Skill Level: Beginner to Master
Items Needed for this tutorial are:
2. A suitable image you wish to frame.
3. This Super Blade Pro Preset
Step 1:
Open up the 4-leaf-clover image and go Selections/Select All. Make your selection tool the active tool and touch the leaf.
Step 2:
Make your foreground color white and using your "Airbrush" tool set to around 30 - 50 spray over the leaf until it is all white. Do Not Deselect yet.
Step 3:
Go to Effects/Plugins/Flaming Pear/Super Blade Pro and find the preset you downloaded and apply it to the image.
Step 4:
Open the image you are wanting to frame and double click the word background in the layer control. This will give it a transparent background for the next step.
Step 5:
Enlarge your canvas size by going Image/Canvas Size and add 100 pixels to both the top and bottom and then click the middle button to that the image remains centered on the canvas.
Step 6:
In your layer control add a new layer by clicking on the tiny white paper.
Step 7:
Make sure you are on the top layer and then go Selections select all. Then go Selections/Modify/Contract and type in 15 and click ok. Then go Selections/Invert.
Step 8:
Flood fill your selection with white and then use the same Super Blade Pro Preset you used before, then deselect.
Step 9:
Open up your clover leaf that you applied the Super Blade Pro to and make a copy of it by doing a shift + d on your keyboard. Close the original.
Step 10:
You need to resize the leaf so it is 110 X 112 pixels that was 50 % on mine and yours should be the same size so long as you did not resize it at some point. Once resized go Image/Copy then make your larger image the active image and go Image/Paste As New Layer. Now move the clover up to the upper left corner so it looks like mine below.
Step 11:
In your layer control make the shamrock layer the active layer and move to top if need be. Now right click on the layer and choose Duplicate then go Image/Mirror
Step 12:
Turn off all layers Except the two Shamrock layers and the right click one of the shamrock layers and choose Merge/Visible. Now again Duplicate the merged layer then go Image/Flip and you will have a shamrock in each corner of your image. Again turn off all layers Except the Shamrocks and right click on shamrock layer and go Merge/Visible.
Step 13:
Now we will add more shamrocks to give the frame a "Quasi Lacy" feel. Open up your small shamrock image again and resize it by 50%. Now go Edit/Copy then make your large image the active image and go Edit/Paste as new Layer. Move the shamrock up to the top and go Edit/Paste as new layer again moving it up to the top. Do this 4 times in all so you have a total of 4 tiny shamrocks in between the two large shamrocks similar to below.
Step 14:
Turn off ALL layers except for the small shamrocks. Right click on one of the small shamrocks and choose Merge/Visible. Now duplicate the merged layer and then go Image/Flip and you will end up with something similar to below. Now turn off ALL layers Except the Shamrock Layers and click on one of the shamrock layers and choose Merge/Visible.
Step 15:
I want my final image to be a little more "Lacy" so I will place some small shamrocks down the sides of my image as well. You can do this step or skip it the choice is yours. Here is what mine looks like with the added shamrocks.
Step 16:
I purposely left the addition of a Matt board to the very end because I was still unsure of what color I wanted it to be. I will use one of the palest greens from my image. Add a new layer and then drag that layer down to the bottom of the layer list. Flood fill it with the color of your choice and add some texture to it. Then add some drop shadows to your different layers if you like, merge the layers and your done. Resize your image if you want to.
This tutorial is now complete, and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did writing it. If you need help please use the help link below.
All Tutorials, Images, and Styles © Lady Gem 2007
Except those images attributed to someone else.