Battenburg Lace

Materials needed for this Tutorial

PSP 7  (You can find it here)

I used EC 4000 Shadowlab for the Shadow and Fantastic Machines Paint Engine for the background texture,  but these are not necessary.  If you would like to use my tube, you may download it here.

LET'S GET STARTED!

1. Open a new 600 X 600 transparent file.  At this time you may want to floodfill it with a dark color.  This will make it easier to see the lace.  Add a new vector layer and name it square edge.  With your foreground color set to white and your background set to null and using the settings shown below, click on the preset shapes tool and choose rectangle.  Holding down your shift key, draw out a square about 375 X 375.  Objects/Align/Center in Canvas.  Convert to Raster .

2. Add a new vector layer and name it lace.  Click on the preset tool and in the box change the line width to 6.  Draw an oval shaped ellipse, and rotate it as shown below.

Click on the object selector and then right click on the ellipse.  Choose node edit and make your nodes look similar to mine

3.  When you have it the way you like, then duplicate this layer and name the copy 'pointed lace 2'.  Resize only this layer  by 75%.(Make sure resize all layers is UNchecked!)  Now you have an inner and outer edge.  With your draw tool set as in the example below,

draw little lines connecting the outer and inner edges.  Remember when you are drawing these lines that this is supposed to be handmade lace,  so it isn't necessary to draw the lines perfectly straight.  Draw lines diagonally crossing the inner area.  See example below.

4. When you are satisfied with the look of your lace, hide the background (colored) layer and the square edge layer. Merge all the lace layers visible.  Rename 'pointed lace'  If needed, convert this layer to raster.  (I found that the merging automatically changed my layer to raster) Right click on this layer and ....Image/Mirror.  Duplicate this layer and Image/Flip.  Duplicate this layer and Image/Mirror.  Move these four corners into place as seen below.

5. New Vector layer.  Name it lace circle.  In the middle of the square with the same settings, draw an elongated ellipse (see below)  Duplicate  this layer and resize this copy by 75%

 You now have an inner and outer circle.  Make a new raster layer and draw lines between the two edges and then the diagonal criss-crossing lines as shown below.  You may need to use the deform tool to make the circle more narrow or less high.....whatever you think looks best.

6. When you like what you see, merge these three layers and rename ' large lace circle'  Move it into position between two corners.   Now Edit/Copy.....Edit/Paste as New Layer.  Flip this image and move it into position.  Repeat Paste as New Layer.  This one you will have to rotate and then move into position...Image/Rotate Left 90 degrees. Edit/Copy....Edit paste as New Layer.  Image/Mirror.  You should now have a lace circle between each set of two corners.  

7. Repeat Paste as new layer and use the deform tool to make the circle smaller and less wide. Move this circle between a corner and a larger middle circle.  Edit/Copy and Edit/Paste as new layer  Do this until you have eight smaller lace circles,  moving each into position between the corner and larger middle circles.  The circles on the right and left sides will each need to be rotated 90 degrees.  See the completed outer lace below:

8.  Once you have the lace the way you like it, hide the background layer and the square edge layer and merge all other layers visible.  Name this layer Lace.

9.  Highlight the layer named Square edge and click inside the square with your magic wand.  See below:

While still selected, highlight the lace layer and hit the delete button.  Selection/select none.  New raster layer.  In your styles box, reverse the settings so that your foreground is null and your background is the color white. Click on your presets shape tool, UNcheck create as vector.  Holding down the shift key, draw out a square in the center of the lace square, leaving a small bit on each side so that you can once again draw the little lines.  Add a texture if you like.

10.  Create a new Raster layer and draw lines connecting the inner square and the outer square edge.  This finishes the lace!  

11.  You may add a layer and place a pretty floral tube in the middle of the lace square.  I think it looks nice for it to overlap the lace a little bit.  I highlighted the colored bg layer and flood filled it with a color that looked good with my tube.  Paint Engine was used to create the texture in the graphic example,  but you can use anything you like.  Give the floral tube and the lace layers drop shadows.  Below you will see the drop shadows as done in PSP. Take notice that I used a darker shade of my background color as the shadow color.   If you are using EC 4000 shadowlab , I  also included my settings for that. In shadowlab I used black for the shadow color and used the same EC settings for the lace and the tube.  .

That's it!  I hope you enjoyed the tutorial.  If you have any questions you can contact me here