The Misted Lady Tube was misted by Stormy, the Corner by KC & Pearl by LT. Thanks Karen, LT & Stormy for sharing your wonderful talent with us.

Filters: Filter Factory E – Lead Crystal Emboss

Filter Factory E – Gradient Spokes

Filter Factory D – Centipede Tile

Filter Factory D – Quantum Tile

FM Tile Tools – Blend Emboss

Filter Factory A – Pool Shadow (Optional)

Any resemblance to any other tutorial is purely coincidental.

Let’s make our background for the tag.

1.Open your tubes & minimize. File – New – 400 x 400 Transparent.

2. Set your material pallet - foreground color #efe9c7, background #f5f3e7 or two contrasting colors of the same tone from your tube. Now change your background to the foreground/background gradient by clicking on the gradient tab then the window & scrolling until you find the foreground/background gradient set to angle 45-repeats-0. You material pallet will now look like this:

3. Using your flood fill tool fill the 400 X 400 file with the gradient by right clicking with the tool over your file.

4. Effects – Plugins – Filter Factory E – Lead Crystal Emboss- settings left/right-255 up/down-0

5. Effects – Plugins – Filter Factory E – Gradient Spokes- settings 107

6. Effects – Plugins – Filter Factory D – Centipedal Tile- settings tile sample-235 force-7

7. Effects – Plugins – FM Tile Tools – Blend Emboss

8. Your background is complete. Shift D to duplicate this image & minimize one copy for use later.

9. Activate the Misted tube. Edit- Copy- Paste as a new layer. With the mover tool move your tube to a position of your choice. This one was moved a tiny bit to the right. Right click on either raster layer & merge all flatten.

10. Image – Add Borders – 3 pixels symmetric – black (or any color not in your background). Selections – Select All – Selections Modify – Contract 3 Pixels – selections – Invert. Flood fill with the foreground color. Keep Selected.

11. Effects – 3D Effects – Inner Bevel – Deselect (Selections – Select None)

12.Image- Add Borders – 3 pixels symmetric – black. Lets select this border another way. You may need to zoom in close to get the border selected using this method. Take your magic wand tool with these setting

and select inside the border you have just added until the marching ants appear inside your border. Flood fill with the foreground color. Deselect.

13. Image – Add Borders – 3 pixels symmetric – black. Select the border with your magic wand tool and flood fill with the foreground color. Keep selected & apply the same Inner Bevel in Step #11.

14.Go to your material pallet and change the background to the background pattern you minimized earlier by clicking the pattern button then the window & scrolling until you find your pattern. Set at angle 178 scale 115.

15. Image – Add Borders – 15 pixels symmetric – black. Select the border & flood fill with the pattern by right clicking over your selected border with the food fill tool.

Keep selected.

16. Effects – Plugins – FM Tile Tool Blend Emboss with the same setting you used before. Keep selected.

17. Effects – Plugins – Graphics Plus – Cross Shadow with the top 6 settings at 50, Intensity 80 and Brightness 200. Deselect.

18. Image – Add Borders – 6 pixels symmetric – color black. Select with your magic wand & flood fill with the foreground color. While still selected Effects – 3D Effects – Inner Bevel with the same settings you used before. Deselect.

19. Image – Add Borders – 20 pixels symmetric – color black. Select with your magic wand & fill with the pattern. Keep Selected.

20. Effects – Plugins – Filter Factor D Quatum Tile – Uncertainty 142, Tiles 88. Apply this filter 3 times. Adjust – Sharpen then Adjust – Sharpen (sharpen 2 times). Deselect.

21. Image – Add Borders – 3 pixels symmetric – color black. Select with magic wand & flood fill with your foreground color. While selected, Effects – 3D Effects – Inner Bevel with the same settings used before. Deselect.

22. Image – Add Borders – 5 pixels symmetric color black. Select with magic wand & fill with foreground color. Deselect.

23. Image – Add Borders – 3 pixels symmetric color black. Select with magic wand & fill with the foreground color. While still selected – Effects – 3D Effects – Inner Bevel with the same settings used before. Deselect.

24. Activate the KC corner tube. Activate the LT Pearl tube Copy & Paste it as a new Selection on the Corner Tube placing it where you want it. When you are satisfied with the placement, right click on the layer palette and merge visible. Now Edit – Copy – Paste the entire tube (corner & pearl combined) as new layer on your image. Move with the mover tool to where you want the corner.

Right click on your layer pallet, duplicate –Image – Mirror

Right click on your layer pallet – duplicate – Image – Flip

Right click on your layer pallet – duplicate – Image – Mirror

You now have 4 perfectly aligned corners. If the image is exactly like you want it, right click on the layer pallet & merge all flatten.

If you want to add a bit of depth to the image - with the selection tool select the interior of the image & add Filter Factory A - Pool Shadow

Pool Shadow Settings

Hope you have enjoyed this tutorial. Remember tutorials are only a guide. Experiment and have fun.

Keep smiling & stay creative.

Big Hugggggggggggggggggers & :)))))))))))))))))’s

Brandy